We're on a Trip, not a Vacation!

 

  We would have had a perfect last day in CDMX if Kyusik and Acadian weren't still sick. At least Acadian stopped vomiting. I would succumb later to the same thing a day after we returned home.  For our last breakfast, we headed to Centro H istórico or the historical center, to El Cardenal, a Mexican restaurant and institution recommended by a DrPH friend who grew up in CDMX. It also appears on all of the blogs and lists for best breakfast in the city. Everything there is made in house, including the fabulous pan dulce (sweet bread), hot chocolate, and cafe de olla. We ordered all three of those things. Of course we had to try the concha, which was delicious, and shared the huevos rancheros, two sunny side up eggs with a scrumptious tomato and white bean sauce, which we devoured with the delicious bread served on the side.  I had read that we could go see the Diego Rivera murals in the Public Education Secretary office as long as we brought a photo id. So we headed there ...

Poor Kyusik and Acadian had the runs last night that also continued today. We suspect it may have been the pork pizza roll because I ate a lot less then they did. The morning of my birthday, we got chicken soup with rice, garbanzos, and fresh corn tortillas. We celebrated my birthday at Entremar, the sister restaurant to a famous seafood place called Contramar, where we couldn't get reservations. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing: not only was it the most expensive, but it was also the worst-tasting meal we've had here. We got a mediocre ceviche, some tuna "carnitas" which we didn't finish, and the special whole fish with green and red salsas. The fish was cooked well, and the red salsa was much better than the green one. We've been trying to get paletas (popsicles) for a couple days and decided to cut our losses, skipping dessert at the restaurant, in order to rush to a place with ice cream and paletas before it closed at 9 pm. Acadian got strawberry ...

We went to Teotihuacan on Mommy’s birthday, but Daddy had to work so he had to stay behind. We brought an umbrella because it was really hot outside. We took the metro to Autobuses del Norte and bought some tickets for the bus. Since there were multiple buses, we found the right bus after asking some people which bus it was. It took about an hour and a half to get to Teotihuacan. There were two temples, Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon. Before we went to see the temples, we both went to the bathroom. After we were done going to the bathroom, we started walking down the Avenue of the Dead. It was really long, so we didn’t go all the way from the start to the end, but we did most of it. The Temple of the Sun was bigger than the Temple of the Moon, so we looked at the Temple of the Sun first. Then, we went to this shrine with these big stone snake heads which obviously weren’t real. When we finished looking at it, we went to this wall and ate a little snack in the shade. Our tour ...

"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"   - Frida Kahlo Last Friday morning, Kyusik and Bryce got up at 4:45 am so they could pick up his two friends Benji and Crosby and get to school at 5:40 am. They left on two buses for a week-long 7th grade backpacking trip in Joshua Tree. Bryce is now big enough to wear my pack. Acadian played hooky since we had to leave for the airport at 10:30 am. I called the school to say he was sick, which was actually true. He had a cold that he then gave to me. Acadian and I are writing this jointly together as we sit on the bus to Teotihuacan.  After landing in Ciudad de Mexico, we took an Uber to our AirBnB, a really nice two bedroom, two bathroom flat in the area of Roma Sur. Roma Norte with lots of restaurants, cafes, and bars is a hip area within walking distance of us. We headed out for a progressive taco dinner. On our way to a taco stand that we had seen in a Netflix episode of the Taco Chronicles, we stopped first for so...

We walked a total of 14 miles today and also rode the metro. Tickets are 25 cents each, while taking an Uber is 10x the price. It helps that I speak a little Spanish, although I’m definitely rusty. In the morning we walked to a coffee place before picking up pastries (concha chocolate, dulce de leche & tarragon pastries, and a corn muffin we took with us) at Panaderia Rosetta. The place was packed, so we decided to forgo the hour long wait for a table. We then took the metro to an artisan store, where we bought a straw hat for Acadian and then went to a restaurant filled with locals where we ate lamb barbacoa tacos. You buy meat by the kilo, so luckily we only ordered 1/4 kg, which was plenty, along with a cup of very rich lamb consumme. Then we took the metro to Chapultepec Park, where we walked up to the castle but didn’t go inside. Since Kyusik was hot and grumpy, we walked out of our way for ice cream, where we got hibiscus and ginger sorbet and a double scoop of vanilla and gr...