I’m worried.
We are now waiting at the gate for AeroMexico’s 2am flight to Mexico City and everything has gone smoothly….too smoothly. What am I missing?
This week I bought myself a wet suit for the Galapagos part of the trip. When I tried it on, the lady asked “How is it fitting?”.
As I walked out of her bathroom, I replied “Snug and really tight across my chest.”
“That could be because you are wearing it backwards. The zipper goes up the back.”
I’m glad I found that out before I went out in public.
The next day, John and I were going to freak out the boys by sitting at the kitchen table in our new wet suits when they came home from Cameron’s work. The boys were very late and after half and hour I couldn’t handle the rubbing on my arm pits.
The next day I bought a second, slightly larger wet suit. It’s still tight (like they are supposed to be), but not rubbing my skin off.
*****
We are on the plane, despite the crying baby in front of us, I slept well on the flight.
We arrived into Mexico City at 5:00am (7:00am Ontario time).
I hate carrying cash but this trip we had to carry a lot since Ecuador mostly deals in US cash. John and I split it between us and spread it on a few different parts of our bodies; I had a money belt across my hips that my pants went over, another around my waist which I had a loose top over, under my orthotics in both shoes and in my bra. If you looked closely, you can see Thomas Jefferson staring out from my chest.
What is it about men not wanting to ask directions? After we cleaned ourselves up we searched for a place to store our carry-on luggage. Finally I asked a car rental agent who didn’t speak any English but was perfectly able to understand what I needed through my highly developed mime skills.
Our guard was up since we were prewarned about the cabs in Mexico City.
Just in front of the taxi stand, a driver approached us. Thinking he was legit, we asked him how much to The House of Tiles. He said 400 pesos, then said he would be right back and ran like the wind for his car. John saw the taxi stand, went over and got an official cab for 245 pesos. It took us about a half hour to get into the centre of town.
By 7:30am we were inside the House of Tiles at the beautiful Sanborna restaurant surrounded by ornate architecture, a cheery fountain and gorgeous murals of birds. It was quiet due to the earliness of the hour.
The menus were in Spanish so we had to guess. I recognized a few words (and saw a picture) so I chose Mexican eggs with green and regular colour chorizos, mushrooms and re-fried black beans. John just pointed to something on the menu and got a plate full of meat in a gravy.
The House of Tiles is, not surprisingly, covered in blue and white tiles.
It was still early, so we crossed the pedestrian street to check out the lovely Franciscan church. Workers were watering the beautiful floral pieces which were laden with pale pink roses.
A pipe organ grinder wearing a police type uniform was out early cranking his pipes to play a loud tune. Through out the day, more and more of these organ grinders in the same uniform showed up all over the place.
We were one of the first customers at the LatinAmericano Tower. We had fabulous views of Mexico City from 44 floors up. Early in the morning is the best time to go up the tower as the haze from the pollution gets worse as the day goes on.
The temperature quickly rose in the bright Mexican sun and I started removing layers of clothing.
We joined a three hour walking tour at Almeda Park. The Jacaranda trees showed off their bright purple blooms. Simply stunning. There were a number of Canadians on our tour- all from Toronto.
We checked out the beautiful white Beaux Arts Museum before heading over to the gorgeous post office. The architecture here is wonderful.
We walked through the Tile House again. This time it was packed with people.
Our guide took us to a pastry/cake shop that was frequented by locals. We checked out the cake displays upstairs before going to their main floor bakery. It was wild, so much to choose from. You take a huge round tray and tongs and go around filling your tray. You then bring the tray to one lady who tallies it up, writes you a chit which you bring to another lady to pay. You then bring your receipt to the First Lady who has wrapped and packaged your purchase. Locals were leaving with numerous suit sized boxes filled with pastries. John and I each got one of the large chocolate covered pastries. The chocolate was not as sweet as ours. It was really good.
We made our way through the shopping streets to the Zocalo (central square area). There is some kind of festival going on in the city this weekend. Many people dressed as native Mexicans were demonstrating cultural dancing, customs and costumes.
After the tour, John and I checked out the cathedral and the ancient architectural site called the Temple Mayor.
Exhausted, (because we only had a few hours sleep), and footsore (me, cause I didn’t wear socks and got blisters), we grabbed a cab and went back to the airport to catch our plane to Quito, Ecuador.