Mexico City – Part III – Día de Muertos

I know. I start things and don’t finish them. Well, here, for once, I am going to complete this series of posts, even though it is now one month later!!!

On the actual “day” of the dead, Lyn and I spent some time on our own revisiting parts of the downtown. I really wanted to see the Zócalo — the main plaza — fully decorated for the holiday and get a taste of how Mexicans celebrate.

First, however, we spent some time visiting the main UNAM campus — The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. This is the largest university in Mexico with campuses in every state and several countries. The student population is more than 360,000! It is a public university, which means that, if you are accepted, your tuition is VERY low — less than $1,000 US per year! That said, however, it isn’t easy to get in as you have to pass an exam.

The University campus in CDMX is enormous! We visited several buildings, including the library, which featured a number of ofrendas, including a very large one celebrating Lucha Libre, complete with a boxing ring, announcers, audience members, and vendors.

In another room, there was a tribute to Harry Potter.

In the parking lot of the stadium there was a collection of ofrendas to women in science, medicine and art. It was quite spectacular to see, especially one long wall with portraits of many women from around the world who have made substantial contributions in these fields.

From UNAM, Lyn and I took the Metrobus back down to the Zócalo. These buses run in a special lane along the main streets of the city thereby avoiding most of the traffic. They do, however, have to stop for traffic lights, so it is by no means “fast.” But, for six pesos (about $0.35 US), you can ride them throughout the city. The stops are enclosed and clean, as are the buses themselves. You have to be quick, though, as you only have five seconds to get on or off!

CDMX also sports a subway, but we didn’t have time to try that out. To be honest, the thought of being underground in Mexico City makes me a little nervous considering the area is prone to earthquakes.

As you can imagine, there were 10s of thousands of people in the square where they had completed the giant tributes, the largest a calaveras of a revolutionary fighter blended alebrije-style with a horse’s skeleton (see main image above). Around the plaza were people dressed up as Katrinas and many others with their faces either entirely or half painted as skulls. In fact, along the main streets there were people painting faces for those interested. While typically I would have done this, I skipped it as it was incredibly crowded and our time was limited.

We didn’t spend much time in the plaza; just enough to walk around a bit and take a few more photos. Rather, we ended up taking an Uber back to the bus station to head back and meet Azul and Rob and head back to Tlalpan for the evening’s festivities.

Once again I missed the chance to go to a cemetery to experience the true spirit of the holiday. We arrived just as the cemetery was closing. Rob and Azucena did go earlier the day and shared some pictures with me. Apparently, there were even Mariachi!

The same plaza in Tlalpan that we visited with Paola and Alberto was bustling with activity. There were performances and vendors of all types of things including local foods. We went back to Casa Frissac again, where now there were a number of people dressed as calaveras taking photos with visitors.

Even the cars were decorated! One had a series of spiders riding on it. The main one on the roof of the car actually moved up and down. It was quite a sight.

We were, of course, exhausted by the end of the day, but delighted that we had been able to see so many amazing things around the city during a very special time of the year.