Wednesday 2 Juli 2003
I guess we were tired this morning, as we did not wake up before 10am. We took the advice from the guidebook to have brunch at “El Invernadero” at top of the Hotel Holiday inn.
The view from sixth floor over the “Zocalo” square was great and the brunch was delightful. We got all the fruit, cheese, yoghurt and omelet we could ask for. While enjoying our cup of coffee we noticed that the waiters were wearing a small Danish paper flag in their shirt pocket. When asked why, it turned out that it was for no particular reason, but the fact that a Danish tourist came by earlier this morning and gave them away. To us this was just like getting a greeting from home.
We dedicated this day to culture, as our objective was to visit the famous anthropological museum and the Frida Kahlo museum as well. This was also the day where we made use of the Mexican subway, which is probably largest in the world. We found the subway to be of same make as the one in Paris and felt quickly comfortable using the cheap transportation.
The Anthropological Museum is located in the vast “Bosque de Chapultepec” park. We did not find it easily, but after walking some business streets, we finally found a sanctuary place of the Mexicans. Young couples and families were walking and enjoying the quietness of the place. Occasionally street traders turned up the volume on their tiny ghetto blasters to market their latest CD music, which of course disrupted the calm.
As we were following the signs leading to the museum, we saw small squirrels and later also 20-30 young soldiers running on an exercise in time command as seen in the movies. Their suits told us that they were from the President Guard.
The Anthropological Museum is vast and immediately gave up to visiting all of it. Unfortunately, the Maya exhibition was closed for reconstruction; hence, we focused our efforts on the ancient Mexico and Mexico City. That turned out to be quite impressive.
We saw giant monuments, the ceramics and even writings of people prior to the Spanish invasion. We were impressed to see the range of gems, cave paintings and graves with skeletons. Large models showed how Mexico City was founded on a lake in the valley.
It’s said that the Aztec leader dreamt that the city must be built on the spot where he saw an eagle sitting on a cactus while eating a snake. This was exactly what he saw on this peninsula, which today is just next to the “Zocalo” square in the centre of Mexico City.
We continued by subway heading south to the Coyoacán area and experienced that it simply was not possible to use only the secure “Radio Taxis”. Which number should we call and where to find a phone? We were looking for the yellow and red caps, but found only the green street taxis that all the guidebooks and Internet services avoided not to use. At last we had to capitulate, went we a green taxi to the house of Frida Kahlo, hoping no one would harm us. It turned out that everything went just fine.
We did not knew that much about Frida Kahlo prior to this visit, but we knew that she had been married to the painter Diego Rivera, who made the great wall paintings in “Palacio National” near the “Zocalo” square. The painting explains the Mexican history in an educational way also understandable for many of the illiterates. Unfortunately, we did not see those despite of the fact that our hotel was just in the neighborhood.
The house of Frida Kahlo is definitively worth a visit. The house is cobalt blue, but cameras are unfortunately not allowed indoor. Seeing the movie “Frida” starring Selma Hayek adds an extra dimension to the visit. We saw the beautiful tile covered kitchen, her bed with the mirror in the ceiling, all her self-portraits and the many exciting rooms with paintings and personal belongings.
At this time of the day, it was too late also to visit the nearby Léon Trotsky Museum. Trotsky and his wife Natalie escaped from the Soviet regime in 1929 and arrived to Mexico City in 1937. Here they became good friends with Frida and Rivera and stayed with them in the blue house for a while.
Trotsky even had an affair with Frida and later when they fell out with each other, he and his wife moved to a nearby house. He was assassinated as someone shot through the windows of the house, but he survived as he and his wife took cover under the bed. Today it is still possible to see the bullet holes from that event. Consequently, he raised a watchtower and high walls around the house, but without the desired protection. In 1940, his Stalinist waiter stabbed him with a ice-pick and killed him.
The Coyoacán area turned out to be a nice green and a rather wealthy neighborhood. We found small cozy streets with gardens and colorful colonial time houses in something that looked like a residential area and not a suburb to Mexico City. We had lunch at the restaurant “El Jardin del a Publo” that served outdoors and enjoyed a nice turbot with deep-fried garlic. Yummi.
It was nice to explore this part of the city with cozy cafes, quietness, trees and gardens. In a nice little gift shop, we found a lovely lizard made of metal and 40 cm long. That would be difficult to bring with us home, but we could not resist. On the other hand, we knew what trouble we faced, as we tried it in Peru when buying 10 kg of yarn.
The subway back home was full and quite hot and we returned to the hotel 8.30pm pretty tired and with sore feet.