Long time no blog! I know, I know! Life has a way of doing unexpected things at unexpected times so my one blog post a week is at least two and a half months late. That's just how life rolls, however, I am in no way complaining! The last few months have been some of the best of my life, the downside is simply less time for blogging. But the boyfriend is on an emergency work call so that means blogging! Making the most of my time.
So, Mexico City. It is familiar in many ways and so completely foreign in others. If you've been to Los Angeles or parts of California it will will and feel very similar, but it is the capital of Mexico so it has all the flair and culture of Mexico. Sure there is a lot of tourism and tourist traps but there is also history, architecture, authenticity, and beauty, if you know where to look. My first day I was in complete culture shock, even having just been to Ensenada just over a month prior did not prepare me for Mexico City. In Ensenada, most people spoke a fair bit of English, this is not the case in Mexico City or the surrounding areas. Thank the maker my best friend, Melanie, who went with me, has been learning Spanish on her Duolingo app as well as with a private instructor for over a year. She is by no means fluent, but she is knowledgeable enough to order at restaurants, talk to Uber drivers, and generally communicate on a basic level to get us by. I would highly suggest either traveling to Mexico with someone who speaks a fair bit of Spanish or learn it yourself, not very many people speak English and you will need to be able to speak at least the basics to get around. You can download the Google Translate app and download the English to Spanish conversion so it will work even offline. This would get you by, but will take far more time and be more cumbersome, but could work if knowing Spanish is simply not going to happen before your trip. To have an idea of language as an issue I offer you the following scenario. Think of all the little interactions you have while traveling, now imagine not being able to understand or participate in any of them. That's what it felt like for me. I could read Spanish ever so slightly more than I could speak it, so I could read a menu or a sign and use that to order, beyond that I was lingually lost. In the midst of this is when I truly understood what Gloria meant when she said she is very intelligent in Spanish even when she has her moments of struggling in English (from Modern Family). I am a successful and intelligent person in English and in America, I am none of those things in Spanish or another culture. Once I realized this I began to embrace it and the feeling and simply accept this fact while still enjoying everything that Mexico was, while also thanking the universe Melanie was there to get us through. Phones. Verizon doesn't exist in Mexico (which is my phone service provider) and since I didn't have an unlocked phone I was unable to use mine for the entire trip. I could connect to the Wi-Fi at the AirBnB but that was it. We only had Melanie's phone for the entire trip. Only AT&T and Telcel exist in Mexico, so you will need a phone that can accept a sim card from one of those providers. You could also purchase a phone in Mexico if you needed, but Melanie's worked so we didn't feel the need to buy another phone 'just in case'. The sim card and plan are relatively inexpensive and lasted us the entire trip, we were able to purchase both at the airport before we got our Uber ride to our AirBnB. Money. The exhcnage at the Mexican airport was a good exchange rate, over 18 to 1. So I had $100 USD cash that I brought from the USA and exchanged it into Mexican pesos in Mexico. This is the best way to do it, at the airport or at a place beside Zocalo. They will need a copy of your passport, your money and then they can compete the exchange. When you are returning home make sure you exchange any leftover money while still in country! Once you come back to the states they will charge you a very high exchange fee at a bank. So, your best option is to do all exchanges in the country you are visiting. I reserved using my credit card for big ticket items or places where a line for cash (museums, etc.) was very long as there is a fee applied to every purchase made on a credit card. The fee cost is based on the cost of the purchase, so I think I paid less than $5 in fees, but I only used my card maybe 6 times. However, you can see how if every purchase was made on a card you would pay a lot of money in foreign transaction fees. Plus, most street vendors only accept cash. How did we get around? Uber. Uber works great in Mexico and is very, very cheap. When we went the exchange rate was nearly 20 Mexican pesos to 1 US Dollar, so the cost of anything was divided by 20. Our most expensive Uber ride was $16USD and it was nearly a 30 minute car ride. Once we found that we could carpool with Uber it was only a few dollars to go anywhere. We avoided taxis because we heard they can be dangerous, not only for tourist safety, but they are often bad drivers too. We saw many taxis that has been in car accidents, never repaired and still driving people around. We even saw a taxi that was so badly damaged the car alarm was permanently on, but it was still ferrying passengers! We took one bus to Teotihuacan and it was only $104 pesos round-trip. Long story short, everything is cheap in Mexico, use Uber, don't use taxis, you'll be fine! What did we see? Xochimilco, Teotihuancan, Chapultepec, Castillo de Chapultepec, Temple Mayor, Zocalo, The National Museum, The National Museum of Anthropology, the Angel of Independence and more. Our AirBnB was very close to the center of the city and we took full advantage of this. It was a 10 minute walk to the Angel, 10 minute ride to Zocalo, Chapultepec, and more. Our host was very knowledgeable of the city (and spoke English!) and was able to give us advice when we needed it. His home was very well kept, absolutely adorable, and extremely affordable, here is a link to his profile and place! If you are planning a trip to Mexico City I absolutely recommend this host! www.airbnb.com/users/show/62320045 One of my favorite things about the city is the history and architecture, living in Colorado and the western United States, our European influenced history only goes back about 200 years. In Mexico they can trace it back thousands of years, see and take pride in the ruins and remnants, and see architecture several hundred years old. These historic places are right beside brand new buildings. It is just a unique thing to behold. Sure the eastern United States looks this way (NYC comes to mind), but it is different to see this in another culture. To see how they treat and view these pieces of history. How is New Years in Mexico City? Since we were there from December 28th to January 5th. Not a huge deal. They set up a large party in the park on the main street at the Angel of Independence, but of course the entire celebration is in Spanish. We weren't entirely sure what was going on and since we aren't from the culture nor spoke enough of the language, a lot of context was lost on us. However, they had live music from what appeared to be famous singers in Mexico, and lots of celebrity and crowd interaction close to the stage. But Melanie was feeling sick that day so we hung out at a nearby mall until close to midnight, walked past the street vendors to see their wares, then came back to the festivities at about 11:30, counted down to midnight with the diverse crowd that was there from locals to Americans to Germans. If Melanie had been feeling better we would have gone to a bar, but we called it a night and went out the next night instead. Speaking of drinking, if you are into micro-brews, local brews, or fancy type drinks being available at every bar (maybe this is just a spoiled Coloradoan thing?) you won't find it in Mexico. They only really serve about 2 or 3 beers, since I'm not a big beer drinker that left me with Corona and nothing else. We tried a local margarita, it was made in a way we had never seen before with fresh fruit and pulp in the drink, but it was tasty! If not also having an extremely low alcohol content, which was disappointing. So, I was left with getting drunk off Corona, which, drunk is drunk and fun is fun so it all evens out in the end! In an attempt to not have this post go on for forever I will end this it here. I am in the middle of my TEFL certification class so that has taken up a lot of my time and reduced my blogging time. However, I'll be finishing this class in about 6 or so weeks and then I can get back into my one blog post a week and more Instagram posts. I'll also make a post about each of the places we went to with a review and some insight into the location, and if it is worthwhile. Honestly though, everywhere we went was worthwhile and I would certainly suggest! Thank you for your patience, I'll write again as soon as I am able and in the meantime, if you have any questions about Mexico, Mexico City, Spanish, or any of the places we went, leave them in the comments and I'll be happy to address them in my next post! Much Love, Jess
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AuthorJessica Marie Cunningham - Intentional lifestyle blogger, aspiring author, and podcast host. All things Slow Living, Books, Writing, Art, creativity, Christianity, and personal stories. Archives
March 2022
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