Mexico City: Together And Apart

 Winter and Spring 2024

Weeks and months flew by; with plane tickets and hotel reservations sorted, my second-born (who was traveling with me) and I turned our attention to compiling a list of must-see Mexico City sights. 

Until one day, when our itinerary plans took a sharp left turn.

THUMP.

Into my DMs landed a link to a dense and detailed document. 

"Here's my agenda for Fizza and Irah. You can join us for whatever you like, or do your own thing.

And so it was that I learned my Malaysian hosts in Mexico City would be catering to two groups in visitors - their first guests in 3.5 years - during the exact same week.

Thus began an intricate series of Google doc swaps in which our separate agendas wove in and out of each other's plans. The end result was a lovely balance of time spent together in our combined group and apart for outings with just my daughter and me. Our first full day in the city was a lovely example of just that. 

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Saturday, June 8

Breakfast at Niddo Cafe

A sweet way to begin our day, we took our morning meal at the charming coffee shop in the ground floor of our hotel. Sitting in the leafy shade, we enjoyed overnight oats and fresh fruit with yogurt and the company of many locals and their dogs. The first of many quiet Niddo Cafe mornings my daughter and I enjoyed together this week, before blasting off into our busy day of adventures. 

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^ Step through the dark, cool entryway of Casa Gilardi; and find yourself surrounded in the light of the stairwell.

^ Now open the door beyond the sphere and behold. A long hallway through a blaze of yellow light, and the lure of blue calling from the far end. Let's explore. 

^ The golden glow is achieved by light pouring in from a central courtyard through a series of yellow paned windows. The effect is magical. 

^ The cerulean blue we spied from afar is a wall surrounding an indoor swimming pool. The effect is nearly an optical illusion; the water is about two feet deep and creates the shadow at the lower part of these blue and white walls, as well as the red beam that stands in the middle of the pool. There are steps down into the water at my left and no boundaries between the floor of the room and the open water. I found the effect of all this to be electrifying and a bit provocative. 

^ We continue through the pool room and out into the central courtyard. A soaring jacaranda tree sits at the center of this scene and backlit by the radiantly pink wall, provides a final, triumphant resting place for the eye. Bravo, Senor Barragan.

^ Barragan displays a passion for irregularly shaped terra cota jugs, and I am here for it. 

Casa Gilardi Tour

After much advance work online to track down two highly coveted tickets to this architectural tour, my daughter and I set off on our own for our morning adventure. 

During the mid-1900s, Luis Barragan was a Mexican architect par excellence and a world-class innovator of what it is to make a home. After he had retired, wanting nothing more than to rest and relax in the gorgeous home he had built for himself (which we will tour later in the week), his friends, the Gilardis, convinced him to make one last home for them. The family still lives there to this day - his son, who is now an archtect himself, led our tour while his mother was napping upstairs. 

The house is an eye-popping combination of bright and bold open spaces, often used for parties and public events during the Gilardis' heyday. Barragan uses color and light to make my heart race. In the quieter, more family-driven rooms of the house, the palette leans into calming tones and natural materials that reflect the more intimate use of these spaces. Interestingly , I found myself uncomfortable taking photos of the family spaces; my camera preferred the expansive energy of the public rooms instead. 

This tour - and the other tour we will take later in the week - opened my mind and heart to the passion of Mexican artists. Luis Barragan was a genius and I am so thankful I could experience his work.

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Floating Gardens of Xochimilco

After lunch, our group met up for our afternoon adventure. The traffic was fierce, the car was hot, the baby cried miserably. We were all a bit done in. But then we bought strawberry ice creams and all was sunny again as we finally got started on our boat trip. 

Back in, oh, maybe sixth grade, when we were learning about the great civilizations of the Americas, I was intrigued to learn that the Aztecs built their capital, Tenochtitlan, on islands. As the city needed more land for food, I was even more fascinated to hear that these clever problem-solvers simply built floating islands - chinampas - to grow crops. That idea completely captured my imagination and I spent considerable time in that class imagining myself floating in and among the manmade islands.

So imagine my pure delight when I realized I could - and would! - actually visit the floating islands of my dreams. Thankfully, I did a bit of Googling beforehand to see what this modern day experience might hold for me, because it was a far cry from my Aztec fantasies. 

Big, colorful, festive boats.

Mexican folk tunes blasting from oversize speakers.

Mariachi hopping from boat to boat.

Bars, run-down restaurants, and countless dogs along the shore. 

Traffic jams along the canals. 

But I smiled as we wound our way through the hectic scene, the three children in our party contributing their own enthusiasm and merriment with a passionate game of flipping a half-full water bottle to see if they could get it to land upright. A mid-afternoon cloudburst brought another layer of unexpected chaos and a moderate amount of water around my ankles to the experience. 

All the distractions in the world could not mar this day for me. I was sailing on the waterways between the Aztecs' legendary floating islands, and never in my sixth grade imagination did I ever believe this dream would come true. 

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Together and apart. Apart and together. 

Our first full day was a lovely mix of two different energies, and all those hours of planning were starting to pay off. 

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Want to read about all my adventures in Mexico City?

I've Finally Arrived

Together And Apart

Malaysia And America In Mexico