We started our day at one of our favorite places: the great Anthropology Museum with its astonishing collection of mesoamerican artifacts.
The organization of the museum was much clearer to us this time: it is highly political, with the Mexica (Aztecs) as the telos of all development in Latin America. The display of Mexica art and culture is thus disproportionately large compared to the actual years of their dominance. There is no way to see the entire collection in a morning, or even a day, so we concentrated on the sections devoted to the Zapotec civilization, which we would be visiting in Oaxaca.
Heads full of mesoamerican images, we jumped in a cab for a trip to a working class part of town, Claveria, where the remarkable restaurant Nico’s is to be found. The large room isn’t particularly prepossessing, but everything else contributes to a memorable experience.
The tone of the restaurant manages a perfect balance between formality and friendliness, and the food, absolutely traditional Mexican, is fabulous. We started, like just about every table, with guacamole prepared at a cart tableside. The picture shows me with my libations: a terrific Mezcal and a wonderful Mexican craft beer, which was a revelation to me. The first course is a selection of goodies that are cooking on the large comal as you come in, corn and wheat tortillas cradling all manner of good things. I then had chicken with a great mole, Sue a traditional dish that she can’t remember. We finished with a café de olla, for which Nicos if famous. It was a terrific meal, well worth the journey!
Insofar as we could still waddle we spent the afternoon reacquainting ourselves with the Centro Historico. We started on the Zocalo and realized that we had never toured the cathedral.
We then popped into the hotel where we had stayed on our first visit, the Gran Ciudad de Mexico, to see the Tiffany ceiling again.
We then wandered through the streets to the Palacio de Belles Artes, where we had another look at the murals by Rivera, Orosco, and Sequerios.
This is Diego Rivera’s “Man at the Crossroads.” It has a fascinating history: commissioned for Rockefeller Center, the prominent position accorded Vladimir Lenin led to the project’s rejection. Rivera recreated it here in Mexico City…and New York is the poorer for it.
Before hitting the hay, we had a light bite near the inn…all we could manage after our lunch!