Mexico City - Part I

The flight from Tijuana was good enough. I was impressed with the comfortability of Mexicana airlines. The seat felt wider than usual and there was definitely more leg space than any other plane I have ever flown. They served dinner on a 2 1/2 hour flight plus two different types of peanuts.
Lam had arrenged for me to stay at "Fiesta Inn Aiport". It was a very decent hotel. I left my luggage in the roonm and rushed to free dinner, a genuine Mexican food buffet! yesss!!! LOVE buffets! I asked for a diet coke and the server brought me a tiny glass filled half ice half soda. When I was done with the drink I asked for another glass and she looked at me weird. She told me usually people had to pay for the re-fill. The dinner fee included only one glass. I had completely forgotten that is the same way in Brazil.

I returned to the room and it was way too warm inside because the air conditioned wasn't working properly. I opened the patio door to let the breeze in. I knew that would be the only way to have a good night sleep. While I watched TV I made plans for the next day. Wake up and leave at around 10am for the check out and drop my stuff at the hotel storage. I had noticed that the hotel offered tours to the Pyramids. At the board I noticed it was a 3 to 4 hours tour. It was my first time in Mexico City and I thought it would be more interesting to do some sightseeing around the city, plus it would be cheaper. The hotel workers, very friendly, got me a cab.

On one note regarding the Mexican people, I noticed that they have a hard time looking in the eyes, have eye-to-eye contact. For us Brazilians who need eye contact it can become a little annoying.

The cab I took at the hotel was a private car available for the guests. My driver's name was Axcel as in Axel Rose. He was 21 years old and like his father and older brothers he worked as driver for the hotel.
We were in outr way to downtown when out of curiosity I asked him how far the Pyramid were. He started insisting I should see them. I felt tempted but rejected the suggestion and told him I would rather go downtown. He kept insisting and told me we could go to both and still make to the airport on time, plus he would only charge 120 whereas the hotel tour costs 160. 120 for everything??? and he confirmed. I thought the price was ridiculously low considering that 1 dollar = equals 10 pesos. 120 would be 12 dollars. Well! I couldn't possibly reject that offer. "LET's GO!!!"

I relaxed in the back seat grabbed my cameras and and started documenting. We drove through some areas pretty run down, some big favelas werealso part of the scenery. Axcel and I talked about different things which included the exodus of Mexicans through the US border an his desire to become a tourist guide. He was pretty good as a guide in fact. While we traveled he described many things on the way. When we arrived at the Pyramids I paid 45 pesos for the ticket and 40 pesos for parking.

We walked around the Theothiucan area. From far distance one could see the humongous Pyramids. The Pyramid of the Moon and the one from the Sun, plus all theruins of an ancient city that once existed there, all built from rocks. The sight was breathtaking, specially because I had just watched Mel Gibson's "Äpocalypto" that features the guerrillas between the indian civilaztions and the decadence of the Maias, who, according to the picture conquered small villages and offered the men's for the God of Fertility. I told Axcel he had to see that movie and at the same time I wondered if those were the Pyramids portrayed by the film.

Axcel told me that the Teothiucans were there before the Mayas existed, and some reports tell that the Mayas took ovr that spot after the Teothiucan had vanished. If that is really true, History is mistold on respect of the strongest Indian civilizations in America.

We left the Pyramids. That was a wonderful experience.

Crossing the border

Randy and I drove all the way down from Los Angeles to Tijuana airport starting at 8:30am. I said goodbye to Maggie and Zack. They looked puzzled, I swear. It was a fast and nice drive down. Randy didn´t show any signs of sadness. He sounded very excited for me and I prefer that way.It made my departure easier.

Arriving in Tijuana was interesting, as soon as we zoomed through the border I felt funny, I knew I couldn´t return from that point. Not that I really felt like going back...
Randy got anxious for lack of signage and turn into the first exit which led us directly into downtown. The traffic was awful. Little filthy white and blue buses changing lanes and cutting in fron of cars right and left. The average speed at that point should be about 1 mile/hour. I could feel that Randy was a little insecure driving under those conditions, and that was when I feared for his return. If he got lost there was no way he would be able to communicate. Fortunately when we got back to the right way, it was pretty straight forward.

Back on the awful traffic I rmember telling Randy how ghetto that part of Tijuana looked and it actually reminded me of some bad parts in Rio. Then he mentioned it reminded him of a street not too farr from where we live now - Alvarado street can be very much like that as well.
I thought about my friend Thaissa, who lives in Redondo Beach. I thought how I don´t think she will ever be able to adjust to Brazil again, for the unorganized traffic , the unadecated drivers, the noise, pollution and of course, lack of security. I started wondering about my own ability on adjusting to living in Brasil again.

When Randy dropped me at the aiport it was less emotional than I expected. We hugged quickly and I rushed inside despite the 5 hours of antecipation. It was weird but it was definitely better for him to go from there. When you first go inside the airport it is a little messy, there is a big glass divisor where only the passenger go through to do the check in. Randy would not be able to wait with me for check in and in his own clever words he would not be able to help with anything. I had to start practicing my spanish, which was way rusty... I longed for my days in Montebello when I could actually argue on the phhone in spanish... uhm, not really, not long for, but sometimes I wish I could have kept my fluency on that language somehow.

The check in was easy and there was no line, however the seucirty held only one checking point and it took me a little longer. The aiport perse is very clean and nice. I tried finding a phone booth but couldn´t find one compatible to the phone card we had just bought. I really wanted to talk to Randy to know whether he was okay... That was frrustrating. I guess I will have to wait until I get to the hotel tonight.

I exchanged 20 dollars, that was the same as 200 pesos. I have no idea where those 200 pesos can take me. we will see...

Departure

December 18th, 2006
Just before the actual trip had started some issues startaring to pop out. On the day before my departure (Sunday) I got a call from Orbitz requesting to get in touch with LAN Chile,who was providing my flight. So I called them to find out that the flight schedule from Mexico City to Santiago had changed. They antecipated from 11pm to 9pm. BUT my flight from Tijuana to Mexico City had arrival time scheduled to 9:30pm. At that point I was still at ease. I have always thought that the airlines were supposed to do everything in order to come clear with those types of mistakes. Their best solution was that I should stay in hotel until 9pm the next day. At that pmoment I started to get aprehensive since I never worried to get a VISA to get in Mexico. I just thought I would stay inside the airport in transfer status and to get to Tijuana from USA, well, let me just tell you they don´rt really care about people moving on that direction.

Before I reject that option I decided to check the Mexican Consulate homepage and find out what kind of VISA they require on a situation like mine. GREAT SURPRISE! According to their law, if you are in transit and staying in the country for less than 24 hours you can actually just leave yuour passport at the airport and then get it back the day after, not really needing toa pply for a VISA.
COOL!
At this point after 6 years away from my family and friends all I wanted was to get to Rio asap., but a little stop on a city that I have never been to could actually make my trip more interesting.

LAM provided me with the hotel expenses. I was to stay at the `Fiesta Inn` very close from the airport.
I am getting in Rio on Wednesday at 6:30pm instead of Tuesday. I can´t wait!