Today’s post is 1700 words, 64 photos, 2 videos, an 8 minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

Today I begin a new series of posts from Mexico. For the last nine days of our time in Mexico, we joined a tour conducted by National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures. The tour would take us to historic and cultural sites in Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca. This week I’ll take you to an introduction to Mexican cuisine, a sunrise tour of Xochimilco, a walking tour of the Zocalo, a stop at the Diego Rivera Mural Museum, and the National Museum of Anthropology.

If you missed my eight earlier posts on Mexico, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures

Meet Rafael Piqueras, the CEO (Chief Experience Officer) for our G Adventures tour. He’s an experienced tour guide with over 15 years of experience. The eleven of us on the tour had a lot of fun with Rafael, he seemed to know all the good places to eat and always had suggestions for free time. Let’s get the tour started.

It was late afternoon when we met Rafael for a welcome and orientation meeting. After everyone introduced themselves, he briefed us on the schedule. The other Tom in the group set up a WhatsApp group for good communication. After the meeting, we boarded a bus for our first cultural experience.

Introduction to Mexican Cuisine

After a 40 minute ride through heavy Mexico City traffic, we arrived at the place where we would learn about Mexican Cuisine. Ricardo greeted us and showed us to a small dining room and explained  the many foods from different parts of Mexico. Many of the dishes are based on corn (maize), beans, and squash.

Our first course was soup made with corn, beans, tomato, avocado, and spices with broth added. It was delicious!

Between courses, the Chef Emiliano talked about the origin of the dish and where the ingredients were sourced.

The second course, a salad, was also delicious. It was made with young rosemary leaves, cherry tomatoes, and other greens topped with a mushroom dressing.

The main course was beans and chicken wrapped in a tender leaf with a tomato dressing and white cheese. Also very good. I was hungry and failed to take a photo. Dessert was a chocolate shaped cone filled with more chocolate over a guava sauce. Again quite tasty.

To drink we had hibiscus water and those who wanted, mescal, an alcohol drink similar to its cousin tequila. It was a fun evening learning about Mexican dishes and ingredients. Nothing like the Tex-Mex we get here in the US.

On the bus ride back, Rafael told us that our morning would start early. We’d have to up and ready to board the bus at 5:00 AM! Imagine the moaning and groaning.

Xochimilco

We were up early because we were going on a sunrise tour of Mexico City’s Xochimilco, a system of canals built by the Aztecs. This area of the city is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The length of the canal system is impressive, 110 miles (170 km). The canals are separated by artificially created land called chinampa made of a build up of reeds. These floating gardens produce an abundance of vegetables and flowers for the markets in Mexico City.

After a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the launch site where we boarded one of the many colorful gondola type boats. In Spanish, they are called trajineras. It was 51° F (10.5° C) along with a cool breeze and raindrops were falling. Our boat had a top and side cover so we didn’t get too wet or cold. Our hosts were a husband and wife team who prepared breakfast for us as the pilot propelled us down the canal. Fortunately, there was plenty of hot coffee.

It appeared that we were the only occupied boat on the canal, likely because of the rain. There are over 200 of the colorful boats and often filled on weekends. Boat rides are popular for birthdays, engagement, weddings, and other special occasions. It was a fun experience despite the rain.

We didn’t see the sunrise but we did get to experience the wonders of this ancient canal. I snapped a lot of photos, here’s a few for your enjoyment.

After a few hours on the boat, we boarded the bus for the Zócalo or city center for a walking tour. Here’s our bus driver ready to for what would be an adventure through crowds and traffic.

The Zócalo

The closer the bus got to the city center, the heavier the auto and bus traffic became. The President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum was scheduled to address the Mexican people on the first 100 days of her administration. Sheinbaum was elected in June 2024 and took office on October 1. She’s very popular with the people with an over 70% approval rating. Previously she was the Mayor of Mexico City before being elected president with nearly 60% of the vote. She’s of Jewish descent, whose families emigrated from Lithuania and Bulgaria. President Sheinbaum was born in Mexico City, her parents were academics. She earned her BS, MS, and Ph.D. in energy engineering. She lived in the US for three years while working on her doctorate thesis. The President of Mexico is elected for one six-term and is barred by the constitution to run again. 

The bus was finally able to find a place to drop us off within a reasonable walking distance from Constitution Plaza, the large square in the city center. There were people everywhere. Rafael did his best to keep us together and take us to a few of the sites. Regular readers will remember last week’s post when Oskar showed us around. Click here if you want to read more about the sites.

We did manage to make our way to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. Compared to outside, it was peaceful.

Rafael also took us to the historical Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztec people in Mexico City. The temple was dedicated to the god of war and the god of rain and agriculture. 

An estimated 350.000 people crowded into Constitution Plaza to hear President Sheinbaum speak on January 12, 2025. I think there were many more on the many side streets leading to the city center. Here are some photos as we tried to ‘swim up stream’ through the crowd. People were pleasant and polite, there were a lot of them. It was actually quite refreshing to see the strong support for a popular leader. Please note the band entertaining the crowd on the left side of the top photo.

Even as we were walking away, there were still groups arriving.

Even several blocks away, there were crowds of people. Mother nature was called, Rafael found a pay restroom in a building filled with eye glass shops. The men’s line moved quickly, the women’s line was long and slow. In the photo below my Traveling Partner on the left and Stacy from our tour were happy to have a $10 peso coin (about 50¢ US) for the admission to the toilet.

After moving away from the crowds, we walked by the Palace of Fine Arts, the Post Office, the National Museum of Fine Arts, and others.

We came upon a crowded plaza where there was a band playing for these costumed dancers. Apparently, these folk dancers are common throughout the country. They were fun to watch.

 

This tall glass building seems out of place surrounded by European influenced architecture. The Torre Latinoamericana, once the tallest building in Latin America, was the first built to withstand seismic activity. It withstood the 1985 earthquake without damage. There is a popular observation deck on the 44th floor overlooking the city. A company owned by Carlos Slim owns several floors in this building. Slim is one of the richest persons in the world. 

We walked by the entrance to Barrio Chino (China Town). While it’s only a few blocks long, it’s filled with ethnic restaurants and importers.

We passed the Museum of Memory and Tolerance one of the leading human rights museums in the Western Hemisphere. This is on my list for our next visit.

It was past lunchtime, Rafael suggested one of the fast food eateries along a side street several blocks away from the city center. The food inexpensive, fast, and filling.

Near the restaurant there was a park where people were playing chess and backgammon. They totally ignored the gringo walking around with a camera and all the activity in the nearby square.

Some of the tour group took in the nearby Diego Rivera Mural Museum. This museum houses only one painting, a large mural depicting important figures in Mexican history. Rivera was a prominent Mexican muralist. His paintings are known for their social realism and the use of the fresco technique. He painted mural all over the world including several in the United States. I didn’t know much about him but this was an excellent introduction.

I took this panorama with my iPhone which caused the distortion. The mural is not curved. 

We met the bus at 2:30 PM. The driver offered to drive by the National Museum of Anthropology. My Traveling Partner and I were the only passengers interested. Even though the museum is free on Sunday’s, foreigners are required to pay the $100 pesos ($5 USD) admission.

This museum is the largest and most visited in all of Mexico with over 2 million visitors each year. The museum contains an extensive collection of artifacts from the many cultures that have inhabited Mexico over time. There 11 galleries each covering one of the periods and peoples of Mexico. Below are a few photos from our time at this museum. I should mention that most of the exhibits have English explanations.

There were some large exhibits in the courtyard that were very enjoyable and away from the crowds.

After a couple of hours, we ran out of energy and decided that we had enough for the day. We’d been going for over 12 hours.

This is a place that takes more than one visit to really absorb everything. When we walked out of the museum, we couldn’t believe the long line of people waiting to enter the museum. There wasn’t a line when we entered.

But our day wasn’t over. I couldn’t get phone service to schedule an Uber pickup. It was probably the huge crowds in the downtown taking up all the bandwidth. We started walking back to the hotel. About 1/2 way I finally got service. We decided to walk the last mile or. I grumbled but I made it. I slept really good that night!

Next week join me for Part 2.

Until then, happy travels!

Tom

PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM