Day 4 -Coyoacan and The Blue House

 Spanish Class

Another overcast morning and it looked like the same weather pattern –  cloudy until late morning and then the sun and finally late afternoon rain. Breakfast was becoming routine. The hostess fixed breakfast and left it on the table for us and then went off to work.  Since school starts at 10am, we are getting a bit more time in the morning.  For my breakfast – I am having corn flakes with almond milk I bought from Walmart and herbal tea that I brought from home.  We had hard boiled eggs added to the breakfast menu.  After breakfast, Ginita and I walked the two blocks to the taxi stand next to Walmart.  We were going to school a bit later so I thought we might run into more traffic.  The taxi driver was very nice and even though the traffic did hold us up a bit – he charged us what we paid the day before and didn’t pay any attention to what the meter said. We arrived about 5 minutes before class started.

We had two new students – a young lady from Sydney, Australia and a young man from Berlin, Germany.  Both of the students were at a lower level so that took some pressure off of Kathy and myself.  Our teacher was friendly enough but a bit on the sarcastic side.  The atmosphere was very business-like; whereas Ginita said that her class was more informal with a lot of discussion. We reviewed everything we did the day before for the new students.  We always start off with conjugations of the verbs and he has a different way of doing it and sometimes it is confusing.  We continued working on translating a paper he gave us the day before.  I sat with two guys and ended up doing most of the work. We had to do a writing project which took most of the morning. I was glad when the break came.

I went outside during the break and discovered a little bakery and also a teeny hole-in-the-wall eating place next door.  I had a cup of coffee and some kind of small pastry. We only have half an hour for break but it was nice to be out in the sun.  The school is on a big avenue and not much to photograph there.  The afternoon part of the class was more interesting with more discussion.  Class was out at 2pm.

Coyoacan – Lunch and the Bakery

Since we didn’t get to see the “Blue House” yesterday, we decided to go today.  We got a taxi in front of the school instead of walking back to the taxi stand.  Reading on the internet – they advised never to hail a taxi but we see people doing it all the time and it was a pain to keep looking for a taxi stand.  Anyways, it was fine and we had no problem getting to the “Blue House” which was the home of the Mexican Surrealist artist Frida Kahlo and the wife of Diego Rivera. Frida Kahlo de Rivera was known for her self-portraits. Kahlo’s life began and ended in Mexico City, in her home, which is known as “La Casa Azul”. She is still admired as a feminist icon.  The taxi driver dropped us off in front of the house.  There was a line of people all around the corner so we thought we would go and eat lunch and then come back.  Our hostess had mentioned that if you are over 65 that you can get into any museum in Mexico for free so we felt positive we wouldn’t have to wait in line when we returned.

We walked into the downtown of Coyaocan.  I wanted to go back to this huge bakery where Ginita and I came on Sunday.  I didn’t get any good photos then so this was a good opportunity to take better ones.  We walked quite a ways down the busy and narrow streets and finally came upon a local restaurant that looked popular.  The waiter directed us to our table.  He was very  solicitous and attentive.  Kathy and I ordered a fish dish and Ginita ordered a poblano taco with pulled beef.

We all enjoyed our dishes.  After eating, I wanted to find the bakery.  I think we went around in circles but finally found the bakery where I remembered it was near the park.  Kathy and Ginita  went in and walked around and I began taking photos.  I never saw such a huge bakery with so many choices.

Inside “The Blue House”

It was getting late so we walked back to “The Blue House”.  The line was still the same so I walked up to the front and told someone who was in uniform that we were seniors and over 65.  They directed us inside and we were given tickets and told to go ahead.  So that was great!  Supposedly, you were not allowed to take photos but everyone was taking photos with their Iphone so I got my Iphone out and took some photos.  I didn’t get any of the self-portraits but did get a few others.  It is quite a large house with ten rooms and a huge garden and so many interesting artistic artifacts. There were so many people that at one point, we stood still for about 10 minutes.

The house itself was originally created in 1904 in the French style but was adapted later by Rivera and Kahlo in 1941 to have a bigger garden and brighter colors such as the blue painted walls that can be seen today.  The house was donated and opened as a museum in 1958 and is maintained in a similar fashion to how it was kept in the 1950s.

It was about 6pm when we finished the tour and the rains were threatening.  Ginita and I hailed a taxi in front of “The Blue House”.  Kathy was going to try her luck with Uber. She was going in the opposite direction.  It rained the whole way back so we had the driver take us take us right to our door.  Our hostess was not there when we arrived and didn’t arrive until 8pm, consequently we had a later dinner.  I worked on my blog and then fell into bed. Each day has been filled with so much to see and do. We will have seen and experienced quite a lot by the time we leave.