La Casa Azul

It's been a jam packed few days in Mexico City.  I've met K, a friend and former travel partner of many years, and we have rooms in the Hotel Fleming, a centrally located abode and an excellent value at around $35 for a single and private bath.

This K's first time in the DF, so I've acted as sort of an unofficial guide to getting around to points of interest of her choosing.

On Tuesday we immediately hit the metro for the trek out to Coyoacan to check out Frida Kahlo's Blue House (La Casa Azul).  Unfortunately the museum hadn't even opened by the time we arrived at 11.00.  A visibly annoyed local woman told us "the guy said he would open the door in a few minutes, but they are supposed to open at 10.00!"

We decided to kill time by going to the Trotsky Museum--my second visit in less than a year.

By noon not only was the Blue House open:  it also was very crowded with Europeans, North Americans and locals.  This is the house where Frida grew up in the 1910s, and where, in 1954, she died in her bed.

The museum has preserved many of the household rooms including the large kitchen, some bedrooms, studies, and sitting rooms.

Other rooms are devoted to galleries that feature Frida's works, other pieces she was inspired by, and pictures by some of her contemporaries such as Paul Klee.

One highlight of the Blue House is the massive garden which feature stone masks of "the dead"--a subject of lifelong interest to Frida--and life size paper mache models of Frida and husband Diego Rivera as skeletons!

Digital photo loops help complete a portrait of Mexico's "odd couple" as the vivacious core of a circle of friends which included many international luminaries of the 1930s--1950s.