Day 0 & 1: Seattle —> Mexico City, Mexico
Most of our trips begin with an early flight based on our preference for being first flight of the day when possible. The European ones are closer to dinner time but they serve you a full meal and then everyone “tries” to sleep.
This one involved eating a regular dinner at home and then going to the airport for a 10:30pm flight. This is day 0. We walked over the the gate just before boarding time and they were announcing our names to come up and validate our passports. We had checked in online so nobody at SeaTac had scanned them up to this point. They may have been announcing a call to us for the past 30 minutes.
We stood around as the boarding was delayed by a ton of underage children traveling by themselves that had to be dealt with first. They finally went down to the plane and they took people needing assistance. We were in first class so we went next and the children were all being taken one at a time to their seat so not off to the fastest start. We finally got in and sat down and remarkably the plane detached from the boarding area around 10:30 which was amazing.
I don’t sleep well, if at all, on airplanes. Jill will tell you I can sleep on command just about any other time. She had some ZZZquil pills and I asked for some. It might have helped. The flight in the air was in the 5 hour range and there was some decent turbulence at many points along the way. I’m guessing I snoozed in small few minute doses waking up often as we moved into day 1.
We got off the plane around 6am which was the schedule. We were handed immigration forms walking off and had to fill them out among the masses before getting in line to go through customs/immigration. It would have been nice to get these in the last 30 minutes of the flight and been able to just walk into the line.
The non-Mexican line was insane but we worked our way into the roped area because before that it was just chaos. After a couple minutes barely moving, they randomly opened the ropes about 5 curves ahead and directed the line to start moving over the the Mexican immigration line. We moved up and into the people being sent over and they cut it off about 5 people behind us. This line moved way faster and we probably cut 20-30 minutes off entry time being over there.
Our driver was outside the customs area and quickly got us to the hotel. We unpacked most items and set an alarm for just under 2 hours later. I don’t think it took me long to fall asleep on command outside of an airplane. That was a great chance to try to reset to a time zone 2 hours ahead but not really losing the day and really messing up sleep at the end of day 1 as well.
We had a light breakfast in the hotel and then headed to the park (Bosque de Chapultepec) right next to the hotel to walk around. We were unable to withdraw cash from the ATM inside our hotel and we should have gotten some at the bank right next to it before walking around. We decided to walk up to the castle but there was a pat down / bag check area along with lockers but we didn’t have any local currency to get a locker. We were close enough to the hotel that we went back and got cash and ditched the bag for the morning.
We walked back down the hill from the castle and grabbed the backpack before heading to lunch. It was a quick 15 minute walk to Contramar, which is a heavy seafood restaurant with hardly anything that didn’t include things from the sea. I used to tell people “I don’t eat my own kind” meaning creatures that love/live to swim (not a fishy fish eater whatsoever). I guess after Operation Cincuenta in Dec and now day 1 here I have to retire that statement. I ate 3 seafood dishes. Ceviche Contramar, a tuna tostada with avocado, and some taco like mahi-mahi. All very fresh and delicious.
We then walked from lunch to the Centro Historico area which has some pretty beautiful buildings and lots of activity during the day. We will be going here again on Tues with Rebecca and Jason so we looked around a little for pre-planning and went to the Museo. This shows the history of this temple that was built and then added 7 layers on top of getting bigger and bigger as it went. We had walked around a lot today in the sun without sunscreen and this museum also made me chug my water. So I was starting to feel the dehydration and sun on my neck. I told Jill I’d just sit inside the indoor portion while she walked around more. We ended up leaving and just getting back to the hotel to hydrate, plan day 2, clean up a bit, and get ready for dinner.
We ate at the hotel but they didn’t have the lamb tacos tonight which was a bummer. They did have something that Jill noticed - duck with mole and other goodness. That’s what I got and it was delicious. While we were looking at the menu, we decided that we tend to try to go with local wines and they had some from Mexico. We aren’t sure this will happen all week, but I confirmed we should do it if something seems interesting. Then Jill texted our friend, Erik Segelbaum, to ask about wines from Mexico and he wrote back quickly with 2 of 3 producers that were on the very limited list! Erik has many talents, with one of them being how to master beverage programs at restaurants as well as how to get a label into a top beverage program.
I ordered a really good margarita so Jill got a glass of the only Mexican wine by the glass. It was a cab from the oldest producer in the Western Hemisphere (thanks Erik) and then we just ordered a bottle for dinner. Believe it or not, it was good AND it was the cheapest red wine on the menu. I encourage readers to find out where in Mexico wine grapes are grown.
As we walked out of the restaurant past the fountain back into the hotel, I was staring at the pastry/coffee area. I had spoken with the guy working there earlier about opening time. 6am. Perfect! So after dinner he waves as he sees me and I loudly “woo-hoo” this occasion which raises a smile.
And with that we are closing the first very full day in Mexico for the both of us.