Mexico City – Coyoacán and San Angel

Fifty years ago, the suburbs of Coyoacán and San Angel were towns in the countryside, a long way from the bustle of the city. Today, the city has grown and engulfed these pretty little towns. Even though they are part of the city, they have maintained their village atmosphere. They are home to the wealthy and the artistic. This is where you find the former homes of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, amongst others.


Getting to these suburbs is easy. They’re on the Metro and only fifteen minutes from the centre of town. As soon as you exit the Metro, you can see the difference from the city. The suburbs still feel like towns. There is not as much traffic and there are trees everywhere. It’s also strangely quiet. After the intense bustle and noise of down town Mexico City, you feel as though you’ve been transported to a completely different country.

Historically, this is the place where the conquistador Cortez holed up after sacking Mexico City. He lived here happily with his native lover La Malinche until the administration was moved back to Mexico City.

The suburbs are all well maintained and have nice wide footpaths, so it was easy to wander around. My first stop was the “Blue House”, former house of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Right around the corner, is the former house of Russian Communist exile Leon Trotsky, so it was museum central. The houses are very large, with huge courtyard gardens in the middle. I get the feeling that the posh neighbours are not too keen to have all the Frida Kahlo lovers wandering around their posh suburb, but wander they do.

After these two museums, I wandered through the rest of Coyoacán. It’s a very pleasant suburb. There’s lots of well maintained old mansions, lovely gardens and trees and the occasional cafe thrown in for good measure. I ended up having lunch in a lovely little restaurant overlooking the town square. The food was a little ordinary, but the location was amazing.

After lunch, I headed towards San Angel, which is a short walk away. I walked down Avenue Francisco Sosa. This is apparently one of the oldest streets in Latin America. It’s lined with lovely old mansions. Most have been restored for the wealthy, but there are a few that are still crumbling ruins. It was a fairly tiring walk, but well worth it for the insight into the lives of the rich of Mexico City.

At the end, I was at San Angel. It’s not nearly as lovely as Coyoacán, but it’s still a massive improvement over the centre of town. San Angel is more commercialised, with luxury goods stores, Starbucks on every corner and a bit of a sterile feeling.

My reason for visiting San Angel was to visit the OTHER Frida and Diego house. This was the house where they lived out the ends of their lives. It’s featured in the movie “Frida” and is much more interesting than the “Blue House”.

By the end of the day, my feet hurt, I was hot and sweaty, but I’d had a good day. I was beginning to think that Mexico City was all bad. A visit to Coyoacán though has convinced me otherwise. The suburb is a little oasis of calm in amongst the raging storm that is Mexico City.