This is a follow-up to my previous tourist guide to Mexico City blog. I felt it is important to give to the reader besides pictures and descriptions of the places I visited, the feeling and my view of how life looked to me in the city, and explain how it is different than some of the cities in the USA.
I will start from how the trip looked as I landed, to the time I left to get back. I will touch upon the formalities in the airport, papers to be filed when you go to immigration, money exchange, dealing with traffic, how clean and organized is the city, Hotels, safety, and security, how was the interaction with people looked like, how was the food there, and lastly the trip back.
On the plane
I used Viva Air, it was a direct flight from Las Vegas (where I am currently) to Mexico City, the booking was easy and no issues, the only problem was that the phone app assumed me being Mexican, I had to play with the settings to make it recognize me as US citizen and accept my US phone number as a contact.
The plane was on time, and landing was easy, like any budget airliner, they offered some snacks and hot and cold drinks to be purchased, no cash accepted for these purchases, only credit cards. Mask was mandatory all the time and all seats were full, so there was no 6 feet distancing. Before boarding, there was a temperature test, but no COVID test was required. The COVID test was required on my way back to Las Vegas, and that is due to US regulations.
In the airport
The Mexico City airport was clean but old, and there were long lines at the immigration. The floor finish, the lighting, the signage, and the whole atmosphere looked old and not maintained and show the lack of funding.
All Non-Mexicans must fill an immigration paper, it makes it faster if you fill the application form before reaching the immigration counter. This form is different than the custom form all arrivals to the US must fill, this is the Immigration and not customs form, part of that paper stays with the officer and part with you. You must keep your part of the form and hand it back when you leave the country, if you lose that paper, it will be hard for you to leave the country. If you lose that paper, you need to report it, and I am sure there is a process for that. I always try to staple it to the passport, so I don’t lose it.
Collecting my suitcase
The only issue I had during collecting my suitcase was that I couldn’t find my suitcase on the belt.it turned out that people when they mistaken my language for their own and then realize that was not their suitcase, they don’t return the suitcase on the belt, so my suitcase was left on the floor. I had this type of issue before in other countries, so before reporting my suitcase lost, I walked the floor around the belt and found my suitcase there beside one of the columns along with many others.
After finding my suitcase, leaving the costumes was easy, the doors going out are all numbered makes it easier for people to be able to find each other. The airport outside the gates was full of people waiting for their friends or family members to arrive.
Some countries, like the US, require all people returning to be tested negative for COVID (The US requires the antigen COVID test, no more than 72 hours before boarding). please check my previous blog for details and places to do the test.
Money Exchange
Exchange in the airport has good rates, so if you want to exchange you can exchange in the airport. If you want to exchange outside the airport, there are banks and shops, but some looked to me not too safe, and the banks will require the original passport to allow any exchange. It was an issue for me because I usually keep my passport at the hotel and carry only a copy in my wallet.
To leave the airport, and go to the city center or There the hotel, there are Taxis or Uber, but one has to make sure the taxi used is a registered airport taxi that is pre-paid and a ticket is given. I was advised never to use taxis waiting outside. There are also buses, Metro, and rent a car, in addition, to rent a pickup service booked in advance online or by phone. Please check myprevious blog for details.
Driving in the city
Driving in Mexico City reminded me so much of driving in Beirut – Lebanon. The driving was chaotic, there are traffic lights, but I have seen many just drive through a red light, not waiting for it to turn green. Some roads are not well maintained, and you see bumps everywhere, and some of them are quite big which can damage the car. The problem is during rain, these bumps or holes are filled with water so unless you know the street, you will not be able to predict where pits and bumps are, best practice is to follow other cars and hope they know their way around.
The roads are also very crowded, parking is a problem in some places, that is why people use public transport more often. Public transport is available, cheap, and goes everywhere, in addition, the Gas prices are expensive for their income level, I remember it can cost over a dollar per litter, so it is around four American dollars per gallon. Be careful during COVID to take the Metro or other public transport because you will not have the 6 feet distancing in these public transports.
If you are renting a car, the Gas stations have people to fill the gas for you, and you can pay by cash or credit to the person filling the tank for you. You can also ask the person to check the car fluids and engine oil and if you want, they will top off any fluid you want, or do a complete oil change at the station.
Interaction with people
My Spanish is very basic, just started learning the language. I might understand 50% of what people say if they speak slow, however, Spanish is a very fast language, and many people use slangs which usually is not part of regular Spanish courses, and this made understanding the conversation with locals on the street even harder.
The good thing is that many people working in the touristic places do speak English to some level and some even fluently. For example, the reception in the hotels, restaurants, and shops in tourist places do speak English. Most business owners in these areas speak English, for example, the barber I went to, didn’t speak a word English, but the shop owner did speak English very well, and he was translating. However, even if many do not speak English, most are very kind, and they will patiently try to understand what you are trying to say.
Mexico City is a huge city, with lots of people, but it is also slower than normal life you find in cities in the US. People start opening their shops at 9 am and many don’t open till 10, and the city starts closing at 9 pm, with exceptions to some food stands, or restaurants that close at 10 or 11 and many nightclubs that stay till very late.
I felt people take life slower and less stressful, I can feel life is hard for people, but at the same time, I feel they had less stress it seems. When walking the streets or eating even during normal work hours, I didn’t see many people looking at their phones as I would see in the US.
Service and Customer Care
In my opinion, customer care in the US is still among the top in the world. The service level in Mexico depends on people and their kindness and is not forced by institutions like in the US. Hence, in Mexico City, you can’t be rude to employees and expect them to respond with a fake smile and calm voice like many used to in the US. However, in Mexico City, if you are polite, with a little Spanish and a smile, most probably you will get as good customer service as in the US.
Food
When visiting Mexico City, food was one of the top priorities, I wanted to taste as many types as possible of foods I can, and it was not disappointing at all, the food was great. These days in most major cities in the US, we have Mexican restaurants or trucks with relatively affordable and high-quality authentic Mexican food. However, the atmosphere in Mexico City is something I couldn’t find in the US.
There are many very classy restaurants, some with live music, and bars with beautiful and comfortable sitting arrangements, very well service, and excellent food and fairly inexpensive compared to the same service in the US. I was not asked for any reservation in any restaurant I visited, there might be a short 5 to 10 minutes waiting in some, but usually, there was always a free space.
The street food is what I was looking for, and the city has an unbelievable variety of street food. There are stands, small shops on the streets, on the sidewalks of every tourist place. You can find great food inside every closed market (Mercado). Some Mercados look like the food court we find in malls in the US but without the mall. Basically, there are small food stands with big central sitting areas for people to dine in.
The busy street food stands, and the food which is prepared in front of you is what interested me most. The smell of the food being prepared, the street noise, the whole atmosphere is something many in the US might not appreciate, but if you are like me, traveling always, living in many countries overseas, and if you miss street foods then you will love the food there.
Poverty, Homelessness, and Crime
I was staying in a hotel in front of the Palace of fine art (in the heart of the city), I could see demonstrations every day, asking the government among other things to fight crime in general and specifically crimes and acts of violence against women.
Although my hotel was close to these demonstrators, the place felt safe to me even at midnight. Of course, like any huge city, there are places you don’t want to be in at the wrong time, but in general, it looked safe just like any other major city.
I used to walk on the streets, and in the park close to the hotel, around midnight and there were many walking, biking, walking their dogs, and roller skating. There were people from both genders, and different ages, I saw a group of kids playing alone around 10 pm in the park. I saw many of the parents of these kids just enjoying one of the many music and dancing sessions around the park, leaving the kids to play freely. The place didn’t look like a place with high crime rates.
Poverty is obvious to many people in the city. You can tell the way people hassle for few pesos, how very old people work to make some money to be able to live, but I have not seen the level of homeless people that I have seen in the US. I never saw any person sleeping on the streets nor did anyone approaches me asking for money or food. I saw only very few beggars that looked like the type that they take the begging as a profession, and at night all were gone.
The way back
The transportation back to the airport is the same as mentioned above. But at the terminal, it seems Viva Air has a different set of ticketing desks for local flights and one for international. The signs directed me to the local ticketing desks, and I was waiting in the line which looked to be the correct line, then someone approached me and asked me where I was going, and then told me I was at the wrong place. There were no signs I can see indicating this is a local flight only, so I had to ask another person to make sure.
The way to the other Viva ticketing station was long and a bit confusing due to the lack of signage. Reaching there, I stood in the line waiting, and another man with a Viva uniform approached me and started to ask equations which were weird to me because usually that question, he asked were questions asked by immigration and not airline personnel.
It was long a very slow process till I made it to the desk, and they checked all the documents, from my passport to the second half of the immigration paper, and checked the COVID test results, checked in the suitcase, and gave me the boarding pass (regardless the fact I had a boarding done digitally, and I was there just to drop the language). From the airline desk, I went directly to the security check and the boarding gates, without passing through immigration. It seems the airliner does the boarding and immigration both at once.
The waiting areas were clean, many eating and drinking places and gift shops that you can easily pass the time while waiting for the flight. The plane was on time, there was another set of temperature checks.
Conclusion
Mexico City (CDMX) is a happy city and filled with happy people and unlike the common belief, affordability is not the only attraction, the city has unbelievable beauty, delicious food, kind, and hospitable people.
I think CDMX is a city must visit at least once, it has a great history, great food, many touristic locations, nice hotels, and restaurants to enjoy, mostly safe and clean. The city is fairly inexpensive, the tourist places were very reasonably priced.
Is Mexico City a place I would visit again? the answer is yes and maybe stay for a longer time.
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