FEBRUARY 17, 2012: From Zona Rosa, after ambling around the Paseo de la Reforma, I hired a taxi to bring me to Zocalo near the Palacio de las Bellas Artes. I instructed the driver in Spanish but may be he misunderstood me and had drove me farther towards the colonial place called Bellas Artes. He thought I was heading there.
When I noticed it was the wrong way, I attracted his attention. He was sorry about it so he turned around and drove towards Zocalo. The traffic was tail-to-tail and the humid heat of the afternoon sun can be felt in the air. While waiting for the traffic my driver has the time to skim his newspaper. I don't know if he's reading it but I noticed he's skimming his newspaper very quickly.
We finally got to the TransLatino Tower after 45 minutes then he charged me $50.00 for the trip and the turn around. I then disembarked in front of the Palacio de las Bellas Artes then walked towards the building and checked inside.
The courtyard was teeming with people of all walks of life, young and old, skinny and fat, handsome and ugly, rich and poor, etc. It was very crowded at the front yard so I decided to check the interior of the beautiful building.
The interior was very nice with black marbled walls and floors with white streaks. The dome on the ceiling appears plain and had not much paintings. The building has a hallow center and at the center the four storeys can be pretty much spotted well.
After checking the interior of the building, I then went out and ambled towards the TransLatino Tower. I kept taking pictures of both buildings. The traffic was now extremely crowded and the streets are teeming with diversified people of all walks of life.
I continued ambling towards the tower, then I spotted the building walled with white and blue porcelain tiles just across the tower. It was odd to look at from the distance. Intrigued, I went closer then saw how intricately plastered those tile individually on the wall. I then took several pictures and then made an about face and ambled towards the tower.
When I turned around, on my left side, I noticed there were a lot of people in front of the yard near the tower. Puzzled, I went inside the yard to check it out and I saw some glass cabinets with cute little dolls in various colorful and fancy dresses. The dolls appeared to look like the Baby Infant Jesus.
I looked around and saw a banner saying the theme of the exhibit. I was right that it was the exhibit of the Infant Jesus. I kept snapping my camera for pictures of the dolls individually and also each of the glass cabinets for my online albums.
After I was done at the exhibit, I then paid my ticket at the counter for the lift on top of the observation room. I paid $60.00 for the lift. The observation room was in the 47th floor of the building. From there all the view of the whole city can be seen.
Even the back drop of the two snow-capped volcanoes from the southern horizon can be vividly visualized. I took a lot of pictures of every corners of the observation deck. It was very awe-inspiring to have seen Mexico City in 360 degrees. I stayed there for thirty minutes.
From there, I spotted the Zocalo, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Palacio Postal, The House of Tiles, the Plaza Tolsa and El Caballito, the Basilica de Guadalupe from the far West and the opulent district of Mexico City in the nearby northern section. I can also spot the Chapultepec Lake, Zoo, and Castle at the near East side. It was very exciting to have been there and enjoy the nice view.
After that, I went to the 41st floor, to eat at the Miralto Restaurant. I decided to eat light so I ordered a lime mojito, a shrimp bisque for appetizer, and a green salad with grilled salmon for the entree. The ambiance there was good. I can see some beautiful people dressed formally and also some couples having dinner dates.
When my shrimp bisque had arrived, I've noticed that my lone jumbo grilled shrimp perched on the side of the bowl as a garnish has still an intestine and a curly human hair. I called the attention of the waiter and he condescendingly apologized and took the bowl to be changed. I was surprised of his attitude and was about to leave but I held my cool.
After 10 minutes the new bowl was delivered and the shrimp was been laid alone on the porcelain saucer. I've doubled checked the food several times before I let go of the waiter. So far everything was good and the shrimp bisque was very delicious. (May be they added more cream. Hehehe.)
The salad came after that and I was frustrated because the salad serving was so little and the grilled salmon was rare and bland. It was just like eating a bland hospital food. There were no dressing on the green salad either.
The presentation appeared like a smiley wherein they added a dehydrated round-cut orange in the middle and a green oily dressing along the semi- circular ridge of the plate, that resembled as the beard. The salmon appeared like the big laughing mouth. It was well presented but the execution was poor. If I were the judge on my favorite show "Chopped" on the Food Network, I will axe the chef immediately with no further explanations.
Despite of this dilemma, I can't help eating them all, because I was starving big time. I complained to the waiter that the salad was not enough yet he was just smirking at me.
The mojito was good but they've crushed a lot of mint and only squeezed a little lime and poured a lot of tequila which made it a lot stronger. I can feel the heat of the tequila streaming down my throat. I can't complain anymore.
On the rate of 0 to 10, I have to grade Miralto as 4/10. Sorry, I wasn't satisfied. On top of that, I paid $410.00 (Mexican dollars) which is a whopping $33.15 USD. Poorly executed, huh!
After I paid my bill, I went down to use their rest room. To my horrible surprise, one of the faucets is not working and there was only one stall with a toilet bowl and when I used it, because I have to defecate, there wasn't even a switch to turn on the light. I couldn't wait to go up and complain because my tummy was already about to burst.
I closed the stall and it was totally dark inside. I turned on my cell phone to give me a little light and lined the bowl rim with toilet paper so that I can go. My God... it was a horrible experience at that posh restaurant. That's what they called posh? Well, if given another chance I won't dine there again.
After washing my hands, I went upstairs and took the elevator down. When I get out of the tower the streets were already teeming with people. I crossed the street again and ambled a little bit towards the front yard of the Bellas Artes then sat there and observed around, what the people were doing.
There were a lot of people every where in the yard talking at each other and doing their own stuff. Some were eating and the children are running and squirming around hyperactively. Some were just sitting there and listened to their MP3's and some are reading their books intently. A lot of activities around and I was amused of my observation. It was very entertaining!
At 1730H I decided to leave the yard and walked towards Alameda Park and called for a taxi there. I was lucky that a taxi had stopped in front of me alighting a couple people on the street.
I immediately went inside the taxi and told the driver to drop me off at the hotel. He drove me towards Reforma Avenue and made a right turn on Calle Hamburgo. He dropped me off at the corner and to my surprise he charged me $110.00. I told him that it was too much (in Spanish) and that the register only tipped at $26.00. I gave him $30.00 and he didn't even complained. He was probably shocked that I can speak Spanish fluently. Hahaha.
Well, that was the gist of my fourth day here in Mexico City, all doing it to myself. Starting my adventure at the Chapultepec Castle, then my awesome walk on Paseo de La Reforma (which made my legs and feet very sore), the viewing of the city in 360 degrees at the observation deck of the Torre de Latino, the stroll at the front yard of Palacio de las Bellas Artes, and the not so par dinner at the Miralto on the 41st floor of the tower as well as that horrible dark room experience at the Miralto restaurant's male restroom (it felt like I was doing shit in primitive times). Hahaha.
It was quite an exciting, interesting, refreshing, and entertaining experience for me and I was so fortunate to have done it on my own despite of some setbacks. I was almost duped by the taxi driver who drove me back at the hotel but good thing I've proved him wrong.
So much to learn from these experiences and I can't complain for more. I love this trip and I wish I could do more exploration on my own. Thank you God for a very worthwhile day.
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