After a hectic week of organizing, changing, attending and (at times actually) teaching classes it was great to finally have a weekend free to visit some of the places I have been told so much about.
Yesterday morning in true tourist style we grabbed our Guidebooks and headed off to San Angel in the South of Mexico City. It's a beautiful place filled with cobbled streets, stunning Mexican architecture and markets selling Mexican jewellery, crafts and paintings.
For a while we walked around staring longingly and attempting to resist the urge to buy. Unfortunately I caved a teeny tiny bit and spent 35 pesos on things which, I confess I may have been able to live with out (note my shiny new hat way below :D ).
We then walked over to the Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, where the two artists used to live together in seperated buildings united by a connecting bridge from 1934 untill he slept with her sister and they got divorced in 1940 (yes, I too am stumped as to why that one didn't work out). They did later get back together.
The houses themselves were designed by Juan O'Gorman (nope, I hadn't heard of him) as a rejection of tradditional conservative architecture and "buen gusto" - good taste. I personally really liked them, with their bold colours and clear shapes and lines. They also take full advantage of the bright Mexican sun as the light streamed in through the windows making the rooms really bright - a great way to display the collection of artwork inside the house. Apparently people now claim that O'Gorman "se proponía hacer edificios feos, pero no lo lograba" -attempted to make ugly buildings, but failed (although I'm sure some sarcy people might believe he succeeded).
Being my mother's daughter, what made this trip even better is that now I am a legal teacher in Mexico I pay nada (always the best price) to visit museums and cultural sites and so this part of the day was totally free!
After we visited the museum we walked the 3-4kms from San Angel to Coyoacan for dinner, stopping by the churchyard in San Angel where there had just been a Quinceañera (Latin American 15th birthday celebration). The girl in question was dressed like a bride (although not in white) with her hair and make-up professionally done and all her family and friends gathered round her taking pictures and stuffing themselves on tradditional Mexican sweets. Unfortunately I didn't want to take any photos (although I would have probably just merged into the mass of Grandparents) of the Quinceañera, only the park:
Coyoacan is another beautiful part of Mexico City. It also has another of Frida Kahlo's homes, which I tried to visit last Monday. This is the day when Pat and I discovered that on Mondays everything in Mexico City is shut. However we managed to take some photos before we gave up and went to a bar and below is one taken that day:
On Saturday nights, Coyoacan is full of people and has a real atmosphere and so it was great to come back. Fortunately, my Spanish teacher had told me this week all about a coffee shop, El Jarocho famous for selling the best coffee in Mexico City (my Spanish teacher has the most amazing ability to go completely off topic at the mention of either food or British music - it really couldn't be easier for me). The coffee comes from Veracruz and the queue for the coffee goes all the way down the street. The coffee is pretty strong stuff, comes with a loads of foam and sprinkled with cinnamon - it's also half the price of Starbucks and twice as nice.
Anyways all in all it was a great day. I wish I could say today will be as interesting but unfortunately my class has an exam next week and the only thing more boring than revising for an exam is teaching people how to revise for an exam that I'M NOT EVEN TAKING!
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