Happy Birthday in Santa Maria la Ribera!

For this year’s celebration of Enrique’s birthday, we decided to go to CDMX—Ciudad de México, Mexico City.

We took the 7-hour bus ride to experience the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, which stretches from the states of Oaxaca to Puebla. Although we obviously couldn’t jump out of the bus to explore, the views of the columnar cacti forest in the matorral and the Sierra Madre sub-ranges were stunning. The reserve was created in 2012, and it received UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2018. Is it protected? Supposedly. Let’s hope so. For very interesting information, here is a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehuacán-C…

We quickly set ourselves up in our minimalist AirBnb property on Calle Quetzalcóatl in the neighborhood of Tlaxpana, and almost immediately walked three blocks to Enrique’s neighborhood, Santa María la Ribera to eat “huaraches,” fried tortillas in the shape of a sandal, with anything you want on the top. We chose “carne del pastor,” which is a variety of grilled meats cut from a kebab rotisserie. There is much delicious rich food to be had at all times, but we restrain ourselves. Mostly.

For the next two days, we explored parts of Santa María we couldn’t see on a previous visit, due to COVID. A note: Santa María la Ribera is a very old part of Mexico City, close to the Historic Center.
Here you can get a bit more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Santa_Mar…

“El Chopo” is an architectural marvel, built in Germany in 1902 as a an exhibition hall. It was dismantled and rebuilt on “Poplar Street,” Calle Chopo, to also be an exhibition center. It was bought by UNAM, National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1975, and after much expansion and renovation, was set out as a modern art museum. We saw all of the three exhibits before meeting Enrique’s brother, Rafael, for lunch.
More information!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Universitar…

The following day, we inched through another UNAM-owned museum, the Museum of Geology. I particularly loved the display cases from 1905, along with the eclectic collections of minerals, gems, volcanic rocks, dinosaur bones, etc. Fascinating.

And then the Big Day, November 12. Enrique’s niece and I coordinated to have a birthday lunch in “María138,” an Italian restaurant just south of the beautiful neighborhood “alameda.” It is one of my great treasures and joys to be a part of a Mexican family. And birthday celebrations are extremely important! So much fun and congeniality.

Please enjoy the photos.Read more