Sometimes my blog is funny, sometimes it’s boring, and sometimes it’s real AF. Today we went back to the neighborhood Coyoacán with our “right day this time” tickets; for those not keeping up (shame on you), Mom thought our tickets for the Casa Azul/Frida Kahlo museum were last Friday. So we went on Friday, stood in line and were graciously told our tickets were for 08 May. Frida round 2 today.
After the Uber dropped us off, we decided to walk to the Mercado for some coffee before standing in line (for the second time) to enter the museum. We thought it odd to hear helicopters and as we approached the Mercado, there was a large police presence and yellow “police tape” across the street. I didn’t want to look, but I did, and I saw a body lying on the ground covered simply by a white sheet. We ducked inside the market building with the sobering thought that this was my first time seeing a dead body in an active crime scene. Not a great way to start the day but as I said before, sometimes you have to report on the real parts of your journey. Mom asked the lady selling us coffee what happened and I needed a translation of their entire conversation – on the bright side, I hope to never have to translate murder, crime, gunshot, dead and am glad I don’t know those words.
After that, we walked back to the museum in near silence. As we stood in line we were both reflective on what we saw and saddened that we saw it at all. According to news reports, we showed up about 15 minutes after it happened. Life is too precious.
The museum was a nice distraction in that moment. It’s really colorful and there are treasures hidden within like the studio where Frida painted from her wheelchair and the mirror she used to paint self-portraits. There’s even a mirror suspended over her bed – I can only imagine it was to paint self-portraits while laying down. Riiiiight. 😉
From the museum we got back to our side of town (the Zócalo) and went in search of lunch and a bookstore. I picked up another book in Spanish for my South American adventure in November/December. I will be attempting to read AND understand La Casa de los Espíritus by Isabel Allende. Wish me luck!
It started to rain and we both feel drained by the non-stop tourist things we’ve been doing and what we saw this morning. It’s now 7pm and we have been siesta-ing since 2pm. Call us lazy, we don’t care. We’re on vacation and you aren’t!
There She Goes... 