Welcome to Mexico City, a capital shaped by Indigenous civilization, colonial power, and modern resistance. We begin with a shared lunch at the historic Café Tacuba, where you’ll meet your fellow travelers and hear from a local historian who introduces Mexico’s past and present through the lenses of power, culture, and civic life.

In the afternoon, we explore Mexican Muralism on a guided walking tour, examining how artists like Diego Rivera used public art as a tool for political expression and collective memory.‍ ‍

The day concludes with a special dinner at Azul Historico, a celebrated restaurant highlighting regional Mexican cuisine, with a particular focus on Oaxacan mole, recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The menu also features the traditional use of insects, reflecting a deep connection to Indigenous culinary practices and ancestral foodways. These ingredients offer insight into sustainability, tradition, and cultural continuity and, rest assured, participation is entirely optional.

Accommodation: Hotel Zocalo Central & Rooftop Mexico City

Today we travel to Xochimilco, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where ancient agricultural traditions continue to shape Mexico City’s relationship to food, water, and the environment. By boat, we move through the canals to visit working chinampa farms and learn how this Indigenous system offers enduring lessons in urban sustainability. Time with local farmers and a rustic, multi-course lunch made from freshly harvested ingredients grounds history in lived community practice. 

Returning to the city, we gather for happy hour at a contemporary art gallery for an intimate conversation with a leader from Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo - Contemporary Art Patronage (PAC), exploring how independent arts institutions support creative expression and civic dialogue in Mexico. The rest of the evening is free to explore the city at your own pace.

Accommodation: Hotel Zocalo Central & Rooftop Mexico City

We begin the morning over coffee and traditional Mexican pastries with artists who use their work to challenge unequal power structures and advocate for Indigenous rights, gender justice, and an end to violence against women. This conversation sets the stage for private visits to Proyectos Monclova, a leading gallery bridging modern masters and contemporary voices, and Pequod Co Gallery, home to some of the most influential artists shaping Mexico’s current cultural landscape.

We break for lunch at a nearby street market, with curated recommendations for which stalls serve the best fare.

We will reconvene to visit Nixcome Cultural Revival, where founder Montserrat Vázquez shares her work preserving culinary, agricultural, and medicinal traditions rooted in health and heritage.

We conclude the day at Floresta, an agroecological and regenerative gastronomic project redefining what it means to eat locally. The restaurant works exclusively with agroecological ingredients grown, raised, and produced in the soil of Mexico City without toxins and in alignment with a deep respect for earth, water, and native seeds. With a mission to elevate and protect the biocultural heritage of the Valley of Mexico Basin, Floresta offers more than a meal, it offers a powerful closing reflection on food sovereignty, sustainability, and the future of urban resilience.

Accommodation: Hotel Zocalo Central & Rooftop Mexico City

We begin the day at the former home of Frida Kahlo, where her deeply personal and politically charged work challenged dominant narratives around gender, identity, disability, and nationhood. Through her art, Kahlo expanded the space for women artists in Mexico, asserting female experience as both a legitimate subject and a powerful political statement. From there, we meet with an art activist who leads us on a walking tour through La Condesa and Roma Norte, vibrant neighborhoods where large-scale street art, political symbolism, and public space intersect—offering a compelling lens into art as protest and civic expression.

We stop for a casual and delicious lunch of traditional street tacos. Grounded in Indigenous corn culture and shaped over centuries by migration and regional exchange, tacos have long been food of the people: portable, accessible, and endlessly expressive of local identity.

After lunch, we visit Huerto Roma Verde, a vibrant community center and biosocial laboratory dedicated to environmental regeneration and civic resilience. More than an urban garden, Huerto Roma Verde models how food sovereignty, ecological stewardship, and grassroots organizing intersect; the belief that there is no true freedom or democracy without control over how communities grow and access their food. We gather for a farewell dinner at Masala y Maíz, where we learn how the chefs use food, rooted in mestizaje and family histories, as a powerful platform for social, environmental, and labor justice. Over dinner, we celebrate the four days of learning, conversation, and shared experience making an unforgettable closing to our time together.

Accommodation: Hotel Zocalo Central & Rooftop Mexico City