We Made it to Mexico City!


Hola! 

Up this morning around 4 am (which is actually our usual time …) and ready to go about 5 – but as our CBX (Cross Border Express) parking reservation wasn’t until 7, I figured we should wait a bit … so we started out a bit before 6 am.  Emmy, our wonderful GPS guided us around traffic, so we really had no problems at all getting to the CBX parking lot around 6:40.  I dropped Robert off with the luggage at the main building, and then parked the car in Lot G, the long-term lot.  It was about a 10-minute walk back to the building, but it was a nice morning, and just getting light, so no problem!  

 

They really have put together a wonderful system for getting through all the formalities of leaving the U.S. and ending up at the Tijuana Airport, and made it so easy!  First you scan your airplane boarding pass, and then you scan your CBX crossing pass.  Then, magically, the gate opens and you take your luggage cart through with you!  Up via elevator to the elevated walkway, and then rather a schlep across the border – but not unduly so! – and suddenly, you find yourself at Mexican customs and immigration!  If you’re staying in Mexico longer than 7 days, it is necessary to get an FMM, which costs about $50/per person – at least ours did, but then we’re here for 17 days.  Then, passport control and you’re in! 

 

From there, we found the airline desks, checked R’s suitcase to Mexico City, and we headed to the gate.  It actually changed three times – from 6 to 4 to 2 – before we found the right one, but that was fine!  Pretty full plane, but it took off on time, and we had no problems.  In about 3 hours we were landing in Mexico City.  Again, rather a l-o-n-g walk to baggage claim.  Turns out that, because Mexico is co-hosting the World Cup this summer with the U.S. and Canada, there is a terrific rush to update the airport!  So there is construction EVERYWHERE!  It’s amazing! 

 

Robert’s bag came quickly, and Gonzalo, our AirBnB host had arranged for Ricardo to pick us up.  That was SO convenient!  There he was, and soon we were heading out.  It took about half-an-hour to get here – the building is right next to the Hilton La Reforma, where we have stayed on our last two visits.  Gonzalo met us, but turns out the apartment wasn’t quite finished being cleaned, so he took our luggage and we agreed to return in half-an-hour.  

 

Headed to the Hilton where we had a lovely but quick meal in the bar – three excellent mini-tacos – and a lovely glass of wine.  So nice to be back! 


 

Wonderful tacos!


Hilton has a lovely bar/lounge area!

The apartment is really in a huge building, with three separate towers!  We’re on the 6th floor in the second tower, 6N.  It is compact, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room.  We went over everything, and Robert got the computer set up – first things first! – I got things unpacked!  Turns out, that we’re both pretty knackered from traveling today, so I bravely headed out first to see if I could find my way out of the building, and secondly to go to the local Oxo (the Mexican version of 7-11 stores) and pick up some water and snacks!  Both accomplished – although I did have some problem initially – I pressed “1” on the elevator, instead of “Pb” – which means “ground floor” in Spanish!  Oh well!  Definitely a learning experience!

 


Living/dining room

Main bedroom

with great windows!

Back upstairs and in for the night!  Off tomorrow to the Archaeological Museum!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

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