Romeo and Juliet Castle

Chapultepec Castle

When we awoke the morning after Mandy, Hamish, Ange and Simon had arrived, having been in Condesa 24hrs long than anyone else I was put in tour guide position. Let's be honest I didn't mind making the decisions for the group so I quickly set into motion a plan for the day. 

First we headed to tea shop a block away where I had had delicious breakfast the day before (best to take my friends somewhere I knew was good). We all indulged in delicious coffees (except Ange who somehow ordered a coffee with about a gallon of milk). 

We fuelled up on coffees and omelettes then headed off in the direction of the castle,  Chapultepec Castle, made famous from its starring role in the Romeo and Juliet movie. My good friend Olivia (who had google mapped where I was staying) said wasn't far. She was right. 

With some assistance from star navigator Simon we walked towards the park. Fortunately as most of our group was jaded from travel it was pretty much a straight line with only two hazardous road crossings. 

Wandering the quiet streets of Condesa was an experience in itself. The street art, the colourful walls, the good banter meant the 20minute walked passed quickly and in the blink of an eye we were on the outskirts of the Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest). Chapultepec actually means 'grasshoppers hill'.

one of the largest city parks in the Western Hemisphere, measuring in total just over 686 hectares (1,695 acres). Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill - which is where the Chapultepec castle is placed. 

He was posing for so long, then just as I shot jumped ship!

Thats better! 

The amount of trees in this park were next level. It was like and Anthony Browne book. Wandering towards the castle we saw so many squirrels - which was kiwis no matter how many you see are always novel and entertaining. 

There was a short line when we arrived at the castle (it was about 100x larger when we left!!) the queue time went quickly as I caught Mandy up on the last few months of my life and they told me about their time in NYC (where they had been for 7 days prior to arriving in MEX). 

We reached the castle and it was just beautiful. The castle was constructed in 1785 and completed in 1863, so you can imagine the detail in a building which took 78 years to build. 

Mandy and I, in front of the castle

The castle is a grand building, now it homes the National Museum of History, so contained a lot of historical displays which were interesting. Most impressive though by far were the views down on to Mexico City. We were blown away by the share surface area of the park we were centred in. And an incredibly large Mexican Flag which we later found to be positioned out front of the Auditorio Nacional. 

"The National Auditorium is considered among the world's best venues by specialized media. It was designed by Mexican architects Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Gonzalo Ramírez del Sordo, and remodeled by Abraham Zabludovsky and Teodoro González de León. There are concerts, art, theatre, dance and more."

We took a ton of photos, wandered the castle gardens then decided to head down to the market in the park for a wander. I don't think anyone actually bought anything during this first experience of Mexican markets. Mandy was close to buying a water squirting snake so she could squirt the kids at school if they were misbehaving. I personally was most tempted by the giant emoji pillows given I was sleeping on the floor with two hard as rock couch cushions for a pillow. 

It was quite overwhelming with all the constant shouting from vendors, whistling toys, and freshly made candy floss floating pass in the wind. I'm ashamed to say we didn't even make it to the end of the kilometre long markets. After about 700m we opted to continue our wander through the peaceful tree filled park.