You get a feel for a place when you walk around that you cannot get from a car. There's nothing wrong with moving around by car; Uber is very cheap in Mexico City, and we made use of it later in our trip. But on our second day we walked. A lot.
We planned to go on foot from our hotel to Chapultepec Castle. Well, that was our intent, anyway. It's around six miles or so, depending on how you go, and the way we went was over fifteen miles round trip. The most direct path might be a straight line, but it's rarely the most interesting, and we wandered a lot, referring to Google Maps periodically to get our bearings.
The day started with churros and hot chocolate. Mexican hot chocolate is something I never knew existed until that morning. My wife guided us to a well-reviewed local shop: El Moro (Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 42, Centro Histórico). I knew what a churro was, but I have to apologize to all of my Mexican friends because the only reason I knew was because of Taco Bell. I never ate one at Taco Bell; but I had seen the ads.
It's obvious to say that El Moro was not Taco Bell.
We ordered a plate of churros and I got a Spanish hot chocolate. That was a mistake. I should have gotten the standard Mexican hot chocolate. I don't know why I didn't get the standard, but I will forever regret it. The Spanish hot chocolate was like a cup of melted chocolate. It was very good, but incredibly thick. I don't know if it was a faux pas, but we dipped our churros in the cup because the consistency was more of a sauce than a drink.
Those churros were amazing. No other words are needed. If you are nearby you should go; if you're not nearby, you should go. You should just go.
From there we wandered over to the main boulevard; Paseo De La Reforma.
That street has a lot of major hotels and tall buildings with international company logos. The street has massive roundabouts with fountains and statues in the middle. The sides of the road are like a long park. There are abundant restaurants.
As we approached Chapultepec, we knew something was wrong. There weren't a lot of people around. Turns out we had made a rookie mistake and didn't confirm if the park was open. You should never make assumptions when traveling, and we had.
Never ones to let something like that get in our way, we pulled out our phones, got our bearings on Google Maps, and headed to our next destination: La Condesa.
The La Condesa neighborhood is on the upscale end of the spectrum. There are cafes that face out to tree-lined boulevards. Traffic is light. Pedestrians are common. We headed to Lardo, a nice gastropub /coffee shop on the corner of Augustin Melgar and Avenida Mazatlan, near the roundabout. There was a short wait. My wife walked around taking pictures while I sat and rested my tired feet. After the crowds of the historic district, it was refreshing to be in a place of relative quiet and peace.
I ordered a croissant and latte, my wife a latte. We ate at the bar and talked. That in itself was interesting. Our son, 18, was on a trip of his own. My wife and I hadn't taken a vacation together - just the two of us - in a very long time. It's frightening. We are a tight family. When my son was younger he and I would take trips to Florida to watch spring baseball, because my wife didn't have any interest in that; and she had gone on solo trips a few times. But Mexico City was the first trip as a married couple since before my son was born.
It's a good thing we still like each other.
From Lardo we walked around the area before wandering back towards our hotel. The City Park was excellent, with workout equipment and dog walkers and a massive playground for children. Along the way back we ate some street food and talked about the interesting buildings around us. At the Plaza de la Republica we encountered a heavy police presence, which can be somewhat frightening.
That night we headed towards a restaurant that my wife had anticipated visiting, but we gave up as the streets grew darker and the people fewer. Instead, we ate excellent tacos and a nice quesadilla at a small restaurant, where we encountered that most despised of tourists, the person that thinks talking in English really loud makes up for no understanding of the language. We laughed; we weren't good at Spanish, but we tried.
My wife slept well, and, as with every vacation, I had trouble falling asleep. Life's stresses weighed on me, work was going in completely the wrong direction, and I was at a loss for what to do. It didn't help that the street outside our window was busy with either cars or yelling people.
Eventually, though, I slept, and deeply.
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