Adios Mexico. Hola Los Angeles.
Another nice day, although my last day, in Mexico City, and Mexico. This has been such a great trip, and I feel so much more comfortable now, including with the language, and it’s not only been great in its own right, but also as a training trip in advance of visiting Japan and Vietnam in a few weeks. I’ll certainly be coming back to Mexico, and Mexico City, for sure. Great city to visit,
Instead of knocking myself out today, heading back to the center as I’d planned, and maybe doing another hop on bus circuit, which I probably had time for, I decided to just stick around the neighborhood and walk, along Paseo del Reforma, for instance. I left my stuff with the hotel front desk, and headed to Paseo, and as I hadn’t yet decided how to get to the airport later, I decided to see how far it was to the nearest metro station. When I came in a few days ago, I know I got off at the right station, but probably the wrong exit for the station, which put me in the Tepito district, bordering on Lagunilla. That was a 20 minute or so walk (through an unsavory part of town, it turns out, and I suspected at the time).
But I didn’t expect that the nearest metro entrance was less than five minutes from my hotel, right on Paseo de Reforma. That clinched it, and I added the 25 cent (50 peso) fare to my metro card, and was committed. I figured I’d head to the airport around 3, and arrive at 4, for my almost 8 pm flight. Better to be at the large Mexico City airport early, rather than later.
I really enjoyed walking for a couple of hours, with no agenda, no place to go in particular, and in no hurry, and sat in a small and lovely local park for a while, thinking and going over my email. The weather was just right.
Walking the Paseo de Reforma is definitely different than driving along it on the the top deck of a bus. You see the grime, as well as the spectacle. Side streets, for instance, are in some cases quaint and picturesque, and in others grungy, industrial, and run down. But this is Mexico City, and the way it is.
There is a very active and seemingly frequent public transport system, in addition to tne metro, with a mix of electric, hybrid, and diesel buses, trolley buses, and double deckers. The metro and bus system are both larger than London (which is pretty big)… but both originated in London, and spread around the world.
Then, time to get to the airport. The metro took three transfers I think, all for the same fare, and was crowded at some points, but fast and easy, and easy to negotiate. And as safe as any other big city subway I’ve traveled.
The metro trip probably took 45 minutes or so, but is not for everyone because – unless there was another metro exit I didn’t use – because, although it’s only over the road from the airport, it’s a bit of a haul, first crossing over a significantly sized bridge that spans the road, followed by a bit of a walk lugging baggage (in my case, a backpack and shoulder bag)to the terminal.
Once inside, negotiating the airport, which is both large and under construction, was also not so easy. I bet it took me the better part of 45 minutes to finally get to where I needed to be, in the departure area for Viva Aerobus, and with few English language signs, and seemingly even fewer airport staff who could speak English, including at the Viva check in desk. Luckily, we now all have Google Translate. Getting through security was efficient and straightforward though, and I wound up being at my gate about four hours early, and the flight, it turned out, was eventually delayed by almost an hour, so I was there a while. The crowds at the gates were a mess, with poor communication between airline staff and passengers by then, and in my case flight departure details were not available until about 50 minutes before the actual flight. It wll worked out, though.
One thing about the airport, it was flooded with heavily armed police throughout. In many cases,there were rows of police in full riot gear, with riot shields and helmets, lining the hallways. I would have loved to take some photos, but frankly, though it better not to.
My flight took off around 9 pm, was easy and smooth, and getting into LAX airport and through border control was a breeze. By the time I picked up my rental car and got to the hotel, less than 15 minutes away, it was 2 am, so into bed I went, back in the USA.