Welcome to my 119th Visit and 114th Run UN Country and Antonia’s 25th Visit UN Country out of a total of 193.
Our epic journey began with high drama. At Sydney Airport of all places. We hadn't even left !!! I decided to push us to arrive at the airport 3 hours before our direct United flight to Houston then on to Mexico City with United again after a 3-hour layover. Lucky we came early. To our horror and dismay the check-in person asked us for our online USA Visa called ESTA. WTF. Why on earth would we need a Visa if we were only in-transit in Houston !!! Because you are on US Soil was the answer. I checked all our Visas but not the US thinking logically that transit passengers did not need one since they were not entering the country. Wrong. We had to apply online and hope for an approval before the flight closed. ESTA can take up to 72hrs to process so we answered the application as simply as possible. Most simple applications take 60-90 minutes to approve. We parked ourselves at a café near the check-in counter and kept refreshing our application – APPROVAL PENDING is all we saw until I decided to go to the toilet. As I walked back I saw a jubilant Antonia jumping up and down yelling “It’s Approved. It’s Approved”. The approval came to both of us 10 minutes before the flight closed. That was the closest save in history !!!
Our flight to Houston was only 14.5hrs, down from the usual 16 to 17.5hrs because of a huge tail wind. The United 787-9 was spacious and modern but with one MASSIVE flaw – all economy seats only recline 5 degrees instead of the usual 30 degrees and that is so these American scabs can get more seats in. This is unacceptable as no one can sleep. Except of course for me who managed to get some in but not my usual. Everyone else ends up with severe jet lag or sore backs trying to slouch sleep. Despite this the flight went quickly and before we knew it we were in Houston where it was cold and raining and a good setting for a second round of drama. This time the queue for all passengers to clear immigration was 5 miles long and took us 2hrs to complete. Unacceptable especially as a transit passenger. You fly 14.5hrs only to stand in a queue for another 2hrs and miss your connection. Lucky for us it was a 3hr layover and we made it. Just.
Landing in Mexico City was the THIRD dose of high drama. Huge crosswinds and up-drafts threw the United A320-200 around like it was made of paper. Children started screaming and crying and soon their mothers joined them. I have never seen this before but as an erotical engineer (my dad’s way of saying Aeronautical Engineer) I knew that it would take a cyclone to flip us over but nevertheless my palms were sweating as I took the landing photos bashing my head on the window in the process !!!
Mexico City is HUGE. It is now the 6th largest city in the world by area and the 5th largest in the world by population (22.3 million people). Despite its size it is relatively green owing to the fact that it is in a mountain range plateau at a height of 2,240m. Mount Kosciuszko peaks at 2,228m so my 10km run on my first morning in this giant city was at 12C and one of the highest runs since South America in 2011. I noticed many street cleaners as I ran and very little physical rubbish on the main roads that I ran on. The city centre is old and worn out but has a distinct old-world charm. It is replete with colonial Spanish, neo-classical with plenty of Baroque, Gothic, and Renaissance influences. The Mexico City area was founded by the Aztecs in 1325 and the modern day Mexico City started in 1521 with the Spanish under Cortes.
Mexico (Pop 128,455,567) is one of the world’s “six cradles of civilisation” having been occupied mainly by the Mayan peoples since 8000BC. The Aztecs arrived in 1300 and were conquered by the Spanish in 1521. It was not until 1821 that the local Mestizo peoples reclaimed independence. Mexico is almost 29 Tasmanias and its highest peak tops 5,636m. The Mestizo is actually a mixed-breed peoples of Spanish and indigenous mixed marriages during the 1521 to 1821 occupation of Spain. We will learn more about the indigenous Aztec and Mayan cultures as we visit their temples.
The first thing you notice about Mexico City as you begin walking it is SMELL. There is street food on every corner even in the middle of the CBD. They typically sell small soft-shell Taco’s with minced beef or chicken or pork. Most have small plastic tables and chairs but many will stand and woofed down 5 mini-tacos for $5.50AUD which are actually very filling as they have cheese and a few hot chips in them. The central city boulevards are nice and wide with plenty of crossings and small shops selling cold drinks. At night the street music explodes from classical Latino to Rock and Roll. We spent our first night listening to a young band in their twenties performing American Classics on the side of a major boulevard across from night markets that sold everything from street food to 0.925 proof silver jewellery. The American influence is heavy in this city – the markets are awash with toys, figurines, books, comics, DVDs, CDs, make-up and even vinyl records. Most of the toy buyers are grown men, obviously with US fads !!!
Mexico City was actually originally built on a lake and over time the lake dried up and was progressively built on. As a result many buildings in the city centre were made using basalt blocks to withstand the constant sinking of these buildings due to the soft lakebed underneath. In some places buildings are sinking up to 50cm per year !!!
Antonia and I spent our first five daylight hours in Mexico City walking 12km covering the major sites around Park Central in the middle of city: Plaza de la Republica (Revolution Monument & Museum), Plaza Francisco Zarco, Museo Mural Diego Rivera, (ALAMEDA CENTRAL PARK: Alexandar Von Humbolt Monument, Hemiciclio a Juarez, Templo de Corpus Christi, Beethoven Monument, Palacio de Bellas Artes visit), Palacio Postal, El Caballito, Museo National de Arte, Palacio de Mineria, The House of Tiles, Atrio del Templo de San Francisco, Torre Latinos (go up for 360deg views).
The absolute highlight was the last site sitting 214m above the city with a 360deg outdoor balcony allowing glass-free photos of this amazing city. It was here that Antonia and I fell in love with this city. It is here that you get the best perspective of a city that sits high in the heavens, surrounded by mountains and with visible greenery throughout, unlike the vast white concrete of Cairo or Athens.
The runner-up but “up there” highlight was the Palacio De Belles Artes, a magnificent neo-classical outside and art deco inside edifice that took 34yrs to build opening as a palace in 1934. You will notice it immediately in the photos below – best looking structure in the city.
The surprise highlight was 4 military men approaching me to ask my permission to take photos with Antonia in front of the Palacio De Belles Artes !!! They were armed to the hilt – another photo you will easily identify. They all wanted a photo with Antonia. I asked why and they thought she was a movie star because they came by us as I was filming Antonia explaining the museum for the film. It was a great way to finish the day because it was so unplanned.
At 6pm we met our Intrepid Guide and fellow travellers. Our trip is with Intrepid from Mexico City in Mexico to Panama City in Panama. It is actually four separate tripe organised tail to head. There are a total of 15 people on the first leg. 4 of us are going all the way through to Panama but others are likely to join us along the way. The 15 people doing Mexico: Carla our Mexican Guide, Antonia, myself, 4 from Oz, 4 from UK, 3 from Germany and 1 from Greece but she is Portuguese. The meeting took 45min and we went over our itinerary in detail. Antonia and I spent the rest of the evening having 5 tacos each ($5.50AUD each) at a street stall with BYO wine from our local shop. More red wine and Little Britain at hotel before sleep.
The following morning (7JAN) was overcast and a little colder at 10C. We all met in the lobby and set off on foot at 0730 towards the ZOCALO which is the huge central square marking the official centre of Mexico City. The opening scene of the James Bond film SPECTRE made in 2015, was filmed in the Zocalo plaza, featuring the “Day of the Dead” festival march, which actually does not exist in Mexico !!! The Zocalo, featuring the incredibly large Cathedral of Mexico, the Palacio or Presidential Palace and the tallest flagpole and largest flag (Of Mexico) that I have ever seen, was definitely the highlight of today. The streets and buildings around the Zocalo are to die for. They give the city its character and redeem it from its very poor suburbs. Architecture of every type and time. Along the way we heard detailed accounts of historical and political events in the life of Mexico, which you shall see and hear in the film. We saw the following sites today: Calle Francisco I Madero (Famous Pedestrian Walkway), Street Art, Iglesia de la Profesa, ZOCALO (Main Square), Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico inside, Monument to the Mexican National Identity opposite Supreme Court, National Palace (National Culture Museum inside), Templo Mayor Museum (Aztecs), Templo Mayor Plaza, Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico.
Towards the end of our morning walk we started a “Taco Crawl” but only two Taco-rias !!! The first put stewed fillings on the two thin palm-sided soft taco shells whilst the second put one set ingredient in a fresh taco shell and placed it in a bog basket with boiling oil for 2 hours !!! Two completely different methods for two completely different tastes.
The afternoon was free time so Antonia and I caught an UBER to Bosque de Chapultepec Park featuring the Castillo de Chapultepec and Monumento a los Ninos Heroes. We visited both and caught an UBER back to our hotel. So weird that you can use the Ozzie UBER app in Mexico !!! They came and we went for a fraction of the cost of a taxi. We compared. Taxi back was $24AUD vs $9AUD in the UBER !!! Super Uber or Uber Dupa !!!
The evening was spent in the hotel relaxing to a movie and hot roast chicken with canned vegies given the taco focus on minced meats with hardly any greens…
Mexico City is well worth visiting – it is up there with the class of the European Capitals and the old-world feel of the Ancient Capitals such as Istanbul and Damascus – see this for yourself below…
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