|  SAN
ANGEL
To go to San Angel, there is no close metro station.
Take a pesero on Insurgentes avenue towards the south.
Ask to stop at the corner of the avenida de La Paz. Walk north to
cross the avenida Revolución to reach the Plaza
San Jacinto or take the subway to Miguel Angel de Quevedo,
then a pesero towards San Angel (ask for Plaza San Jacinto).
This old colonial village called Tenanitla before the arrival of
the Spaniards is located about fifteen km from the center but is,
from now on, full part of the city. It has although conserved its
full charm; its winding and paved streets contains hidden discrete
particular hotels. It is a very residential neighbor of Mexico
City, organized around two places : The plaza de San Jacinto
and the plaza del Convento, one street farther. The old
convent of Carmel, El Carme, has a delightful cloister with gorgeous
cupolas adorned with Talavera tiles and a fountain adorned with
azulejos. Inside the convent, the Museo del Carmen (open
10AM-5PM, Tue-Sun, $41, free on sunday) offers a nice collection
of pictures and religious objects from colonial time as well as
antiques Its basement shelters the mummified remains of priests
and nuns. You can admire the basin made from azulejos on
the way down to the crypt.
On Plaza San Jacinto, there is the Casa del Risco
(open 10AM-5PM, Tue-Sun, free entrance), a very nice house from
the eighteenth century transformed into the museum of Art, witness
the military past of San Angel : it is here indeed that was located
the headquarters of the North Carolina troops at the time of the
Americano-Mexican war. It is also a cultural center and a library
with more than 30 000 history, international law and criminology
volumes. There is also a nice patio with an azulejos fountain.
Not far from here, the Iglesia San Jacinto, built in late
sixteenth century, has a Renaissance facade, adorned with wonderful
sculpted wood doors.
A craft market every Saturday stands by the Bazar del Sábado
(big building from the seventeenth century), full of traditional
and contemporary art objects. You’ll find refined craft (wooden
sculptures, fabrics, silver objects, dishes, etc...) divided on
two floors. In the course of the time, the prices rose but it is
worthwhile for the pleasure of the eyes and the nice odors
(because of the restaurants around). It is best to go there early
morning because of the crowd (Open 10AM-7PM Saturday). The
Street market offers also craft (open 9AM-5PM).
San Angel also honors the memory of Diego Rivera, with the Museo
Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo (open 10AM-6PM, Tue-Sun,
MXN$10, 
5550 1518 or 1189), on the avenue Altavista. The old workshop of
the painter, decorated by Juan O'Gorman, offers, beyond some of
its last works, a selection of its personal collection (especially
a nice ensemble of pre-Hispanic masks).It is also here that lived
the painter and his wife, Frida Kahlo. She painted in the back room.
Finally, a few blocks from here, on the Avenida Revolución,
the Museo Carrillo Gil (open 10AM-6PM Tue-Sun, $15) exhibits
a private collection of Mexican artists from the last century, among
them paintings of Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and Clémente
Orozco. It is a glass and aluminum building. If you have time, do
a tour of the San Angel Inn, an old hacienda well decorated
and full of charm with sumptuous patios, cloisters and old salons.
It is also an excellent restaurant.
 Click
here to display the selection of the photos about San Angel
COYOACÁN
To go to Coyoacán, take the subway until the General Anada
(or Coyoacán) station, then take a pesero towards
the place Hidalgo. On the way back, take a pesero from
Hidalgo plaza (it is the departure station, so the peseros
are parked there) or in front of the Frida Kahlo museum (wave the
driver), towards General Anada. If you take a taxi from San Angel,
the cost is $40 (july 2009).
To the south of the city, 3 km (2 miles) from San Angel, you shouldn’t
miss this ravishing village whose name means “the place of
the coyotes” in Náhuatl. Coyoacán (metro with
the same name) is part of the residential zone of Mexico
City that spreads to San Angel. It was, since the origins of
the Conquest, a small independent city, today incorporated in the
enormity of Mexico City. The central
place, lined with restaurants, bookstores and one of the best ice-cream
makers in Mexico City, could remind
the provincial charm of what was, in early twentieth century, the
biggest city in the world. There are also cast iron benches and
flowers beds.
At the end of the place, you could visit the church San-Juan Bautista,
built in the sixteenth century by the Dominicans. The municipal
Palace (palacio de Cortés), a gorgeous small colonial
building, has been built under the authority of Hernán
Cortés. It houses a Tourist Office.
Close to the main place of Coyoacán, you
should visit the Museo Frida Kahlo (# 247 Street Londres–open
10AM-5:30PM Tue-Sun, MXN$55, audio guide MXN35). This great painter,
heroine of the Mexican feminists, lived here from 1929 to 1954 with
her husband, Diego Rivera. She painted since she was a kid and during
her convalescence after a terrible accident on the tramway. Frida
Kahlo remained paralyzed and had to undergo several surgeries.
 However,
her handicap seems to have sharpened her taste for freedom and exuberance.
One year after the death of his wife in 1955, Rivera gave the house
to the Mexican people without changing anything. Frida was underestimated
while living but became a popular heroine after her death. The museum
displays personal objects, furniture, and an extraordinary collection
of pre-Hispanic coins
from western and south Mexican civilizations as well as a collection
of paintings of Clémente Orozco, José Maria Velasco
and Paul Klee among others.
Possibilities of guided visits for $350.
Visit also the garden. Small cafetaria, boutique of souvenirs and
toilets are available.
(55) 5554 5999, 
(55) 5658 5778 museo@museofridakahlo.org
- ww.museofridakahlo.org
 In
this house lived also, between 1937 and 1939, Léon Trotsky,
the bolshevist leader. Five streets from the Frida Kahlo Museum,
Rio Churubusco 410, the house where Trotsky was murdered on august,
20, 1940 is now a museum called Museum León Trotsky. The
museum is open from 10AM to 5PM from Tuesday to Sunday, entrance
fee MXN$30.
In the center of the city, the Plaza Hidalgo,
shadowed by the trees of the Jardin de Centenario, is especially
busy on weekends, with itinerant musicians, vendors, booths, tourists,
etc... There are painters selling their works at reasonable prices.
There are plenty of people on the café patios making you
forgetting that Coyoacán is in fact a quiet neighbor where
it is nice to live far from the rabble of the capital city. Still
on the place Hidalgo, the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares
(open 10AM-6PM-Tue/Thu and 10AM-8PM-Fri/Sun, free entrance) explains
the cultural development of several regions of Mexico.
Its goal is to exhibit and diffuse the cultural
and popular manifestations of the Mexican people, its rituals still
vivacious (like the rituals of the Day of the Dead), its traditions
and past and present myths. It is also a cultural center with an
auditorium. On the two patios, they hold popular music concerts
and theater plays. Guides tours are offered in several languages.
On the neighbor Plaza de la Conchita, stands the baroque
facade of the Capilla de la Conception, one of the preferred
buildings for newlyweds.
The Museo de las Intervenciones (open 9AM-6PM, $37,Tue-Sun,
free entrance on sunday), which occupies a part of the old convent
of Churubusco, east of Coyoacán, retraces the history of
some of the interventions of the foreign armies in Mexico, especially
the French and American ones.
With the same ticket, you can visit the Museum Diego Riveira Anahuacalli,
located Museo 150, San Pablo Tepetlapa -
museo@anahuacallimuseo.org
- www.anahuacallimuseo.org
-
(55) 5617 4310,
(55) 5617 3797 - Open. tue-sun, 10AM-6PM, guided visits 10:30AM/11:30AM/12:30PM/01:30PM/03:15PM/04:15PM/05:00*PM,
$20 but free with the ticket of Museum Frida Kahlo.
* except friday
Click
here to display the selection of photos about Coyoacán
Subway map : 
Click
here to display the selection of photos about the capital, Mexico
City
 
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