Mexico City – Chapultepec

Chapultepec is a large park to the west of the main part of Mexico City. In years gone by, it was the summer hang out of the Aztec elite. Today, it is a pleasant park jammed full of things to see and do. After my rough first day, I came here to restore my equilibrium and to enjoy a bit of serenity.


As I approached, the first thing that came into view was the monument to Los Niños Heroes. These dudes figure prominently in the modern psyche of the nation. Just about every city has their own monument and streets named after them. Their moment of glory came in 1847 when the Americans were invading the city after being annoyed one too many times by the Mexicans. The niños (boys) chose to defend the castle in the garden with their lives, rather than running away. The most heroic, Juan Escutia, is said to have wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped off the cliff rather than be captured. Very heroic indeed.

The monument itself is six pointy posts with some rather grand marble work around the base. Some describe it as looking like some sticks of asparagus. To me, it looks rather phallic and a bit of a mess.

Standing above the monument on the hill, is the Castillo de Chapultepec. It has served many purposes, from royal palace to military academy defending by jumping youths. Today, it’s a museum. See the separate post here ???.

Further on into the park and there are any number of street food sellers. If you fancy a taco or an enchilada or a beer, there’s ten people fighting amongst themselves for your business. There’s also a lot of arts and crafts stalls as well. They seem to be mainly selling inflated “Scooby Doo” dolls, but there’s also a lot of balls and such for sale.

Go a bit further and you run into one of the lakes. They’re all a rather fluorescent green colour – definitely not for swimming in. Instead, there’s row boats, paddle boats and a host of other craft – anything to be on the water without actually touching any of it. There’s also a zoo, but I couldn’t be bothered to go in.

To me though, the best part of the park were all the museums. I went into three in total – the excellent Anthropology Museum, the groovy Modern Art museum and the slightly crappy Museo Rufino Tamayo. All these are covered in separate posts.

The park is a great place to wander about. It’s a completely different pace to the heart of the city, which is just mental. It was a good introduction to the city and managed to convince me that Mexico City wasn’t all crime, dirt and chaos.