Paseo de la Reforma is a famous street in Mexico City, most notable for being closed to cars each…read moreSunday and being open to walkers, runners, and bikers. It stretches about 9 miles and has a variety of landmarks throughout: Ángel de la Independencia, Chapultepec Park, Diana the Huntress Fountain, and others. It's surrounded by various skyscrapers including but not limited to luxury hotels, office buildings, and banks. The street stretches along those modern aspects of the city as well as with the historic aspects of the Chapultepec Castle. We specifically went on a Sunday to see all the runners and bikers and it was so cool to see that this is just routine for them and just another day for a bike or a run. I wish more cities had car-free streets like this!

After a quick fuel, we were off for the Paseo de la Reforma, (one of the principal avenues in the…read morecity), which is closed on Sundays for walkers, cyclists and runners. It was an awesome and unique experience to be able to cycle on such a typically busy street, and see how many people were out and about enjoying the wonderful spring weather. Halfway through our ride along the avenue, we stopped to listen to our guide, Símon, talk about the lost 43 students that vanished in 2014. It was a very sobering history about the dark relationship between the Mexican government and cartels, but I'm glad Simon shared it with us, and we were able to view the faces of the victims as we continued our bike ride. https://traveltimewitht.com/2026/03/21/la-ciudad-de-mexico/

Sunday Funday! On Sundays, the Paseo de la Reforma…read morecompletely shuts down to cars. Most of the intersections are blocked off to traffic, and instead, the streets are handed back to the bicyclists and runners! We saw they were simultaneously holding a 5k for runners! Bicycles cram the street by the thousand! It's not a race, but a leisurely ride. Some riders come with fantastical bicycles that defy description. Many people ride ridiculous or costumed bikes, some with weird themes. The ride takes you up and down the major arterial street for Mexico City- one of the busiest boulevards in the world. It's hard to believe that the whole thing is shut down for the bicyclists, but it decreases pollution, and gets people out to exercise! If you're not participating, and just want to drive through, there are still ways to cut through the bike traffic if your driver is on the ball. My trip involved going around the roundabout at the Angel of Independence - in the opposite direction than normal on the roundabout. Hair raising! My city of San Antonio, Texas 'borrowed' the idea from Mexico City, and we have a similar event called "Ciclovia" on a quarterly basis. This is cool that it's weekly! It's FREE!!! Even if you don't have a bike, people can just walk or run. There are places to rent bikes from the kiosks along the way, and bike rental huts all along the Paseo de la Reforma.

Voladores are dancer who dance to the gold. They do a spin around the pole 56 times which represent…read morea new year every 56 based on the Aztec calendar. Something like that. My tour guide told me. The pole is quite high. Its definitely entertaining to watch. This one is located in front of the Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec park. Cool

The voladores are fliers who dance in the air upside down from ropes secured to a pole that stands…read moreabout 120 feet high. Slowly revolving around the pole, the ropes slowly descend the fliers to the ground. A man sitting atop the pole revolves, too, and he plays a flute to represent a singing bird. These poles are now metal but, originally, they were tree trunks and the role of the dance is to appease the primary rain god, Xipe Totec, a visually scary looking character attired in flayed human skin. This is a highly-choreographed dance where the voladores circle the pole 13 times each; a total of 52, the number of years in the Aztec calendar. There are variations on this ritual that is at least 450 years old but the hypnotic revolutions of the dance is a core feature. The most well-known voladores appear in the town of Papantla, in Veracruz, near the ruins of El Tajin. Conveniently, you don't have to trek there because dancers also perform here in Chapultepec Park a few steps from the anthropology museum.

Want to see something super creepy? Go here…read more We went a couple days before Halloween/Dia de Los Muertos, thinking it would be a fun outing. It was! You arrive at the canals of Xochimilco, an ancient town that was once it's own city and was used as a major production of produce and agriculture. You can rent the gondola-like boats that will take you through the canals, you'll see small farmsteads still operating, boats selling house plants and tacos, pigs tied up being taking to slaughter (so sad), mariachi bands on boats singing to boats passing by, and finally, down one canal, there is, Isla de las Munecas, ominously waiting for you, dark grey, green and black hues settle into a backdrop of languid vines and drooping trees, and thousands, I mean thousands of dolls tied and fixed to trees, sides of a barn, along fence lines and on top of poles. These dolls have a deep significance that goes back many years. Story has it that a little girl drowned near the island and a man named Julian felt putting up the dolls would please her soul. Soon he felt the spirits of other girls were present so he continued to put up more dolls throughout his small island. Something like 40 years went by and hundreds and hundreds of dolls were put up to please the many spirits he felt connected to the tiny island. Sadly and equally odd, he was found drowned in the same place as the little girl was found many years before... Now another man runs the eerie island and for a few pesos he allows you to walk around and take pictures, he'll also give a short speech about the island's history in front of his rustic makeshift alter. Definitely an interesting place to visit, the whole set up of canals of Xochimilco are a great example of Mexican DF culture, colorful and vibrant, and at the same time still with austere seriousness.