Arrival in Tenochtitlan aka Mexico City

When I hovered above Mexico City, as the Aeromexico steel bird prepared for landing, I saw the sea of concrete slabs as daunting. From above, one could see the endless expanse of urban space. Unlike most cities, MC does not particularly have a downtown skyline.

In fact, MC has several clusters of tall buildings, but nothing of the sort that would resemble Los Angeles or the Manhattan skyline. Not that there´s anything wrong with that, of course.

It´s just that the lack of a physical core makes the city almost difficult to place and understand visually, as if all roads lead to another block of cement. Endless blocks of cement. Although there are patches of green forests, the grey is overwhelming.

Arriving in Mexico City´s airport was a dissapointment. For such a large city, its airport resembles that of a Kansas City hangar. In other words, the city needs to invest in the image that businesspeople see when they first arrive. The hallways seemed dusty, tired and worn down. Although all the employees are friendly and generally very helpful, the process of finding a taxi once you have been cleared by customs is nothing short of a nightmare.

In fairness, once you step into the shouting crowd of taxi hawkers and crazed relatives, the airport does provide an option to buy a prepaid taxi voucher, which helps prevent misunderstandings later. This is useful because there is no cash exchange between you and the driver, and of course, no surprises later about fare changes and the like.

But for the passenger with more than two bags, the process of getting to the taxi will involve the employment of an extra person to help out. Of course, a tip of about 40 pesos will be expected.

For those unfamiliar with MC´s traffic, welcome to the voluntary parking lot transportation option. Basically, MC has way too many people and cars for any form of efficient movement. As a result, every tug and pull and stop and go is the motivating factor behind MC drivers´incessant need to advance inch by inch.

You will take 1 hour to cover 20 blocks.

When you arrive, just remember to have a lot of patience. A lot of patience.

Mexico City is an incredible place. Too bad you have to scrath the surface multiple times to find them.