Welcome back! Let’s dive into Saturday’s adventures, shall we?
Breakfast at El Mundo del Café
I started the day by exploring Coyocoán with Eric. Rosy had suggested that we go to the Frida Khalo museum, explore the local markets, and eat breakfast at El Mundo de Café. Unfortunately, they were unable to join us because Rosy had to work, but we had a great time exploring a new area of the city as tourists.
At El Mundo del Café, I ordered the chilaquiles clásicos, which were essentially eggs on a tortilla with red salsa. I’m all about having sweets for breakfast, so I got a slice of citrus cake as well. This ended up being the perfect combination of sweet and savory (which I can never decide between). Overall, I thought the food here was really good! I’m definitely glad to have fueled up before a long day.
Wandering the markets in Coyoacán
After breakfast, we wandered the local markets in Coyoacán. There weren’t too many people out yet, since it was still relatively early in the morning. Rosy said that as the day goes on, the area gets more and more crowded, so I was grateful for the opportunity to leisurely stroll through the vendors without a bunch of other people in the way.
I was most impressed by all of the unique artwork that was crafted and sold by local artists. My favorite was a painting of Frida Khalo made with book & newspaper pages and painted with coffee. I was really close to buying it for my apartment, since I love books and coffee so much. To be honest, I planned to go back but then forgot 🙁 Looks like I have to go back to Mexico City!
In addition to the coffee/book painter, I was also intrigued by an artist who used mixed media to craft unique eyes. It’s hard to explain, and I wish I had a picture, but just imagine: a colorful eye drawn onto a canvas, with colorful yarn sewn into different sections to make it appear droopy. No two were the same. The artist said that the point was to choose the one that spoke to you. She also had another canvas of a tiger, which I really liked. Like the eyes, the tiger was half painted/drawn and half constructed of yarn. I had never seen anything like it before!
Last but not least, there was an artist selling portraits of her black cat. She explained that she had taken photos of her black cat and put them against a black background, resulting in a mysterious, black panther aesthetic.
Just across the street from the artisan market, there was a huge indoor market. Inside, you could find anything from clothing to trinkets to tacos. I’m not gonna lie, it was a bit overstimulating. The aisles were super narrow, it was loud & chaotic, and there were bright colors & strong aromas everywhere. Regardless, I still enjoyed the experience of wandering through the maze! I can’t imagine what it would have been like during a busy afternoon…
Frida Kahlo museum
At 1pm, we made our way to the Frida Kahlo museum. We were super lucky to find tickets online through Viator because the tickets on the website were completely sold out! Apparently, they can sell out up to a month in advance. I really wanted to see the museum because 1. Rosy recommended it, and 2. my high school Spanish teacher loves Frida Kahlo.
The museum is inside of Frida and Diego’s house, La Casa Azul, which is bright blue with an extravagant courtyard.
As I wandered through the house, I learned about Frida’s life and passions. She contracted polio at age 6, which resulted in one of her legs being skinnier than the other. For this reason, she often wore dresses that hid the lower part of her body and accentuated her torso. In addition to art, she was passionate about science and learning. She even had her own microscope!
At age 18, she got into a terrible bus accident and was impaled by a handrail. As a result, she could never have children and had severe complications. She spent a lot of time in her house, where she would paint from her bed. However, she also traveled the world! Fun fact: she briefly lived in Detroit! Oh yeah, I also learned that she and Diego got divorced and then remarried a year later. To be honest, it didn’t seem like there was much information about him in the museum. I’m gonna go ahead and guess that the divorce was his fault 😆
One of my favorite parts of this museum was seeing Frida’s clothes. She had some of the most impressive dresses ever! I especially loved this ivory, lace bodysuit and jacket:
She was even featured in Vogue!
The sad ending to Frida’s story is that she got gangrene in her leg, had it amputated, and died at age 47.
Overall, I am very grateful to have been able to visit La Casa Azul. It was fun to imagine that Frida had spent so much time in the same place where I was walking. The squirrels and lizards in the courtyard may have had ancestors that knew her 🤯
Dinner at Castizo
Before the Rüfüs Du Sol concert, Eric and I went to dinner at a Spanish restaurant called Castizo. We had originally planned to meet up with Rosy and Marco again, but unfortunately, Marco was not feeling well. Despite my love of Mexican food, I enjoyed switching things up a bit. I ordered patatas bravas and some vegetable paella. I guess I was too hungry to take photos, but trust me when I say that the food was both visually appealing and delicious.
It rained well throughout dinner, so I honestly expected the concert to be rainy as well. Lucky for us, it seemed to quit right as we made our way to the metro.
This was the first time that I had taken the metro in Mexico City. Unlike in many European countries, which mostly rely on apps or contactless payment methods for ticketing, this metro system seemed pretty old-school. There was a kiosk where you could purchase a ticket for 15 pesos, and the first 5 pesos ride was included. That’s all we needed! Other than that, the metro was super easy to use. We just hopped on and bypassed any traffic we may have encountered by Ubering to Estadio GNP.
Rüfüs Du Sol at Estadio GNP
Upon stepping out of the metro station, it was perfectly clear which direction to walk in order to reach the stadium. There were vendors lining the entire sidewalk with Rüfüs Du Sol merchandise. It only took a matter of minutes to go through security and get our tickets scanned. I was so relieved because the internet had told me that it can take up to 2 hours to get into concerts at that stadium! It’s a huge place and holds 65,000 people.
We were able to find a spot off to the left of the stage with a clear view of the screen as well as the performers. The first act was Peces Raros, and the second was Maribou State. I hadn’t listened to either of them before, but I really enjoyed them both! The woman singing for Maribou State had the most beautiful outfit. She was wearing black pants with ruffles down the side and top, with a black crop top and black shawl. I wish I knew where she got it from! Let’s be real, though… where would I even wear that?!
During the 15-20 minutes between Maribou State and Rüfüs Du Sol, I enjoyed people-watching. The guy in front of me had a huge, fluffy afro and was getting a lot of attention for it! At one point, the vendors selling beer, ice cream, etc stopped right next to him and said, “can we touch your hair?!”. They couldn’t believe how soft it was!
Something funny that Eric pointed out was that most people at the concert were about 5 ft tall. Despite being 20+ rows back, I could still see the stage perfectly well because almost everybody was shorter than me!
Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for…
Rüfüs Du Sol entered the stage.
The crowd went wild (it’s me, I’m the crowd).
They proceeded to play absolute banger after banger. There wasn’t a single song that I didn’t know the words to!
I absolutely lost it when they played “On My Knees”. There was dramatic, red lighting, and the lead singer was literally down on his knees singing.
Again, I lost it when they played “Next To Me”.
Speaking of ‘next to me’…. standing next to me was a group of guys who looked to be about my age. The one, Oren, made fun of me for not wearing any sunglasses, which made me laugh because that was the one and only time I have not had sunglasses at a concert. I remember looking at the photos of me at the concerts in Mexico City last year and thinking, “WHY didn’t I take those sunglasses off?!”
We chatted briefly, and I learned that he is from Israel (“the one in the news”, he said). He and his friends had finished their mandatory military service and taken a gap year to travel the world. Although I would have loved to learn more about their travels, it was really hard to talk when such great music was playing. Looking back, I was probably as much fun as talking to a wall 😂.
The best part of the night was during the song “Innerbloom”. I thought for sure that it was going to be the finale because it is their most popular song. There were not only lasers but FIREWORKS too!!! I never would have imagined that hearing that song live would be so magical. I have seen videos on social media, but it’s not the same.
Just when I thought the concert was over, they CAME BACK FOR MORE and played “Break My Love”, “No Place”, and “Music is Better”. I took a moment to look around the stadium at the 65,000 people all enjoying music together, and my heart was filled with joy. There was a banner at the back of the stadium which read, “Vivir es increíble” (to live is incredible), and I couldn’t agree more.
Until next time,
Clara