My "Happy Place" in Mexico City

On our second day there, the kids and I decided to take it easy and go to the Santa Fe Mall. They went to Kidzania, or Ciudad de Los Ninos. The driver stayed with them so I could go get my nails done at the Palacio de Hierro. They have a spa there. The spa wan't very nice, I was expecting a nicer place judging by all the nice boutiques they have inside the store, but the manicure did a good job. Palacio de Hierro tries to be the mexican version of Saks 5th Avenue. There is a Saks at the Santa Fe Mall, and that was my "happy place" during my Mexico stay. Just being somewhere familiar with my cup of starbucks latte made my day better. 


The kids had a great time at Kidzania. And having the driver there to translate for them was a good idea. On that day the place wasn't very crowded so they had enough time to do all the activities they wanted. Here are some pictures of Kidzania:

After the mall we went to the supermarket, Superama, to buy some food and water. if you, like me, loves salad, you're in trouble. The vegetables in Mexico City are not the best. During our whole stay I did not have a decent salad. The lettuce was always a little bit brown. So we bought bread, peanut butter, jelly, bagels, cream cheese, yogurt, things that we couldn't go wrong with.


We still did go out to eat. We went to Izote, a modern mexican restaurant in Polanco that was excellent! I had chicken with an almond mole that was delicious, the kids had the chicken without the mole and my husband had ceviche as an appetizer and another fish as his main course and he also enjoyed his meal. The deserts were very good too. It was really nice to end the day in such a high note.

The Basilica and the Pyramid

On our first day of vacation, we decided to go to the Pyramids. I always wanted to go there, but did not have time on the other trips. I also mentioned to the driver that I would like to go to the Virgin de Guadalupe Church and he suggested we went to see both on the same day since the "Basilica" is on the way to the pyramids. And so we did, the kids, the driver and I. it took about 40 minutes to get there.


The neighborhood where the churches are is a little rough. I say the churches because there are several churches at the same site. All of them have been home to the image of the Virgin. Well, we couldn't park at the churches parking lot because many streets were closed. We parked a few blocks away and had to walk thru a street market to get there. I did not feel very safe walking around with the kids and I won't bring them back if I have to return there. We visited 4 churches but decided not to climb the mountain. We had to save some energy for the pyramids. I thought we would see a statue of the virgin but all we saw was a painting. 


After visiting the churches we headed to the Pyramids. It took us about an hour to get there and the drive wasn't so bad. We decided not to hire a guide, I had studied some history before the trip to explain things to the kids and we wanted the freedom to go wherever and whenever we wanted to- the guides were charging 500 pesos to foreigners and 200 pesos to locals but you can negotiate the local price but they only spoke spanish.


The pyramids were impressive. We were told by a local that we had to climb them in a zig zag pattern not to upset the Gods. And so we did not to take any chances. We got to the top tired. The kids had to take a couple of breaks, but we were glad we climbed. Going down was much easier. We also visited the museum. Then it was time to have lunch and go back to Mexico City and try to avoid traffic.

Here are some more pictures:

I just got back From Mexico City

My husband had to work during Christmas week, so we decided to spend Christmas and New year in Mexico City. I'll be posting more pictures soon and I'll also let you know how I kept the kids and myself entertained for 2 weeks.