Mexico City, Day 1 and 2, Gran Melia

We left Chicago around 6 am and had a connection in Dallas/Fort Worth. When I looked at my itinerary I saw we had about an hour and a half before we had to change planes. Little did I know that an hour and a half wouldn't be that much time on the return. No problems while we were flying and we landed in Mexico City around 3:00 pm. One thing I don't understand, when going through Customs at Mexico City's airport, is the need to x-ray our bags as we're leaving. I like to believe the hassle we go through at O'Hare Airport and its security measures would be enough but it's not. We didn't have to wait long for the bags and the x-ray was clean so we done.

Normally Eduardo meets me at the airport with flowers which I always appreciate. My favorite are colorful daisies. But I always feel bad when I can't take them home with because of customs. Well I've never tried to bring them home, I assume it would be a problem. This time Eduardo had no flowers (darn but at least I won't feel guilty about leaving them). Instead he gave me a paper and it was a surprise trip to San Miguel de Allende. I was so excited. I actually wanted to visit San Miguel for about 2 years but we either went somewhere else and didn't go. For this trip we planned on going to San Miguel but money was tight (who am I kidding there was no money!) so I knew we couldn't go. Either way I was happy with this gift. We would leave to San Miguel on Monday.

We stayed at the hotel Gran Melia in Mexico City on the main street Reforma in Centro Historico. With my architectural connections I could appreciate the structure and work as well as its flaws. Now if you remember I forgot my digital camera so this are pictures from the hotel's website. From the outside the view is spectacular! You'll also see a nice shot over looking the Calle (Street) Reforma.

The hotel offer many amenities and it was great and everyone seems generally nice and hospitable (who would have thought over the mix reviews at TripAdvisor.com).

So I've been traveling to Mexico City for quite some time and you'd think that we learn a few things about how the city works. Nope. Day 2 in Mexico City we were supposed to head to church because 1. Eduardo was going to preach and 2. because I was supposed to meet the Bishop. We need to be at church at 12:00 pm. We forgot that every Sunday the city shuts down Reforma and several other streets and creates sort of an activity day for the family. You can run, ride your bike, rollerblade ...whatever on this major street.

So when I woke up the next morning around 8 am, Eduardo and Aaron took off swimming. I heard someone talking on a speaker outside. As I peered down I saw people running a marathon. I didn't think it was a big deal until we left the hotel at 11 and found every surrounding street was blocked. It took us quite a bit of fancy driving to get out to the next major street. After asking several police officers we were directed on the "right" street and found ourselves back at the hotel! (and after an hour of driving).

Eduardo was not a happy camper. We eventually got church at around 2 pm (2 hours late!) and we ended staying for the 3 pm service. Oh well.

Here's the buffet that cost us $20 per person. When Eduardo said "200 pesos" I thought 'wow $20 bucks for all us that's pretty cheap!' My bad.

Here's the pool. This picture doesn't really do it justice. It was really nice!

The Lobby

Since we were heading to San Miguel de Allende on Monday Eduardo asked a fellow pastor to drive us home. The pastor would then drive our borrowed car and park it inside his gated house. But Eduardo locked the keys in the car and we were all were stuck outside trying to get the keys out. Eventually (after 1.5 hours) someone random guy asked if we wanted him to help. I'm freaked out thinking "OMG! He's going to get the keys out, pull a knife or a gun and steal the car!" (Hey it's Mexico City what did you want me to think!)

So I stood behind the men with a wrench just in case. The guy got the door open pulled the keys out and.... AND..... asked for $50 pesos. Argh! Thank God that was over with!