Flight Centre‘s Samantha Paul joins us with a great blog post from Mexico City; but it’s not the Mexico most people visit on vacation. Instead Samantha suggests travels that will take you to the Mexico you don’t know.

I cannot wait to return to Mexico City (DF)! The people are as vibrant as their amazing museums, neighbourhoods, music and food. Yes, there is a lot of traffic, but really no more than any other major city. The temperature is an amazingly even climate. Springtime in Mexico City begins with thousands of jacaranda trees blooming like soft purple clouds above the streets and parks. Floating clusters of trumpet-shaped flowers adorn the city with their exquisite color, a bluish lavender, reminiscent of violet and lilacs. The locals describe it as the colour of love – peaceful and intense. The trees are seen all over town, but here are some suggestions for enjoying the best of the jacarandas along with some of Mexico City’s attractions.

Just off the Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, is a vibrant thoroughfare whose design takes after the broad boulevards of nineteenth-century Paris. It’s a major street with speedy traffic, bubbly green VW Beetles transformed into taxis, and a multitude of busses and cars. The wide sidewalks are rather like a long pedestrian park with tall, graceful trees. At this time in March, the billowy jacaranda trees have sprouted rich purple flowers, and they’re just beginning to float to the ground.

This avenue has undergone revitalization in recent years, and this area and many surrounding neighbourhoods are amply decorated with monuments and sculptures. Just ahead a short way is the famous Angel de Independencia, the symbol of the city. There are plenty of other official monuments to leaders and heroes, dignified and decidedly neoclassical in flavour, strewn with monumental bronze urns positioned out to face the rushing traffic along La Reforma.

Not far from the Zocalo, Mexico City’s vast main plaza, is the Secretario de Educacion where jacaranda filled courtyards are decorated with murals by renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera, painted here between 1923 and 1928. There is too much to see in one visit, so I recommend beginning upstairs on the 3rd floor, where Rivera’s later work exhibits greater control of design and colour. The murals are an allegory of the Mexican Revolution, with scenes of triumphant workers and decadent capitalists. These are my favourite murals in the city, full of movement, opinion, and colours that you want to sink your teeth into.

My favourite neighbourhood is Colonia Condesa. Take a taxi to Avenida Michoacan in Parque Mexico, where you will see a statue of a woman holding two jugs sprouting water. This marks the middle of the park. Ambling through this cool, shady neighbourhood park is a pleasure, especially on weekends when you might encounter a used book sale, art classes for kids, or an impromptu tango session near the duck pond. The park is a large oval whose perimeter is defined by Avenida Mexico. Walking along these streets will give you a good feel for the mix of nature and architecture that characterizes this colonia.

The nearby Condesa DF Hotel (at the corner of Veracruz and Parque Espana) is a great spot for the day or evening. You can sit on the rooftop patio, complete with a hot tub, and enjoy the spectacular view of jacaranda trees lining Avenida Veracruz – which appear to be floating on waves!

Another highlight is the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo who said that she painted her reality and that her paintings carried a message of pain. Her life was full of it, both physical and emotional, and she used it to fuel her art. Visit the Casa Azul in the morning (hang on to your entrance ticket) and then a short cab ride away is the Museo Anahuacalli, where you can enter for free with your ticket from Casa Azul. The museum was designed by Diego Rivera. The dark fortress like building is made of volcanic stone that was built to house many of his bronze statues.

On a final note, one place that travellers tend to overlook is the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, the largest university in Latin America. Most cities grow in stages, physically incorporating the passage of time within their architecture. The core of Ciudad Universitaria was brought about in the 1950′s and houses a notable concentration of modern functionalist architecture, which is one of the main reasons why Unesco declared it a World Heritage Site in mid- 2007. The campus is one of only a few modern sites (along with the Sydney Opera House) that appear on Unesco’s list of 851 extraordinary cultural sites.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Mexico City, Mexico is highlighted on the Flight Centre travel map

Looking for more information on traveling to Mexico City and Mexico? Contact Samantha Paul, a Team Leader with Flight Centre based in Toronto, Ontario at the Beaches shop and can be reached at 1 866 388 4297.

Categories: Off The Beaten Path

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