Vacation's All I Ever Wanted . . .

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Vacation's all I ever wanted . . .  That was a song by the Go-Gos.   Back home now and after seeing Contessa and Colin sitting in the desert with their motorhome makes me ready to head out again.  I just might.  I have an event in McAllen next week and I would like to go to San Antonio to check on the house.  Sounds like a plan.

So we got up with the alarm this morning.   I could have sworn I felt a slight tremor last night when I got up to go to the bathroom but it could just be an old man shaking.  Shaking what I'm not sure :)

Yesterday was our bon voyage to Mexico City.   We headed downtown and went to take some pictures.   I wanted to go to the Sears building and get a shot of the Bellas Artes from the top.  It was fantastic.  We spent 45 pesos on a cafe Americano and an expresso.   You tell me if the view is genial.

It goes to show you that Mexico City isn't all about the rat race, danger, or air pollution.  It turned out to be a great day.  First we went to Reforma to do a little shopping.  I didn't find what I wanted in a black dress pull over.  I lose patience easily so I said I had had enough of that.  I'm sure I can find it on line somewhere.

Took the Metro underground from there.  What an interesting world.  You can't get lost, it is 100% safe, and everyone is willing to help.  Let's say you don't speak any Spanish but you have a Metro map.  Point and smile.  Even the police will help you and then tell you to have a great day.

The Metro has been around now for almost 50 years and it is still growing strong moving over 8 million people everyday.  Amazing how well-maintained and organized the system is.  Cheap too.

No doubt it gets crowded, but that's what mass transit is all about.

Get this, free internet stations underground.  Where else in America does this exist?

And to boot, bam, all of a sudden you see a ruin right there in the station as you get off the train. How cool is that?

We found a good Chinese restaurant, 48 pesos for the buffet.  As we always say, go where there's a crowd.  We found one.  The place was packed and when we left there were 42 people in line.

We're big recyclers too!  On a refuse collection route you have a paid driver and two workers who share the proceeds from whatever they collect.  They may not belong to a union or receive high wages, but they get what they work for.   It's all theirs and they are very happy to have their jobs.  They never go on strike.

We headed home after a long day of walking, picture taking and just enjoying the day.  We said goodbye to the Zocalo and most of what we had seen.  We had our happy hour last night, wrote our FB comments and hit the sheets.  This morning we had an unusual experience.  We headed down for breakfast and began having our coffee.  The more people showed up and Juan said that someone had a badge on from MacMillan, our old publisher.  Then more came, then it was hellos, hugs and laughs.   All of a sudden here come people we know from Cambridge Press, they too are having a training in Mexico City and of course, all of us have worked with or for each other at one time or another over the last 25 years.   Had it been evening, we would have drank ourselves into a stuper and had a blast recalling old times.

At the airport checking our mail before take off.   Goodbye D.F., you really are . . . .

THE BIG TAMAL!