Transition Day

Ready for our Mexico City adventure!

After two glorious weeks in Cuernavaca, I made the journey back to the capital of Mexico to welcome my husband Brian for a short visit.  I got up early to take a last walk around Cuerna.  I got emotional when I realized that I might not be back for a long time. Cuernavaca is a quaint place with friendly people. I will miss my daily walks through town where I was greeted by friendly locals. While I know that I was recognized as a foreigner (the backpack and photo-taking was a big clue), I was never treated like an outsider.  There may be crime and poverty in Cuernavaca, but the people are the real beauty and I will miss that.

 

I'm going to miss being served this every morning!

I ate a quick healthy breakfast with my HM and mama before heading in a taxi to the bus station.  Fortunately, there were four of us traveling back to Mexico City together so it was a fun ride.  We left Cuernavaca around 11am and arrived in Mexico City at exactly 12:18pm.  Coincidentally, this was the exact same time that Brian's flight was landing!  We think we saw his plane land while pulling into the airport!  I knew that it would take him a while to get through immigration and customs so I grabbed a mint tea from Starbucks and waited patiently for him.  Traveler tip: Grab something cheap from Starbucks in large airports if you are unable to get free WIFI.  On your receipt, they will give you the username and password that you will need to get connected!

Brian came through the gates about 30 minutes after he landed.  What a lucky day for him! It took me over an hour to get through when I arrived two weeks ago!  We grabbed a taxi and left for our hotel. Things in Mexico City are much more expensive than Cuernavaca.  Our taxi ride to the hotel was around $18USD.  That may not sound like much, but I didn't pay more than $3-4USD in Cuernavaca.  

We arrived at our bed and breakfast, the Red Tree House, and were greeted personally by the owner and his staff.  The reviews of this little hotel are amazing and I have been looking forward to this part of the trip for months. So far, it has not let us down!  The Red Tree House is a very small, but spectacular place in the neighborhood known as Condesa.  Condesa is an upscale community with many cafes and restaurants.  We look forward to exploring it during our visit.

Once we dropped off our suitcases, we grabbed a metro bus (clean, fast and cheap) to go to San Angel for the Bazaar Sábado.  I came to this market last week with my group and thought it would be a fun place to bring Brian for some people-watching and eating. The bus ride was great, but when we got off, I made a wrong turn. We ended up walking for an hour around a new neighborhood.  We even found the local Walmart.  When we finally arrived at the Bazaar, we were starving!  We picked a clean taqueria and quickly ordered some food.  Brian got arrachera which is flank steak with tortillas.  I ordered my spicy caldo tlapeño with two cactus tacos.  We each had a Bohemia beer and some totopos (chips).  It hit the spot!  The bill was less than $20 for the two of us!  We then left the restaurant and explored the market for a little while.  Exhausted from a day of travel, we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel ($9 not cheap).

We rested for about an hour and then joined our hotel owners for their daily complimentary happy hour.  This is what sets this hotel apart from others.  All guests gather around for cold beer and excellent wine. My glass was never empty and Brian enjoyed several Mexican beers.  We met teachers from San Francisco and Texas. We also met an artist-in-residence from Austin.  We also chatted with a family who is here from Texas with their daugher who is competing on the US rowing team at an international competition in Xochimilco.  It was really interesting to hear everyone's story! This hotel only has 17 rooms so we will definitely get to know everyone before we leave.  

After happy hour, Brian and I decided to walk around our neighborhood to try and find something light to eat.  We struck out because we kept getting lost and weren't really sure what we wanted since we had eaten such a late lunch.  We loved the vibe in Condesa.  There were so many people out walking dogs and enjoying the community.  We met a couple walking 8 huskies, 4 of them off leash.  They were beautiful and my picture doesn't begin to capture what we saw.  We walked for about an hour and finally got some snacks from a 7 Eleven.  How romantic!

 It's a husky party!

We returned to our room about 10pm, completely exhausted.  I imagine we walked at least 5-6 miles (that's after my morning walk and Brian's day of walking through airports).  I wish I had taken a picture of us drinking soda and eating chips and trail mix out of bags in bed on our first night.  We were both sound asleep by 10:30pm.  

Sunday, the real adventure begins.  We are heading to the Centro Historico of Mexico City.  But first, we have to walk the Paseo de la Reforma to get there.  I hope he has his walking shoes...

 

The night view from our room.