Día de Muertos in Mexico City

One of the most famous things associated with Mexico is Día de Muertos, and this year, I got to join in on the festivities. My mom had been planning a trip almost a year ago, and for this 2019, November 1st fell on a Friday which I knew I would have the day off from work, so I decided to go too. I brought Chris along, and we bought our tickets way back in February on a sale, so the trip was sitting on the back of our minds for a long time. The days were finally approaching and we got excited because 1) we love Mexican food (this would be our 3rd trip to Mexico together), and 2) Chris loves dressing up in costume.

On Thursday we took an afternoon flight (I had an unexpected day off from a moved holiday, while Chris went straight from work to the airport), and landed in Mexico City at around 5pm. After clearing immigration, and sitting in rush hour traffic for almost an hour, we got to our Airbnb, freshened up, then went to meet my mom and friends for dinner. We were staying at La Condesa neighborhood, and I looked up a nice restaurant to eat in nearby. We had dinner at Las Chalupitas (Alfonso Reyes 275) a traditional Mexican restaurant that's been in a family for three generations. We ordered some queso fundido to start, then a variety of tacos and chalupas. The food was as delicious as expected, and we were quite pleased with our first meal back in Mexico.

queso fundido and tacos

chalupitas

For our first day, we decided to go for a more casual look when dressing up. I donned a bright blouse with some simple face makeup.

We had a full day planned starting with a trip downtown to the Torre Latinoamericana. We headed up to the mirador, and had a nice view of the city, including this gorgeous one of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

View from the 103rd floor

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to spend time with my mama. :)

After, we headed down and crossed the street to take some photos in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

En route to Xochimilco, south of Mexico City, we stopped by the Biblioteca Central (Central Library) at the Ciudad Universitaria (City University). One of my mom's friend in the group we were with is an architect, and it was this façade that inspired her to be an architect. I must admit, it was very gorgeous!

The library façade

Then we made it to Xochimilco. Our first stop there was the Museo de Dolores Olmedo. We bought tickets... and headed straight to the café because it was late and we were hungry. Haha! More Mexican goodness: guacamole with toasted chips to start.

Some of our plates: 1) top: tlapique (a fish) wrapped in corn leaves and marinated with tomatoes, onion, nopalitos, epazote, and chile. 2) left: huarache -- beef, beans, cheese, radish on a warm black tortilla. 3) right: pork in a pepitas de chile sauce.

It was pricier than usual since it was a museum café, but there were no restaurants nearby, and at least the food was delicious and filled us up. Then we had some time to stroll around the museum which was located inside a very beautiful hacienda. Along the streets there were some stands for a makeshift market. 

We checked out the different exhibits, one of which was a collection of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Dolores Olmedo was one of Rivera's patrons, and the museum has a vast permanent collection of his works.

The hacienda is also home to numerous gardens with some Xoloiztcuintle dogs and countless peacocks.

In front of one of the peacock gardens

At the end we looked at the ofrendas exhibit which this year was dedicated to the engineering and architecture of Mexico City.

The last stop of the day was a trajinera ride to see the show La Llorona.

colorful trajineras

a michelada before the show

We had bought our tickets beforehand, and from the embarcadero (the boat dock), we lined up and at about 6pm got into the trajineras. It took us along the canals to a small lake, and there there was a stage set up for the show. It was a quite the interesting concept; all the trajineras lined up in a semicircle to see the show. It started at around 7; the lights and dances were fun, but the story dragged on (plus it was in Spanish), and ran way too long in my opinion. It had a lot of potential, but after half an hour in, we were tired and sleepy.

We got off the boats after 9pm (there was some boat traffic back at the docks), then had the hour drive back to our Airbnb. We washed off our face paint, and plopped into bed exhausted. 

The next day, the actual día de muertos, Chris and I went in full attire. I had my mom bring me a skirt from back home, and paired it with a black blouse, a red scarf, and a floral headpiece I had bought the night before, and Chris designed my makeup.

We took it easy, waking up a little later and taking our time getting ready, then headed over to the others’ Airbnb with some temporary tattoos we had (we had bought it at a dollar store back in Guatemala), and helped the others put them on their face. 

Getting ready

All set!

Then, we walked to the metro and were off to the Zócalo, the main square in the historic city center. Downtown was very lively and festive with tourists and locals alike, many dressed up too.

We hung out at the main square for a good bit taking lots of pictures and checking out the ofrendas. 

A group shot in front of one of the ofrendas

This year’s theme at the Zócalo were four monumental altars symbolizing four different regions (one each from the north, south, east, and west) of Mexico. Below is the Northern Altar called “Tapanco Yaqui” representing the culture of the Yoreme or Yaqui people in Sonora. They usually build their altars by carving trunks of mezquite on the ground.

“Arco de Xantolo” for the Eastern Altar; for them, the huastecos, death is not the end of life, and they offer flowers, and bread as a portal between this world and the next.

To represent the South was the Yucatán, naming the altar “Hanal Pixán,” which is also the name of their celebration, and which in the Mayan language means “food for the souls.”

And last, the altar from the Western region of Cuanajo, Michoacán called “Caballos Enrosados.” There they have wooden figures of horses that line the streets leading the people to the house of the deceased.

It was so interesting to get a glimpse of how Día de Muertos is celebrated in various parts of the country, and see that despite it being the same celebration, is still so unique in the different places in Mexico.

We really enjoyed dressing up, and we had a lot of people either ask for a photo with us or of us. We even found a stalker photo of myself on one of the hashtags on Instagram later on in the day.

If you ever go for Día de los Muertos, I do recommend joining in on the fun either dressing up, getting face paint, or both. All over the city there are little stands where you can buy flower crowns or headbands, masks, and even face tattoos. There are also people set up with makeshift booths to get your face painted.

After the Zócalo, we decided to just make our way towards Reforma and stop at a restaurant for lunch. We ended up lining outside Café el Popular (Av. 5 de Mayo, 50), and just our luck we got a table inside just as it started to rain.

Waiting in line for lunch

It's a popular bakery and restaurant, and for that day, they had a special three course menu with some regional dishes. I decided to try it, and was surprised with some dishes I had never had before. For starters we had consomé a la milpa, a regional chicken broth dish, and the sopa tascana which was a tomato based soup with tortilla strips.

The mains were cochita al horno and romeritos (a plant) with a shrimp patty. Not the most attractive photo; both were in some sauce I couldn’t identify, but they were delicious. The sauce with the romeritos had a nice spicy kick to it.

For dessert we had some guayaba in syrup (not pictured), and then I ordered some pan de muerto to try. The bread's circular shape is supposed to represent the cycle of life and death. The little round bump on top represents the skull, and the other four ones represent tears for those who have passed on.

At around 3pm, we left the restaurant and went to catch the parade. We didn’t have to walk far, and we heard it coming from the Palacio de Bellas Artes area. So we made our way there, and stayed for about an hour to watch. It was quite the fun parade with floats, dancers, and whatnot.

Fun fact: the parade was inspired by this scene in the James Bond movie Spectre, and not the other way around. The city only started doing the parades after the movie came out.

The last thing on our agenda for the day was souvenir shopping at the Ciudadela market. I love markets, and it was fun to browse around taking in the usual beauty of colors and handicrafts.

Tired after all that shopping

Quite tired and with a morning flight the next day, Chris and I had dinner at a restaurant, Taco Naco (Av. Insurgentes Sur, 411), right across our Airbnb. The food was delicious, and made it on our favorites of Mexico. We started off with some tacos...

...then split a gringa and a costra, and I had some tuétano (bone marrow, yum!) too.

Even though it was a quick and short trip, we were so glad for the chance to go. I loved being able to get a glimpse of and experience such a lively, colorful and beautiful tradition. :)

¡Hasta la próxima!