This text was produced by Nationwide Geographic Traveller (UK).
Mexico’s sprawling capital is a gateway to the nation’s Maya ruins, miles of seashores, rocky canyons and conventional Indigenous villages. However many travellers discover the metropolis has an attract all of its personal, and a handful of days may be nicely spent touring its neighbourhoods and historic centre. Mexico’s finest museums are right here, and its many galleries and markets assist facilitate one of many strongest artistic scenes in Latin America. Dig a bit of deeper to seek out town’s pre-Hispanic roots, and uncover what number of customs are linked to the traditional Aztec and Maya civilisations.
1. Kayak the traditional canals of Xochimilco
Earlier than the Spanish conquest in 1521, Mexico Metropolis, then referred to as Tenochtitlán, was constructed on two small islands inside Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs constructed canals and floating farms referred to as chinampas to feed its rising inhabitants. Right this moment, all that is still of those historical waterways are in Tláhuac and Xochimilco, a neighbourhood 15 miles south of Mexico Metropolis’s Centro Histórico. Flat-bottomed get together boats referred to as trajineras cruise Xochimilco’s canals day by day, however a guided kayaking journey supplies a extra tranquil — and environmentally pleasant — go to. Excursions provide the possibility to identify Xochimilco’s wildlife, together with the critically endangered axolotl salamander and greater than 200 chicken species, whereas studying concerning the historical past and science behind chinampas, which nonetheless present meals for Mexico Metropolis residents.
2. Browse the Museo de Arte Fashionable
Within the historic centre of Mexico Metropolis is the Museo de Arte Fashionable, a fantastically designed handicraft museum housed inside a Nineteen Twenties artwork deco constructing. The museum, which as soon as served as Mexico Metropolis’s hearth division headquarters, celebrates conventional Mexican craft in all its kinds, from textiles and pottery to kids’s toys, furnishings and large alebrijes — legendary creatures constructed from wooden or papier-mache. Excessive-quality crafts from nearly each Mexican state are displayed thematically over a number of flooring, together with ceramics from Jalisco, piñatas from Puebla and ceremonial masks from Chiapas. Notably hanging are the small however spectacular Day of the Useless craft assortment and the árbol de la vida (tree of life) items – vibrant, intricate clay sculptures depicting the creation of life.
3. Sip on pulque, the drink of the Aztec gods
Pulque is a drink constructed from the fermented sap of agave, the identical plant used to make tequila and mezcal. It has been drunk for greater than 2,000 years, making it Mexico’s oldest alcoholic beverage. Through the Aztec empire, pulque was thought-about a sacred drink, reserved for gods, emperors and ceremonial occasions. The introduction of beer and distilled spirits by the Spanish within the sixteenth century marked the start of the tip for pulque, with lots of Mexico Metropolis’s pulquerias — taverns specialising within the drink — closing between the early twentieth and twenty first centuries. However a current resurgence has seen a number of reopen throughout town, making it top-of-the-line locations in Mexico to attempt the tipple. La Canica — a pulqueria within the Tabacalera neighbourhood run by a household that has been within the pulque enterprise for 5 generations — takes a contemporary method to the traditional drink, infusing freshly made pulque with dozens of seasonal flavours, from guava and mandarin to marzipan and toasted oats.
4. Attempt Mexico Metropolis’s historical caviar
Ahuautle — which loosely interprets to ‘seeds of pleasure’ within the historical Nahuatl language and are also referred to as ‘water fly eggs’ — had been sacred to the Aztecs. Through the wet season, a sort of water fly referred to as axayácatl would lay its eggs in Lake Texcoco. These had been harvested for Aztec emperors and used as choices to the gods. Montezuma, one of many final emperors of the Aztec empire, is claimed to have eaten them each morning to enhance his energy. Onerous to pay money for and as much as 4 occasions costlier a kilogram than beef, the eggs have been dubbed ahuautle, the ‘caviar’ of Mexico, by the capital’s cooks. Solely a handful of eating places within the capital nonetheless serve ahuautle, one in every of which is Ayluardo’s — within the Iztapalapa neighbourhood, within the east of Mexico Metropolis. It serves the water fly eggs — which style intensely fishy, much like dried shrimp — in pancakes with tomatillo (a shiny inexperienced, acidic fruit native to Mexico) and serrano chilli sauce.
Only a few minutes’ stroll from Museo de Arte Fashionable is that this hub for artisans, Mexico Metropolis’s largest and finest arts and crafts market. It’s house to 350 stands promoting an enormous number of crafts, or artesanias in Spanish, from throughout Mexico, together with handblown glass from Jalisco, silver jewelry from Guerrero and patterned chaquira beadwork from Jalisco, crafted by the indigenous Huichol individuals. For lovely ceremonial Mayan masks product of wooden and obsidian, head to face 104, the place you’ll typically see the craftspeople at work. Additionally search out the artisans promoting amate — vibrant works painted on to paper constructed from the pulp of fig and mulberry timber; the identical kind of paper was as soon as utilized by the traditional Aztecs and Mayas to provide manuscripts.
6. Expertise Mexican folks dance at El Ballet Folklórico de México
Based in 1952 by choreographer and dancer Amalia Hernández, Ballet Folklórico celebrates Mexico’s various folklore traditions by dance, music and conventional costume. The performances take audiences from Mexico’s historical previous as much as the revolution in 1910, travelling by the states of Oaxaca, Jalisco, Sonora, Zacatecas, Guerrero and extra. Most of the dances take inspiration from Mexico’s Indigenous cultures, such because the Deer Dance (a recent piece that depicts a pre-hunting ritual practised by the Indigenous individuals of Sonora and Sinaloa) and the Guelaguetza, a folkloric ballet impressed by the ceremonial dances of the Mixtec and Zapotec individuals of Oaxaca. Performances are held on the Palacio de Bellas Artes — a white-marbled, artwork nouveau palace commissioned by President Porfirio Díaz in 1905 — on Wednesdays at 8.30pm and Sundays at 9.30am and eight.30pm.
Journey Latin America gives versatile, tailored holidays to Mexico Metropolis and different locations throughout Mexico. Its 12-day Highlights of Mexico Metropolis and the Yucatán journey begins from £2,230 per particular person, based mostly on two individuals sharing and excluding flights.
To subscribe to Nationwide Geographic Traveller (UK) journal click on right here. (Obtainable in choose nations solely).