CDMX Día 3: Teotihuacán, Pozole de Montezuma, Handshake

Teotihuacan was not on my husband’s original itinerary, (probably because it’s not a culinary destination!) but I requested it. I felt like I couldn’t be so close to so much history and not stop by to check it out.

And it was close, relatively. But getting there required a long metro ride to the northern edge of the city and then an hour bus ride to Teotihuacán itself.

My husband had heard that it was best to visit Teotihuacán early, before the heat and the crowds get too intense. So we dragged our buts out of bed at 7:15am on Wednesday morning so we could leave the apartment by 8am to head to the metro. I don’t think we got out as early as we’d hoped to, but we did alright and we were on a bus heading to the pyramids by 9am.

The bus ride out of the city wasn’t so bad – we both got seats and the bus didn’t hit any traffic. We gazing at this giant, ancient monument before 10:30am.

The area is massive, with two really big pyramids (The Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon), with several smaller pyramids along the wide thoroughfare that made up the center of the ancient city. We walked back and forth and then into some of the structures we could enter.

The areas you could enter were really interesting. They showed different living areas, built closely together. Many of them still had carvings and paintings that had been untouched for hundreds of years.

While we were there, my husband said he thinks seeing things that make people today understand how much has come before, and will come after them, is important. That he likes feeling small when face with the sheer immensity of the past. Amen to that.

Eventually we made it over to the museum. Once again we weren’t sure what to expect, but were blown away by the artifacts and explanations.

This room showed a to-scale model of the city with the pyramids,

On the way out of the museum there was a beautiful garden, which we were beginning to expect, frankly.

The bus trip back to the city was quite a bit longer than the trip out. There was a lot of traffic, and we were very thankful to have gotten seats again, this time together.

Once we were back in the city, we went to the pozole spot that was out when we went on Saturday. We got there just after it opened and there was still plenty of pozole. Which was awesome because this was some amazing pozole. We ordered the “large” size which was quite massive. #noregrets

This spot was so interesting because from the street it’s just a door with a paper sign declaring the hours. It seems to be at the bottom of an apartment building. There was nothing around, especially not on the exact block.

Inside, after a little hallway, it looked a little more like a restaurant front.

I am so glad my husband did so much research before we went, otherwise we probably would have missed out on this gem.

After some of the best pozole I’ve ever eaten, we went back to the AirBnB to rest and regroup, and to change out of our tourist clothes into our going out clothes. Because Wednesday night we were visiting another one of the Mexico City’s best bars.

It was really nice to have a moment at home in the middle of the day on Wednesday, especially with the early morning wake up. Most days we left the apartment around 11am and didn’t return for 12 hours. We were only back for about an hour on Wednesday, but I enjoyed that hour quite a bit, especially since it meant I got to hit up the bar that evening in my going out shoes and even some make up!

{I brought my new vegan leather jacket to Mexico City and that was absolutely the right move. I fit right in, and loved wearing it both at tourist attractions and out at night. Leather and vegan leather jackets (and skirts! and pants!) were everywhere in Mexico City and it was fun to wear my own vegan leather jacket so much there.}

Handshake is another bar listed in the top ten bars of the world that resides in Mexico City. You need a reservation to get in for sure (we watched so many people get turned away when they opened at 6pm), and once inside you only get 90 minutes to enjoy your drinks. But they move fast and we both were able to order three drinks, each of which was amazing.

After our time at Handshake, we couldn’t decide on which of two spots to have dinner, so we ate at both of them! It helped that they were on the same block. The first was an Asian fusion taco spot that was just incredible. We ordered each of the tacos on the menu and shared them all. They were so, so good.

The second place was also really good. This is where we got the salsa macha, that we tragically had to leave at TSA on our way home. I still think about that salsa macha. Seriously, it was a real loss. 😉

After our (two!) dinners we headed home. It was another long, amazing day and we were now over half way done with our trip. We passed out pretty quickly because Wednesday was a long, long day. It felt fitting for it be the top of the pyramid of days of our stay.