Walking is a breeze as most of the city’s traffic is diverted through the Guanajuato tunnels. It was the prettiest Mexican city we visited and also the most local in terms of ambience. We flew with Interjet, it was an hour’s flight and costs approximately, USD170 per pax for the round trip. As the bus route takes the highway, we decided to fly and save the bus trip for another day. Guanajuato is accessible by car, bus and flight. We couldn’t manage both and decided on Guanajuato. Huge thanks to my teacher, Ricardo Reyes for suggesting Guanajuato and Queretaro as places to visit. However, separate tickets must be bought for cameras and only one device is allowed per ticket and this includes phone cameras. Pay attention to the audio guide as it points out artefacts to be taken note of, such as the two clocks depicting the time Frida and Diego were separated and remarried. Her home is a celebration of Mexican culture and a lot of care is taken to preserve the place and the things as is. A preview into Frida’s life, La Casa Azul also shows Frida’s passion for all things Mexican. Not to be missed is La Casa Azul or the Frida Kahlo museum. The canals are about a forty five minute taxi ride from Condesa each way and costs approximately USD10 per way. The sound of music and songs echoing around the canal makes this a truly festive ride. Mariachi bands circle around the canals and you can invite them (for a fee of course) to sing a few songs in your boat. Our boat guy Eduardo shared a lot of fun facts about the place with the assistance of google translate and filled up an empty bottle to show us how clean the water was. The boats here are named, brightly coloured, not motored and have super clean waters which are almost drinkable. Next up, was the Xochimilco canals which reminded me of the floating markets in Asia but with a Mexican flair. I loved that streets and avenues were named after countries, historic days and celebrations – eg: Cinco de Mayo. Check the Turibus website for route details, prices and other tours. We explored Mexico city centre by foot based on the walking guide suggested in Lonely Planet and took rides on the hop on hop off bus. Weather wise, it was also the coolest in Mexico city and we tucked in like babies in the layered sheets. Mezcal and chocolates greeted you at the reception and rooms were very cosy and comfortable. Perfect location (restaurants, bars and bookshops were a short walking distance away), hotel was as pretty if not prettier than what we had seen in the website. We picked Condesa for her hip and relaxed feel and this hotel for her Mexican casa look. Hotel Parque in the Condesa neighbourhood was our base. Do hope that our itenary provides some inspiration. Apps like Culture Trip provide excellent suggestions and better still, ask the locals and they will be more than happy to show you their Mexico. Even if you have allocated an extra day in a city and you have finished doing what you want – there are always things to do. Chart out the main places you want to go. One tip post the trip Tip #1 – do not sweat it out. We each had our suggestions and frankly it did take some time to decide how to split our time there – we debated a lot whether we allocated too much time in one place or the other. We had nine days including the day of arrival. How did we decide where to go and what to do? Get a taquito and join me to colourful and flavourful Mexico. Budget wise, this was the most expensive internal flight (USD 898.50 per pax) but every penny spent to get to amor mio Mexico was well worth it. Our flight from Rio with Copa airlines was around three in the morning, coupled with a two hour transit in Panama, we landed after mid-day in Mexico. THREE breakfasts in one journey was the first of many events in this memory studded vacation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |