the ocean

We spent a long weekend in Mexico City this past week. I had never been, and it was pretty great. I will admit that I'd read a New Yorker article about a bunch of students who were abducted and murdered in Mexico immediately prior to the trip, which did not set a great tone. But I resolved to not be like my friend who once refused to attend a wedding in Cancun because she thought she'd be beheaded by narcos, and bravely proceeded to my five-star hotel in the gorgeous city center. 

There was culture! We went to a modern art museum and a contemporary art museum (different things, although they both may involve elderly people saying "my kid could do that") and the anthropological museum, which in addition to being difficult to pronounce had an amazing collection of early American artifacts. We also visited the incredibly stunning castle and checked a lot of boxes on our Instagram list. (Yes, photos will be forthcoming.) And then we made the trek out to Teotihuacan, which was no less fascinating for having been subject to a series of prohibitions on climbing ruins ever since COVID. As someone who once became terrified after reaching the top of Chichen Itza and nearly had to be retrieved by rescue personnel, I believe temple scaling to be highly overrated.

We also got religion, with a stop at the Our Lady of Guadalupe site. As a Catholic with more than eight years of Public School Religion classes under my belt, it was nice to put a location with the low-quality animated short that relayed to us the story of this particular miracle. There are approximately ten thousand chapels of various vintages there, as well as the main church with the famous image, which is now installed behind a series of moving walkways so nobody can hog all the time with the Virgin. Unfortunately, no churro stand that I could find, but I'm sure that's coming.

Speaking of which, food! I was very much tempted, but ultimately too fearful, to eat any of the delicious-looking elote or tacos that blanketed many public areas in the city. But we did have some great traditional meals, as well as a contemporary culinary journey at a restaurant that someone (I don't remember who) has ranked #47 in the world. My understanding is that Chili's did not even make this list.

Anyway, I'm back, and will torture you with further discussion as the weeks go by. Something to look forward to!