The past two and a half weeks in Mexico City have been incredible. Although this city may not be the first place you think of when you envision a trip to Mexico there is so much you don’t want to miss here, which is why I decided to spend several weeks in this city. Let me take you through my day in Mexico City.

It’s a Friday, so I wake up at 7:00 a.m. for spanish class. Spanish classes are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I make breakfast of eggs and beans with coffee and toast at the Airbnb. I am staying in a private room that is similar to a hostel (often dorm-style rooms for travelers on a budget) in that many of the common areas such as a living room, kitchen, laundry facilities, and a terrace are all shared among guests. After breakfast, I begin my walk to the metro stop to head to class.

The public transportation in Mexico City is great. Sometimes it seems that it’s almost too great, because despite how frequently the metro or the bus comes or how many lines there are it is usually pretty busy.

Today for class we will meet in a cafe in the historic city center. We are a group of six plus our teacher. The first three hours of class are in a cafe where we go over gramar and vocabulary. Today we are focusing a lot on the subjunctive tense which, for anyone who has tried to learn spanish before knows, is daunting. We spend the last hour conversing. Usually this last hour is spent in a park, but today we are going to a museum to converse about what we can see and learn there.

This museum is not far from our first location in the historic center. It is one museum among many. In fact, Mexico City has more museums than any other city in the world. This museum is the Templo Mayor Museum. It is built around the ancient ruins of the Aztec (a.k.a. Mexica {meh-shee-ka}) temples. I was so inspired by this museum that when class ended at 1 p.m. I wanted to go to the Museum of Anthropology to further my understanding of these cultures.

The Museum of Anthropology is one of Mexico City’s largest museums. I knew I would probably need more than one day to see it all. However, I took the Metrobus to Chapultepec Park, where this museum is located, in order to see as much as I could. I had booked a tour to Teotihuacán for the following morning, so I already knew I wanted to focus on the history of that time period (300 B.C. to 1400 A.D.) in order to have a good basis of knowledge for the following day.

Normally, I would eat lunch at this time, but Chapultepec Park is gigantic! It is actually four times the size of Central Park in New York City. The Museum of Anthropology is located inside this park, among other interesting attractions. It features multiple exhibits throughout the history of Mexico and civilization in general. This museum is so large that ideally you would need six hours or two different visits to see it all. For that reason, today I have a snack on the bus and will have an early dinner afterwards so that I can spend as much time in the museum as possible. I spend three hours there and only get through half of the museum. I am hoping to return next week to see the other half.

After the museum I have worked up an appetite, so for dinner I go to a place called Comedor de Milagros. I like this place because it has many different food stalls from different Latin American countries. For example, I was able to try Venezuelan arepas as well as Argentinian empanadas and tres leches cake. At Comedor Milagros they also have live music Thursday through Sunday, but tonight I decide to go to bed early since I have to be up at 6 a.m. for a tour to Teotihuacán. Teotihuacán is an impressive archeological site that dates back to the pre classical period before the Aztec Empire.

It looks like the fiesta will have to wait until Saturday.

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