Day 1: Mexico CityWelcome in airport MEX and transfer to your centrally located hotel (earliest possible check-in hour: 15:00h local Mexico City time). Resting time of day at leisure before your first overnight in Mexico City.
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Day 2: Cultures, Historical Center, Market & Templo Mayor (B)Breakfast in hotel.
Today, let us show Mexico City to you, in its origins, in its transformation to contemporary culture, learning about ancient roots and culinary aspects. Visit the Square of 3 Cultures in Tlatelolco, where in prehispanic times were held the market places of all goods, which also were provided to the theocratic quarters of priests, and where nowadays the Aztec ruins lay next to colonial Santiago church, surrounded by the rather modern living complex of Nonoalco- Tlatelolco. Get into Mexico City’s historical center (UNESCO World Heritage – UWH), where you explore the area walking, seeing Zocalo main square with National Palace and Metropolitan Cathedral around, get into a local market and see all the fresh fruit and vegetables and have some tasting of typical Mexican food. Visit also the ruins of Aztec Main Temple which remain from prehispanic Aztec capital Tenochtitlán (Templo Mayor is closed on Mondays / in those Mondays, the view would be from outside only). See also the Fine Arts Palace with its fascinating mural paintings inside, as well as Alameda Central Park and get gimpls into traditional bakeries and Mexican artisan sweet shops. After a day full of city center exploration return to your hotel. There we recommend not to miss a dinner (not included in package price) in the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, which is well known for its exquisite cuisine!
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Day 3:Cooking In Xochimilco & Coyoacán Home Of Frida Kahlo (B, L)Breakfast in hotel.
Morning drive into southern parts of Mexico City to reach Xochimilco town, which is part of the capital. Meet the local family, with which you will go to market hall to buy ingredients, for then to get to their private home and kitchen for your cooking class on typical Mexican recipes and finally have a wonderful ride on your private Trajinera boat along the ancient canals of Floating Gardens of Xochimilco (UWH) with its agricultural Chinampa islands. Enjoy a tasty lunch on board, before then in afternoon to get into Coyoacán colonial quarter, where you will visit also the Blue House, which is the Museum Frida Kahlo, which houses a charming exhibition about the famous artist’s life, her art and connected oeuvre to her and her husband Diego Rivera. Visit the main building and exhibition on your own, before your guide will receive you again on your exit from the museum. Evening return to hotel for resting free time.
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Day 4:Anthropology Museum & Tenayuca – Cañada De Cisneros (B)Breakfast in hotel.
The morning is dedicated to Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology, a unique example of its kind in the world. The visit there is for the seeing of some major exhibition hall about main prehispanic cultures in Mexico, also seen from the prehispanic point of view, calling all the included cultural area Mesoamerica. In route then out of Mexico City, visit the small archaeological sites of Tenayuca and Sta. Cecilia, where it can be seen, how the temple structures of Aztec domain in central Mexico Valley looked like on the arrival of the Spaniards. In the afternoon, reach your overnight place in the countryside outskirts of Mexico City, where the landlady welcomes you in her charming rural mansion to fully relax in nature and silence.
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Day 5:Tepotzotlán, Rural Cooking & Colonial Origins Of Water (B, L)Breakfast in hotel.
Morning short drive into neighbor Magical Town of Tepotzotlán, there to see the precious Mexican baroque church (UWH – as part of Camino Real) and the Museum of Vice royal Art (museum closed on Mondays). Go to the local market and already get some of the ingredients, with which on your return to hotel you will realize the cooking class on base of prehispanic recipes! Enjoy lunch surrounded by the private and lush ambiance of Quinta Golondrinas, before you will visit still the colonial aqueduct Arcos de Sitio for a panoramic walk around and see this wonderful engineering work from the colonial era, when the missionaries worked to get water into central valleys of Mexico.
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Day 6:Cañada De Cisneros – Tula & Acolman – Teotihuacán (B)Breakfast in hotel.
Morning drive out of Cañada de Cisneros to get into the prehispanic region of the Toltecs, there to visit their ancient capital of Tula, where in the archaeological site you can see, among others, the interesting Atlant statues, which formerly carried the temple roof, which has disappeared over the centuries. In ongoing route for Teotihuacán, visit the colonial exconvent of Acolman. Here you will see and learn about, how the Spanish crown conquered ancient Mexico not only economically, but overall, in the religious way. Evening arrival in Teotihuacán and your hotel.
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Day 7:Teotihuacán “City Of Gods” – Mexico City (B)Breakfast in hotel.
Morning visit of Teotihuacán archaeological site (UWH) just next to your hotel. The name was given by the ancient Aztec culture, which, when they arrived to settle in central valleys of Mexico, already found this prehispanic city abandoned, and for the mighty structures thought, that such place could have been built by gods only. During your visit walk, see so emblematic structures like so called Citadel, Quetzalcóatl-Temple, Road of the Dear, and yes, of course, also the great Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, among others.
Latest check-out from hotel at noon, for afterwards to have your transfer back to Mexico City to airport or any connecting service you might have.
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