[2016 Mexico - Mexico City] Mexico city's cherry blossom season

Mexico City, or DF, is a city I've never considered visiting. All thanks to the US for portraying Mexico as this terrifying country where people constantly get kidnapped or killed. It did not help when Mr. Kimchi's brother said: "we're poor, don't expect us to pay ransom." when we spoke of our travel plans. Needless to say, I was less than enthusiastic when he suggested this as our next vacation spot, despite the fact that it was tripadvisor's No. 1 spot to visit for 2016. However, research before the trip warmed me up to the city, and I've always been fascinated by the colorful skulls, so I promised myself I'd bring one home this trip. Still, I had my reservations, so I ended up leaving my big camera at home. Please bear with my iPhone pic quality.





 We took an extra early flight. At first sight, I was intrigued by the purple trees interspersed between the regular looking green trees. Turns out, these purple trees are full of beautiful blossoms and are called Jacarandas. They're kinda like DF's cherry blossoms, and we were here at the perfect time of the year. Pretty as they may look, they are about as treacherous as banana peels, as I can personally attest, so walk carefully around them!

I was impressed with the international airport. They had lots of little shops selling everything a traveler could possibly think of, and most importantly, there were numerous ATMs, so no need to worry about them running out of cash. Unfortunately, Charles Schwab failed me this time. Despite setting a travel notification before my trip, they still flagged my card for fraud, so it took a rather long phone call to get it fixed. Fortunately I'd bought a local SIM card first, so I didn't have to pay crazy Verizon fees.

Once you leave the airport, ignore the numerous people trying to get your attention and give you a ride. These are not legitimate taxis! Go to the taxi booth, buy a ticket and ask where to ride the legit ones. It costed 260 pesos from the airport to Condessa, where we were staying. That's about USD$15.

We're staying at the Red Tree House. It looks like a private home from the outside, but the inside is stunning. Even more amazing are the staff, who made us feel like we're staying with our favorite Mexican uncle. We loved it so much we promptly booked our return trip when we checked out. Because it's so special, it deserves its own post.

After dropping off our luggage and enjoying a freshly made cantaloupe juice, we headed out for a late lunch. Viktor, the ever so helpful front desk host, called ahead to make sure we got a table at the popular seafood restaurant, Contramar. We arrived just before 2pm and the restaurant was empty, but soon filled up within 10 minutes. Guess lunch hour is 2pm here!

Since we were tired and we both have sensitive stomachs, we decided to go easy and just ordered tuna tostadas, fish al pastor tacos and fig tart.

The bread was excellent, and came with a spicy green sauce and sweet pickled onions. I was so in love with the onions I put them on everything, except the fig tart...though I thought about it for a second! Unfortunately I don't know enough about Mexican food to be able to discern the various ingredients. But I do know it was delicious!

The tostadas are fried tacos, with marinated tuna slices, fried onion & creamy avocado slices. Al pastor was brought over by the Lebanese, where meats are grilled with spices on a vertical spit. The Mexican twist, of course, is using pork instead of beef/lamb. This one is even more twisted because they're using fish! Very interesting, though I have to say I liked the tuna's texture better. Finally the almost too pretty to eat fig tart, served cold, with honey flavored custard. The tart crust is a tad too dry and sweet, but the figs were delicious. We almost wanted to get a 2nd slice...

After lunch, we were so in love with the warm weather we didn't want to go back to the hotel so soon, so we took a walk in the park and sat down at an outdoor cafe. We were both so hot by then we tossed all those warnings about ice out the window and ordered two iced coffees. Well it turns out the ice was not the problem, but Mexican lactose are about as bad as US lactose for me...QQ

 Back at the hotel, with no sign of happy hour, we set out again for the markets that I'd put on my google map. Unfortunately it was too late in the day, one of them had already closed. The other, Mercado Roma, was more like Chelsea market in NYC, with mostly cooked food stalls. I was super-impressed by the wall of fresh herbs and lettuce greens though.

And this post for people to tie their dog leashes to. In the few hours we've been in DF, we've seen perhaps 20 species of dog already. These people love their dogs!

 Somehow we wanted dessert before dinner, so we walked all the way to El Moro in the Zona Rosa district. This place specializes in churros, hot chocolate and milkshakes. Fresh out of the fryer churros are incredible. So much so, Mr. Kimchi poo-poos all other churros we encountered, despite the people at Red Tree telling us that El Moro has gone down in quality a lot.

 We were so tired we had to uber it back to the hotel. Gotta give it to the uber drivers in DF: so courteous they'd leave the car when you enter and leave, offer you candies and water and they don't even accept tip! US drivers need to consider this before complaining about no tip again!

Anyhow, by the time we got back to the hotel, it was late and we were ready for dinner. We went to Taquearte, just look at that glorious meat on the spit grill...unfortunately Mr. Kimchi mislead us with his Spanish...instead of 1 order=5 tacos, he thought we can order 5 items at a discount. It was quite a feast and we only got through maybe 1/4 of it. We heard the late night shift at the Red Tree that night had a taco party...maybe that's why they treat us so well? :)