Mexico City - Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Tlalpexco - Feb 2025

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Tlalpexco - February 9, 2025 

We took another weekend morning calm bus to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is northeast of Centro. Here is the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mass was in progress, and there were many people there. 

The Pocito Chapel or The Chapel of the Little Well that protects the natural/miraculous spring where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared. People came to the spring to repent and to seek cures.  

This is the old Cathedral; it was also being used for Mass this morning. 

A view of Mexico City from above. 

After the basilica, we stopped at a close by grocery store for change. They required that backpacks be checked, so I stayed at the front while Travis got a few snacks. They also had a restroom that we visited. 

We went through a market, and I got some French fries that Travis helped me eat. I did not get any of the traditional Mexico flavoring or sauces on them, so they were not great. They were also soggy, so I was not impressed, though they looked good. 

Our Metro card was loaded for our second cablebus ride. The last one that we took was line 3, and this was line 1. Their purpose was to connect the further out neighborhoods of Mexico City to the City, so line 2 is pretty far out, southeast of Mexico City. I managed to sit backwards both was; I planned it badly because what was backwards changed on the way back. Backwards makes me a little motion sick feeling. These were less crowded, and there looked like many more cars on the cables than line 3. So, employees were stressing to keep the car balanced, so we had to sit on opposite sides. We were prepared at one stop to get on the same side facing forward, but alas, we were not fast enough. This ride had great views of the mountains and Tlalpexco. I read in a blog before that you can stay on to go to Tlalpexco when it split, but the signs said that you had to switch. Maybe changed. You do not need to rescan or pay again, just walk over to the Tlalpexco car area, following the signs. This did seem more confusing on the way back because we had to go downstairs, and the signs were poor. Just when you cannot see where you need to go, it is concerning. We ended up just following the crowd. 

In Tlalpexco, we did a very uphill hike for a full view of the city. 

Then we headed back down. We were on the cablebus with a cute kid and his mother. Travis saw him get excited when he recognized the word "two" in English. He later said, "Hi". I failed to remember my Spanish and could only get out "un poco espanol". I could not even get "Hablo" on the spot. Then he said "Bye" when we hopped off, and I wished that I would have remember to say "adios amigo". But, I did not; I think that he would have been tickled. 

We took our first Metro train/subway back to Mexico City to the Juarez station; it was 5 Pesos. We had Tony's Pasties and Empanadas again for the last time. I had the sausage that I liked the best the first time, and Travis had mole with verde/green sauce this time. He liked it better with the red sauce. 

Then we walked down Paseo de la Reforma to the The Angel of Independence statue and other stuff to see on this main street. 

Missing persons on the roundabout; though it seems hard to see them in detail while driving. 

Tonight was Superbowl Sunday. I was not sure if we would be able to watch it in our hotel. It is picky in the US about who had the rights to broadcast it. Travis had determined that Tubi (who owned the rights this year) was not setup; the TVs seemed to be smartTVs but without an internet connection. It did work in our hotel. First, we had dinner near our hotel at El Turuleto. The owner, a buddy, and the waiter were laid back and fun to talk to (they spoke English, which helped with the conversations, as well). They had the Superbowl on. I think that they were trying to switch it to English but had no luck. It does not lose much being in Spanish; we could still follow. We picked this place because we had not yet had any fish tacos and wanted some. 

Travis had the shrimp soup and an octopus taco. I had two battered fish tacos with a spicy mayo sauce, pico, and a smoky hot sauce. It was all delicious! We talked back to the hotel to finish the Superbowl. We almost made it to the end before bedtime; though we could tell who was going to win. 

Next up...last day -- Chocolate Museum and flight home 

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