The day of the dead - México

墨西哥亡灵节 Oct 25 - Nov 3, 2025

I have been planning this trip for many months. I first heard about it from a friend’s social media post. I immediately got interested in it. Later, people told me about the cartoon Coco. After watching it, my excitement went up! I want to experience that celebration.

I planned way ahead, but made big changes towards the end when the date of the big parade got changed from Nov 2nd to Nov 1st. We wasted more than $200 on the buses, plus changed almost all hotel bookings. :( Well, that is part of the planning I guess.

Oct 25, 2025 fly to Mexico City

After an Indian buffet with Shawn, he took us to the airport and we flew to Mexico City. Erik used Google translator and had several conversations with the uber driver on the way there. Wish we could speak more Spanish. We liked our first Airbnb. Street vendors late at night right downstairs on weekends. Streets were for bikers, runners and walkers only on weekends as well. It was late at night, but the streets were lively.

Oct 26, 2025 Mexico City

First activity was a tour to Museo Nacional de Antropología, but we missed the tour. The metro that Google recommended was closed. We changed our route on the spot. The new route was longer and already put us 10 mins late. We decided to take a taxi for the last part vs metro to save sometime. However, the roads around the museum were all closed. When we got there, we were about 20 mins late and the tour started without us☹️. We toured the museum ourselves by using google translation. Since museums were not really something Erik and I were into, we thought we got good enough information after couple of hours.

Some traditional performances outside the museum. AND my favorite Mexican food: big corn.

Went to a popular taco place for lunch. They were ok tacos though.

Today was the Grand parade of the Catrinas. It was one of major Day of dead parades. The reforma street was fully decorated. Vendors everywhere and streets were packed with people. The parade was at 6pm, but we got a spot around 2pm and stayed until it started. I used the time to paint our faces.

Big parade with loud music and crazy audience. Love the atmosphere!

We left before the end of the parade and headed back to our hotel. By the time we got to our room, the parade hasn’t arrived here yet. We got to watch it again in our room.

Oct 27, 2025 Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán

We did not miss our tour today. Yay!

It was a hot day. The guide was very knowledgeable, but, everything he explained was what anthologists’ guessed what happened. It is so fascinating that human being existed for so long and there were so many mysteries in terms of how they lived before.

After the trip, we were dropped off at a busy street where we got the best tacos of the trip.

We checked out the Historical center after the satisfying snacks. It had lots of decorations.

Oct 28, 2025 Museo Frida Kahlo, Coyoacán

We had an easy morning today. We took metro to Coyoacán to visit the museum of Frida. We did our homework before this visit by watching couple of the documentaries about Frida and her life, which made this visit so easy to understand.

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her deeply personal and symbolic self-portraits that explored identity, pain, and resilience. She lived a life marked by physical suffering and passionate creativity, becoming an icon of Mexican culture and feminist strength. The Museo Frida Kahlo, also called La Casa Azul, preserves her home, art, clothing, and personal objects, offering an intimate look into her life and artistic world.

Food at nearby market. It was a super popular place recommended by social media.

We took cable car line 2 for a ride on the way back to see colorful houses and airplane library. The experience was very similar to cable car in Bolivia.

Oct 29, 2025 Morelia

4 hours bus ride to Morelia turned into almost 8 hours due to protests. We were very tired when we got to the Airbnb. The plan to walk around Morelia was no longer the plan, but we did make it to a restaurant I wanted to try. It turned out to be a high-end restaurant. Food was good but expensive compared to all the street food we had.

Oct 30, 2025 Capula, Santa Clara de Cobre, Patzcuaro

Love the little town of Capula soooo much. It is famous for making Catrinas and pottery craftsmanship. I am so glad we stopped by. Almost everyone in town is an artisan.

I felt in love with the Catrinas they made, especially in couple of the shops, where the artists’ work are amazingly good.

The artist in the middle, he didn’t allow pictures in his store, but I wanted pictures in his store the most! How surprising. I think he is the best one in town. He has painted catrinas for 15 years. After nagging for a while, he allowed me to take a picture of him when I requested. The bottom left picture was not supposed to be taken, but I couldn’t help myself.

The town also had good food.

Stopped by Santa Clara de Cobre, a copper town.

We checked in our Airbnb in Patzcuaro, it turned out to be the highlight of our trip. Host Humberto and his whole family were so welcoming. They lived in this place for more than 100 years. Now, it seems his dad’s generation is sharing the place. After I heard Humberto and his dad were going to set up their altar, I got so excited. They were nice enough to allow us to do it with them. We cannot communicate with each other very well. Google translate didn’t work that well either, but, we got the things done!

We went out and walked around the center after.

Oct 31, 2025 Patzcuaro

Jose was having his breakfast when I came out. I asked if I could look around. He signaled go ahead. He showed me around the whole place and I got introduced to his sisters and brother who were having breakfast in one of their rooms. We couldn’t communicate using our google translate, but we were able to figure out I was originally from China. They showed me pictures about Xi, Jinping, and Trump. They said a lot of things. I was shaking my head…I wish Erik was there. Well, he was here later, but except he numbered the years of our marriage of 20, not sure there was anything more communicated either. hehe

Magically, a quick tour with communicating using our body language made our connection. When I told Jose we were leaving, his eyes teared up and so did mine.

We took a ferry to Janitzio island. People were so friendly. I asked if a pot was full of tamales. The owner gave us one to try. I asked what in a big pot. The lady gave us a cup to try. Another lady took my trash after I finished my free tamales…I always always forget, the world is not just work and money and so many things needed to be done each day, but a world full of love around us if we pay attention.

We climbed all the way up to see the giant statue of José María Morelos. I enjoyed the   traditional old man dancing the most.

Since we were a day earlier from the day of the dead, people haven’t started to decorate the cemeteries much yet.

We visited Tzintzuntzan, where it was famous for cemetery parties on the night of Nov 1st. We thought we wouldn’t be able to have much unique experience because it wasn’t the right time. But it was the right time to see people decorating the tombs and there were bands playing music, which was interesting to see.

We stopped by the town of Santa Fe de Laguna, which kept many traditions of this holiday. I was disappointed that we couldn’t spend the night of Nov 1st here since the biggest parade for the Day of the dead happened in Mexico City that day. But we were lucky that we got to see several families did what normally happened on the night of Nov 1st.

For the year when someone died, during this holiday, they have a big altar. Neighbors stop by and give offerings. The family will prepare bean soup and bread or some other food to share.

We stepped in a house, since their door was open, and they told us they were preparing for tomorrow. However, they invited us in and shared tacos with us. We left our offering for them for tomorrow when we left.

Another family with big offering with many neighbors. We left offering since they allowed me to take a video. Didn’t wait for food. :)

Groups of kids on the streets asking for ANYTHING like the Halloween in the US. Obviously, they could tell Erik looked different and seemed nice, they all came up to him and waved their baskets. Erik gave them candy, money, fruits…you name it. The group got crazier when they saw Erik at a fruit vendor keep buying and distributing guavas…

This town is also where mama Coco from the movie was from. The church also had an altar.

After driving around for a day, we took the over night bus back to Mexico City to watch the day of the dead parade. Erik did a good job renting the car and driving us around.

Nov 1, 2025 Mexico City

We got couple hours of sleep in before heading out to the parade. We left around noon after I painted our faces the second time :)

The crowd was not as big as for the parade of the Catrina’s I felt like. But still lots of people. Overall, I liked the Catrina parade more, maybe because it had louder music, people were more excited and engaged. Because it was late into the night, the lights were pretty as well. It just had a more exciting vibe.

Our Airbnb was next to the parade street. After a quick rest, we walked to the zocalo center to see the big “party”, but, we experienced the “people mountain people sea” while approaching the center. We decided that we didn’t enjoy moving our feet inch by inch with people’s bodies against each other all the time. so we left.

Nov 2nd, 2025 Mexico City

We checked out a restaurant for some traditional food for lunch. It was a lovely walk there. We sat down at this empty restaurant which I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t so popular. The waiter gave us the menu. I already knew what I wanted since I did my homework before we came. When I ordered what I wanted, he said they didn’t have it, but the next door restaurant did. Then, I realized we were not in the place where I wanted to be. Oh well, well no, I want what I wanted. I apologized and went to next door. Erik felt embarrassed but knowing me he knew this gonna happen. The next door was packed with people eating. Yes, that is what I was talking about. We sat down happily, and enjoyed our lunch a lot!

We just relaxed in the afternoon. For dinner, we went this Michelin place that Erik wanted to check out. Luckily, when we got there, the line was super short. I lined up and got frustrated that I could not find Erik. I texted him and told him I was in line. I looked around and saw him standing far away from me and there was no signs for him to come. I gave up my place and went over. It turned out, I was in the wrong line. We waited for a long time to get our food, because the real line was long, the line where he was in…

The tacos were ok. It was one of those places where you, as a tourist, try once so you can say you’ve been there.

Nov 3rd, 2025 Home

I went out by myself to get some food before heading to the airport. I was hoping to bring a piece of corn on the cob with me, but to my surprise, everywhere was selling tacos for breakfast. In China, corn definitely is one of the breakfast options but not in Mexico.

After some sign languages, I was able to get an omelet and Atole. They were delicious.

Our trip home was uneventful which was a blessing.