Despite another tourism fail today, we’re feeling proud. Just as proud as Leon, who won their league final today.
We’re proud because people have stopped us on the street not once, not twice, but three times to ask us for directions. And today, we actually were able to help. Boom.
Today was what some might call a “tourism fail.”
First, we set out to UNAM — Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. It’s one of the oldest and largest Latin American universities, with more than 300,000 students. It’s also known for beautiful murals and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We thought we could just walk off the metro onto the campus and revel in its beauty, but instead we ended up at the campus grocery store totally lost with lots of unimpressive buildings in sight.
So we cut our losses and said hey, let’s do our homework and then come back another day. The place is huge and we could spend hours trying to figure out where to go.
We hopped back onto the metro to Coyoacán and took a walk over to the Frida Kahlo Museum. Because it’s Saturday, and that’s a day when major museums would be open, right?
Wrong. Just ask these other sad souls who got there and saw the sign on the door saying the museum would be closed on December 14.
“Que triste,” said another young patron. Sí, te acuerdo.
By this point, we were more upset because we really, really needed to use the bathroom and were looking forward to nice museum bathrooms. So we wandered around into a Burger King of all places, because of course they’ll have bathrooms.
Except that there was someone standing in front of the bathrooms demanding to see my receipt. It was an emergency, I tell you, so I stooped to playing stupid American. “Huh? I don’t understand.” After a minute of me shrugging, the woman waved me in, frustrated because she was just trying to do her job. I was not proud, but I was relieved.
Now that Chris and I were able to think about anything else besides finding a bathroom, we set out to find some churros — only to accidentally order twice the number we planned on eating. The guy had already prepared them and it was our fault.
They’re filled with chocolate sauce, in case you’re wondering. And yes, we went ahead and ate them all. So then, to walk off all the fried dough, we wandered around Coyoacán and enjoyed the sights.
And then we came home to our dog. Still enjoyed ourselves, and we’ll try again another day.
Tacos al pastor are our favorite. They’re cheap and they’re everywhere. We just got back from stuffing our face with some.
This encampment is in downtown Mexico City — and it’s filled with teachers protesting attempts to overhaul the education system. We drove by last night during an impromptu tour from Chris’s mom’s friend’s cousin and her husband. (But not a former roommate.)
We’re finishing up our arrangements for our next stop beginning in January: Chile. We’ll stay a few days in Santiago before spending a month (or maybe more) in Valparaiso.
I had a question about regulations for bringing our dog to Chile because our flight will arrive at 5 a.m. and, while customs is usually open 24/7 at airports, the agriculture departments (think USDA equivalents) in other countries don’t always have the same hours. But to make sure that wasn’t a problem, all I could find was a general government email address. I thought, Oh great — I love sending emails into black holes.
And then they emailed me back with everything I needed…THE EXACT SAME DAY. They even sent me an attachment with all of the most up-to-date requirements. #ChileFTW
Why has it taken us this long to see lucha libre? And when can we go again? A choice quote from Chris last night:
There’s a lot more slapping and ball-kicking than I was expecting!
Still here? Some links to good reads for you then!
During our leap year, one of the things I’ve been exploring is online training platforms, like Skillshare, which I’ve mentioned in prior blog posts. Well, I thought I’d try my hand at teaching. So here goes!
In one of my first jobs as a communications person, I found it was nearly impossible to find an affordable, professional media training for the spokespeople in our organization. It was super frustrating. And when I did find one, it was only offered once a year.
That’s the inspiration for my class: Give An Awesome Media Interview.
It’s a self-paced class with video lessons and a project — conducting a mock media interview! I’m offering 20% off with the code “FRIENDS” for people who sign up before the class unlocks on December 17.
It should be an interesting experiment and I’m sure I’ll learn a lot. Any feedback is appreciated! I’m going to keep thinking of other class topics and other online training platforms…
The world’s richest man sure knows how to make an amazing museum. Museo Soumaya is top-notch. The architecture is beautiful, the collection is even more beautiful, and it’s f-r-e-e. Perfect for two people who are on a leap year. Thanks, Carlos. It’s also open on Mondays when most Mexico City museums are closed.
Today is Papa Trenschel‘s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It’s hard to be so far away, but at least we have Skype.
We took Holly for a walk over to Parque Mexico today, where there are more dogs than in all of San Francisco. Not really, but close. I also finished my Skillshare class and submitted it for review and publishing. It was fun to put it together; we’ll see how it goes and then maybe I’ll cook up another class.
Spent a good amount of time in Bosque Chapultepec today, and specifically went to the Museo Nacional de Antropología since many people recommended it. Not far across the street is a Starbucks built right around a tree.
Here’s some fun with links:
And finally, here’s your Holly fix for the day. She hasn’t quite figured out which door is ours, so she runs back and forth like Yoshi trying to figure out where we’re calling to her from.
This farmer’s market is right outside our front door. We’re now kicking ourselves for going to the grocery store the other day.
We’re all settled into our apartment, which we found on Airbnb. It’s great, except one of our neighbors is a hardcore smoker and it wafts into our place. We’re in the Condesa neighborhood which we like because there are lots of trees and parks. Although, it’s pretty clear it’s for trendy, spendy, young, single people because there are tons of bars and restaurants. But there’s still good street food.
There is so much to do and see in Mexico City that it’s quite overwhelming, so we’re going to put together a short must-do list and then see what else happens. We had dinner with a friend of a friend last night who told us where to go see lucha libre for cheap on Tuesday nights, so you can bet we’re going to do that. On Sundays one of the main streets is closed to car traffic, so we’re going to sign up for EcoBici so we can take advantage of that.
Here is the set of the video production yesterday, taken from the upstairs terrace. You can’t quite tell, but the guy in the black shirt at six o’clock is spraying “sweat” on the “icy cold” bottle of soda. Beautiful courtyard, huh?
Today we walked more than eight kilometers, checking out different neighborhoods in Mexico City. We think we’ve found a place to live, so fingers crossed! It’s not as easy to find a short-term rental (longer-term is a different story, apparently) just by walking around. Airbnb, Home Away and Vivanuncios are the best ways to search that we’ve found, although I’m sure there are other ways.
But here is my all-time favorite yet oh-so-simple travel tip: caching Google Maps on your iPhone. We have a pay-as-you-go phone plan, so we only get internet on our phones unless there’s wifi — or if we want to pay a crazy amount. The article I linked to has instructions on how to save different views on Google Maps so you can review them while you’re on the go. #lifesaver
Finally, here are a couple shots from our walk: a very conical Christmas tree in the Zocalo and the Museo de Bellas Artes.
