Mexico City Oct 26

 Hotel Catedral is still offering a wonderful breakfast buffet.  More of it is served to you rather than serving oneself because of COVID precautions.  The hot chocolate!  A real treat and something that I look forward to when visiting Mexico.  

The group went on a walking tour of the cathedral, the ruins of Tenochitlan, and I'm not sure what else in the morning.  I stayed at the hotel to meet with a representative from the transportaiton company to pay him for the little bus and driver that we will have for the next week.  

About noon we all met up again and went to the building of the Secretaria de Educacion Publica.  Here there are many murals of Diego Rivera.  These aren't the most famous ones but they certainly give a great view of his style and his work.  Most of the painting here were done in the early 1920's.  It was interesting to see how flapper women were represented in several of the paintings. 

The group splits and some go back to the hotel to rest a little before lunch.  Others join Juan for a tour that includes some meteorites, the statue of "El Caballito", the tile house, the post office.  I walk with the others to the restaurant, Casino Espanola.  It is housed in an elegant building and was a social club for the elite in the early 1920's.  Now it is mostly used for special occasions, business lunches.  It doesn't look at all like a restaurant on the outside so is not a place where tourists generally go.  We had a large, very special lunch.  First is bread served with olives, a spicey red sauce and butter with herbs.  We had a choice for appetizers of octupus or a torta espanola with was an egg and cheese dish.  Both were excellent.  Several people were surprised that the octupus was tender, not chewy.  Next course is soup.  A choice of a pasta and garbanzo soup or a beef broth.  Again, both were excellent.  Then the main course.  A choice of fish in a wine sauce or pork.  Most choose the fish.  Since I'm allergic to fish, I knew my choice.  Again both were awesome!  

Did I say anything about how elegant the building is?

Paula and Jorge had arranged for a friend of theirs,  a naturalist medicine person, to come and talk to us.  He makes many of his own tintures and had come for us to take back to Paula and Jorge.  We enjoyed meeting him.  He learned a lot of his English through songs.  It was fun to connect with him through song.  

While we were on the terrazo, Juan noticed that the volcano Popocapetl was smoking!  

We ordered a pitcher of Lemonade made with mineral water to be delivered to the terraza for our happy hour.  It makes a great mixer!  We had more of the chees from yesterday and a special bread that we bought in Bernal and forgot to serve yesterday.  It is stuffed with a cream cheese and marzipan.  Oh, it was good!  Because we had such a late lunch, people weren't interested in dinner.  

More talking and bonding up on the terraza and then time for bed.