Frida and friends

Day 5: 6 April: Coyoacan

After the late night, and because we were running out of time, we decided to have breakfast in the hotel lobby at El Cardenal. It's very popular with locals. We loved our breakfast.

After breakfast, we walked a couple of blocks to the Museo de Arte Popular. We didn't tour it but browsed in the shop and decided to come back another day to pick up some souvenirs.

El Chilango, Rene BAutista Lemus

We had a 3pm reservation to tour Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's house in Coyoacan. We decided to do the Jim Johnson's "Frida's neighborhood" Walking Tour. What a charming area! I took lots of pictures of the gorgeous doors.

We peeped in to the courtyard of the Fonoteca National museum and the staff invited us to tour it. The courtyard was so pretty!  The displays in the museum were fascinating.  Those old fonograps were gorgeous.

1904 RCA Victor Gramophone

1927 Radiola radio receptor. The most popular model in the world!

More wandering, more pretty doors.

Door knocker for Casa del Capitan Negrete

Enormous trees-it's an old neighborhood

I love this wood treatment on the walls

We went into the Plaza Santa Caterina. The courtyard was so cute and the reception looking house was beautifully tiled.

I loved how colorful everything was!

We kept walking and ended up in the church of San Juan Bautista, a gilded baroque church, very quiet on the main busy Coyoacan plaza.

We crossed the plaza and entered the Mercado de Antojitos and sat ourselves down at #14 for the recommended--and delicious--deep fried quesadillas.

Next we wandered to the Coyoacan Market.  So many stalls, so many smells, so many people! It was a bit overwhelming for this non-shopper! After awhile, I stood in an out of the way corner while husband went looking at the meat stuff and other interesting merchandise. It was too much for me.  We did end up buying a pretty blue and white spoon rest.

It was nearing our time to enter the Casa Azul. Lining up was confusing but we eventually just got on the back of the line and they called people forward as the appointed hour approached. We paid for the audio guide and started our tour.

It was crowded in some rooms because the house is composed of relatively small rooms one after the other. The audio guide was filled with interesting facts about Frida and Diego's life. The art was outstanding. I really enjoyed this museum.

1949 My family (Unfinished)

1954 Marxism will bring health to the sick

1927-1929 Frida's color palette (I loved this one)

Ex-Voto

1937 Frida, Leon Trotsky, Antonio Villalobos, Col. Escudero, Jean van Heijenoort

Rivera La Quebrada

1915 Rivera The Seated Woman

Attributed to Rivera, Glen of Mixcoac

1932

1935

The kitchen

Diego's desk

Frida's desk

They sat across from each other

View of the courtyard on way to Frida's bedroom

Frida's room

Naguchi gave her these butterflies; they're under the bed canopy

The courtyard is filled with interesting objects against the famous blue background.

The exhibition on Frida's clothing was fascinating. She had to be in a lot of pain everyday. The modern re-interpretations were creative and sadly beautiful.

We spent a good 2-2.5 hours exploring the house, museum, garden, and special exhibit. We felt it was time well spent.

We ubered back to el Centro Historico and decided to have drinks at Tio Pepe before dinner. The regulars were all there. We had delicious margaritas. We got our shoes shined. We really liked this bar.

When we got back to our room we had the most incredible view of a 180 degree rainbow. The only other place we've seen such a sight was New Zealand. Outstanding!

We tore ourselves away from our incredible view and got ready to head to Maximo Bistrot for our 730pm dinner reservation.

We arrived and were seated on the sidewalk, in an plastic enclosed mostly unheated space filled with other gringos. I was way too cold to sit outside so they (pretty reluctantly) sat us at a nice table inside after about 20 minutes. It was not a great beginning but the waiter and the food redeemed the evening.

Food was very good. It was too dark for pictures but husband allowed the chef to choose his courses and I got the beets salad and lobster main.  I didn't like it as much as Quintonil and wouldn't necessarily return on a subsequent trip.

Uber back to the hotel for the night. Our next to last in Mexico City. :(