Mexico City, Day Two

After a leisurely morning at the hotel we headed out to Casa Luis Barragan.  His home is a UNESCO site.  A modernist, an engineer and a man obsessed with light.  The place is absolutely worth going to and you need a reservation.  The hanging stairs, the Mexican colors, the large glass windows and nothing is perfectly placed.  There is one room with a tiny window at the base of the floor while other windows butt up against a wall.  A unique home where you can see where many other modern architects got their ideas. FYI..no pics except on the terrace/roof which had these incredibly tall walls so nobody can see you in there.  You can an idea of the concrete fabric of every wall in the house from this photo and the mixture of colors. 

Next stop was GAM, Galeria de Arte Mexicano. This was the first established place to ever represent artists in Mexico City hence the first gallery.  The building is absolutely magnificent.  They carry a variety of artists.  They were in between exhibits so there was alot of art just hanging and wrapped. 

I bought this fantastic metal piece by the artist Jan Hendrix.  I got the one with the four flowers. Really loved this place and would go back again.  Super nice people. 

We left this area and went over to the Condessa neighborhood.  Although a lot is written about this neighborhood it is very spread out and mostly residential.  Not worth walking around but definitely worth eating at Contramar.  The place was packed for lunch so make a reservation. Nice vibe and an airy feel. 

We started off with two glasses of sangria.  Yum.

This comes on each table.  Nice spice to add to anything. 

Tuna tostados and octopus tostados.  The octopus was chopped up like a salad and placed on the tortilla.  The tuna was out of this world.  Sliced rare tuna with a hint of lime juice, sliced avocado and crispy fried leeks on top.  I could eat those tuna tostadas every day. 

Shrimp salad was quite good too.  Grilled baby shrimp over a salad of arugula, orange segments and more avocado. 

They brought over the dessert platter.  I truly just wanted a fork so I could take a bite of each.  We opted for the mango.  Kind of funny how in the midst of all those desserts there was one mango too.

The mango might have been the best mango I have ever had.  Seriously ripe and juicy.

After lunch we went over to the store Common People.  A concept shop that is three stories tall.  We each bought these funky dolls made out of paper mache to sit on a book shelf.  The store is funky.  Lots of jewelry and edgy in this kind of dark way.  Worth checking out.

This was the piece on the wall when you leave.  A Swakorski crystal needle with black chairs hanging over it.  Wild.

We went back over to the Patricia Conde Gallery to buy the piece we saw yesterday.  My friend bought it.  Then there was a new piece that just called out to me so I bought it.  This young girl is standing in front of a painting in a closed down history museum.  The animals are stuffed.  It is as if time has stood still.  I love the mystery of the piece and the little girl is so beautiful and haunting and very Mexican.  Hard to see with the light coming in the gallery and the camera.

Strolled around the area.  Saw this very cool wood table.  The whole store had a bunch of stuff made from local artisans.  Looking into shipping this table back. 

We then checked out two other galleries.  Oscar Roman which was a mish mash of stuff and art everywhere.  Kind of hard to even get a feel for what they are showing.  The other one was Juan Martin.  Didn't love the exhibit they had but a nice gallery.  The piece is above.

Then we wandered into another gallery which was under major construction.  This piece was pretty interesting. 
 

All and all…a great day.