Coyoacán to San Ángel on Foot: Six Museums Beyond the Casa Azul

The house of an exile

Why it's here. Leon Trotsky spent his last years in this house after Mexico gave him asylum, and he was murdered here in 1940. The house is kept much as it was, with the high walls and watchtowers he added after a first attempt on his life.

Don't miss.

• The bedroom walls, still marked by bullets from that first attack.
• The garden, where Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova are buried.
• The photographs of his family and of his role in the Russian Revolution.

Plan for about an hour.

Nearby. The Frida Kahlo Museum (the Casa Azul) is a few blocks away. It's on our Frida and Diego route, so it's not a stop here.

Next: walk south about 900 m to the center of Coyoacán, past the Jardín Centenario.

Whatever Mexico is making now

Why it's here. The National Museum of Popular Cultures has no permanent galleries: everything is temporary, which means it's always showing some living tradition, from crafts and food to music and festivals. In December it's one of the stops on our Christmas route.

Don't miss.

• Whatever exhibition is on.
• The courtyard, which often hosts fairs and workshops.

Plan for about an hour.

Take a break. Churrería General is next door, for churros and hot chocolate. The Coyoacán Market, a few blocks away, is the place to eat.

Next: walk west along Francisco Sosa to the Watercolor Museum, about 1.7 km. It's the most beautiful street on the route, lined with old houses and gardens.

A whole museum of watercolor

Why it's here. The National Museum of Watercolor was founded by the painter Alfredo Guati Rojo, and it's one of the few museums anywhere devoted only to this technique. Its rooms follow watercolor in Mexico from pre-Hispanic painting to the 20th century.

Don't miss.

• The pre-Hispanic room, with two murals by Guati Rojo, one of them telling the museum's story in glyphs.
• The 19th-century room, with the painters who made watercolor a serious art in Mexico.

Plan for about an hour.

Next: walk on to San Ángel, about 1.4 km. On the way: at the end of Francisco Sosa you pass the Chapel of San Antonio Panzacola, a small colonial chapel, before crossing the big avenues into San Ángel.

A convent, its paintings and its crypt

Why it's here. The El Carmen Museum fills a 17th-century Carmelite convent. The friars who lived here left behind carved furniture, a baroque coffered ceiling in the sacristy and paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando, one of the great painters of New Spain.

Don't miss.

• The sacristy, with its ceiling and the Villalpando canvases.
• The tiled domes, which you'll also see from the street.
• The crypt and its mummies.

Plan for about an hour and a half.

Next: San Jacinto Square, about 300 m away, a short walk on cobbled streets.

A fountain made of plates

Why it's here. The Casa del Risco is an 18th-century house on San Jacinto Square, and it's known for the fountain in its courtyard: a wall covered in pieces of porcelain plates, tiles and shells. Inside, the collection of the diplomat Isidro Fabela fills seven rooms, from baroque religious art to European portraits of kings and nobles, plus his own dining room and study.

Don't miss.

• The fountain.
• Isidro Fabela's study, kept as he used it.

Plan for about an hour.

Right outside. San Jacinto Square and its parish church. On Saturdays the Bazar del Sábado crafts market fills the houses around the square.

Next: walk about 500 m to Avenida Revolución, to the last museum.

To end with modern art

Why it's here. The Carrillo Gil Museum was built to house the collection of Alvar Carrillo Gil, a doctor who collected Orozco, Siqueiros and Rivera, among others. Today it's also one of the city's main spaces for contemporary art.

Don't miss.

• The works from the Carrillo Gil collection on permanent display.
• Whatever contemporary exhibition is on.

Plan for about an hour.

To end the day. San Ángel has plenty of places for dinner around the squares you just walked through.