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Today was our second Tour in Mexico City with Get Your Guide this time to Xochimilco, Coyoacan, and Frida Kahlo Museo. This is the tour I was most excited about as we also got to ride on a boat. This time there was no protests about the government so other than the rush hour traffic the journey was quite quick.
The big difference between this tour and the one from Day 7 was the number of people on the tour. The previous tour we had a minibus with 15 people and we got to meet and speak with everyone. This tour we were on a coach of 50+ people, while we did get to speak with some other we didn't speak with everyone. We also had 2 guides, one English speaking and the other Spanish speaking.
Our first stop of the day was the University City of Mexico City. In the 1920s a plan was drawn up to build a part of the city to educate the locals about their cultures bot the hispanic and pre-hispanic cultures and also to help the population how to read and write. This plan was forgotten about until the 1940s when the plan was rediscovered and a plan was put in place to build the University City. The main building of the University has a huge mural which depicts the two cultures of Mexico. Also in 1968 the Olympic Stadium was built next to the University City, the plan was to build a mural that wraps around the whole stadium, but this was curtailed due to costs.
Our next stop was Xochimiloco a UNESCO World Heritage site, this is the bit I was most looking forward to as there was a boat trip around some of the canals. We were told in the small part of Xochimiloco we were in there were 2500 boats alone and there were many other sections of Xochimiloco and you could tell there were boats everywhere!
As we were going along other boats would come along side and try and sell us stuff. We had a beer boat, a jewelry boat, a local crafts boat, a boat that dropped off a woman holding a Kestrel and finally a boat that had a Mariachi band who boarded our boat and said they would play requests for money. Unfortunately there was an American couple on our boat that kept requesting song after song after song, so I ended up trapped on a boat for 45+ minutes with a band playing horrendous Mariachi.
We were then taken to a local place for lunch, the food was just terrible. This happens a lot when you go as a huge group as the restaurant pays for tours to come and visit them and they won't and don't need repeat customers.
After lunch we visited Coyoacán a very old part of Mexico City, we ahd a little time to explore this area which was very beautiful and bustling. I went in search of ice cream while Susan watched the world go by. Afterwards we walked up the road to Casa Azul (the Blue House), which is where the artist Frida Kahlo lived and is now the Museo de Frida Kahlo. It was such a lovely place with a courtyard garden and house that she lived and worked in. We had an hour to explore the house and garden and learn about the life of Firda Kahlo, previously I knew little about the fascinating person and she and her life reminded me of Ian Dury they were both artists in their own way and both suffered with polio. While here we also met David and his partner from the previous tour, it is amazing to see people you recognise in foreign lands.
When we finally got back to Polanco we searched for somewhere to go and eat and found Restaurant Puerto Madero 10 minutes walk away. The food was exceptional and both of us agreed that we had the best steaks we'd ever eaten. Susan also had a desert which was super yummy but possibly a bit too much food.
A boat in Xochimiloco called Princess