Here we go again; The Gunner Mexican adventure. For many people that title will conjure ideas and memories of laying on the popular beach resorts, sucking down endless margaritas and beer. While we will get to the beaches, our trip will be quite different from the quintessential Mexican one stop.
It all started with Tim watching food shows; especially street food. He was surprised to hear Mexico city, with a population of over 22 million, had a vibrant street food culture. After a bit of research he decided it was a great option for our Christmas escape post tour. After ten months away and the typical thoughts of Mexico, it did not take him long to convince me. Sun, great food and the same time zone, not to mention its close and fairly cheap for airfare.
The only problem was we left it a bit long to start our booking. This caused our air routing to have an additional stop (YWG – YYC – LAS – MEX). Our first time this morning was O-dark-stupid; 3:15 reveille. We rolled our asses out of bed, cleaned up, showered and set off in a Unicity cab to the airport. Damn cold; -38 with the wind.
We checked our bags for free with Westjet (military special) passed through security (NEXUS line) and grabbed some Tim Horton's breakfast. It was only a short wait until we boarded, but the wait to depart was extended. Apparently the plane was allergic to -40 temperature and had frozen water lines. After about 30 minutes of waiting we were off to Calgary on an uneventful 2 hour flight; I had a Caesar. Yes it was early, damn it was good.
The wait in Calgary was shorten, which set the tone for the rest of the trip to Mexico. Late, late late. We enjoyed a quick hamburger in Las Vegas and loaded on our third Boeing 737-800; Aeromexico's was by far the newest and nicest! Not only that, but the stewardesses were happy to supply us with a lot of free beer and a couple very strong rum and cokes.
We arrived to Mexico city and waited about 20 minutes going through customs. The prepaid taxi service was cheap and quick; it was most certainly worth the extra couple dollars over Tim's original combination of metros and walking. Not to mention it was raining.
The cab ride took about 40 minutes for 16 kilometres; cost $230 (pesos, about $15 Cdn). The traffic was insane and our cab even got rear-ended by another cab. It was just a scratch, not that either cab stopped to inspect if there was damage. This wasn't the only thing that stood out to us. While it is apparent that there is a lot of progress and modernization in this city, there is clear signs of room for improvement. From shanty building to vehicles that barely looked road worthy, we were definitely happy to see that this trip would offer some culture shock.
We arrived to the hotel at about 8pm, checked in and were happy but not overly impressed with the quality. While the rating is 5 star, at $75 Cdn a night, we were greeted by the higher end 2-3 star that we normally look for. The location is almost impossible to beat and our room even has a view, albeit a limited one, of the Angel of Independence.
There isn't much more to say, we were bagged tire. Bought some beverages and our first Mexican meal; burritos. Not like anything I have ever had. Not only were they cheap, totalling about $3 Cdn, they were amazing. I had a Hawain style, which was a tad weird but tasty; Tim had a traditional random meat one. Both were fried on the spot, hot and cheesy.
