1st night in Tepoztlán, Mexico

Backing up to Thursday afternoon…

So, we made our drive from Mexico City and arrived to Tepoztlán. First impression was: cute, quaint, cobble stone roads, steep hills!

We checked into our hotel and immediately went up to see the rooftop terrace that was advertised in the listing.

Weather report- warm, cloudy, chance of rain? But dry for the moment.

We arrived by maybe 3-3:30 pm. Our hotel seemed good- super close to the little downtown, which was the main goal. The owner was exceptionally friendly upon check-in as well.

I was excited to explore the town! We settled in briefly and then headed out to walk around.

I love that mountains (or big hills? Not sure) surround the whole town. I LOVE views of the mountains.

The whole central part of town is basically a big marketplace.

Ivan was “thirsty from the drive” and his first stop was to get a michelada (beer mixed with lime, sometimes Clamato juice and a sweet ring around the edge).

We checked out the zócalo, or center square.

The whole town was quite quiet on Thursday. Apparently this is an extremely popular weekend destination for people from Mexico City (because it’s close), but most people don’t arrive until Friday. I am really glad we went ahead of the rest of our group – I really, really enjoyed our first day to ourselves.

We spent a good couple hours just wandering around, up and down the many streets, in the market, looking in some stores, etc.

There is a very cool, old church:

We got some snacks along the way. Asher wanted a chai frappe from a coffee shop:

Ethan was “hot” and wanted a Gatorade:

Eventually we headed down the Main Street that leads to the mountain, where there is an ancient pyramid waaaayy up on the hill top. This is the prettiest section of the town, in my opinion. Loved the views of the street with the mountain behind it.

We scoped out a restaurant with a beautiful terrace that could hold a group (thinking ahead to Friday, when family would arrive). This was the view from the rooftop:

I’ll leave a spoiler here: We made a reservation here for the following night, and we ate there, but it finally RAINED (a LOT) in the middle of our dinner. And on our way to, and from, the restaurant. Boooo. So we didn’t get to sit on the rooftop terrace after all. 😦 (still worked out okay though overall- they had a covered patio below that was a good option B.)

The street was quiet Thursday night and perfect for some nice pics. I was feeling quite charmed by this adorable little town!!!! (These are the kinds of places that I feel like so few other Americans ever really get to see in Mexico!! (Most stick to the big tourist destinations… but these more authentic places are amazing.)

Ethan wanted a… pre-dinner ice cream. Whatever! #vacationmode

Eventually we made our way back to the main square area.

Plan for the evening was basically… get dinner. 🙂

We had no idea of restaurants in the area (as I have said, we really never pre-plan meals at all on our trips), so we walked around until we found a cute place with a terrace and a view.

This restaurant had one of the most lovely views I have seen in a long time!! I thoroughly enjoyed this meal and experience. As I said, the town was quiet, so it was no issue getting in for a table.

The boys seemed to care (way) less than I did about the gorgeous view, so we helped ourselves to the views and let them put their backs to it. Haha.

Ivan was bummed- they advertised craft beer, including an IPA (his absolute favorites) on the menu, so he was pumped to try a Mexican IPA (craft beer scene is slow in Mexico). Turns out they were out of all beers except a porter and a pale ale. Oh well.

It was a very nice meal. We actually ended up getting pizza, of all things, but it was tasty.

Did I mention I loved the view from this place? I also absolutely loved the vibe- dim lights and cozy.

After dinner, we just headed back to the hotel. Ivan ran into a corner store (I guess our whole family is a fan of the “corner store”) and bought some beer and juices.

By this time it was maybe 8:30-8:45 pm… the hotel was also very quiet/empty, so we just went up to the rooftop terrace to hang out for a while.

The boys played around with the hotel owner’s dog, a very lively husky.

After about 30 minutes, it finally started to rain. At the beginning it was just a light rain, so it was actually quite cozy sitting up there (under a covered roof) while it lightly rained. But then it started to pour, so we had to call it a night.

I was TIRED and I think in bed and asleep by maybe 10:15! (Pretty early for us, on vacation).

More to come about Friday and Saturday! Absolutely a huge fan so far of Tepoztlán.