Rapid Travel Chai

Luis Barragán was a Mexican architect; The Rapid Traveler was totally ignorant of Barragán and his work. But whenever The Rapid Traveler visits a country he checks the UNESCO World Heritage Centre List, and the Luis Barragán House and Studio showed up in Mexico City. Access is by appointment only and at limited times (see official site), so The Rapid Traveler had no chance to fit a tour into his business schedule, but he at least wanted to search it out during the break between work and late dinner, like his Centro Historico walk last trip.

With crippling rush hour traffic, the metro seemed the best option, certainly the price is right at three pesos, and the stations and trains are in good condition. But the trains were crowded to bursting and there were constant delays and stops on the four different lines The Rapid Traveler sampled. Still, it was not bad, and female Rapid Travelers will appreciate the female-only carriages monitored by police.

His first stop was the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, perhaps his new second favorite museum in the world after his childhood love, the American Museum of Natural History in New York. More on that tomorrow.

With the sun quickly setting, The Rapid Traveler emerged above ground to stumble around Constituyentes Station until finding some signs pointing to the casa. Still, without the exact address he might have passed the nondescript exterior without noticing the subtle white marble placard with the UNSECO designation. They certainly are not showing off! Turns out the visual goodies are all inside the compound. Oh well, fun to explore and try the metro. From these pictures on UNESCO’s site, it looks like a great, little known stop for art and design buffs in Mexico City. And an easy one for UNESCO site collectors.