Déjà Vu All Over Again

Please note: This trip was basically a repeat of our December 2023 trip to CDMX. We stayed in the same apartment, saw a show at the same venue, and ate every day at the same fish place near our metro stop.

I tried to avoid taking photos of the same things from that trip, so if you want more visuals, take a peek at that blog post.

 

Day 1 CDMX

Landed 15 minutes early and got through passport control in a few minutes. 

Finally figured out that Puerta 1 is the best route to the covered walkway to the street. 

Finally trusted our memories more than the google maps and got to Pantitlan metro station in record time. 

Still took us forever to get through that labyrinth to the Linea 9 platform.

Got to our Airbnb , dropped off our stuff and went out to pick up provisions.

Our ground coffee purveyor was closed for Labor Day, so it was straight to the little supermarket for eggs, water and tequila. 

After bringing it all home, went to our fish place for lunch. They had ample supplies of the face-melting salsa :)

Stopped at Cantina La Colorada for a cold Bohemia beer. 

Had our customary Depeche Mode benediction 

(which was preceded by a Donna Summer/ABBA/Boney M. megamix)

Walked to Ex Fabrica 

Wanted to stop at Circulo de Brujas, but they were also closed for Labor Day, so we went home for a little rest, as we had already been up for 14 hours and were hoping to go to a show at Gato Calavera that started at 8 PM.

Looking for the club on the map, I saw that I had bookmarked a cool looking café, so we went there for supper.

Walked in some light rain to the club

There were a couple of shops inside that sold t-shirts, but nothing with their badass logo. Tragic!

By the time we'd had a looky loo (which was all we really wanted to do), we were pretty tired, and it was almost an hour to get home, so we left.

For some reason, we were both really thirsty and that's all we talked about on the train.

Got home, drank a few glasses of cold water and went to bed around 11.

 

Day 2 CDMX

Woke up around 6:30.

Since we didn't have any ground coffee, waited until 7:30 to get an espresso tonic at Café Campo Stella.

Remind me to never book an apartment near a doggy daycare 

Got mole tamales for breakfast 

Went to the neighborhood on the other side of the freeway.

Back on our side, bought ground coffee, brewed it, then went back to the previous night's neighborhood on an ATM/Future Airbnb recon mission.

Returned to Gato Calavera and the surrounding areas to see if it is the kind of place we'd like to stay on a future visit. It is!

I'd turn this front yard into a miniature golf course 

Stopped at a cantina for a beer and some mezcal 

Our server was delighted to furnish us with props

Our other traditional travel benediction 

Walked to a park, 

and tried to visit a cemetery, but we couldn't find the entrance, so we walked 30 minutes to our favorite cocktail bar, FELINA.

Treated ourselves to an Uber home, then went to get some fish for supper.

Afterwards, we wanted something sweet, so we went to the ice cream place near the freeway, had a little dance with the generic pharmacy mascot, and brought home a maracuyá (passion fruit) paleta.

Rested for about 30 minutes and walked to HDX Circus Bar for the Pre-Festival Party.

Doors were supposed to be at 7, but we had to wait about 30 minutes to get in. 

Other than that, it was a well-run show and every band started exactly on time.

All of them were really good, a couple were great and the headliners were PHENOMENAL!

Utsa has what we call "a google problem": the first 10,000 hits from any search come up with University of Texas, San Antonio 

The Invocatio bassist was very photogenic 

Black Altar was one of the best shows I have EVER seen! My face hurt from smiling the whole time.

After having walked all day, my feet were not thrilled about standing for 5 hours, so I sat on the floor between sets (it's cleaner than First Ave).

Walked home and stopped for (empanadas? quesadillas?) at our favorite little spot. They actually remembered us from a year and a half before!

Got to bed around 1:30

 

 

Day 3 CDMX

Woke around 7 after a not-so-great night's sleep.

Made some coffee cowboy style, as the filter basket in the coffee maker was ineffective.

Got tamales, ate and went out to pick up more eggs 

Over the banner printing business down the block. How long had we been missing it?!

We had decided to make it an easy morning. Since most of the day would be spent at the musical event that was the purpose of our trip, we didn't want to be too tired and worn out to fully enjoy it.

Ventured out into the midday sun for some pulque from the great vendor under the freeway.

A restaurant that we passed on the way 

Went to the fish place for lunch, chilled, then left for the club around 2:10 PM (doors were allegedly 2:30, but we didn't want to take the chance of having to stand outside again).

Still had to wait in line for a bit, but not as long as the previous night.

We had purchased the VIP tickets, thinking that they would include being able to sit in the mezzanine, but the only extras were a poster and a Meet and Greet.

Bhob wasn't interested, but I convinced him that we should just go up and say hi, and if it was stupid we could turn around and go back downstairs.

The first band we encountered (Panzerfaust) was from Canadia, so we immediately bonded over weather, etc.

The next band (Ghost Bath) had members from Canadia, North Dakota and St. Paul (less than a mile from us!!), so more bonding.

The next band was the fabulous Black Altar from Poland, who commented on Bhob's Behemoth t-shirt.

The spot where I had rested my legs the night before was being used for merch, so we were eyeing the paid seating area. I asked an employee how much it cost, and it was the equivalent of $50 US cash for both of us. 

We hightailed it to the ATM around the corner and got back in time to nab the last table. There was a speaker blocking the view of mid-stage (and thus all of the vocalists), but our middle-aged feet were so happy, it was a worthy tradeoff.

We ordered a big beer and thought we had started a tab. We figured we would live like royalty and get whatever we wanted. The show was expected to be about 8 hours long, so why not?

Haborym!!!

The first five bands had played, each one better than the last. It was about 7 PM, and our server informed us that we had to settle up. 

It turned out that the cash we had given her was kind of a retainer, and everything we had ordered was being deducted from it, so we only owed her another $10 or so.

We had expected to be paying much more, so we gave her a huge cash tip and she gave me a big hug!!

Black Altar took the stage again, and were just as good as before, but finished after only a couple of songs. We looked over at the bar, and it was closed. The lights were up, and people were taking down the sound gear.

We sat for awhile, quite perplexed, until someone who spoke English came up and said that there was some problem with the police and the show was over (something about the club not being up to date on its liquor license?).

We went outside and the crowd was still kind of hanging out. We asked a couple of guys if they spoke English and they were like "Yeah, of course!", and filled us in. Apparently, a change of venue for the remainder of the bands was expected, so we were waiting to hear where.

The guys were in the band Invocatio (from the Pre-Festival Party) but we didn't recognize them out of costume. They had traveled from their home in Aguascalientes (where one of our favorite bands, Aztlan, is from) so we chatted about that city, and how it has a huge state fair that is kind of annoying to the locals. We could totally relate!

The word came around that the show would be reconvening at a club in La Condesa, which was at least 45 minutes and two forms of public transport away from our apartment. 

Because Ghost Bath was the only one that we really wanted to see, (and they are literally our neighbors and likely to play in the Twin Cities at some point), we bid our new friends goodbye and thank you, and walked home in some lovely light rain.

We knew that if we went to the show, everything would be delayed by at least 90 minutes and we probably wouldn't be home until after 1 AM. 

Got home, took a shower, ate some of the half sandwich I'd brought home from the Salem Witch Café and went to bed at a sensible 10:30 PM.

 

Day 4 CDMX

Had a leisurely start to the day. 

Had coffee and tamales.

Walked to Office Depot to see if they had a cardboard tube for our festival poster.

They didn't.

Decided to have a touristy day and visit the interior of the Monumento a la Revolución. It had a museum in the basement chronicling the revolution, which would have been very informative if we had bothered to learn Spanish at some point.

Googled "cantina near me open now", which directed us to Terazza Cha Cha Chá. Fancy and expensive, but we couldn't resist the name, and the view was lovely.

Bhob wanted to be incognito

We also got a shot of Nixta, a corn liqueur that was very pleasant, like if Corn Nuts and vanilla syrup had a boozy baby 

Revisited the neighborhood of our first stay 

and got ice cream at Joe Gelato.

Bhob scratched a three year old itch and bought a couple of cool skulls (one of which he hadn't stopped thinking about) at the souvenir shop where he had found some previously.

I scratched a three year old taco itch with chicharrón tacos at Taqueria Orinoco. 

They really were as good as we remembered

Took the metro home, drank some ice water and relaxed for a minute.

Our downstairs neighbor

Went out, aiming for the taqueria a few blocks away where we'd had pulque during our 2023 visit. 

We just wanted to get a beer and inquire if they still had karaoke on Sunday nights. They weren't open, so we went to Pizza del Perro Negro at Ex Fabrica.

Does the pineapple that comes with your mezcal count towards your 5 Per Day?

Seeking more adventure, googled "cantina near me open now", and got directed to a place in the slightly sketchy part of town to the south of our apartment. 

It wasn't open, and Bhob was getting wiped out, so we went home.

The outside of our building. I'd love to see the rooftop!

We were leaving the next day, but we hadn't messed up the apartment too badly, so didn't feel the need to spend a lot of time doing the usual massive clean up. Spent the evening reading and relaxing.

 

Day 5 Departure

Got up early enough to take a little walk while it was still cool.

Didn't expect to hear The Vapors in a passage at 7 AM!

Got tamales, ate, cleaned and packed.

Left for the airport around 10:30 AM 

 

Random Observations

Lots of people wearing Covid masks.

CDMX is a very romantic city; public displays of affection are very, very common.

The alternate title of this post was "We Will Never Get Scurvy". The only things resembling vegetation that we consumed during the entire trip were the limes that were squeezed into our beers and tequilas.

Though I have been to CDMX 5 times, I have never had a margarita there.

 

So, it was a good trip?

Absolutely!

 

Why CDMX again?

 

About 7-8 months before this trip, we had been watching lots of videos of many different genres of metal. For a long stretch, every day, one or both of us would comment "Wow, I really like Black Metal!"

Several weeks before our last CDMX trip, we decided to look at the schedule for HDX Bar to see if there was anything interesting during our stay.

When we went to their website, the first thing that popped up was a Black Metal Festival 7 months later (in May, 2025).

Of course we immediately bought tickets and booked flights without even bothering to see what bands were playing. 🤘

 

What exactly is Black Metal? 

If you can imagine surf music with lots of distortion, double bass drums and Skeletor on vocals, you're most of the way there.

Here is an example

I don't pay attention to lyrics, but judging by the song titles, themes range from dystopian doom to history and mythology to female empowerment and personal growth.

The vocals tend to be mixed really low, so for all I know they're singing about cake recipes and tax increment financing.

 

How was the weather?

Great!

Pretty warm during the day, but low humidity. Perfect temperatures after dusk.

A couple of instances of light rain.

 

What time of year did you go?

Early May, 2025

 

What was it like being in Mexico on Cinco de Mayo?

It was a travel day, so it's hard to know for sure.

It seems to be more of a Mexican-American holiday. 

I imagine that Independence Day in September is more of a big deal.

What’s the time difference?

Since most of Mexico abolished Daylight Saving in October 2022 (more proof of its cultural seniority), this time of year it was one hour behind the Central Time Zone in the US.

It took us a full day to figure this out 😜

 

How were your flights?

Great!

MSP-MEX

Airbus 319

Arrived 15 minutes early!

MEX-MSP 

Airbus 319

Pulled up to the gate in MSP exactly on time 

 

What did you watch on the airplane?

MSP-MEX 

3 episodes of The Office 

Urbanized 

Played trivia while waiting to take off/deplane 

MEX-MSP

4 episodes of The Office 

A few minutes of Captain America 

1 episode of Drag Queens Save The World 

Played trivia 

 

 

How did you get around ?

Walking, metro and one Uber 

 

Did you hear any interesting music?

We were very impressed by all of the metal bands we saw at HDX 🤘🤘🤘

 

What is so great about the fish place?

It's delicious, cheap (about 50¢ per filetito), open every day, close by (80 seconds from our front door, and under 2 minutes from our apartment door upstairs) and the people who run it are really, really nice.

All the great flavor of the state fair without having to go to the state fair 

Did you try any interesting foods or drinks?

All of the usual faves 

 

Did you drink the water?

 No.

 

Any highlights?

As always, the kind, friendly people.

Seeing Black Altar on Friday night 

 

Any lowlights?

Missing Ghost Bath and Panzerfaust on Saturday 

 

Any surprises?

The Pre-Festival show was way more fun than the truncated actual festival, and we'd only found out about it a short time beforehand.

 

Is it safe?

We never felt unsafe 

 

What was the exchange rate?

 $1 US is worth about 20 pesos

 

How much did it cost?

For 2 people, 4 days:

Flights $1434.12

Trip Insurance 

Lodging $300.82

Ground transportation $15.34

Food:

Groceries $16.34

Restaurants and street food* $98.88

Coffee, booze and treats* $232.98

Admission to attractions $198.50

Total $2411.70

Total “on the ground” (not including airfare and lodging) $562.04

Total per person, per day $301.46

Total “on the ground” per person, per day $70.26

To save for a trip like this, you’d need to save $3.30 per day for a year

*As always, includes generous tipping, and this time, VIP seating for the Saturday evening show.

 

 

Who watched Stinkerbell while you were gone?

Our dear friends and neighbors, Rob and Jennifer