Aug 14 - Mexico City

Breakfast included free cereal, toast and coffee. Checking out at 11 am, our plan was to spend the night at the airport since our flight to New York was scheduled to depart at 7 am tomorrow morning. Leaving our bags at the hostel, we made our way to the Alameda area on foot, snapping pictures of the crazy benches on La Reforma. The walk lasted a half hour, so we were already hungry and went to Salon Sol. Here we tried chilaquiles - basically nachos, beans and cheese in a savory sauce - and hot cakes topped with caramel (which was actually pretty good).

At the park, we reclined on the grass (ignoring the signs, as were many others) and played cards. Next our path took us to nearby Internet cafe which occupied over an hour of the day. Bored, we went to the Cinemex Real to see the new X-Files movie (where were the aliens??) After the film, Lauren was feeling sick so we canceled our plans to walk back to Polanco to find the Indian restaurant on Copernico, instead getting a table at Sanborns cafe. The bread and salad were great while the pasta dishes we ordered were mediocre at best - overcooked and watery. Lauren still felt terrible, so I withdrew some cash at an ATM in the cafe and asked the host to help us get a taxi. Instead of calling one, he pointed us to a sitio stand at a hotel two blocks south of Juarez. The stand was empty, so I went in to inquire with the concierge. At first he was reluctant to help since we were not staying at that hotel, but I pleaded/bribed him, telling him about the restaurant host and my sick girlfriend. He caved and radioed a taxi to pick us up. The ride was short and easy; it took about eight minutes and we paid 110 pesos including tip. Lauren lay in the lobby for about a half hour until we had to leave for the airport, so the host, Aaron, called us a cab. There was a ton of construction on the way to the airport, so the trip took a good 25 minutes and set us back 150 pesos.

Getting inside Terminal 2, where we had arrived a month earlier, I asked at the desk how early we could check in and was told 4:30am. The next passed slowly while we sat on cold hard concrete benches on the lower floor. It wasn't quite as bad as I had read online about the older Terminal 1 (guards not letting you lie down, rats, theives, etc.) as Terminal 2 was less than a year old. I couldn't imagine our 7 hours waiting here could be worse than the 4 hours I spent on the boat in Puerto. You could say that being in Mexico has made me a more patient man. There were maybe 25 or 30 people sitting on the benches and bleachers; a few were lying down. Police and security personnel regularly passed by in the long warehouse-esque building. Construction noise on the upper floor was boring deeper into my skull, while constant glances at my watch made me wish I had never bought it. It was hard to believe we were back where we started. Sometime around 2am Lauren went to the upper floor to explore a restaurant that looked open. She returned just in time to help me move our bags out of the way of the floor cleaning crew, which was tossing water from a bucket all over the place. She had found people were sleeping in the ticket counter area, which was carpeted, so we scurried up and nabbed the last place next to the wall and "slept" until 4:30. Checking in, we passed through the tiny security checkpoint line and had breakfast at an expensive restaurant (expensive as in normal in the U.S.). Before too long we were on a plane. Of course, our connecting flight was canceled, but that's another story. Let's just say that you better hope you never have to stand in line at Delta's JFK ticket counter.

We hope you enjoyed reading our photo journal, and we wish you happy travels! Don't forget to check out our Photos by Location pages; there are many more photos there than appear in the journal.