Find more at my blog http://puzzlemexico.wordpress.com/ 🙂
I am writing this from our hotel room in Mexico City, which still feels pretty crazy to say!! So far it has been a bit of an assault on the senses, from the altitude to the heat to the noise..but also completely amazing and definitely unlike anywhere I’ve ever been.
Our journey didn’t exactly start off well..half of the group only had single tickets, and so weren’t let on the plane because apparently they wouldn’t be let into Mexico… After much stressful phone searching and expensive flight purchases they were let through (only to not even be asked on arrival if we had returns!!) This meant we only had about 40 minutes to get through security and onto the flight, so at least sad goodbyes were made pretty short!
After changing in Amsterdam and almost being late for our connecting flight too due to stopping for drinks in an Irish bar (and taking inappropriate group selfies in the queue for security), we were finally on the plane to Mexico. Which is when the reality of what we were doing hit me, and I did have a bit of an ‘is this really happening?’ moment! Seeing the little plane on the flight tracker taking us halfway across the world seemed suddenly pretty crazy. But luckily the distraction of reruns of Friends, films, and a LOT of food (plus a lovely Mexican lady next to me who I got talking to) kept me from stressing too much!
On landing in Mexico City (in a thunderstorm, disappointing) we were picked up by the lovely people from the Anglo who have been fantastic and looked after us so well..they seem to worry about us more than parents would! We were taken to our hotel in a taxi, probably illegally crammed full of people and luggage..and had our first experience of Mexican roads, which seem to have no logic – also people beep their horns constantly from day to night..in a very English way I can’t help wondering why they don’t realise it won’t make the queue go any faster… They also seem to have a very relaxed attitude to building sites, with people putting up scaffolding in the middle of the street for you to walk round!
On our first morning in Mexico I asked the waiter what ‘nopal’ was, after first telling me it was ‘tuna’ he corrected himself – to ‘cactus’… not really sure what the connection is there. So my first breakfast was interesting to say the least!
We were then picked up by Damian from the Anglo who took us on our first Mexican bus and to the museum of anthropology.
We then watched these ‘voladores’, absolutely insane guys who climb up a pole and then throw themselves off and circle it upside down, suspended only by a rope!
Also check out this guy showing the others up by playing a flute at the same time..now they’re just slacking.
Damian then gave us a lesson in taking the metro, which seems really easy to use, it even has pictures for every station. Though it is incredibly packed and the fact they have separate sections for women during rush hour is a bit scary! In the afternoon we had an induction where they basically told us where not to go in Mexico because ‘YOU WILL DIE’… definitely easing us in gently! While slightly worrying the basic advice seems to be we’ll be fine if we have our wits about us. Something which does scare me a bit since I’m used to living in a very safe country!
We then had our first experience of a Mexican supermarket which cheered me up a lot..mostly because I discovered I can buy pretty much everything here (including Pantene shampoo for £2 which I was far too excited about), and we got to eat special cakes which are meant to be shaped like Day of the Dead skulls!
Today is our second day and we were taken on a tour bus (after promising Laura and Juley multiple times that this was happening, I’m glad it did). It was great to see more of Mexico City – though also a bit of a death-defying ride involving ducking under every tree we went past. We also went to a mall which was massive and a lot more impressive than West Quay! I ordered a refreshing sounding lime water with my lunch..only to discover limes in Mexico are a weird sweeter version which tasted like perfume – lesson learnt. Amazingly after a very poor effort at speaking Spanish (so bad the man actually offered to explain to me in English) I also now have a Mexican sim, which makes this all seem far too real!
So it’s been a very intense first couple of days..I was told by a lot of people before arriving I’d stand out because I’m blonde, but despite the warning it has been pretty weird getting used to looking so foreign! Even though Mexico City is fairly touristy so there are other foreigners we still seem to attract a lot of attention which does feel a bit odd… but anyway tomorrow I’m seeing my centre for the first time and meeting my host family which is very scary after living in a bubble the last few days. My body clock still doesn’t seem to have adjusted and it’s now midnight in Britain so I feel like I should be asleep! So I’ll just provide you with some photos instead… hasta pronto!!
