Trip Dates: 2008-02-01 – 2008-02-03
On Friday, February 1, I flew with Alaska Airlines from San Francisco via Los Angeles to Mexico City. I checked into Hotel Toledo, just around the corner from the Palacio de Bellas Artes, right in the heart of Mexico City’s Centro Histórico. In other words, a perfectly located hotel for a bargain price (about 100 NOK per night for a single room with a bathroom).
After settling into the hotel, I went out to meet up with Ittzel, a friend from the Mexican capital. We walked to Plaza Garibaldi, a large open square where crowds gather to listen to mariachi musicians. There, we also met Malik, a friend of Ittzel’s from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Afterwards, we went to a parrillada—a rooftop barbecue—at the apartment of some French friends of Ittzel’s.
On Saturday, we headed to Coyoacán, a charming neighborhood with colorful colonial-style houses, parks, and markets—almost like a small town within Mexico City (which, by the way, is the world’s largest city with its 24 million inhabitants). At the market, we ate tostadas with beef, shrimp, and octopus, and drank licuados (“milkshakes”) made from maguey, along with agua de alfalfa and agua de fresa. Afterwards, we visited the house where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived.
There was also time to meet another friend—Paola—whom I got to know in Trondheim during the ISFiT festival in 2007. In the evening, we went to a private party and then out on the town in Zona Rosa, Mexico City’s nightlife district.
Right now, I’m on the bus to León in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, where I lived for five months in 2005. I’ll be visiting friends there for about a week before continuing on to Monterrey and then to the beaches along Mexico’s Riviera Maya.
