A rainy afternoon in Coyoacán

By Rob Packer

The plan for today was to meet up with Alexandra and Érica, two friends visiting the D.F. from Medellín, and head to the pyramids at Teotihuacán. They’d managed to get an amazing deal with a taxi driver to take us to the pyramids for the day for next to nothing and had arranged to be picked up at 10:30. After he phoned me at 10:50 to say he was stuck in traffic and would be another 20 or 30 minutes—he was probably at home—we gave up and decided to spend the day in Mexico City: after all, climbing pyramids in the rain isn’t most people’s idea of fun.

In the end, we decided to head to Coyoacán and to the Frida Kahlo Museum, which is excellent, although I’d forgotten how zealous the attendants are at enforcing the rules they have in there. No touching is perfectly understandable and no photography is fair enough, but even though I understand that the no mobiles rule is to stop people having their experience spoilt by other people’s conversations, it seems a bit heavy-handed to make people text outside in the rain.

Once we’d left the museum, I took them back to the plaza for a mango and chile paleta—I hope it changed their life.

Graffiti in Coyoacán

A sculpture by Mardonio Magaña in the garden of the Frida Kahlo Museum. An amazing sculptor

Another sculpture by Margonio Magaña.

Pre-Hispanic sculpture on Frida's pyramid.

Sculpture and shells in the fountain.

Frida Kahlo's house and now museum, la Casa Azul.

Car in Coyoacán.

A very damp Mexican flag, one of countless flags around the country hung out for Independence Day on 15th September.

Coyoacán streets.

A balcony in what could be one of my favourite buildings: at the corner of Melchor Ocampo and Francisco Sosa.

More graffiti, this time in La Condesa.