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freshly squeezed orange juice and the sound of the ocean are at my bedside, the air is quick and brisk but not cold, the winter storm has finally passed.

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Back in San Diego after a short and sweet stay in Mexico City, we spent five days total in D.F. It was sunny and warm there, the temperature was more enjoyable than San Diego’s recent cold chills. Bobby and I arrived around 8 p.m. on a Friday night, we exchanged our dollars into pesos at the airport and caught a cheap cab into La Condesa, which is about a twenty-minute ride when there’s no traffic.

Finally back on Amsterdam street! This neighborhood is beautiful, warm and charming. It’s lush scenery reminds of Golden Gate park in San Francisco, it is well-kept and cared for by the locals. After some Johnny Walker Black we walked down to the small corner market to pick up a few things and called it a night.

On Saturday night we went walking to Zona Rosa, the pink zone. This area well known for being gay friendly, there are many clubs, bars and restaurants with many to choose from we ended up at Lollipop which had an affordable cover, decent drink prices and a variety of dance music. We soon discovered that there are three floors to this venue, the first floor was obviously for those who wanted enough room to show off their dance moves, the Dj was playing Cumbias at first then slowly transitioned into American swing music. By the time we got to the second floor House music was happening by which time we realized there is also a third floor! The second and third floors have smoking balconies, although it was very crowded the club go-ers were courteous and aware of everyone around them. We went to check out the third floor which was the most crowded with popular music playing many were dancing and having a good time, there were boxes and platforms for those who really wanted to shake it and show off.

On Sunday we went Coyoacán which was home to Frida Kahlo. This area was amazing, the energy here is vibrant and light heart-ed; there are street vendors on the weekends who sell everything from tortas to fresh roasted coffee to jewelry, woven fabrics, baskets, belts, dolls…any which way you turn you will see a plethora of amazing handmade goods at a reasonable price. We made our way to “The Blue House” only a few blocks into the neighborhood, this house belonged to Frida Kahlo and is now a museum and is open to the public. It was definitely interesting and inspiring to witness the former living space of artists with such talent. As you enter the museum there are numerous works by Frida, a few were unfinished but most were completed, many I had never seen before. Further along, the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms; the bed that Frida died in; decorated exactly as she left it with only a few alterations. Right next to her bed was a stairway leading outside. I couldn’t help but imagine her walking down these steps into her gorgeous courtyard which was filled with large trees, a fountain and a few statues.

The next day we spent walking around Roma, which is an area very close to La Condesa. We were looking for vintage shops, we found one called “Vintage HOE” (Heaven on Earth), other than that not many to be found. There are however plenty of book shops, restaurants, and art galleries in this area. unfortunately for us on Monday almost all galleries are closed so we didn’t get the chance to see any despite the fact that we had looked up and found about five in this area. I guess we’ll have to wait till next time! We sat down to eat at a place that specializes in tamales. Tamlales are a traditional mexican food made from masa (a dough made from corn) and filled with a variety of things from: cheese, meat, or vegetables. Our meal was excellent and priced affordably, we had two Michiladas each then made our way back to Amsterdam St. Found this fly in Roma as well, though it was pretty rad as it took up the entire corner side of a building…



On our last day in D.F. we decided to go to Zócalo in Centro Historico. This area is huge and is best known for being the place where many important political events happen. We went to the Palacio National which translates to the National Palace, within this enormous building you will find national treasures as well as information about how modern Mexico came into its existence. Valuable documents and articles of clothing from the Mexican Revolution, the transition of the Mexican flag and countless other artifacts. This is also where Diego Rivera painted many murals, the largest one took him over a decade to finish in which he depicted the history of Mexico. It would take at least a week to obtain all this information! We only had a day, so we will be back for sure. We stayed up until about 5 the museum closes at 6 but we were getting hungry and decided to find something to eat. We found a woman selling blue corn tostadas with beans, cheese, cactus (nopales), and salsa, it was sundown and the day was coming to an end it felt good to fill our bellies as we left this amazing place. After eating we walked around a bit and haphazardly fell right into the middle of a protest. There were a few different speakers talking about the environment and discussing a global meeting that will take place in Mexico shortly. The crowd was about two hundred people, the mood was calm everyone was listening intently with respect for the speakers.

These photos were taken inside the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), this mural was painted by Diego Rivera, it depicts the history of Mexico.