Mexico City (CDMX) is not some place that is RV friendly, to put it lightly. But that didn’t stop us from wanting to devote a fair amount of time to exploring largest city in North America (around 20 million people).
In terms of Class C-friendly RV parks near CDMX, there are just two options for practical purposes, and they aren’t exactly close.
Trailer Park Teotihuacan has the advantage of being located just minutes away by taxi to the Teotihuacan pyramids, while Pepe’s RV Park in Tepotzotlan (where we are now) has the advantage of nicer facilities and a slightly more interesting Pueblo Magico to explore.
We figured, since we’ll eventually be working our way around the CMDX metro area in a clockwise direction and need to take care of a few housekeeping items in the City before the end of the month, we’d do our CDMX explorations from Tepotzotlan.
But not in a day trip. It takes 1-2 hours each way to get in and out of the city, which is just too much with the boys. Plus, we like to base ourselves in places to be able to explore multiple days.
It would have been nice to do it all in one trip. But the timing of Noe’s passport renewal appointment and our temporary resident card expiration would have meant more time in Mexico City than we were willing to spend on lodging.
So, the plan is to do two nights now to submit Noe’s app and stay a bit more central in a hotel, then return a couple weeks later when it’s ready to be picked up to take care of our immigration renewal and do a deeper dive.
After consulting with the folks at Pepe’s, it looked like we had two options to get from Pepe’s to our hotel in Zona Rosada—private door-to-door Uber/taxi or a combination of Uber and public transit.
We didn’t feel like spending 800 pesos ($40) each way to cover the 25 miles, and we were traveling light this time, so we opted to go the [mostly] public transport route.
That involved to taking an Uber to the Suburbano Cuautitlán commuter rail station, taking the train to Buenavista station and switching to the Metro Bus. Then, getting off at Hamburgo street and walking 15 minutes to the hotel.
It’ll be a fun adventure the boys who don’t get to ride big city public transit very often.
Approaching CDMX on the Suburbano. The view seems fitting given that every movie set in Mexico City always has that sepia look to it. Fortunately for us, it’s just the tint of the train windows.
Changing from the Suburbano to the bus. Haven’t seen crowds like this in a while. Certainly not in Mexico.
Our CDMX home for the next two nights in Zona Rosada (Juarez).
Papalote Kids Museum
The boys got a kick out of this old-fashioned newspaper stand. Sadly, you just don’t see many of these anywhere anymore, but they were a big part of our travels not so long ago, and the only way to keep up on what’s going on in the world before Lori and I had smart phones.
First night in CDMX and we thought we’d start it off with a bang for the kids. We’re headed to Papalote Kids Museum, the biggest museum of its kind in Mexico.
Papalote, itself, did not disappoint. In fact, there was literally too much for us to see in the amount of time we allotted. I strongly recommend dedicating half a day to the complex, and don’t try to see exhibits up until closing. We saved the rotating exhibit for last, arrived at 4:30p and were turned away because they close at 5p.
Still, two hours was enough to see most of the big exhibits and draws.
The Lego creator’s station was one of the boys’ highlights, but they cap the number of kids at a time and allow 20 minutes per session.
The museum is extremely popular, so we also recommend NOT doing what we did and go in the afternoon during summer break. If you can, go midweek and early in the day while kids are in school.
The boys also enjoyed the robotics lab and a couple of other labs they offer. The line for the grocery store experience was too long to squeeze in, so they were bummed a bit about that.
With about 20 minutes left at the museum, a big storm rolled in dumping a ton of water. Fortunately, we came prepared. If you visit during the summer, make sure you bring rain gear. The complex is largely outside and the buildings are not connected.
Passport + Chapultepec Park
We started the next morning off with a quick breakfast and Noe’s passport appointment. The U.S. embassy is one of the older ones located smack dab in one of the more congested parts of town. Fortunately, we were walking from the hotel. I pity the fool who has to mess with the roads in these here parts.
We’ve now done this renewing passport business 4 or 5 times overseas at embassies and consulates. We try to do it at an embassy as it’s usually about as quick and painless as it gets (1-2 week turnaround vs. 6-8 weeks in the States and usually pretty well organized and professional).
With our main business out of the way, it’s time for some fun. We thought we’d take one of the bright red double-decker public buses down to Chapultepec Park (Mexico City’s sprawling central park) to see what we can see.
It was the boys’ first double-decker bus experience and we got seats right up front on the upper level. They were in heaven.
Chapultepec park is HUGE. Twice the size of NYC’s Central Park and home to many of Mexico City’s best museums. Best of all, most are free to the public.
Chapultepec Zoo
There’s a free zoo located right in the heart of the park. Zoos can be hit or miss anywhere these days, but we thought we’d give it a shot, because, hey, free zoo!
There were plenty of animals out and about (it was overcast and the temperature was just about perfect—the animals apparently thought so too).
The enclosures seemed clean and tidy, and the animals appeared healthy. Still, it’s not my favorite thing to see animals in cages.
But unlike many other parts of the world, Mexico doesn’t offer a lot of opportunities to see animals in the wild, at least not on land. So this is a big deal for people here, including our kids.
The uncaged squirrels running around the park even got more than their fair share of attention from visitors.
But the big attraction here (like so many zoos across the planet) are the Giant Pandas, thanks to China, of course.
And boy are they popular.
Equally as popular, it seems, is the coin press machine—so much so that they had an attendant devoted solely to pressing the coins to keep the line moving.
Our boys don’t collect a lot from their travels, but pressed coins are one of the rare exceptions. So, yes, we spent a good portion of our zoo line standing in that stupid line, but it was worth it to see the looks on their faces at the end.
Chapultepec “Food Tour”
While at Chapultepec, there were a few food items Lori wanted to tick off our list. She’s been wanting me to try Tostilocos for as long as we’ve been together. Chapultepec doesn’t just have Tostilocos, they have DORIlocos, so we had to try them out.
What are Dorilocos or even Tostilocos, you ask? A heart attack in a half bag!
It’s a medium-sized bag of tortilla chips (in this case Doritos, but usually Tostitos) with the top cut off and every piece of junk food you can think dumped on top (plus slices of cucumber and carrot to “balance” it all out, I guess).
Gummy worms, mystery gummy things, Japanese peanuts, mystery crunchy things, chammy, chili powder, lime juice, salt, and hot sauce. This all forced on me by a woman who won’t even let us get Fruit Loops. Holy moly.
Did I have heartburn for the rest of the day? Heck YES. Would I do it again? Ask me in a couple of months. Was it worth it? We’ll see…
Next up, Cotton Candy, of course. Seriously, Lori?
The boys have actually never had cotton candy before today. The stuff they typically sell on the street in Mexico never really looks that good and—hard to believe—we usually try and keep things pretty healthy. But CDMX has done something Lori, and the cotton candy does look really fresh, so cotton candy it is!
I will take this opportunity to add that the four of us all walked over 11 miles on this particular day (yes, even the boys), so it is my hope that at least some of those calories were burned off in the process.
A big portion of those miles and steps came from exploring this thing:
Chapultepec Castle
On Lori’s shortlist of things to do in our three days in the city was Chapultepec Castle, perched on a hilltop in the middle of Chapultepec Park. It’s quite a long, slow uphill slog to the castle, but it’s worth it.
Chapultapec Castle is the only former royal residence in the Americas, now the National Museum of History.
Looking across the narrowest portion of Chapultepec Park (yep, it’s big) toward the ritzy Polanco neighborhood (the “5th Avenue” of CDMX).
Up in the President’s Residence looking toward Paseo de la Reforma, which linked the National Palace with the Imperial Palace when the Austrian Emperor ruled Mexico in the mid 19th century. Didn’t know Mexico was ruled by the Emperor of Austria? Why do you think so much traditional Mexican music sounds like German beer hall music?
Resting our feet at a taproom in Condesa. The boys walked over 30,000 steps and 11 miles today. Don’t know many five-year-olds who could do that (and without complaining!).
Drukendog ended up being one of our favorite watering holes in the whole city. Dozens of craft beers on tap from around the city and region. Awesome.
The rain held out all day, but we still got caught in a downpour just 10 minutes from the hotel.
Centro Histórico
On our final morning in town (this time around), we thought we’d check out a trendy little coffee shop just up the street from the hotel. Little did any of us know they’d be shooting a movie right outside the window—and the boys got a front row seat.
A big production company just happened to be shooting a motorcycle action sequence right outside the coffee shop.
They quickly paused production so we could get into the coffee shop, then got to watch as take after take, the director yell “Action!” and the dolly-mounted camera chase the actor zooming down the road.
After breakfast, we walked to Alameda Central, the first public park in the Americas right in the center of the city (CDMX has quite a few green spaces).
But we weren’t allowed to enter as hundreds of city police had just conducted a massive sweep of illegal vendors and were guarding the perimeter in full riot gear.
So…we continued on to the post office, which didn’t sound that exciting to me, until we got there.
Postal Palace
Here, it’s called the Postal Palace, which seems more fitting. It was designed by an Italian architect in 1901 and was considered the most modern post office of its day.
Boys’ Business
There’s a ton to explore in this massive city that we’ve left intentionally untouched. After all, we got to leave something to see when we return for a longer stay.
One of those places is Mexico City’s famous Zocalo (plaza principle and historic center). Despite that, we somehow found ourselves in the Centro on account of the boys’ to-do list.
Along the way, we stumbled upon Chinatown! We’ll definitely have to come back for some dim sum.
Months ago when Noe was getting into drawing, I saw this place on the map and thought we’d definitely have to check it out.
Casa del Arte is an old-skool art shop (the oldest in Mexico City) much like the sort I used to peruse in Boston in the late nineties. Noe found a pretty cool little starter sketch set and sketch book, which I’m sure will keep in busy for hours.
And Riley finally fulfilled his dream of going to a REAL Pokeshop to get a pack of Pokemon cards.
There aren’t a whole lot of places in Mexico to get Pokemon cards, but CDMX is an exception. Out of the half dozen shops around town, this looked like the best bet.
We wrapped up a whirlwind three days in CDMX with streetside gorditas around the corner from our hotel before making the 2.5-hour journey by bus, train, and colectivo van back to the RV.
