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.
Arrived in Mexico City last night and were greeted by our very friendly Airbnb host — who is also a Burner — before going out in search of dinner. Spent most of this morning trying to figure out how we can find a room for rent. We’ve put some feelers out, so we’ll see how that goes.
The photo above is of the coffee shop where we had breakfast. It’s about a 15-minute walk from where we’re staying. The neighborhood where we are is filled with old, colonial-style houses that are plain on the outside but open up with big courtyards in the middle.
I tried to take a photo of the courtyard where we’re staying, but the production crew working on the video are everywhere and they’re in the middle of the shoot. It is entertaining to hear the director yelling “acción” and “corte” every so often.
Mexico City has what seems to be a well-used bike share program called EcoBici; we saw a number of people picking up and dropping off bikes this morning. The subscription for a year is 400 pesos — approximately $30.