James Geoffrey is our youngest of five in our combined family. He has been traveling from a very young age as he lived in Egypt with his mother and step-father from age 5-7 and Jim would fly to Cairo every two months and take him and his siblings somewhere in the world. He went to eastern Europe when he was 19 and worked on a farm in Poland for a few months. He then spent his 21st birthday in one of the most dangerous places in India, both trips by himself.(and without a cellphone) His wife Sofi is from Sweden and they have taken many trips there to visit her family. He has instilled his love of travel and exploring in his kids also. He has visited us in Londontwice and Amsterdam with parts of his family. Sofi visited us in Munich by herself. This is the second time that the whole family has been able to visit us at the same time after last summer in Copenhagen.
The traffic was so bad that they abandoned their taxi and walked the last few blocks to their apartment. Our flat was not big enough for seven so we rented a place just around the corner from us for their family.Father son at the food court in Chapultepec Parque.While having lunch at the food court we were watching these walks and the zip lines. Gaorii on the lower walk and Freya on the upper one.
A video of Gaorii on the lower zip line.
And a video of Freya.Wandering Chapultepec after lunch.So many stands selling so many different things.The most popular thing we have seen since arriving here are changuitos or changos miones, a monkey that sits on ones head and also squirts water, via the purple tube.Freya liked her monkey on her arm rather than on her head.
Bhavanii at age 13 is not into monkeys but she is very open to trying new foods and experiences.. This is a video of her building her own Doriloco which starts with a small Dorito package opened longwise and adding carrots, jicama, pepinos, gummy worms and lots of hot sauces. She agreed to every addition.The finished product.She ate about half of it with help from her father and grampy who will eat anything.Zoom in on the sign to see what they put in Dorilocos.Gaorii was squirting everyone with her changuito. Chapultepec Parque has a great zoo with a giant panda but we were there on Sunday afternoon and it was too crowded for us. We left Geoff and family to explore the zoo on their own.This family loves doing puzzles.They completed this 1,000 piece puzzle in less than three days.Jim signed us all up for a “free” Guru Tour Cable car + urban art, which was quite enjoyable for everyone and informative. We would recommend this.Palacio de Bellas Artes was our meeting point.Our private guide Fer (Fernanda).We took the Metro from Bellas Artes to its end point at Constitution de 1917. The Mexico City Metro is quite modern, inexpensive and relatively safe. It is very crowded during rush hour though and you have to be aware of your belongings. The first two cars are reserved for women and children which helps avoid groping incidents.We then transferred to the cablebus Santa Marta which is the longest public transit cablecar route in the world according to Guiness World Records.We all enjoyed the ride and the views.
A video of the cablecar ride.
This was very reminiscent of Medellin Colombia for us as they have very similar cable cars.Very colorful neighborhoods.We ended up at a market.We tried a lot of fresh squeezed juices and some sopes, which are small fried corn tortilla like foods which are turned up on the edges and served with a variety of toppings.It was then a long ride home, changing once on the cablebus and twice on the metro.They visited the Museum of Anthropology which houses the world’s most impressive collection of artifacts from pre-Columbian Maya civilization through the Spanish colonial period. Geoffrey took Freya and Gaorii to the Papalote Museum del Nino (children’s museum) while Sofi stayed behind to explore more of the Anthropology Museum.Gaorii working on Dad’s hair. Geoff is such a great “Girl Dad”.The whole family was up early for a 5:10am pickup to drive to Teotehuacan for a hot air balloon ride. Looks cold in the early morning.The Balloon Ride takes you over the Pyramids at sunrise. After the balloon ride they got to climb some of the pyramids. Big steps for Gaorii to climb but no problem for her.As of this year climbing the Pyramids is restricted to only the first level of the Moon Pyramid as to preserve them from getting worn down. When we were here in 2018 we were able to climb to the top level of both the Moon and Sun Pyramids.You can see in this photo the first level of the Moon pyramid which consists only of the first 47 steps.Ice Cream break while walking the Avenue of the Dead.which runs through the heart of the Teotihuacan archaeological site. Their last full day in Mexico City consisted of a tour which included entrance to Frida Kahlo Museum, boat rides in Xochimilco and exploring the cobblestone streets of Coyoacan neighborhood.
Of course no trip to Mexico is complete without a Mariachi serenade. This video was taken from their boat ride in Xochimilco.Freya enjoying the jungle gym at a nearby playground in Polanco.
This family had a very busy week with us having to get up very early the last three days for balloon rides, tours and then their flight home on the last day. Their Uber dropped them at the wrong terminal so they had to hustle to check in at the correct terminal. They made their flight to Atlanta but missed the connecting flight to Asheville, NC giving them a six hour layover. Geoff said everyone stayed calm and in good spirts despite the long haul to get home. This family is truly Travel warriors.
Leave a Reply