Mexico City Travel 02: Night Tacos Under a Pink Tent, and Siqueiros at Chapultepec Castle

Under a pink tent, on a red plastic plate, sat one taco. A yellow corn tortilla, meat charred at the edges, chopped onion and cilantro, green salsa. At the edge of the plate, half a lime.

I went to Mexico because I love tacos. Part 1 covered arriving in Mexico City and the Teotihuacan balloon. This post is the two days after that. October 3 was a taco stand at night. October 4 was Chapultepec, from morning into the afternoon, and that night I stood in front of the Monument to the Revolution.

The route in this post

Date and time	Where	In a line
Oct 3, night	A street taco stand in Mexico City	Pink tent, red plate, six videos
Oct 4, 09:40–10:00	Chapultepec park → Niños Héroes monument → foot of the hill	Tree-lined path, six white columns, a pink brick building
Oct 4, 10:23–12:00	Chapultepec Castle (National History Museum)	Uniformed groups, arcades, the Siqueiros mural, the terrace
Oct 4, 14:14–15:11	The park zoo → a lane of stalls	A Mexican wolf sign, a black squirrel, blue umbrellas
Oct 4, 19:41	Monument to the Revolution	Teal lights

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The night of October 3: Mexico City tacos under a pink tent

All that survives of October 3 is the night. My plan had a market for the daytime, but the only place with photos and videos is one taco stand after dark. At that stand I shot six videos in a little over ten minutes.

The plate was a red plastic plate slipped into a plastic bag, with a sheet of paper laid on top. Further up the table was a red pot stuffed with a bunch of cilantro. The taco video starts with the whole plate and moves closer and closer to the tortilla.

Up close there are two tortillas, one on top of the other. The meat is chopped small and blackened at the edges. Over it went plenty of white onion and cilantro, then two lines of green salsa.

The stand's roof was a pink tarp tent with a single white work light hanging under it. One of that night's selfie videos runs 2 minutes 45 seconds, and again and again in it I tip my head back to look at the tent and the light.

I went to Mexico to eat tacos, and I ate them wearing a green Mexico soccer jersey. Over it I had an ivory jacket, with a backpack strap on my shoulder.

Near the end of the same video I have my fingers at my mouth.

I had studied Spanish before this trip. The Spanish left in that night's videos is "Por favor," and, in the last video, "¿Quién es? Buenas noches."

The last video is 23 seconds long. It starts under the tent, and as I walk out, the pink tarp overhead turns into leaves and an orange streetlight. I was walking with my cheeks puffed out. Neither the stand's name nor its exact location made it into my records.

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Morning of October 4: Chapultepec park and the Niños Héroes monument

The next day was a Saturday. At 9:40 a.m. I walked into Chapultepec park.

Big trees line both sides of a wide stone path, with a map sign at the edge. The sky stayed overcast through the daytime.

A short walk on, white columns rise at the end of a semicircular marble plaza. This is the Niños Héroes monument, officially the Altar a la Patria (Altar to the Homeland). It honors six cadets of the Military College who died defending the castle in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847, which is why there are six columns. It was inaugurated in 1952, the work of architect Enrique Aragón and sculptor Ernesto Tamariz.

Each column is topped with a black bronze figure, and a white marble statue stands in the middle. At the railing in front of the plaza, people were taking turns posing for photos.

At 10 a.m. I passed a pink brick building at the foot of the hill. Its roofline has crenellations like a fortress wall, and its windows are pointed arches. Part of a building shows above the trees on the hill. The castle is on top of that hill.

Chapultepec Castle: uniformed groups, arcades and the Siqueiros mural

At 10:23 I was on the plaza in front of Chapultepec Castle, at the top of the hill. People in khaki uniforms passed in groups, with Mexican flag patches on their sleeves. In the distance were a flagpole with the Mexican flag and the BBVA tower.

The courtyard is ringed by a two-story arcade of gray stone: round arches below, a balustrade lined with planters above. Building began in 1785, and the castle took its present look when Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota lived here from 1864 to 1867. Since 1944 it has been the National History Museum.

At 11:09 I was in a gallery where the mural wraps right around the corner of the room. Men in sombreros, bandoliers crossed over their chests, hold their rifles upright and look straight out. Beside them come a woman in a red shawl and face after face, all the way to the end of the wall.

This is David Alfaro Siqueiros's mural From Porfirism to the Revolution (Del porfirismo a la Revolución). The museum gives it as 4.46 m high and 76.89 m wide. He began it in 1957; work stopped when Siqueiros was jailed in 1960, and the museum dates the finished work to 1966.

At 11:57 I was back outside, walking the terrace garden. A stone path runs along the castle wall, and past a fountain and a columned pergola stands a line of high-rises.

In the middle of the garden a big agave spreads its leaves above a clipped hedge, with cypresses behind it. My time at the castle ran from 10:23 to around noon, a little under two hours.

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Afternoon of October 4: a zoo, a black squirrel and a lane of blue umbrellas

My plan for the day also listed Xochimilco, Coyoacán and UNAM. But every photo and video from that afternoon was taken inside Chapultepec park. Xochimilco came the next night.

At 2:14 p.m. I was at a zoo. People were gathered at an enclosure under tall trees, and the sign had a picture of a wolf with the words LOBO MEXICANO (Mexican wolf). Several people wore purple plush hats, and on the right an aloe had sent up red flower spikes.

At 2:59 a black squirrel was sitting on a rusty metal railing, holding something orange in both front paws and gnawing at it. Behind it, tall grass grew thick.

At 3:11, stalls under blue umbrellas lined both sides of a stone path through the trees for a long way. Panda toys, plushies in every color and bags of snacks hung from them, and one stall had a BOSQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC sign. The path was packed.

The night of October 4: the Monument to the Revolution in teal

At 6:45 p.m. I was on the move, and at 7:41 I was in front of the Monument to the Revolution. The huge arch, a dome on four legs, was lit teal, with blue lights along the base.

It started out in 1906 as the federal legislative palace. Work stopped with the Revolution, and between 1933 and 1938 the architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia turned the remaining steel frame into a monument. Its height is given as 65 to 67 m depending on the source.

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Visiting info

I was there on October 3–4, 2025. The history below comes from official or reputable sources; I looked up hours and prices while writing this. Where sources disagree, I've marked it "check official info before visiting."

Place	Where	Entry	When I went
Niños Héroes monument	Chapultepec park, first section, below the castle hill	Open-air monument; check the park's opening days before visiting	Oct 4, 09:47
Chapultepec Castle (National History Museum)	On top of Chapultepec hill	Paid; prices differ between sources	Oct 4, 10:23 to about 12:00
Chapultepec Zoo	Chapultepec park, first section	Many sources say general entry is free	Oct 4, 14:14
Monument to the Revolution	Plaza de la República	The plaza is open; the viewpoint is paid	Oct 4, 19:41

Route: The monument, the castle, the zoo and the stalls are all inside the first section of Chapultepec park. I went in at 9:40 a.m. and was still in the park after 3 p.m. The Monument to the Revolution is outside the park, toward downtown.

📍 Chapultepec Castle · National History Museum (Museo Nacional de Historia)

• 🏰 Facts: Building began in 1785; home of Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota from 1864 to 1867; opened as the National History Museum in 1944. Siqueiros's mural From Porfirism to the Revolution is in this museum.
• 🕘 Hours: INAH lists Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–17:00, closed Mondays. Some sources say Sunday entry is free for Mexican nationals and foreign residents of Mexico. Hours and prices differ between sources, so check official info before visiting.
• 🗺️ Map: Chapultepec Castle

📍 Niños Héroes monument (Altar a la Patria)

• 🏛️ Facts: Inaugurated in 1952. It honors six Military College cadets who died in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847. Architect Enrique Aragón Echegaray, sculptor Ernesto Tamariz.
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

📍 Chapultepec Zoo (Zoológico de Chapultepec)

• 🐺 What my photos show: a LOBO MEXICANO sign. The zoo's name isn't in the shot, but this is the zoo in the park's first section.
• 🎟️ Entry and hours: Many sources say general entry is free, with separate charges for the butterfly house and the reptile house. Most say it closes on Mondays, but the hours vary between sources. Check official info before visiting.
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

📍 Monument to the Revolution (Monumento a la Revolución) · Plaza de la República

• 🏗️ Facts: Begun in 1906 as the federal legislative palace; turned into a monument by Carlos Obregón Santacilia in 1933–1938. Its height is given as 65–67 m depending on the source.
• 🔭 Viewpoint: Paid. Prices and hours differ between sources, so check official info before visiting.
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

📍 The October 3 taco stand: I have no record of its name or location. All that's left is that it was a street stand under a pink tent with a work light.

How to get lost a little less in Chapultepec

• 🗓️ Avoid Mondays. The castle is closed on Mondays, and many sources say the zoo is too.
• 🌳 Monument and castle in the morning, the park in the afternoon. In that order, I spent the whole day from 9:40 a.m. until after 3 p.m. inside the first section alone.
• 🖼️ Inside the castle, find the gallery with the Siqueiros mural. The mural runs along the walls around the whole room.
• 🏙️ On the terrace, face the high-rises. The city shows past the fountain and the pergola.
• 🌙 See the Monument to the Revolution at night. At 7:41 p.m., when I was there, the teal lights were on.

Jayden's verdict

The night of October 3 was tacos under a pink tent; October 4 was Chapultepec all day.

• Highlight: the taco at the pink-tent stand, the Siqueiros mural in Chapultepec Castle, the black squirrel on the railing
• Tip: Give Chapultepec a whole day, and visit the castle on any day but Monday.

The next part is Puebla and Xochimilco at night on October 5, then, on the 6th, the camera I first turned on in a park and Guadalupe hill.

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Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days

1. Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon
2. Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle (you are here)
3. Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe
4. Guadalajara and a tequila tour
5. Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home