2020: Mexico City (#4): Art and San Angel

Friday, January 17, 2020

This was our 4th trip to Mexico City (CDMX) in 2 years. We've seen a bunch of the big sights so this trip figured we'd get a bit off the regular tourist path. Today we chose to explore the Dolores Olmedo museum and San Angel.

Uber got us out to the Dolores Olmedo without problems. It was a long-ish drive from the Hilton Reforma and we saw areas of the City we never had before. Some very pretty, some a bit less so.

The museum is like an oasis of calm in this busy area. The grounds are surrounded by a gate and tall fence.

The museum has an extensive collection of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera paintings. They're displayed in a gorgeous colonial era house.

Frida, 1945 The mask (of madness)

Diego, 1907 Self-portrait with broad-brimmed hat

Frida, 1945 Self-portrait with small monkey

Diego, 1955 Portrait of Dolores Olmedo

Diego's painting of Dolores' daughter

The kitchen

Frida, 1951 for Samuel Fatlicht

Frida, 1929 The bus
(re. the one on which she had her terrible accident)

Diego, 1918 Portrait of Angelina Beloff

After touring the main house, we stopped in the cafe for snacks.

Then we were on to the next section of the museum which had an interesting collection of more folksy art and modern art inspired by the "Dos Fridas" painting.

There were a few sculptures in the gardens. And plenty of peacocks strutting around.

We all loved this museum!

Perusing our guidebooks, we decided to head to the San Angel neighborhood.

Our Uber got us to the front door of Templo y Ex-Convento del Carmen. We paid a few pesos and walked around this interesting museum. It's old, from 1615, and rambling. Some of the rooms had lovely old details and interesting art. One section had beautiful silver displays. We enjoyed roaming about this museum. I particularly liked the outdoor spaces and could see how nuns would have peaceful, contemplative lives here.

A couple of rooms were filled with these miniature folk art sculptures

The courtyards connected the outdoors to the former convent rooms

The interiors were spare but had pretty architectural details. And some interesting historical displays.

1951 aerial view of the university area construction

Tour done, we crossed the busy street and entered a cute square, Plaza del Carmen. There were pretty flowers in bloom and interesting looking shops along the street. We stopped and were befuddled by a riddle some schoolkids presented.

We continued on passing by Plaza San Jacinto up to the Mercado San Angel. We just wandered the aisles a bit, deciding against buying anything.

Back to Plaza San Jacinto where we just watched people walking, playing, sitting, enjoying the beautiful day.

We browsed in a couple of pretty stores (pricy!).

Popped into the Centro Cultural Isidro Fabela (free) and were super impressed by the gorgeous fountain!

After a quick drink at La Camelia, we took an Uber back to the hotel.

We went to the Executive Lounge for Happy Hour and were treated to fantastic views!

Dinner (8pm) was at Fondo Fina in Roma Norte. It was a nice place with good food and relatively attentive service. It was not my favorite and with such limited time in CDMX, is not a place I need to visit again.