Sunday, April 15, 2018
Boat Ride in Mexico City
On our last day in Mexico City we went on a boat ride at Xochimilco. This is a popular weekend destination for the locals - people have picnics on little boats. It was really fun to see. This is clearly not in most tourist guides since I didn't see a single tourist there besides us.
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Some of the boats had bands on them that you could rent - they would sail up next to your boat and play music for you.
Other boats sold food. Axel wanted to try the corn which they served with powdered cheese.
Axel was the big kid for once.
No picnic without Mezcal. I admit that I have found this hard to drink in the past but I really woke up to the wonders of Mezcal on this trip. It just pairs perfectly with Mexican food.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Sightseeing in Mexico City
We spent a day sightseeing in the city. First we got some breakfast at an open air market. I had a tostata with pickled pig feet - which I will not be ordering again (one of the few things I ate in Mexico City that was not completely mouthwatering delicious).
Axel working on his form at a local park (the parks in Mexico City are pretty amazing, by the way).
We went to National Museum of Anthropology and saw many of the historical artifacts found in Mexico.
We finished the day with a dinner at a fantastic restaurant (I have forgotten the name which is unfortunate because I would love to go back - it is in the south end of the city). We were joined by fellow Scandinavian Anders (Ray's colleague).
It got a little late so the small kids went to "bed".
At this point we were all a little drunk (some more than others...)
Teotihuacan
One of the must-see attractions of Mexico City are the pyramids of Teotihuacan (it took me about two days to pronounce that location correctly - not being helped by the fact that the locals pronounce it the same way they do everything else, i.e., at 100 mph). It is about a one hour drive outside the city.
We started with a sunrise flyover of the pyramids in hot air balloons. Absolutely stunning.
Ray stayed at the hotel while the rest of us got up early.
We were all wondering how they navigated the balloons - we never really found out (my Spanish was certainly not enough for this task - to put it mildly). The best explanation was something about wind directions at different altitudes. But there must be some limitations to how much you can fly back and forth since in the end we landed near a cactus field and had to be driven back by car.
Apparently it is tradition to end a hot air balloon trip with Champagne - and who are we to question tradition?
Axel got zumo de naranja (oh yeah - we are all fluent in Spanish now ..**cough**...)
Next we got to climb the pyramids. It was amazing but also extremely hot. The main pyramids are Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. Interestingly, no one knows who actually built them (but they were built around 200 a.d.).
After the seeing the pyramids we had lunch in a cave near the pyramids.
This is one of my new favorite Mexican delicacies - escamoles - which are ant eggs. This sounds spectacularly disgusting but it is just one of those things you have to try. It pairs really well with guacamole and had a rich earthy flavor.
Mexico City
We flew down to Mexico City for spring break. This was Axel and my first trip to Mexico City - we loved it! Here we are on the main square at night. All the buildings were lit up.
Axel is playing with a toy while Chovy and Ray are making plans.
Axel playing with Pia in her new USA dress. We stayed with Ray and Katia in their beautiful apartment in the middle of Mexico City.
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