Day 7: Mexico City, Mexico --> Seattle, USA.

Today we decided to just take it easy in anticipation of it being a travel day back to the States. We have had a pretty full-on agenda for the 6 full days, so it was good to just wake up and not have anything to do other than head to the airport mid-afternoon. Marc and I have t-shirts that have "Squats and Tacos" on them with a pic of a taco. Unfortunately the ratio of squats to tacos was not where it needed to be this week so I got up to workout to sweat out said carbs. I have probably had more tacos (or a variety of a taco) in the past week than I have had in my life.

I still had some homework to do for Lia, our trainer, but when I got to the gym, a true "bro-down hoe-down" was going down with a bunch of athletes from the aforementioned Maccabi Games. They took over the entire weights area, so I kind of just waited them out while knocking out a bunch of cardio. And then I got my accessory work in after they all did their thing this morning. After some breakfast, Marc and I decided to watch the 3rd place match of the Women's World Cup. I was cheering for England, but unfortunately I don't think they had any gas left in the tank. Sweden was the better side and they deserved to win for sure.

We grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants in the hotel and I got to have tacos one last time before we made our way to the airport because why not? Oh, apparently a taco shortage is impacting Taco Bell in the US. [Hey Taco Bell, I might know a place where you can find some!] 

Minimal traffic to airport. Amazingly the process of getting out of Mexico City is 100% easier than getting in and we breezed through security, although not sure if that is REALLY a good thing? The receptionist at the lounge told us we should get to the gate at a specific time, which was about 40 minutes before the flight took off. Well, we did that and we were the LAST people to board the plane! Jeez! A bit too close for comfort there!

The trek home was fortunately uneventful and we are glad to be back after having a really excellent time in Mexico City. The people were lovely, the country was very scenic and the city itself was cool. The only thing that was a drag was the pollution, which made it challenging to breathe when stuck in a non-air conditioned Uber or taxi. We would definitely go back. We're really excited to be home to watch the USA take on The Netherlands. Hoping for a fantastic outcome for the USA ladies! #LFG

Day 6: Mexico City —> Teōtīhuacān —> Mexico City.

We had a relatively early start this am to head out to the Pyramids, which are about an hour outside of Mexico City. Rodrigo, our guide, explained some basic things about Mexico City on the way out. For example Mexico has 32 states and you can see colors on houses, which represent political party affiliation. You’ll see pink, yellow, blue and red/white. The current President is a member of the National Regeneration Movement, which has a pink color. So it is why many of the taxis that we have seen have a pink trim on the outside.

We went out to first visit the Temple of the Feathered Serepent (aka Quetzalcoatl). It was incredibly impressive to see how much of the carvings are intact and how detailed they were. When we were at the Anthropology Museum yesterday, we saw the replicas. Now we were seeing the real thing. [Note to anyone thinking of visiting Mexico City: Hit the museum first before you hit the Pyramids.] So ‘quetzal’ means birds with beautiful feather and ‘coatl’ means serpent. We had time to climb to the top of the pyramid and take in views of the other two pyramids that were on tap for today. It was steep! Let’s just say these stairs wouldn’t pass US building codes in terms of slopes!

Rodrigo then took us to the entrance of the Pyramid of the Moon. Before getting to the pyramid itself, we walked through the Temple of the Butterflies (aka Quetzalpaplotl). We saw murals that were created in 100 AD. To say that this was really interesting is really not giving this enough credit. Much of the temple had been restored around the 1960s. We climbed up to as far as we could of the Pyramid of the Moon, which was also steep. Fortunately they had ropes to help you navigate the way up, and more importantly, the way down. The views were excellent and we had really good visibility in all directions.

After that, we walked along the Avenue of the Dead, where all of the governors lived. Believe it or not, citizens picked leaders based on actual intellectual knowledge in topics such as astronomy, geometry and geography. Ah, the good old days. It was incredible to find out that only 7% of all of the Aztec ruins have been excavated at this time. Lots of ruins, including pyramids, under grassy hills. We climbed up to the much taller top of the Pyramid of the Sun. It was crowded and step, but they had ropes to help navigate the climb up. And it was also a good workout, especially at that elevation!

Rodrigo then took us to a place where we learned about agave plants, which play a big role in mezcal production. These trees literally produce 2 liters of honey water 2x per day. The honey water is use for pulque. The tree we were checking out is 12 years old, and they typically live twice that time. 20 different kinds of agave are produced in the country of Mexico. We also learned how the worm in tequilla tends to add a smoky flavor, which I was able to smell. Finally learned about the different kinds of obsidian and how you can see through it!

We then headed off to lunch at Nico’s, which came recommended by a few sources, and said farewell to Rodrigo. The lunch at Nico’s was pretty insane in terms of the amount of food that came out. Tortillas of all kinds for days. I think I have eaten more tortillas in the past week than I have in my entire life. If you think I’m kidding, wait until you see the food photos on Dropbox. Excellent food and in a fun atmosphere. They did tableside salsas, guacamole and café de olla.

After that, we all headed back to the hotel and I went to the gym. The Maccabi Games are in Mexico City and throughout the week, more athletes and their families have been arriving at the hotel, and thus the gym. One person asked me while I was on the elliptical, “what event are you here for?” I responded with, “I’m here to eat!” Apparently I looked just athletic enough, I suppose. You can’t make this stuff up. I think I have a cousin who participated in these games a number of years ago, but I’ll need to check with my folks on that when we get back home.

We had the closing ceremonies with Rebecca and with Jason at Bistrot Maximo. Again, really good food and the sommelier really was into the fact that we were doing  only Mexican wines all week. So we talked about some different styles and were able to enjoy 2 more labels that we hadn’t tried yet. During dinner, we were recapping the worst meal of the week, which belonged to Rebecca. When we were at L’Opera watching the Women’s World Cup semi, she ordered something that ended up being “mayonnaise with a side of shrimp” as opposed to the other way around.

That led to the discussion of the escargot starter that we got. Rebecca then chimed in about how that dish really teetered along “the gross/goodness line” and she wasn’t sure where it would end up. This put Marc in stitches as he started crying from laughing so hard. As many followers of this space know, it isn’t a party until someone can get Marc crying from laughing too much. Well played, Rebecca. We ended the evening at the hotel bar, where more mezcal may have been consumed along with another Mexican wine.

Day 5: Mexico City

Happy 4th of July everyone who will be reading this sometime after the holiday.

We started in the gym with Jill on an elliptical machine. I biked for 10 minutes to warm up. I did our homework WOD that is supposed to be with a kettlebell but they only have dumbbells so used that which was awkward. Jill did the WOD after me and we got breakfast.

We all met up and walked into Chapultepec park for the scenery and then over to the Anthropology Museum.

This was a worthwhile museum to spend a couple of hours wandering around. Lots of well preserved artifacts from different eras and presentation of temples and tombs and art and society and traditions. I saw Jill a few times as we meandered separately around. At one point she told me to go get a picture of "the big wooden thing". The specifics beyond that became it's at the top of the stairs/escalator. When I saw it, it reminded me of Fazzino which Jill's family has many his works. I texted her that I got picture of the pre Fazzino. 3D art from way before this last century.

Too many photos to post here, but a small selection at the end of this post. For those that want even more, you can browse all photos on Dropbox.

Next up was a walk back over to Pujol again but now for a lunch taco omakase. Someone else's take on this from last September saves me some presentation and typing time. Notable differences now include it being 10 courses and they have you choose the pairing. Mezcal, wine/sake, beer, or mocktails.

I was asked about my food preferences since they had a list. At the end he asked if insects are ok and I said sure. Yes, ants were involved. Ant larvae to be specific which one server or bartender referred to as Mexican caviar.

The 10 courses were great and they substituted shellfish well. The mole at course #9 was great like Tuesday (and 2 days older!). The accompanying Mezcal tasting all afternoon was spectacular. All 4 of us agreed that the taco omakase was the one to do if you couldn't do both this and the regular dinner menu we did on Tuesday night.

While sitting at the bar, we got to interact with an Australian bartender who gave us some great pure agave syrup that was amazing. Plus more than one staff member recognized us from Tues and warmly welcomed us back. Jason and I both agreed that the two best Mezcals of the 6 we were served were Mezcal Real Minero (Largo) which was just solid daily goodness and Mayalen which was peppery for particular occasions.

We also learned that as the shift ends at 2am, the pastry staff start showing up for the next day. And the prep crew shows between 6 and 7am as the fresh food deliveries arrive to get the next full day of meat and vegetables going. 24 hour full operation!

We got out just before 4pm and got an Uber to the Frida Kahlo Museum. This was an interesting view on her life and what she endured while also persevering and creating some legacy. I don't watch many movies so I have not seen Frida.

We got back to the hotel 2 hours before dinner to relax just a little bit. Could have used 3 hours. Off to Sartoria to complete our very international 4th of July by going Italian for a great meal. It was very nice to take a short break from Mexican cuisine after almost 5 full days of it. We were all too full and tired to take on dessert. I know this may shock some readers.

Day 4: Mexico City.

Marc slept in and I ventured to the gym to attempt to minimize the damage from all of the awesome food and wine we have been consuming. All hail cardio this week. We got some breakfast and then headed over with Rebecca and Jason to Mercado Medellin to meet with the chef who was going to lead our cooking class for the day. We had 2 other students joining us - an expat who lives in Mexico City and his friend visiting from Nashville. Chef Beto and his sous-chef, Mario, were on time and gave us the lay of the land for the day.

We walked around the market and sampled loads of things. Chicharrón. Mole paste. Some meat. Mexican coffee (followers of this space know that this is ALL Marc). Cheese. Chocolate. We learned that Mexico has 143 different chiles! We also tasted tlacoyo, which is a tortilla that has beans and chicharrónes in the tortilla itself and then you put in a filling, which in our case had chicken. Yummy. Beto took us by a tortilla maker that makes 14,000 tortillas per day and it happened in a room that was smaller than my garage. Amazing.

Amongst other tidbits gleaned from the tour, piñatas were actually created as a religious object used for teaching. The original ones had a 7-point star, one for each of the deadly sins. You were supposed to hit it 7 times at Christmas. Fruit used to be inside as a reward for eradicating the sins. At some stage, it was commercialized for birthdays and other fun events with candy coming out, but no one really knows when that transition happened. We also learned that chocolate didn’t always have a positive connotation when it came to Mexico. Sacrifice was involved. Anyway, the more you know....

We headed to Casa Jacaranda to start cooking. It’s a really beautiful space that is very contemporary but also very comfortable. Linda and Colin, the 2 other guests on the tour, were a lot of fun and it was great having them join in because we had no idea how much food was going to be made today. Spoiler alert: MUCHO (my Spanish skills are over the top, as you can read).

The group ended up making tamales (a single one is called a tamal - no ‘e’ at the end), green mole with shredded chicken, salsa verde, tomato salsa, tortillas from scratch, and some other things. Beto and Mario had us vote as a group if we wanted to do savory or sweet tamales, and Marc took a leadership role and immediately piped in with ‘SWEET!’ They were excited as most people choose savory. They weren’t super sweet by Marc Beck standards but it was fun to make those.

As we were eating mid-afternoon (with an 8pm dinner reservation - hmmmm.....), we also sampled some more Mexican wine, which has really turned out to be a great exercise. The wines have been unique and we have learned a bunch. It’ll be interesting to see what we can procure back home. Last night, one wine from Pujol was a star performer. The food that we all made was very tasty and the 2 other folks got to take out some leftovers since one of them was local. Great - nothing went to waste. After the meal, Beto and Mario led a mezcal tasting for whomever wanted to try. I think Marc and Jason tried about 5 or 6 of them. I’ll let Marc talk about the different styles, if he chooses. The cooking class was a great time and a nice way to learn about the food of Mexico.

We got back to the hotel after 5:30pm, which was a tad later than expected, with a quick turnaround time for another big time dinner at Quintonil. I crafted a plan so we could slow our roll at dinner and not eat straight away, plus we all agreed that we already were so stuffed to not have the tasting menu. The food at Quintonil was pretty outstanding. The wine service could have been a bit better, but overall we had some standout dishes with innovative presentation. I have never seen a salad presented as a profile within lettuce. Marc ate more seafood (amberjack in case you are wondering), which is a win for everyone. Escalmoles (aka ant larvae) are a regular thing on menus in Mexico. And the panna cotta was not what we were expecting, but enjoyable all the same.

So there you go. An action-packed and fun-filled day. Special thanks to Lisa for watching the other Women’s World Cup semi that was boring as heck and keeping me up to date via text.

Day 3: Mexico City

Got up to work out. Hot and humid in the gym but we did the work - 18 minutes of burpees, DB snatches, and sit ups.

Got some breakfast food and showered then met Jason and Rebecca to head over to the historical center to walk around.

We started in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.  We then zigzagged all over the historical area including the Postal Palace until back in the huge square known as Zócolo with the cathedrals and Palacio Nacional. It was cleared of all the concert setup we saw on Sunday and was magnificent without the clutter.

We entered Catedral Metropolitana which was beautiful. We then wandered even more streets getting into the very busy section of small businesses in every spot plus spilling onto the streets.

We started wandering back toward our lunch location and Jason spotted churros. That reminded him that we had seen an Eater Mexico City entry on churros so we mapped it at .8 miles away and went to El Moro. A great churros y chocolate appetizer before walking to lunch at La Opera with a TV tuned to WWC semi final game between USA and England.

We got some food and sat for 3+ hours resting from the morning walk and watching the game. It seemed better played by USA than last game but still intense, stressful to watch and full of fouls. But they won and play the final on Sunday.

We rested for about 90 minutes at the hotel before heading to Pujol. This was our highly anticipated dinner excursion. 3 out of 4 of us had the vegetarian maiz (corn) tasting menu and the other had the mar (sea) tasting menu. Everything was delicious and we are going back on Thursday for lunch taco tasting menu. It should be amazing too.

Day 2: Mexico City —> El Nevado de Toluca —> Mexico City.

Since we had the extra 36 hours before our friends arrived, I thought it would be fun to go for a hike to mix up the itinerary a bit. I checked out some websites on fun day hikes and settled on one that is ~2 hours outside of Mexico City that reminded me a bit of when we went to Crater Lake.

Marc was not really excited when I told him that our guide for our hike was picking us up at 6am this morning. But we managed to get up on time and Marc got his pastries for the ride out to our hike. Crisis averted. He also promised to return when we got back to try the chocolate cake.

Our guide, Carlos, was on time and ready to go. It was still dark for most of the ride out but as we got closer, we were able to see lots of fog over in the direction we were slated to hike at. Admittedly, I was also a tad nervous about the hike. The duration was fine, but I experienced some altitude sickness on a hike at a similar altitude during Operation Cincuenta. I wanted to be careful (see that, DAD!) and smart. Carlos gave us a couple of options, so we took the easier one that was ~3 hours of hiking and about 5 miles.

Off we went and we started at 13,500 feet to climb to a max of 14,500 feet. Doesn’t

seem like a ton of elevation gain, but at this altitude, you feel it quickly. We took our time and got to the top where we could see both lakes, although one of them was covered in fog at that particular moment. Then the fog quickly dissipated as we walked down to the lakes.

First up was Lago del Luna, the smaller of the lakes. As we approached, it started to get sunnier and sunnier so it was time to shed some layers. The lake started to show different colors, which was really pretty. We continued on to Lago del Sol, which allowed us to get a close-up of the summit of Nevado del Toluca. The fog was moving around rapidly, so we were trying to be efficient in getting photos. What was great was that we had the whole circuit to ourselves. No one else out there. Carlos said that on the weekends that this trail is packed.

We made our way to the other side of the lake and decided to eat a little before the climb out of the craters. Marc and I told Carlos about Crater Lake, which is still one of my favorite places that I have visited in my time in the PNW. He definitely wanted to learn more as we were trying to compare both locations. The fog started to roll back in as we made our way back up. It was a workout, for sure, and then I wanted to see if we could hike to a higher lookout point to get a better shot of Lago del Sol, which is obscured at the top of the official trail loop.

Fortunately Marc and Carlos were game, and we hiked up a bit more because we needed more elevation, right? The fog was pretty thick but since it wasn’t windy, we stayed up there for about 5 minutes and guess what, the fog moved out a bit. More photos. After that, we headed back to the car and started the ride back to Mexico City. Along the way we were held up by a traffic accident (no injuries) and then we saw a government car of some kind in a drainage ditch in the middle of a major highway with a bunch of police around. Hmmmm. You can’t make this stuff up. I wish we could have stuck around to find out what happened there!

All in all, Carlos was a fantastic guide and we were lucky to have him. We made it back, Marc got his afternoon pastries and we just chilled for a bit waiting for our friends to arrive.

While waiting for our friends to get settled, Marc got his 1st mezcal tasting in at the hotel bar. Honestly, it smelled absolutely revolting to me but Marc seemed to enjoy it, so that’s good. Him and Jason sampled another mezcal at dinner. I’m sure Marc will have more to say on this topic as the week progresses. Later on, we had a great meal at a local restaurant that included duck buñuelos (SO GOOD), pork tacos, chicken with mole negro, manchamanteles and escamoles (look this one up - we have precedent on this one from Operation Cincuenta). On the dessert front, Marc had a whole page on the menu dedicated to chocolate. All in all a good day.

PS - We will have a later blog post on food. Have no fear.

Day 0 & 1: Seattle —> Mexico City, Mexico

Most of our trips begin with an early flight based on our preference for being first flight of the day when possible. The European ones are closer to dinner time but they serve you a full meal and then everyone “tries” to sleep.

This one involved eating a regular dinner at home and then going to the airport for a 10:30pm flight. This is day 0. We walked over the the gate just before boarding time and they were announcing our names to come up and validate our passports. We had checked in online so nobody at SeaTac had scanned them up to this point. They may have been announcing a call to us for the past 30 minutes.

We stood around as the boarding was delayed by a ton of underage children traveling by themselves that had to be dealt with first. They finally went down to the plane and they took people needing assistance. We were in first class so we went next and the children were all being taken one at a time to their seat so not off to the fastest start. We finally got in and sat down and remarkably the plane detached from the boarding area around 10:30 which was amazing.

I don’t sleep well, if at all, on airplanes. Jill will tell you I can sleep on command just about any other time. She had some ZZZquil pills and I asked for some. It might have helped. The flight in the air was in the 5 hour range and there was some decent turbulence at many points along the way. I’m guessing I snoozed in small few minute doses waking up often as we moved into day 1.

We got off the plane around 6am which was the schedule. We were handed immigration forms walking off and had to fill them out among the masses before getting in line to go through customs/immigration. It would have been nice to get these in the last 30 minutes of the flight and been able to just walk into the line.

The non-Mexican line was insane but we worked our way into the roped area because before that it was just chaos. After a couple minutes barely moving, they randomly opened the ropes about 5 curves ahead and directed the line to start moving over the the Mexican immigration line. We moved up and into the people being sent over and they cut it off about 5 people behind us. This line moved way faster and we probably cut 20-30 minutes off entry time being over there.

Our driver was outside the customs area and quickly got us to the hotel. We unpacked most items and set an alarm for just under 2 hours later. I don’t think it took me long to fall asleep on command outside of an airplane. That was a great chance to try to reset to a time zone 2 hours ahead but not really losing the day and really messing up sleep at the end of day 1 as well.

We had a light breakfast in the hotel and then headed to the park (Bosque de Chapultepec) right next to the hotel to walk around. We were unable to withdraw cash from the ATM inside our hotel and we should have gotten some at the bank right next to it before walking around. We decided to walk up to the castle but there was a pat down / bag check area along with lockers but we didn’t have any local currency to get a locker. We were close enough to the hotel that we went back and got cash and ditched the bag for the morning.

We walked up to the Castillo de Chapultepec and were forced to drink the water in hand as they don’t appear to allow water inside a lot of places that you pay to get into. It was a beautiful place with some amazing art on the walls along with some museum-like collectibles on display and great views of the densely treed park around us an the tall city buildings beyond. You can see straight down Paseo de la Reforma from there which goes by our hotel. On Sundays, they close it to traffic until 2pm and people walk and bike it without the distraction of vehicles. It’s similar to Bogotá.

We walked back down the hill from the castle and grabbed the backpack before heading to lunch. It was a quick 15 minute walk to Contramar, which is a heavy seafood restaurant with hardly anything that didn’t include things from the sea. I used to tell people “I don’t eat my own kind” meaning creatures that love/live to swim (not a fishy fish eater whatsoever). I guess after Operation Cincuenta in Dec and now day 1 here I have to retire that statement. I ate 3 seafood dishes. Ceviche Contramar, a tuna tostada with avocado, and some taco like mahi-mahi. All very fresh and delicious.

We then walked from lunch to the Centro Historico area which has some pretty beautiful buildings and lots of activity during the day. We will be going here again on Tues with Rebecca and Jason so we looked around a little for pre-planning and went to the Museo. This shows the history of this temple that was built and then added 7 layers on top of getting bigger and bigger as it went. We had walked around a lot today in the sun without sunscreen and this museum also made me chug my water. So I was starting to feel the dehydration and sun on my neck. I told Jill I’d just sit inside the indoor portion while she walked around more. We ended up leaving and just getting back to the hotel to hydrate, plan day 2, clean up a bit, and get ready for dinner.

We ate at the hotel but they didn’t have the lamb tacos tonight which was a bummer. They did have something that Jill noticed - duck with mole and other goodness. That’s what I got and it was delicious. While we were looking at the menu, we decided that we tend to try to go with local wines and they had some from Mexico. We aren’t sure this will happen all week, but I confirmed we should do it if something seems interesting. Then Jill texted our friend, Erik Segelbaum, to ask about wines from Mexico and he wrote back quickly with 2 of 3 producers that were on the very limited list! Erik has many talents, with one of them being how to master beverage programs at restaurants as well as how to get a label into a top beverage program.

I ordered a really good margarita so Jill got a glass of the only Mexican wine by the glass. It was a cab from the oldest producer in the Western Hemisphere (thanks Erik) and then we just ordered a bottle for dinner. Believe it or not, it was good AND it was the cheapest red wine on the menu. I encourage readers to find out where in Mexico wine grapes are grown.

As we walked out of the restaurant past the fountain back into the hotel, I was staring at the pastry/coffee area. I had spoken with the guy working there earlier about opening time. 6am. Perfect! So after dinner he waves as he sees me and I loudly “woo-hoo” this occasion which raises a smile.

And with that we are closing the first very full day in Mexico for the both of us.