We arrived at the Mexico City bus terminal at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am. I was a zombie because I hadn’t been able to fall asleep on the overnight bus from Guadalajara, and Wini had barely slept as well. We gathered our belongings, called an Uber, and headed to our hotel.
Reaching Hotel La Rosa around 5 am, we realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t a regular hotel but a ‘Love Hotel,’ where you could pay by the hour for some rooms. Since it was way before our check-in time, we asked (through Google Translate) if we could sit on the lobby couch until it was daylight. The front desk guy was extremely unhelpful and told us we couldn’t sit on the couches because ‘someone was coming to clean the carpet’, but he also didn’t have any rooms to offer us. We looked around the empty lobby, thinking, ‘Okay? We can move if someone comes.’ He kept insisting that we couldn’t stay there, but we were like, Sir, we are simply not going out onto the dark street at 5 am with all our belongings. He continued to argue, but finally, we said screw it and just sat down, and what do you know? Nothing happened.
Not long after, someone checked out, and (after a cleaning) the clerk told us we could stay in that room until the one we booked was ready. It was around 6 am, and we immediately agreed. The room was drenched in a horribly intense rose perfume, but I was so exhausted I passed right out.
At 1 pm, Wini woke me because our room was ready. It was way better than the first – a massive king bed, a separate shower area, a little desk, and, yup, a mirror on the ceiling, just like the first room (Siri: play Hotel California).
The rest of the day was a bit of a wash; we were both so tired and out of it after the overnight travel and weird start to the day. Wini picked up some delicious tacos from down the street, and we spent the day working on our blog and watching a cult documentary (Escaping Twin Flames, simply insane hahah).
The next day we both woke up feeling super groggy. We decided to have another workday because neither of us was feeling energetic enough to explore the city. What is wrong with us?? Wini went out to find food in the afternoon, but there seemed to be nothing for miles, so she came back empty-handed.
Turns out, it was a national holiday (Mexican Revolution Day), so all the shops were closed. Unexpected holidays are an issue we’ve faced several times during our long-term travel, as each country has holidays we are completely unaware of. Thankfully, Mexico City has Uber Eats, so we were able to order ourselves something from a little further away.
That evening, Wini had an Apple Store appointment to fix an issue with her laptop screen. They said it was under warranty; however, it would take 10-15 days to fix. She needed the fix, so we decided to send it in and extend our timeline for Mexico City.
The Apple Store was next to a movie theatre (side note: Mexico City has a shocking amount of movie theatres), and we decided to have a little date night watching the new Hunger Games film and eating movie theatre Hooters hahah (it was actually bomb). We enjoyed the first 3/4 of the movie, but it lost us in the last bit… maybe we have to read the book.
The next day we packed up our love motel room and called an Uber to our Couchsurfing host David’s house. He was super nice and welcoming, and he was also saying goodbye to another couch surfer as we were arriving. That couchsurfer was a total enigma. A polyamorous free-spirited man from Finland, who was heading off to a tantric yoga festival with a pocketful of various drugs, but who was also a doctor with two teenage kids. We couldn’t keep up!
David had to leave for work, and we found out one big hitch in our accommodation… his building was fingerprint-only entry, which meant if we left while he was gone, we had to be out till past 11 pm when he would get back from work.
Not wanting to spend the day inside, we made a plan and went out to explore. We walked to a restaurant called Mexican Tacos for lunch. Wini was apprehensive because the Al Pastor was recommended to us, but when she looked at the meat on the skewer she was like… “um no, that looks raw, I think that my stomach would not respond well to that” hahaha. But we realized that they cook the meat AFTER they slice it from the skewer, unlike the gyros of Europe we were used to.
When she was thoroughly convinced they weren’t trying to give her raw pork tacos, we sat down and had an insanely delicious meal! As we reflected on how sluggish and insatiably thirsty we had been the past few days, it suddenly dawned on us: THE ELEVATION! Mexico City sits at 7,349 feet (2,240 meters) above sea level, and our bodies were reacting to the decreased oxygen and the dryness of the city. We weren’t just lazy slugs!
After lunch, we walked around, getting a feel for the city, but were both feeling slow and tired (blame it on the elevation, babes). We found a coffee shop to post up at for a little while to kill some time. Since David wouldn’t be getting in until late, we decided to go to have another movie date night.
This time, we chose “The Marvels” but realized (after showing up to buy tickets) that it was only playing in Spanish. Lucky for us, there are a billion movie theatres in Mexico City, so we were able to find another cinema across the street that had it in English. It was an utterly terrible movie but a nice way to let the evening pass given the situation. We got back to David’s just before he did, and immediately crashed after our long day out.
Wini woke up feeling like a truck hit her and was a little nauseous for some reason (elevation?). We joined our Couchsurfing host David and his roommate Pedro for a late breakfast/brunch at La Casa de Toro. They were so friendly and easy to talk to, and the food was predictably delicious! Pedro also taught us to “Never trust a Mexican who says it’s not spicy.” He was right hahah.
We got home, and Wini was feeling like utter garbage. She took some medicine and spent the rest of the day resting — we have not been at our best in Mexico City.
The next morning, we got the news that Wini’s laptop was ready for pickup — turns out it was ready in 1-2 days instead of the promised 10-15. Hurray! We made our way back to the Apple store (where we saw an absolute horse of a dog heheh).
David had the day off work, so when we got home, we made plans to wander around a nearby district together.
He led us to the metro station where we hopped on and arrived in the Cuauhtémoc District downtown near the Monumento a la Revolución, a memorial arch to commemorate the Mexican Revolution.
Close by, we visited Biblioteca Vasconcelos, an industrial-looking library with suspended shelves. It was something else!
David took us to Alameda Park to appreciate the Morisco Kiosk (Moorish Kiosk) which reminded us of the architecture we’d seen in both Turkey and southern Spain.
On the way home, we stopped at a little street taco spot for minced beef tacos.
We ate dinner at home with David, while all taking turns choosing which 2000s pop music video would play next #gayculture.
The next day, Wini booked us a new place to stay in Mexico City for the next stretch – we were feeling a bit captive by David and Pedro’s schedules. Today, David would be out till late for work and then a birthday party. We debated booking a new hostel for some freedom but they told us Pedro would be home till evening, giving us a chance to go out and return before he left.
We headed to Mexican Tacos again, and coincidentally, ran into David on the street! He was heading to work, and we were stopping for lunch.
Post-tacos, we strolled to the Anthropological Museum park. The lake was teeming with fish, and there were lots of cute animals to watch. The squirrels are incredibly brave around people!
Since we had to be back before Pedro left for the night, we made our way home. On the way, we ordered tacos from our favourite stall, and Wini texted Pedro to let him know we’d be home in 20-30 minutes. We grabbed the tacos, walked home, and texted Pedro to let us in. He came down to get us but told us we nearly missed him! Wini texted just as he was walking out the door to leave for the night, and he’d completely forgotten about us! It was such a near miss, I was sooooo thankful to not go through. Big shoutout to Wini for being a meticulous & proactive ass bitch!!!!!!
Relieved to be home, we had the place to ourselves for the evening. We had a relaxing night, savouring every second because we kept picturing how we were almost homeless on the streets!
The next day we moved to a new apartment and spent the day getting caught up on our blog (a never-ending task) and did some planning for the next few weeks that we’ll be spending on the Yucatan Peninsula.
On our final morning in Mexico City, Wini woke up feeling sick yet again (I swear this city hates us). We packed our bags and headed to the airport.
I think we had a ‘meh’ experience in Mexico City for several reasons. We came into the city with really high expectations because everyone we mentioned it to only had amazing things to say, but we started on a bad foot by getting sick, and not being prepared for the elevation or the public holiday. Coming from Guadalajara (which we LOVED) probably made us slightly less impressed with the vibes of Mexico City. We felt somewhat restrained by our accommodation situations, and I also think we were just ready to get back into nature, where we generally feel happiest (I’m sure if we were more museum-girlies this would have been an amazing fit).
We boarded our flight to Cancun and, after touching down found a bus to take us to our next destination: Playa del Carmen!