 |
| Mexican National Cathedral |
 |
| The Ballet from Sears. The scooter was $1500 |
The God of the Underworld -
liver hanging out
Day 1 of our trip was uneventful. We left Tallahassee at 6 AM. We flew to Atlanta and caught a straight flight to Mexico City. It took about 3 hours. As our plane landed our phone got a message from T-Mobile welcoming us to Mexico. It said our iPhones would work exactly like they do back in Florida. They actually worked better here. We have gotten 4 bars of signal everywhere here. First thing we did was get an Uber car to the the hotel. Uber rides are cheap here - most of them falling in the $2 to $3 category.
Le Meridien is a world wide hotel chain. We have a little suite of bedroom - kitchen - living room - bathroom for $126 a night. It is downtown and central to everything. We have 2 big screen TV's and receive some USA stations - CNN - etc.
I did experience little "altitude lag." It is like "jet lag" - but your body must adjust to the thin air. Tallahassee is at 200 feet - Tamaqua is at 700 feet - Denver is at 5200 feet - and Mexico City is at 7300 feet. The lack of oxygen made me tired and weak. I read about it and it is supposed to go away in a couple days. The sangria we had for supper did not help :-)
Thursday - Day 2 - I was feeling much better. I still got tired a bit on steps - but it was much better than the first day. We ate breakfast in our hotel.
We took an Uber to Templo Mayor. Admission for this giant museum was like $4. This temple was built by the Aztecs around 100 AD. The culture lasted until about 1500 - when the Spanish came with guns. They easily the Aztecs and plundered the place. They sent all the gold and silver back to Spain. Many of the ships wrecked off the cost of Florida - and they are still finding the booty.
Mexico City is in a valley on top of a high plateau. The 7300 feet elevation alters the weather here. We have experienced 60s and 70s - pretty cool for being so far south. At 19 degree North - it is farther south than the Tropic of Cancer. At one time the plateau had a giant lake - but they easily drained it over the edge of the plateau.
21 million people live in this city and valley. It is the second largest city in the world next to Tokyo. They spend the peso. One peso is about worth 5 cents. 20 pesos to a dollar. It is hard getting used to the big number prices. I saw a Christmas Tree in Sears for $19,000. In dollars - it is less than $1000. Making it even stranger is the symbol $ means peso here.
Food prices are cheap. Lulu and I have had full meals - with desserts - drinks - sides - and the bill with taxes and tips is under 400 pesos or $20. We went to Walmart here - and milk is less than $1 a quart. Uber rides are usually $2 to $3.
The people we met are nice. They are shorter than you expect. Maybe the diet makes them a little more plumb - not that Americans aren't. They dress nicely - very few of them smoke - and main streets are litter free. Our Meridien Hotel is as nice as anywhere else we have visited. The people are super helpful - although not many speak English. Admissions are low priced.
We bought tickets for the ballet Sunday. We have been told to not miss it. There were 3 categories of tickets - 3 levels. We bought two tickets in the third row center of the bottom section for $50 each. The theatre is beautiful.
We found a big Sears downtown - 9 stories tall. We shopped on each floor. They even sold motorcycles and scooters. Fire codes are light - all 9 floors were open - and the escalator goes down thru all layers.
We got cash out of an ATM machine - our American cards work fine. They have McDonalds - Walmart - Kentucky Fried Chicken - Chilis - and dozens of their own chains. There are lots of places to eat all kinds of food.
Tomorrow - Day 3 - we are taking a bus to the Pyramid of the Sun. It is the third largest pyramid in the world. Again - it was built by the Aztecs. It is 230 feet tall - and 700 feet wide at the base. There are steps to the top and we plan to climb it.
No comments:
Post a Comment