¡Ay Caramba!

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Hello again

When I booked this trip back in England, I never really queried why my flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City involved a change in Dallas - I was too excited by the whole trip. So, I found myself checking into Los Angeles Internatinal Airport at 5am one windy morning. The airport was packed. When I got to the front of the queue, I realised why. All flights to Dallas had been cancelled due to tornado warnings in Texas. The only way I could get to Mexico City that day was to change in Chicago! Chicago!

Now, one of my favourite films is Planes, Trains and Automobiles about a guy trying to get to Chicago for Thanksgiving. The weather is often bad in Chicago causing planes to land at other airports. As I sat on the flight to Chicago, all sorts of scenarios entered my head. I had visions of landing in Nowhereville, Ohio and having to hitch across America, possibly swimming the Rio Grande over the border and completing the final 800 miles in Mexico by mule. Donkeys, Pedalos and Rickshaws was going to be the title of the film. Of course, nothing like that actually happened. Two 4 hour flights later, I was in Mexico City.

Due to the delay, I landed in Mexico City at night. All I can say is wow. I know it's a big place but it was an amazing place to land in the dark. The airport is not too far from the centre so all the eye could see right up to the horizon was street lights. Spectacular.

I made it to my hotel safely and was pleased and puzzled to see that it appeared to have a policeman guarding it. One thing that struck me generally was how many different types of police were around the city. State police, city police, traffic police, historic quarter police - all in different uniforms, most confusing.

My first day in the city was 1 December. I was aware from news reports that this was the day that the new President of Mexico was to be inaugurated. Felipe Calderon beat Manuel Obrador (I like to call him Labrador) in a very close vote earlier in the year. Now, the central Americans do like their politics. Labrador's supporters claimed electoral fraud and were clearly not happy with the result. And they wanted to let everyone know about it. So, on my first morning, still a little bleary from my brief trip to Illinois, I decided to exlpore the main square in the city, El Zocalo. I'd been there literally seconds when a huge crowd of protestors entered the square. They were Labrador supporters and they were not happy.

All the guide books advise tourists to stay away from any sort of protest in this part of the world and a quick look at the history books explains why. If the central Americans like their protests, they also like their armed conflicts. So I scarpered and quick. I didn't want to get caught up in the storm and somehow end up leading a revolution. For a start, I have no policies - other than every Mexican should be made to speak English. But as I turned the corner, I could have sworn I heard them chanting "Joff for El Presidente". I may have been hearing things.

The rest of my trip to Mexico's capital passed off peacefully. The cathedral was magnificent but I preferred the National Palace. I also spent one morning being a proper tourist on the open top bus.

I enjoyed Mexico City but I was glad to be heading for a more peaceful location. It's a great city but incredibly busy and noisy. I couldn't live there.

As I reached the end of my time in the city, I realised that the "policeman" on the door of my hotel wasn't a policeman at all. He was just a security guard in a uniform extremely similar to a policeman´s. The fact he was a security guard was confirmed when I saw him putting up the hotel Christmas tree on the day I left!

Tune in next time to find out how I survived my first journey on a Mexican bus and the return of Hawkins to the water. Arrrrrr.

Keep in touch

Joff

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Comments

[Paul B]

Gripping
Your travelogue makes engaging reading sir. If the BBC had owt about em, they would have packed a crew off with you Palin-styley for an entertaining jaunt around the globe. I would like to add that I hope another of your policies for election would be that sittting was compulsory for 12 hours every day. Glad to hear all is groovy and look forward to the next exciting installment. I like the Saturday-morning-serial 'tune in next time' at the end of every entry. Take care chief.