Mexico : Mexico City, Puebla & Bahidora Festival
- ionaweir
- Mar 31
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 17
Hola Hola. Think it’s been about 2 months that I’ve been away. I’m sure you all miss me greatly. I’m currently solo in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, where I’m about to start a volunteering job at an eco-lodge, but I shall backtrack.
Helena and I flew out from Manchester airport on the 4th February, with a longgg layover in Madrid. My bag was significantly bigger than hers which was a shock to absolutely no one (I have since been forced to dispose of certain “unnecessary” items, leaving a trail of my unwanted belongings down through Mexico). After umming and ahhing if I wanted to keep my asigned window seat or if it would make my flight fears worse, I decided the sunset and sunrise views would be worth it, only to be given the only window seat on the flight with no window. We had a five hour stopover in Madrid which was quite fun and then arrived in Mexico City in the early hours after a very exciting journey full of free bloody marys, Timothee Chalomet and many tears over a certain ginger cat. After arriving at Massiosare hostel (which turned out to be on the fourth floor and no lift - yikes), we went out for a bit and had a wander and went to the Palacio de Bellas Artes where they have Diego Rivera murals, then I found another friend ! Calla arrived from San Salvador which was very exciting and felt rather surreal – I don’t think we’ve ever been anywhere other than Leeds or London together. She’d been travelling Guatemala and El Salvador with some other friends before meeting us in Mexico. I think we then spent the rest of the day sorting sim cards etc walking around a bit more and getting our bearings. Mexico City is huge – we got told by a few people that the population is around 22 million ! They have a metro which is useful but kinda stressful at rush hour. What we didn’t know initially is that there is actually a whole carriage (or more I’m not sure) just for women and children which we used later and was a lot less intimidating.
Our first full day was spent going to quite a few more art galleries which were really cool, although Mexico City has over 200 galleries and museums so we defo weren’t gonna make it to all of them, and explored more of the neighbourhoods and ate our first proper Mexican meal. Tacos obviously. Although controversially I will say Mexican cuisine is not my favourite – probs not the best for vegetarians but can’t go wrong with refried beans I suppose. Each meal is just composed of the same ingredients in a slightly different form. Our hostel had a really nice terrace with a view of the city so we got our free breakfasts there and sat out in the evenings which was delightful. We were walking so much (over 30,000 steps a day) that we were exhausted and didn’t have the energy for much else in the evenings. However we did make it out for a cheap dinner some nights, one in particular involving Calla, the Mexican police, and mild extortion. She was holding an almost empty can of beer in the streets which is technically illegal, and the police saw an opportunity for personal gain eek.
Another faux pas was my own personal one. I had been very keen on going to the Frida Kahlo museum (La Casa Azul) because duh she’s an icon, and had booked tickets ages in advance and checked them multiple times. However it wasn’t until we got to Coyocoán that the ticket officer told me that we had turned up a day late. Oops. Also La Casa Azul gets booked up months in advance so this really wasn’t ideal. I was very very desperate to go to this museum. I broke the news of my tragic failing to Calla and Helena who understandably probably weren’t the most impressed, but it was me who had wanted to go the most. I was very much trying to stay calm but also figuring out in my head how I could return to Mexico City in 2 months’ time to see Queen Frida’s house. Luckily, a tour guide nearby had seen us awkwardly hovering by the entrance and offered us tickets to La Casa Azul, The Diego Rivera Museo Anahuacalli and Xochimilco – these canals filled with colourful Gondola type boats. It was quite spenny and we had to do all three or none, but as I said I was desperate so may have peer pressured the girls to do it with me. It actually ended up being such a fun day – we got in Jose Luis’ car (our new tour guide) and got driven to the canals first. We had a whole boat to ourselves and found some fun drinks (spicy tamarind and spicy mango) in the shop before getting on. The canal was full of gondolas with fun names and mariachi bands and vendors jumping on and off. Apparently it’s very popular on a Friday afternoon/evening where people get bien borracho with their friends. We got taken to the Anahuacalli Museum and a food market where Helena and Calla ate bugs and we got fun tacos and so many free fruit samples which I sadly cannot remember the names of. The last stop on our tour was of course Frida’s house, which Helena got so excited for she fainted in the queue. I don’t blame her. It was so cool seeing Frida Kahlo’s work in person for the first time and being in the space she lived in after being obsessed with her for so long, so this felt very special !
We had a while in Mexico City as we’d booked festival tickets for the 14th-16th and the bus taking us there left from the capital. We spent the next few days going to more art galleries and exploring the neighbourhoods of Roma and La Condesa, two very gentrified but very nice areas (think cute cafes, vintage stores and reformer pilates with rich hipster americans who’ve found their calling in Mexico). Another really fun thing we did and something that you can't miss if you're going to Mexico City, was go to Lucha Libre, which is a style of professional Mexican wrestling - you know with all the colourful masks, acrobatics and funny costumes. I wasn't sure if it would be my kind of thing but it was honestly hilarious and I'm so glad we went. The whole crowd was so enthusiastic you couldn't help but get a bit invested in the fights. I'd also really recommend going to one of the massive flea markets in the city - we went to La Lagunilla flea market one day and they had so much good stuff for cheap I really really had to practice self control. It was so big you could get lost in it so easy but they had so much there.
Because we had so much time before the festival, we decided to go to Puebla for a few days. Puebla’s known for its Mole, so obviously had to try as one of our first missions – it’s such an interesting food as it looks very bean-esque and savoury but is actually quite sweet and chocolatey. We did a walking tour of the city with our hostel which was really good and got to try lots of free food samples – the city is full of sweet shops ! On our first night we went for a drink with this British guy who is solo cycling through Mexico instead of taking the “lazy” method of buses, with no prior cycling experience nor a word of Spanish. Sums up men for you. The city is also known for its neighbouring town of Cholula, home to the largest pyramid in the Americas, with its base four times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. You wouldn’t think it by looking it as it doesn’t seem that high but apparently it’s because the base starts really far down and then people just kept on layering more and more pyramids on top of it? Something like that. We got a great view of Cholula from the top and also later on went to a view point in Puebla at sunset which was stunning. I really liked our hostel there as it was one of the ones with your own curtain, light, charging socket, ledge to put your stuff on etc – like your own little cubby hole.
We then had one night back in Mexico City before Bahidora ! Bahidora is basically a hippie techno, electro, cumbia, latino festival built around this beautiful river in a national park in the jungle about 3 hours from the capital. It’s supposed to be this natural paradise and it definitely lived up to the hype. There were free yoga classes, cacao and plant workshops and exercise classes in the day, with multiple music stages and lots of places to sunbathe and float in the river. The food also looked great but was very spenny ! We did make the most of more free samples though. I even got a free Frank’s hot sauce fan. Very cool. It was very hot in the day and freezing cold at night, which when you’re camping isn’t the most ideal (also the stress going into buying a tent for cheap and then not losing it proved very difficult for us – luckily Walmart has everything). For context we'd been stressing about buying a tent for cheap for a while, found one in Walmart, and then proceeded to leave it at Mexico City bus station en route to Puebla. Luckily for us they had it in the lost and found on the way back ! We only had sleeping bag liners and then lots of layers, which as I’d overpacked didn’t find too hard, but the other girls were slightly lacking. I lived off cold refried beans, canned vegetables and electrolyte sachets for the whole three days but it was so worth it I’d defo recommend if you’re ever in Mexico around that time. There’s a good mix of music and stuff to do both day and night so would please most people I think.
Overall, I really loved Mexico City and genuinely think it would be impossible to run out of things to do, but it's so big I found it slightly overwhelming and was looking forward to heading somewhere a bit smaller. Our next stop was Oaxaca, where we had a few places lined up, but I shall continue with that in the next post. Enjoy, Iona xoxo
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