November 18th - Mexico City

After the driving of the past few days the three nights we are staying in Mexico City are a real delight. No early start required, which is quite a luxury and with our room on the 17th floor I snapped the photo below of the city with the haze of the renowned Mexico City smog hanging over it.

Early morning smog over Mexico City

We had decided that a visit to the Blue House, where Frida Kahlo lived was our first port of call. We hailed a taxi outside our hotel and for the first 20 minutes we crawled at a snail´s pace through the traffic. The photo below shows a typical view of the traffic - stationary!

Typical grid lock in the centre of Mexico City
Once out of the Centro Historico we made good progress and arrived at the house in 30 minutes. Frida Kahlo lived there until her death in the fifties. She was married to Diego Rivero, the famous Mexican painter and muralist. She also had an affair with Leo Trotsky and, after his assassination by one of Stalin´s assassins, Diego Rivera was held as a suspect. The house is an interesting time capsule. With many of both her and Diego´s personnel possessions on display.

The Blue House where artist Frida Kahlo lived and who was the wife of the famous Mexican artist, Diego Rivera

We had asked our cab driver to return in an hour, which much to our surprise he did! We then drove back into the centre and were dropped off at the central plaza, known locally as Tocolo. The cathedral dominates the plaza. It is a huge building with a wonderful alter of guilded gold. Much of Mexico City was severly dmaged in the great earthquake of 1985. The floors of the cathedral are all at different levels where the ground moved.

Back in the plaza there was much activity as this weekend is a national holiday celebrating Mexican Independence on Monday. There were groups of native Indians dancing to tomtom drums. Adding to the cacophony of noise was a live band belting out rock music for one of the national Radio Stations, 7DIAS.

Native Indian dancers in the 'Zocolo', Plaza de la Constitucion, with the Palace National in the background

We then walked back to our hotel past the Palace of Belles Artes and the Monument to Benito Juarez a Mexican patriot.

Mexico City - monument to Mexican patriot Benito Juarez

The day ended with a meal organised by HERO at a restuarant in the suburbs with a huge fountain in the grouns outside.

Palace of Belles Artes in Mexico City