Sometime You Get What You Weren't Looking For

 

Library at Pedro Reyes House

Our new Skull

Hanging library Stacks

Guns into Shovels

Guns become Guitars

Nice Coyote

French Toast soaked in Whisky

The best Tequila I ever tasted

We were picked up by our driver for the second day of our architectural tour. The traffic in Mexico City is very heavy. However, we have heard almost no car honking, and everyone seems to go with the flow. It just takes a while to go anywhere. We spent plenty of time in our vehicle looking out at the city. It is just amazingly green with trees and parks seemingly everywhere. It is far greener than Los Angeles.

 

Before we left, I had purchased a new iPhone and AirPod Pro. I knew they translated live, but I wanted to experience it. Since we were spending a lot of time with our driver who spoke very little (but enough) English this was the perfect test. I took out my hearing aids and popped in my AirPods. The driver would speak in Spanish, and I would in near real time hear the translation spoken in English in my ears. It is amazing. He didn’t have air pods but if I spoke in English, it would translate it to Spanish on the iPhone and he could read it or I could have the iPhone speak it in Spanish. This is amazing and it works in several languages.

 

We started by visiting Casa Estudio Pedro Reyes y Carla Fernandez. Pedro Reyes is a famous architect and sculpture who creates incredible pieces out of volcanic stone. He also designed and created his amazing house. It is enormous with a fantastic library. We walked through the studio and library viewing the jaw dropping stonework. The sheer volume of books he accumulated is unbelievable. He lends books from his library out to the neighborhood just like a real library. Pedro is very anti violence and created a guitar entirely out of the parts of guns. He gathered 2700 guns melted them down and created 2700 shovels which he then used to plant 2700 trees.

 

His wife is a famous clothing designer, and we did buy some very cool items. We loved the stone coyote and it might find a new home. We will see. The visit to this house was a highlight of the trip. When we left the house, I received the electronic notification of the purchase showing that we spent a huge amount of money. I freaked out and had the driver return to the house to find out what happened. I learned that Mexico also uses also use “$” the bill was in Pesos not Dollars. I felt relieved.

 

With the bill now sorted we drove to Museo Experimental El Eco. This small museum fulfills a dream of Maithais Goeritz who created this space in 1953 for art.

 

After visiting the museum, we drove to Biblioteca Vasconcelos. Our friend Shumon had suggested we visit. If you are interested in architecture this is a must. It is a gigantic library space. The architect who must be a structural genius inverted the building. All the stacks of library books are suspended from the ceiling. Not resting on the floor. As you walk under the stacks it is fantastic to look up at the steel structure above your head and wonder how it was engineered. I doubt if my picture does justice. Hat tip to Shumon for the suggestion.

 

We returned to Onora and purchased a great skull that will find pride of place in our living room. We then returned to the Casa Polanco for an afternoon Tequila and prepare for dinner.

We went to Maximo for dinner it was great. We had been there before and this time it was just as great. The drive there was terrible, the traffic in Mexico City can be a killer. At the restaurant we met two great wine aficionados at the next table.  They offered us some of their wine. It was a very pleasant experience interacting with them. The food at Maximo is great and the place was packed.

We returned to Casa Polanco and the staff insisted we have some Tequila. We had the best Tequila I have ever drank. Hopefully we can find this Tequila in Los Angeles.