Day 52: My Birthday in Mexico City

We saved two of Mexico City’s highlights for today, what with it being my birthday and all.

Up first was the Frida Kahlo house and museum in Coyoacán, an artsy bohemian neighbourhood which was a breath of fresh air after the madness of central DF. It’s quiet and peaceful with wide tree-lined streets, little traffic and huge colourful houses. And of course no house is more colourful than Casa Azul – Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s ‘blue house’, which is now a museum dedicated (mostly) to her life, with a bit of Diego thrown in.

The house itself is beautiful, with an enormous leafy central plaza and bright rooms packed with art and personal mementos; I particularly liked the kitchen and bedroom, decked out in typically colourful style.

The real highlight for me, however, was the Vogue Mexico-sponsored Appearances Can Be Deceiving exhibition which showcases pieces of Frida’s famous wardrobe. I’d read loads about this treasure trove, but was under the impression that the exhibition closed at Christmas… Evidently they decided it needed a bit more air time, and rightly so because it’s brilliant and completely made my birthday.

Her original wardrobe, as it was when she died, was only discovered in 2004 when private rooms in the house were finally allowed to be opened – they’d been kept locked at the request of Diego and then his executor until this time… Revealing hundreds of outfits, accessories and medical supplies relating to Frida’s ongoing illnesses.

Only a fraction of the pieces were on display, buy the exhibition was still breathtaking for a fashion/Frida nerd such as myself and I spent a long time studying everything – including the mannequin’s amazing hair, which was done by my pal Angelo Seminara, current British Hairdresser of the Year and regular star of the magazine.

Absolutely worth a visit – and every penny of the 60MXP ‘photography fee’, which every museum here seems to add on.

We walked down to Coyoacán’s plaza and gardens after, stopping for lunch in the market – excellent pork scratchings – and an ice cream at the ancient and famous Kiosco de Coyoacán.

En route back to the metro, we stopped at Viveros de Coyoacán – the nurseries which grow everything for DF’s parks and gardens. Beautiful rose gardens and yet more cacti of all shapes and sizes. A good free hidden gem in the midst of this crazy city.

In the evening we headed to Arena Mexico for a lucha libra match – a Mexico City must-do and an excellent birthday treat. It was heaving with groups of guys, tourists and families with kids, all wearing wrestling masks and capes – which we obviously bought too… The aisles are full of people selling beer, popcorn, sandwiches and noodles, using a particularly efficient system which entails them running up and down from a main desk and proudly guarding their own sections of seats.

The wrestling itself was completely mad and brilliant, with goodies (colourful costumes) and baddies (black costumes) showcasing some spectacular aerodynamics and a few dwarves and scantily-clad score-card ladies thrown in for good measure.

We befriended the couple next to us, who informed us that after half-time we could move down to empty seats at the front, which provided an even better view of the theatrics. An amazing, bizarre experience…

On the way home we stopped at our local late-night taco corner, Las Costillas, for a plate of tacos mixte each – not entirely sure what meat the three delicious morsels had on top, but slathered in guacamole, lime and some searingly hot sauce they made for a fine birthday midnight feast.