The Week in Yum - Christmas and New Years in Mexico City

the open air restaurant, Azul Historico is one of the prettiest places to spend an evening

New Year, new Week in Yum:

Our first getaway of 2019 was a four day trip to Mexico City. Although I had been a few times a decade or three ago, it was Shack's first time. It took a couple of years to get him there but after that first, short trip, he loved it so much that when an opportunity to take another four day adventure came up a few weeks later, guess who chose Mexico City?

the view of this sprawling mega city from the Hilton Reforma

read my recommendations on what to do and see here here and here

So, it seemed fitting that we started off 2019 in Mexico City so we might as well end it there too. We flew out of Toronto on Christmas morning, coming home on New Year's Day. Flying on Christmas Day is generally a pretty low key time as most people prefer to travel before or after Dec 25.

After reading a ton of travel blogs, I came to the conclusion that Christmas Day would find the city pretty much shut down and not to expect much so I  made a reservation at El Balcon de Zocalo, somewhere that we have enjoyed cocktails at sunset because it has an amazing view and because it's a hotel restaurant, it was opened and taking reservations.

Imagine our shock and delight to see that the outdoor market that sits right across from our hotel on Reforma and on the edge of Alameda Park, was open and packed with families eating and shopping. Okay then. We hopped over there and sat down at the first taco stand we came upon and enjoyed some tasty carnitas. We took The Kid (this was his first time in the city) for a stroll and it felt like at least half of the shops and restaurants around the hotel were opened - the opposite of closed down.

When we back to the historic district for dinner, the zocalo was lit up and packed with Chilangos ice skating, eating, wearing light up flower crowns and throwing around giant balloons shaped like pencils. If we do this again, we will NOT eat at an overpriced hotel restaurant but join in the fun, eat street tacos and spend the evening in the square.

We spent two nights at the Hilton Reforma before moving to an airbnb in the Condessa neighbourhood for the next five nights so that The Kid could get a taste of both a more touristy area as well as a beautiful, residential neighbourhood. We splurged on a brand new apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gorgeous communal, rooftop patio right across the street from the doggiest dog park I have ever seen.

This is the nicest airbnb I have ever stayed in and although it is on the expensive side for a family of three, if you are two couples splitting the cost, it's cheaper than a nice hotel but it's so much nicer to have an apartment.

We had a ton of great restaurants, coffee shops and a fabulous little place for mind blowing roast pork sandwiches on our block and an  outpost of the churro mecca, El Moro just a half a block away. Sadly, the El Moro had long lineups from opening to closing so we only went there twice which, in reality, is probably a good thing because if it were easy to get churros, we would have had them three times a day.

Directly in front of Parque Mexico, dog capital of the world lol

We spent the rest of the week doing what we do - we walked and walked,  we shopped, we ate, we day drank and, for a change of pace, we booked two airbnb experiences - one to see the Lucha Libre and the other was a gift for Shack. He spent a couple of hours with a street artist and got to paint a wall with him . They were my first airbnb experiences and both were fabulous and we would do them both again in a heartbeat.

Unlike Xmas, I thought NYE might be a bit more lively so we did not make plans. We all napped and then, around 8:30 we ventured out to explore and found that our neighbourhood was deserted. No people on the street, no celebrating, no music, no fireworks. It felt like we were going out at 4am, especially in such a buzzing neighbourhood.

As we walked towards the action, we swung by Roma Norte, expecting more people out and about.
NOPE

thank god for this guy, the long guy who was slinging delicious tacos on NYE

The streets were dead, although we could see lively looking parties going on inside the apartments on the way, and by now, everyone was getting hungry. We stopped at the only taco stand that was opened and The Kid decided it was a good choice because there were two cops eating there. He ordered five amazing, greasy, delicious carnitas for 25 pesos and we continued on our way.

Every Tuesday the mercado comes to Condessa

As soon as we got to the car free area around the Angel, it went from zero to 1000000. On one side of the street, blackness. On the other, flashing lights, shoulder to shoulder crowds, people popping corn with blow torches, selling light up NYE head gear, delicious corn smeared with cheese, families with babies, dogs and grandma's packed in like sardines. Once you get to the centre, there are thousands of people dancing to the live music coming from the giant stage erected for the night. We hung out for a while until we all decided it was just a bit too much so we fought our way out and retraced our steps, hoping to get an Uber and make it home before midnight so we could take our bottle of cava up to the roof for midnight.

Now I know - Xmas is a big deal and you can hang out in the historic district and celebrate with everyone, no need for tons of planning BUT NYE is very much either a case of getting yourself invited to a house party, buying tickets for a club party OR throwing on a depends and braving the crowds around the Angel of Independence.

Over the next little while, I will be sharing some of the highlights of our trip, new discoveries and recommendations and lots and lots of photos.