Meet Me In Mexico City

This year, I visited the land of the Maya in Guatemala in May; I went to the land of the Inca in Peru in June/July. And now, in November, I headed to the land of the Aztec in Mexico City. While I have previously been to Cancun and other Mexican cruise ports like Cozumel and Costa Maya, I feel like on this trip I went to the real Mexico for the first time – Mexico City! This is one of the largest cities in the world, with a very deep history.

2019 seems to have almost organically become my personal “Year of The Americas.” I started the year on The Rock Boat, which stopped in Key West and the Bahamas. I then went to Guatemala and Peru, as noted above. In August, as part of the National Review cruise, I went to Canada, visiting the cities of Montreal and Quebec City, and the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. And now, to the heart of Mexico. Seriously, what a blessed year!

My friend Joe planned this trip to Mexico for friends who are part of the Teneo network. Joe has planned many “Teneo treks” which are optional opportunities to gather in a city for a purpose, to form deeper ties with each other while traveling. We had 13 of us together for an extended weekend, which started on Thursday evening, November 7^th, and concluded on Monday, November 11^th.

We came from Orlando, Nashville, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Oakland, and Washington, DC. Getting to Mexico City was very accessible for all of us. For me, it was a three-hour nonstop flight from Orlando on JetBlue. The price was very affordable. I booked this back in July and was able to secure a nonstop roundtrip for around $250 (however it ended up being paid for with the points I accrued on my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card).  

Joe booked most of us at the Posada Viena Hotel, which is a basic, 4-star hotel in the Juarez neighborhood, in the heart of Mexico City. The hotel had enough of the amenities I need … and it was just $43 US Dollars per night – after all the taxes and fees. Once I landed in Mexico City, I took an Uber to the hotel. It was about a 45-minute ride during rush hour. I quickly checked in and then joined six members of the group who were already feasting at the Amaya restaurant, which was just a 10-minute walk from the hotel. They had some small plates and some slightly larger ones. I had some great food, a mezcal with negroni, and some bottled water. You must stay hydrated.

We then moved on to a private party at a bar called Nazas that is not open to the public. Joe is a man of the people and had been to Mexico City before. He met some top artisan chefs who invited him to this place before and told him to bring us. The place was chill when we first arrived, but within an hour or so, it was hopping, with a DJ spinning vinyl records and the crowd of maybe 100 people filled with local chefs, artists, and actors. I didn’t know who any of them were, but this mostly gave us all a time to catch up, drink some wine (most of it was from Spain), and get to know one another.

We all came on this trek knowing at least one or two people among the 13 in our group, but not everyone, so it was great to hear from everyone where they came from and why they chose to jump on the Mexico City trek for this extended weekend. Joe gave us a rough outline of what to expect during our time here. We had only been here a matter of hours, but we were all enthusiastic about what we were going to experience.

By the end of the night, I was starting to feel the altitude. In these parts, Mexico City is situated at about 7,382 feet, give or take. That’s a few thousand feet higher than Denver, but not quite as high as I was in Cusco, Peru in late June (12,000 feet!) So, after a few glasses of wine, that’s all you need. About seven of us turned in “early” and got back to our hotel rooms about 11pm. Overall, I had a great night of sleep and got up fairly early around 7am to get ready and get about two hours of work done on my laptop and make a few work calls from a Starbucks before the rest of the weekend adventure began.

I met up with the rest of the group for brunch at Aleli restaurant, which was about a 20-minute walk from our hotel. We then toured Casa Luis Barragan, the home of Mexico’s only Pritzker Prize winning architect. This was a really unique house and Joe arranged for us to get an exclusive guided tour. It’s something you have to make reservations for some time in advance. Well worth it! Very unique place. Each room was like entering something mysterious.

From there, we meandered around Jardin Centenario, a nice plaza, where one can find the beautiful St. John the Baptist parish. I toured this with a few others and was also able to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament in a side chapel within the cathedral. I also noticed a dedication in the parish to Our Lady of Guadalupe, signaling the importance of her visitation to Juan Diego in 1531 just outside Mexico City (more on that in my next post).

From there, I joined Joe, Chris and Kari, and Chad and Hillary, at Fronton 1946, where I had some tacos and a margarita. We then walked down to the Museo Frida Kahlo, which is where the famous Mexican artist lived (with Diego Rivera) from 1929 to 1954. I always knew she believed in communist ideas, but a visit to her home will confirm that even more!

One of the guests that Frida and Diego had stay with them was Leon Trotsky. Mexico gave him refuge after he was condemned to death in the Soviet Union. While touring the home, I noticed that above Frida’s bed are the pictures of five communists, including Stalin, Lenin, Marx, Mao, and one I could not name. Yikes! Imagine the last thing you see before going to bed are these five communists?

I still found the home intriguing. We visited her art studio. I saw many of her books (smart people read, even if they take up bad ideas!) I also noticed a painting on her wall that depicts the evolution of the human fetus. It was painted as a reminder of Frida’s obsession of the maternity she was never able to achieve. She may have been strangely into communism in the early part of the twentieth century (even taking Trotsky to bed), but perhaps something in her still recognized the sanctity of human life, especially at its most innocent of stages.

One great thing about this Teneo trek is that Joe arranged for some private car services to shuttle us around during certain times. This was a great idea for a group of 13. In some places we walked, but other times when we were traveling across the city or beyond its limits, we had these private drivers available to us. Once we finished the Frida museum, private cars took us home. The one I was in got stuck in some heavy rush hour traffic. Three of our friends were just a couple blocks from their other hotel, so they got out and walked. Chad, Hillary and I decided to rent some Jump Bikes via our Uber app to pedal us about a 15-minute bike ride home through rush hour traffic in Mexico City. Most of the traffic wasn’t moving much, so we zoomed by most of the cars and, in some places, we were even able to find some dedicated bike lanes. It was quite a fun experience.

Once we got back to the hotel, we only had about an hour to rest before getting ready for dinner. But you can’t go to dinner without stopping for some pre-dinner drinks, which we did at a nearby favorite bar that our friend Joe introduced us to: Cicatriz Café.

We then had some private cars pick us up and take us to La Barrita Mariscos, a very small restaurant that really was only big enough for our group. Most of us sat around a bar that overlooked the kitchen. Joe introduced us to the head chef, Sebastian, who is only 29 years old and put together a 10-course meal for us (very small plates). About four of the plates included seafood (which I don’t eat) but I still came away pretty full from the meal, which ended with some dessert items as well. We also passed around bottles of some amazing wine.

Our original plans were supposed to take us to a jazz club that night, but we got carried away in good food and great conversations around the table – not only with each other, but with some of Sebastian’s family. I believe we had his sister and one of his cousins there. The end of the evening found some of us back at the bar inside the Hotel Posada Viena, where there was a jazz band and some tango dancing. I hung out there for about 30 minutes or so and called it a night around 1:30am.

Art, architecture, artisan food, and a little local music defined our first full day in Mexico City! I guess you can say we got artsy in Mexico City, which some call, the Paris of the Americas.

Continue reading about the trek in the next post, “The Miracle in Mexico.”