Day 1 in the city I decided to stay close to home and explore on foot - as I have been doing all trip.
I chose to live in this area - La Condesa y La Roma barrios - because they were recomendad as being safe and because Google maps told me it was close to the big city park where lay several museums.
So I left home on foot about 11 AM headed for the park. On the way I encountered a once-a-week street food market in La Condesa - it is what I call farmers market at home.
I intended to eat, and I had a referral from the local tour guide book in my room, but it took me a couple turns around the hot food area to decide which vendor to choose. Once I decided, I ordered on mixiote which was basically a warm corn tortilla filled with delicious pork to which I added toppings from the relish trays on the table. I only ordered one thinking I would eat elsewhere later….
After eating, I wandered. There were dozens of fresh fruit and vegetable stands as well as household item stands and meat vendors. I doubt everything was organic, and some of the fruit was imported from the US - cherries and berries for example. I bought one avocado and one mango (because these are my favorite foods to have on hand in case I’m starving) for 30 pesos which is about $1.50, so not particularly cheap, either, but reasonable.
I sent a message to Diana asking if she wanted me to get her anything while I was here. She replied with a short shopping list. I bought one kilo each of zanahoria (carrots) y calabasa (squash), cinco muslos de pollo (chicken thighs) y uno kilo de filets de pescado (fish fillets). I bought the fish and chicken from two different vendors and watched while they each added the final preparations to the pieces I bought - removing skin, excess fat and bones and answered the common question - donde estas? I always answer “soy de California” which usually results in a comment about LA or Hollywood.
I walked back home - about 1/4 to 1/3 mile - to deliver the food and chat with Diana and Sergio for a minute before heading back past the market to the park.
The park sidewalks were filled with vendors selling food and goods. I bought a Mexican fabric backpack from one. More on this decision later.
And there were hundreds of people in the park to support the vendors.
My goal was the Museo de Anthropologia which many people recommended. 
I spent 3.5 hours there getting my Spanish lesson as I read the exhibit signs in Spanish and then read them again in English (although English versions were not always available)
There were lots of ancient specimens of human remains, and pieces from ancient civilizations,
with an obvious theme of the Latin American indigenous civilizations pre-European invasion. I enjoyed the experience very much except for the fact I did not eat enough for lunch and got hungry and almost weak before I was even half way through the rooms. I knew it was a long way back to any restaurant and I did not want to eat at a hot food stand outside the museum door because it would have been a disappointment after the good food I had earlier, so I chose a mixed fruit cup from a vendor stall instead, and ate it outside the mainentrance....
.....before returning to the museum to continue my Spanish lesson. It is amazing how a little bit of real, simple and inexpensive food can satisfy:)
I left finally left the museum for good at closing time - fully loaded with Spanish and history - and retraced my steps to my neighborhood where I found and chose a place to rest for a while..... a Hungarian coffee shop
in honor of Curt and Sarah’s recent trip there. I sat for over an hour having my dessert first while I read my guide book to decide what to do tomorrow.
Dinner was next, and I did not want more Mexican food. I was wandering along one of the suggested neighborhood walking tours from my book and passed an American Legion post bar and restaurant.
OMG! They had TVs inside and they were showing the All Star baseball game on TV! This was a very important activity to Mike and me during our motor home travel years - finding a good place to watch the game. So how could I pass this up? I went inside without my usual self talk about “Should I or shouldn’t I?”
Inside I enjoyed a very American experience. I ordered a hamburger ( which was very good, by the way) and watched part of the All-Star game. But the experience had a definite Mexican flavor since the TV audio was in Spanish on Spanish ESPN and they were announcing the home country of all the Latim America players. I’m addition, I was distracted by the smooth piano music with bongos and singer in the adjacent room, so when I finished eating I left the game and went next door to sit at a table with my Coca-Coka from dinner to listen and watch the dancers.
My phone says I walked 6.6 miles today. I say it was a good first day.
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