Mexico City Trip Afterglow and Reasons

Me and my lovely wife at the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico City

Many folks have asked me - why the quick trip to Mexico City of all places. I thought I would write this story to explain it - and also talk about things we learned.

Usually when we travel - and we do that a lot - it is because Lulu is being paid to go somewhere. This year alone - we spent time in Germany - England - Denmark - Greece - Scotland - Washington - Philadelphia - Richmond - Orlando - Tampa - and now Mexico. Lulu usually is doing a presentation - teaching - or consulting. She is usually paid - plus has her expenses covered. I only have to pay for my plane ticket - and most of the time it is paid for by FF miles.

But even though the above picture does not show it - Lulu is approaching retirement age. I retired at 55. It seems unfair that she is working so much longer than I did. The difference is - she loves what she is doing. She loves being an FSU professor and all the perks that go with it. She loves following her Seminoles - and wearing the garnet and gold. She also loves the paid travel.

I decided that we would take a pleasure trip to a place we both had never been - and Mexico City filled the bill. It would be like we were both retired. For 6 days we were just pleasure travelers - with no clocks running. Lulu teaches her class every Tuesday. So we left on a Wednesday and came back on a Monday. 6 full days. Sort of a long weekend.

A second reason is we changed our phone service to T-Mobile. We wanted to see how well it functioned on the planes and in foreign countries. The service passed with flying color - 4 bars all the way.

From the moment I said go - within an hour - Lulu booked flights and hotel. She had looked over the top 10 things to see in Mexico City. I looked up the vital statistics of the place. It is at 7300 feet altitude - and has 21 million people.

Lulu got flights for $400 each - round trip thru Atlanta on Delta. She got us a 4-room Le Meridien Suite for $125 a night for 5 nights. We were all set.

When we got there - we were very surprised with how nice the city and people were. We enjoyed Uber cars because they were so cheap to get around. We could go anywhere for $3 to $4. There were so many good place to eat - cheaply. We even went to one fancy restaurant to please our son - Keith.

We visited the Pyramids of Pre-Columbian America. We visited the famous Templo Mayo. We went to the Mexican National Ballet - and shopped like crazy. Lulu does not buy much - but she loves to look. She had to claim a dozen bottles of vanilla at customs.

But what we enjoyed most was just touring together by the seat of our pants. We woke up when we wanted - ate what we wanted - and rested when we wanted. There was no hidden agenda. We had no one to impress but ourselves. We spent very little money.

Outside of being tired the first day for altitude - we did not get sick - no Montezuma's revenge. The hotel gave us plenty of bottled water - but we slipped a few times using local water - we did not die. We walked a lot and ate what we wanted. To our surprise Lulu came home one pound lighter - and I was 2 pounds lighter.

On the way home we volunteered to be bumped - they said they needed our seats. They wrote us new tickets and we were already spending the $2000 in our heads. At the last minute - they put us on the plane anyway - no bump. They did upgrade Lulu to first class - and I had 2 seats in comfort class to myself - since Lulu moved. We got home 2 hours earlier than planned because we caught an earlier flight home from Atlanta to Tallahassee. The whole trip was 5 hours - from Mexico City to our home.

So - how did we feel about the trip? Mexico City has beautiful places and much poverty. Our hotel was on the main boulevard downtown. We saw high fashion and real estate. We could shop in fancy malls or in the street bazaars. In all our travels I have never seen more streets full of shopping - blocks and blocks. I loved shopping in a 9 story tall Sears. The people were very sweet and helpful. They love their country. We visited historic ruins from way back to 100 BC.

We climbed the 2000 year old - Pyramid of the Sun.

For 6 days - we enjoyed what it would be like if we were both retired - for about $2000.

$2000 a week x 50 weeks = it would cost us $100,000 a year to be retired!  :-)