Cultural Immersion: We’re Going to Mexico!

As I shared before, we’re planning a cultural immersion experience in Mexico.  We settled on going to Mexico because the price was right, the housing was right, and most of all, the trip is going to be fabulous!  We will spend two days in Mexico City then head to San Miguel de Allende.  During the first two days we will visit two main areas.

On day one we will visit the area called La Reforma which is located on the western side of the big city. La Reforma district is home to Mexico City’s largest park called Bosque de Chapultepec.  You can probably say that the Bosque is the equivalent of New York City’s Central Park.  It’s a large park that houses festivals, boat rentals, the Meuseo Nacional de Atropologia (National Museum of Anthropology), and the Castillo de Chapultepec, former emperor Maximilian’s castle.   We will do the museum first,  then take a break in the park, maybe buy some cotton candy and torta’s from a street vendor,  and if everyone is up for it maybe do the Mexican Zoo.  That night we will go to a traditional Mexican restaurant with a mariachi band and where dancers will perform baile folkorico (traditional folkloric dance).

On day two we will go to the area called the Zócalo, or Historic Center. The Zócalo is the center of the former Aztec city.  There we will visit the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) and the Catedral Metroplitana, Latin America’s biggest church. We went to the Catedral on our last visit in 2009 and the site was just amazing. There is also the ruins of the Templo Mayor, the recently discovered Great Temple of the Aztecs.    Today the temple is partially buried underground which makes it a great site to see!

After our time in Mexico City, we will head northwest 180 miles to to San Miguel de Allende. We’ll spend about three weeks soaking in everything there is to do and know about Colonial Mexico. We will be staying in a vacation rental house owned by an American photographer who lives in California. I used the site HomeAway.com and found tons of great homes in San Allende and since this is considered the low travel season there were many great options!

Last week we went to the library to get some kid appropriate books about the history of Mexico and visiting Mexico.  My nine year old is already is a big history and architecture buff which is why I picked this agenda.  Although it will be a busy first two days, we’ll have plenty of time to relax in San Miguel.

Stay tuned for more on our upcoming trip.