Cuernavaca 85, Colonia Condesa, 06140 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
A consideration for my travels now is my diet. Recently becoming a year long vegan, the proliferation of suitable foods is something I’ve started to take into account with this trip being the first big undertaking since my conversion to a complete absence of animal products. I don’t think I’d necessarily avoid somewhere if a plant based lifestyle is hard to abide by, as long as I could still avoid meat, but I try to maintain this wherever I go. 
Fortunately enough, Mexico has quite an impressive rate of veganism with around 11% of the population claiming to go the ‘whole hog’, if you’ll excuse the phrase, with a further 20% being veggie and another 15% being flexitarian and thus avoiding meat at least one day a week. As such, herbivorous food is in abundance and it doesn’t take me long to find a vegan cafe.

It takes me a while to order what I want but a recurring theme, with almost everyone I’ve met so far, is that people are happy to be patient with you, and politely take their time, as long as you try to speak Spanish, even if they do then talk to you like a four year old (which is fair enough). This has occasionally led to a few hilarious moments where a server has, very deliberately, taken their time with me and my broken Spanish whilst completely ignoring other English speakers who have blundered in and blustered out anglophonics only to be put on ice in favour of the speccy idiot behind them butchering the native tongue.
Basking in the sun, now that I’m seated rather than competing with it when on foot, on a verdant street of a leafy suburb, the coffee comes out on a wooden tray with almond swirls of biscuit that are apparently quite common. I can’t quite believe how good I’m feeling given I am yet to still sleep fully and that this will be my first proper meal since the consumption of the plane food that felt like it was just rotting in my gut rather than providing me with sustenance.
Enchiladas arrive covered in a thick, rich, grey sauce alongside two pots of salsa.“The red one is very hot, the green one not so much,” says the woman waiting on me, making plenty of eye contact to make sure the stupid gringo has understood and won’t try to kill himself by chilli overdose. I respond by giving her the goofiest grin I can muster.
“Si, claro. Muchas gracias.”
Well now I have to try the red sauce even if it dissolves me from the inside out. I can handle heat as long as it adds to the taste, a burning sensation for the sake of it has never been my bag but I’ll be damned if this isn’t so flavoursome that I keep spooning more and more onto my plate. I think I am really going to enjoy myself here.

Avenida Progreso 33, esquina con, Carlos B. Zetina, Escandón I Secc, 11800 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
 I’ve  started to begin my days with a visit to one of the two local cafes in order to get my caffeine fix, practice my Spanish, and to take a bit of time to order my thoughts on sights from the previous day and write down my adventures in my travel notebook. On some of these days, I’ve taken to ordering a sweet treat with my morning coffee, and one that has taken my fancy in the run-up to Day of The Dead is pan de muertos, which literally translates as ‘bread of the dead’. This can be found in almost every coffee shop, bakery and supermarket in the preceding weeks to the visit from the underworld and was traditionally something to put on the ofrendas. I find somewhere selling vegan versions and settle down to my almond milk latte with one of these to accompany it. Dusted in a heavy layer of sugar, it has a taste not dissimilar to an Eccles cake but there is also a hint of orange about them too. This comes from the marigold flowers that have their petals pounded into the dough. Extremely light, the sweet bread has the texture of a sponge cake and is topped by a rolled skull and crossbones, a bit like a hot-cross bun, to symbolise the dead. The sugar goes everywhere and it’s impossible not to make crumbs but it goes fantastically well with coffee to dip it in.


El ilusionista cafe is where I’ve sourced this particular pastry and it has become one of two hotspots for me due to the fact it serves great coffee and vegan options. The building itself has really chill, on street vibes as it takes up a corner spot of two intersect roads and its two sides roll up, almost like garage doors, or great window shutters to bring you right out onto the street and serve for a really glorious communal vibe. Painfully hip, the laid back beat of the neighbourhood ebbs and flows all around you whilst you enjoy some really fine coffee. The rhythm of the street is right beside you whist the staff willingly play along with my schoolboy Spanish. I could while away whole days here if it weren’t for the fact I want to see more of Mexico City and it is no surprise that it is one of my last stops before heading off to catch my plane.