GO TO » 1 | 2 |
3 | 4 |
5 | 6 |
7 | 8 |
9 | 10 |
11
Back in Mexico City for the last day of our eleven-day trip. We just wanted to catch up with some of
the sights we had missed during the busy holiday week.
We took the Metro to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for the Luis Barragán exhibit. The New York Times
featured the architect's work in their House & Home section before we left for this trip. There is
also Casa Barragán, the architect's private house, which reopened for the new year but unfortunately
required an appointment for a guided tour.
The Torre Latinoamericana is right outside the Bellas Artes. It has a viewing platform with telescopes
on the 44th floor. We chose not to go up as we've already seen the smoggy city from Monte Albán.
Around is Alameda Central, once the Aztec market and then the place of execution during the Spanish
Inquisition. We missed the Museo Mural Diego Rivera at the park's west end. It houses Sueno de
una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central which was removed from the Hotel del Prado after the 1985 earthquake.
We did get to visit the Museo Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán. Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul or blue house is where
she resided while married-slash-separated from Diego Rivera. (They were remarried but lived in
separate houses to allow private times with their queridas, or concubines. Frida Kahlo had an
affair with Leon Trotsky, who has his own museum down the street. It has been said that Diego
Rivera ran after Isamu Noguchi when he caught him with his wife.)
Most of the original house plan remains intact. The kitchen still has their names in mosaic tiles.
Her wheelchair is eerily parked in front of an unfinished canvas. Her book shelf houses some of
the most interesting titles. Her small bedroom is also arranged the way she left
it, with photos of Communist leaders (including Mao Zedong) on the wall, some of her doll
collection, a mirror on the ceiling of her bed's canopy and her plaster chest cast she painted
after one of the accidents in 1951 that impaired her for the rest of her life. There is a
reproduction of The Two Fridas (1939) out in the main hallway. Her journal rests inside a glass
case showing some of its colorful pages. The tondo-shaped Still Life (1942), commissioned by
the wife of Mexico's then-president Camacho and rejected because of its sexual references is
displayed. Alongside it is Viva La Vida (1954), Long Live Life, painted before she succumbed
to pulmonary embolism (or suicide, whichever you believe).
Before midnight, we checked out of Hostal Moneda and they arranged a cab ride to the airport the next morning.
All in all, Mexico was a whole new experience for us even though it's the fourth Spanish-speaking
country we've visited (the rest are here: ext212.com,
counting Puerto Rico as a separate entity from the United States). It's the kind of place where our being
Asian did not come into play. No one cared and no one stared. We fended for ourselves using our little
knowledge of Spanish. We planned what we could ahead of time and left the rest to adventure.
I've also compiled, in wallpaper style, photos of the food we ate while in Mexico.
You can view them here. For Mexico's
informational design, I put them up here.
|
|
|
 Palacio de Bellas Artes
10:00am to 8:00pm, P30 each
Torre Latinoamericana
9:00am to 11:00pm, P35 to go up
Museo Mural Diego Rivera
10:00am to 6:00pm, Tuesday to Sunday
Museo Frida Kahlo or Casa Azul
Allende and Londres 247, Tuesday to Sunday for P35. No photos allowed.
 Reads and Resources
I read Hayden Herrera's
Frida Kahlo: The Paintings
before my trip and brought with me Sandra Cisneros' inspiring
Caramelo. As for guides, we used Footprints'
Mexico Handbook
and Moon's Oaxaca Guide.
Google and
hostelworld.com were both indispensable.
All photos were taken using a Lomo Kompakt and a
Fuji FinePix.
Say hello here.
© 2002-2003
|
|
