Mexico | Guanajuato & Mexico City
I’m always here for another international trip — I had the pleasure of visiting both Guanajuato and Mexico City for my fourth international trip of 2022! Guanajuato had been pre-planned for quite some time because I was attending a wedding, but the Mexico City leg of the trip didn’t come until realization hit that I’d already be in Mexico during the start of Día de los Muertos. After celebrating Holi in India back in 2018, I made it a goal to celebrate more cultural holidays in respective countries. Extending my trip was an absolute no brainer.
GUANAJUATO
I’d never heard of Guanajuato before getting invited to the wedding so I was excited to explore somewhere new. Our home base for the weekend was in San Javier, just up the hill from Guanajuato Centro (aka downtown). Given that most of the festivities centered around the wedding, I’ll keep this portion short and sweet with simple highlights of sites and food.
We had about a day and a half to fully explore all that Guanajuato had to offer. If there’s anything you must do, it’s definitely Monumento Al Pipila and Mercado Hildago! The views at Monumento Al Pipila are unmatched and Mercado Hildago is the perfect spot to engage with local vendors, shop for trinkets and memorabilia, and taste some authentic bites.
In terms of food — you really can’t go wrong anywhere. That being said, I’d definitely recommend picking up some pastries in the morning. We went to Panadería la Purisima and got an entire spread of items to try from conchas to orejas to mantecadas. As for tacos, we paid a visit to Taquería Rinconcito Mixe which was open and ready to serve us at all hours of the day.
Sites and food aside, the main highlight of the trip was participating in a Callejoneada. A traditional Mexican wedding tradition, a Callejoneada is a parade through town led by mariachis singing joyful songs, with shots of tequila poured into handmade ceramic cups all along the route. It was such a fantastic way to bond with the bride, groom and the rest of the wedding guests. Truly an unforgettable experience!
MEXICO CITY | SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30TH
The flight from Guanajuato to Mexico City was short and sweet, though the process of getting a cab to take me into the city after landing was quite lengthy. After about an hour and a half I finally arrived at my Airbnb in the Zona Rosa neighborhood. I had plans with my friend Gabe that evening, so I quickly changed and headed out the door.
The first stop of the night was Canopia — a wine/cocktail bar in La Condesa. Gabe had arrived before me and ordered Carajillos for us. For those of you who don’t know, the Carajillo is a classic Spanish cocktail made with espresso and Licor 43. It’s perfectly sweet and aromatic, and is best described as the sister of the classic espresso martini (but better, in my opinion). Absolutely delicious. Overall the ambiance of Canopia was sleek, yet comfortable. Truly such a great spot!
After a drink or two, we headed over to an oyster bar and grill called La Docena. We ordered some live oysters, of course, along with a delicious wagyu burger and more tasty grapefruit-based cocktails called ‘Cantarito La Docena’. Dinner surpassed my expectations, but if you know me, you know we had to end our night with something sweet. Churros! A hop, skip and a jump from La Docena was Churrería El Moro. Here, we ordered churros with chocolate and cajeta dip. With the first night in Mexico City down, I went to bed with my heart and stomach both full and ready for all of the adventures to come.
MEXICO CITY | MONDAY, OCTOBER 31ST
Being that it was Monday morning, the day just had to start with coffee. I was able to make my way over to Blend Station for an iced latte before meeting up with Casey, who would be my partner in crime on this trip. We finally chose Panadería Rosetta Puebla as our meeting spot after taking a slow morning to get dressed and ready.
Nothing quite beats the embrace of seeing one of your closest friends (my twin flame, might I say) for the first time in a long time. We went through the standard “oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re here together finally” outcries before ordering pastries to taste test as we mapped out our day. We ended up deciding that this day would be a combination of shopping and trying local food/drinks, so with that, we packed up our stuff and headed to our first destination: Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela.
Eager to get inspiration on what souvenirs and gifts we wanted to bring home to our family and friends, we spent quite a bit of time at the market walking around from vendor to vendor. It was artisanal shops galore with ceramics, embroidery and textile products every direction you turned your head. Casey and I were intentional to make note of items that caught our eye so that we could potentially return later in the week once we saw more of what the city had to offer.
After spending nearly two hours at the market, we were ready for our next meal. One of my all-time favorite memories with Casey is bug tasting in Cambodia (silk worms, tarantulas, scorpion) so it only felt right that we try something new in the exotic field for lunch. We ended up making a pit stop on the way at a bar that was suggested to us: Pulquería Las Duelistas. Here, we quickly befriended a local man — the epitome of traveling with two extreme extroverts — who then helped us order different flavors of pulque, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented agave. The viscosity of the pulque really caught me off guard, but all six flavors we tried were uniquely delectable in their own way.
Fueled up and with our social batteries at an absolute high, we had our new friend take us to the Mercado de San Juan food market. He led us to a stand serving escamol…otherwise known as ant eggs. Lightly cooked in butter and and salt, we scooped escamol into small tortillas to make ant egg tacos. To my surprise, they were actually pretty good. Would I eat it again? Probably if someone offered it to me. Would I order it again? Probably not. Regardless, Casey and I were excited to add another item to the list of random things we’ve eaten together.
We were on a pulque kick at this point, so we decided to stop by one more spot on the way back to our Airbnb: Pulqueria Spiritu Santo. Earlier in the day we only had small sample shots, but here we were able to order larger glasses. We sipped, talked each other’s ears off and made dinner plans with Gabe for that night.
After a couple of hours of rest, we met Gabe at Carajillo Masaryk in Roma Norte for dinner. The restaurant was colorful and a bit more upscale with modern elevated dishes. We ordered a FULL spread for the table along with Carajillo drinks. Given that all three of us are avid travelers, dinner conversation revolved around sharing travel stories and connecting over this shared interest. The night bled into having a night cap at La Clandestina where we ordered aguacate drinks.
MEXICO CITY | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST
Now, you can’t go on a trip without indulging in culture and the arts a bit. You guessed it. This was museum day! Recovering from all the drinks the day before, we woke up a bit later in the morning and stumbled over to a local coffee shop nearby our Airbnb, Cicatriz, before making our way over to our lunch reservation at Restaurante Rosetta in Roma Norte — the sister restaurant to the bakery we met at the day before.
Rosetta is one of those aesthetic places you see all over Instagram when researching the best places to eat in Mexico City. This was quite literally the only restaurant we made reservations at prior to the trip, so we were really excited to try it out. We ended up ordering corn tamales with smoked cream, a fennel citrus apple and tarragon salad, and two pastas: cappellacci with stracchino cheese in mushroom broth and a seasonal ravioli with ricotta and lemon. Everything lived up to the hype and we left the restaurant stuffed and ready for a relaxing museum day.
We walked over to Museo Nacional de Antropología where we spent a few hours exploring a large collection of ancient Mexican art and ethnographic exhibits about Mexico’s present day indigenous people. The rooms on the right hand side showcased the development of Central Mexico’s cultures in chronological order, so we started on that right hand side and made our way counter-clockwise to get a full scope and feel for the evolvement over time. The rooms on the left hand side were devoted to other cultural areas of Mexico, with several of the rooms having recreations of archeological sites. We especially enjoyed walking through those exhibits.
The evening snuck up on us by the time we were finished with the museum, so we decided to quickly walk through Polanco, otherwise known as the ‘rich’ neighborhood in Mexico City. After window shopping at some stores that we clearly could not afford, we sat down for dinner at a sushi restaurant called Tori Tori. To be honest, the food here wasn’t really anything special, but it gave us just the sustenance we needed to continue our night.
We spent the rest of the evening at jazz bars/clubs. We visited Parker & Lenox in Juárez and Jazzatlan Capital in Roma Norte which both had very separate, distinct vibes. Parker & Lenox was speakeasy style whereas Jazzatlan Capital gave hole in the wall energy. Depending on what you’re looking for, they’re both great options to pop in, grab a drink and enjoy some live music.
MEXICO CITY | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND
This was my last day of PTO before needing to log on and work remotely from Mexico City. It ended up being a solo day as Casey did not take the day off. Knowing we had plans that evening to travel outside the city for Día de los Muertos, I felt it was best to have a pretty chill day to myself.
Modern art has always been more up my alley than classic art, so I decided to visit Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo. The architecture of the building was beautiful and it was filled with great contemporary art. With no one else to align schedules with, I was really able to take my time reading about and observing each piece. It took me back to my AP art history days a bit!
I then went for a stroll through the park after finishing up at the museum and made my way over to a coffee shop I had saved in La Condesa: Quentin Cafe. The storefront itself wasn’t big, so I grabbed a cup to-go and continued my walk through the streets of the neighborhood. La Condesa is known as more of a ‘hipster’ neighborhood with tree-lined avenues and art deco apartment buildings, and I had a great time just really taking in my surroundings.
Once Casey and Gabe finally wrapped up their work days, we met up to take an Uber together with two other friends, Carrie and Yannick, to visit a cemetery in San Andrés Mixquic for Día de los Muertos. The cemetery we were visiting was actually the one that the movie Coco was based off of — it was absolutely stunning. Mixquic is typically a quiet mountain town, but the streets leading up to the cemetery entrance were crowded and filled with street food stands, music and people celebrating. Once we entered the cemetery, we were welcomed by intricately decorated tombstones surrounded by candles and family members honoring and celebrating their loved ones. We were able to go up to the top of a bell tower within the cemetery and get a bird’s eye view of all the lights. This really emphasized to me how special being there and apart of the celebrations was.
After making our way through the entire cemetery we went back out to the streets where we bought more street food and continued to dance. Somehow we eventually ended up boarding a small decorated river boat for a 20ish minute ride — the perfect way to wrap up the visit (since it was past midnight at this point!).
MEXICO CITY | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD
Unfortunately the inevitable hit and I had to log back on to work this day. I will say, however, that returning to work after vacation is in fact a bit easier when you’re working from another country.
Because I start work a bit later than normal corporate hours and there was an hour time difference, it gave me enough time to sit down for a proper breakfast before working. Gabe was running on the same work schedule as me, so we decided to get breakfast at Chilpa, a place that’s highly recommended for chilaquiles. If you went to college with me you’ll know that chilaquiles from El Camino Cafe were an absolute staple for me, so needless to say I was excited for real chilaquiles in Mexico. Glad to report that they lived up to the hype.
After breakfast we headed over to Cafe Comunidad where Casey and Carrie had already been working. The cafe was absolutely adorable with a newly remodeled interior space and bright, welcoming furniture, appliances and wallpaper. The best part of the cafe though was the outdoor patio. It was almost double the size of the interior and filled with long communal work tables and a restaurant/bar tucked into the back corner. We all finished out our work days here before going our separate ways for the remainder of the day.
Casey and I decided to have dessert before dinner this night since the gelato shop we wanted to try, Joe Gelato, closed at a relatively early hour. Joe Gelato is an Italian gelateria in Mexico City’s Juárez neighborhood, serving up all natural handmade gelato flavors with Mexican touches. The seasonal flavors at the time we visited included ‘pan de muerto’ inspired by the bread consumed around Día de los Muertos, and a floral ‘flor de cempasúchill’ as it was the flower’s peak season. Everything we tried was melt in your mouth delicious. Conclusion is, it never hurts to pregame your dinner with a sweet treat.
After gelato, we finally headed over to dinner at Amaya where we ordered wine, soup and sausages. The food was delicious, but the best part of the dinner was spending time together!
MEXICO CITY | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH
Friday was the final “work from home” day in Mexico — we all spent the day mostly in front of our laptops, but had time to dip out for coffee/bites here and there. The fun really started after the work day was over though when Casey and I decided to go to Lucha Libre, otherwise known as Mexican wrestling.
Before heading over to Arena México for the show, we stopped by Wine Bar by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles for some wine and tapas. It was just around the corner from our Airbnb, which made for the perfect little walk considering it was dumping rain outside. Here we ordered tuna tostadas, arancini and a bottle of red wine to split.
Fueled up and ready to go, we took an Uber over to Arena México for Lucha Libre. This activity was one of the few must-do items on our Mexico City bucket list. We were able to purchase tickets the night of and ended up getting some pretty great seats! We had such a fun time watching all the wrestling with colorful outfits and masks, and we especially loved sipping on some beer and befriending our seat neighbors. The perfect night if you ask me!
MEXICO CITY | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH
We finally reached the last full day of our trip on Saturday and had a handful of sites we wanted to see before making our way back to the states. We first fueled up for the day by grabbing brunch with Gabe at Borona Loncheria. My mind was blown here when the appetizer, three entrees, three drinks and dessert totaled out to $13 per person. Not to mention everything was delicious too!
After brunch we headed towards Palacio de Bellas Artes and Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral where we soaked up the architecture and all its surroundings. We were pretty tired at this point, to be honest (it’s been a long trip + the food coma from brunch), yet we somehow ended up stopping for more food. We visited Helados Santa Clara for some ice cream and then Taqueria el Caifan for some tacos. Extremely full now, we walked through the Chinatown area and then made one last stop at Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela to pick up the final souveniers.
We spent that evening packing while eating McDonald’s and churros before having to get up at 4 am to head to the airport. All in all, it was an absolutely fantastic trip. I had no doubt that it would be, because it’s always a good time with Casey. Already counting down the days until the next one!
