We woke up early for an adventure-packed Thursday in CDMX (fun fact, Mexico City was formerly called D.F. en español but has recently gone back to Ciudad de Mexico or some people just say Mexico). We were up before our hostel's breakfast, so we grabbed cafe and pan dulce at Cafe El Popular and Ubered over to the bus station called Norte. From here we bought roundtrip tickets to los pirámides, or the pyramids in Teotihuacán. Former travel bloggers have posted a great how-to on which ticket booth to get your tickets. The buses leave every half hour, so don't fret about your departure time.
We arrived at the pyramids after about an hour with some classic CDMX traffic, and paid the 80 pesos entry per person to see the ruins. Unfortunately, we couldn't climb up the pyramid steps due to COVID-19, because I did this in the past and it was simply spectacular. Regardless, we got stunning photos in front of the pyramids after a long walk down la avenida de los muertos, the Avenue of the Dead which spans about a mile or so. The Temple of the Sun and Moon are the main events here, and most certainly did not disappoint. I admit we really succumbed to vendors here which are in literally every square meter of the area, but alas, pyramid goodies are pretty cute if I do say so myself. After about 60-90 minutes, we left the ruins from a different exit where we could still catch a bus. It took a good 30 minutes, a muchacho that really wanted our WhatsApp/Fb, and a few hagglers, but we got back on a bus soon enough back to the city.
We made it just in time for another downpour and midday Friday traffic, which meant we had to book it to Casa Azul, or Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's house in the southern edge of the city. Despite being a short distance, it took an hour in an Uber to arrive with a very hospitable driver that just emphasized he loved being a city tour guide :,) Casa Azul was wonderful, but do book your tickets ahead of time because you need a ticket slot (I bought ours 24 hours before!) To walk through her actual house/gallery it only takes maybe 15 minutes, but it is so worth the cost to literally be in the bedroom of the icon herself. I moreso enjoyed her splendid courtyard, with walls painted electric blue, such an awesome photo op and my rain jacket was the perfect shade to match!
Casa Azul was in a calmer part of town resembling Roma, so we decided to spend our afternoon there, first eating at the upscale albeit lovely El Beneficio Cafe with smoothies to give us our healthy nutrients. We perused the mercado in the center of Coyoacán which was one of the calmer artisanal markets I've ever been to! In hindsight I wish we had eaten inside here, there was so much good cheap Mexican food! We paid a good 15 USD to ride to Coyoacán so decided to take the leap of faith and take the subway back despite mixed reviews! Tbh I am a pretty confident public transit gal and spent a whole summer in Guadalajara, without a phone, navigating the public transit system, but I was partly nervous because a train derailed a month ago in CDMX in a really tragic accident :(
Regardless, we paid a mere 5 pesos (like 25 cents!) per ticket and hopped on the línea amarilla towards Indios Verdes. We stayed on for a 20ish minute ride, which was packed as you would expect at the end of the workday, but nothing dangerous, to be honest felt safer than my hometown BART to me. We got off near the actual market we were hoping to find with artisan goods, and bought everything we wanted, for me I got a yellow embroidered dress that fits just perfectly!
On this evening, we were pretty exhausted and as it turns out, taquerias aren't really the place to be on a Friday evening so we found all of our food options were closed. You can bet I then bought a street elote and we ate 7/11 goodies as our makeshift dinner. For our last night in the city, we sat at the rooftop bar at the top of our hostel, once again getting a few cocktails in before it started to pour. All in all, I think the takeaways from this day were the subway is pretty sweet and going off the beaten path is always where the best memories are made.
