After months
of talking about it and imagining what it would be like, the adventure began
January 11th 2012 in Heathrow Airport. It was time to move to Mexico.
After the panic of wondering whether
or not we would be within our baggage weight allowance, Danielle and I
proceeded through security and to the duty free where we decided that it was
essential to buy a final bar of Cadburys to keep us going in the land of
sombreros. A Starbucks later and we were on the plane.
After walking past the higher
classes with nice spaced out seats and people already drinking wine, we arrived
at the back of the plane and struggled to get all of our things into our little
economy section. Almost 12 hours, 3 films and lots of attempts to sleep later
we were in Mexico City and the ordeal of actually entering Mexico awaited
us.
It seems like queuing is a common
thing to do in Mexican airports; over an hour waiting to go through customs to
get a visa sorted and then a further 45 minutes waiting to go through security
(including a bag search of all my suitcases) is not really what we wanted in
the middle of the night. We arrived at the hotel in Mexico City rather
speechless. We spent the entire taxi ride looking at each other and saying,
'We're in Mexico'. The poor driver must have thought we had got on the wrong
plane.
The next day we ventured down to
breakfast looking like proper Brits abroad, everyone else was in jackets and
scarves, and there we were dressed for summer! We braved the metro and ended
up, slightly by accident, at the Cathedral, a very beautiful place with so much
history and intricate monuments. Having not studied the maps as much as we
should have done we decided to follow the flow of people traffic, and ended up
in the centre. There we went up 'La Torre
Latinoamericana' and saw some incredible views of the city from 42 floors up. A
Starbucks was also enjoyed that day!
The rest
of the stay in Mexico City involved more touristy fun including the ever
faithful tourist bus where we both managed to get sun burnt scalps but see the
city as a whole. And what a city it is. One minute we were driving past Gucci
and Louis Vuitton and the next we were driving past areas where it was clear
there was an awful lot less money.
After
walking a very long way to find it, we also went to the Museo de Antropología and saw some incredible pieces of Mexican and
Mayan history, including the Aztec Sun Stone where I was shouted at for
touching it, even though I was only pointing to it! This was the only bit of
unfriendly Mexican-ness I have experienced so far!
And that
brings us up to where I am now, in Guadalajara in our flat... the city seems
very big and thankfully we are in the ‘Zona Centro’ so only 5 minutes walk away
from the city centre and all the shops. We are also only 2 minutes away from a
big fruit market – it’s so colourful and smells so good! So far we have managed
a trip to Wal Mart, braved the Mexican buses, found and bought a kettle and had
our first Spanish class. A very busy first 3 days in Guadalajara!
