Flight to Mexico City

4:30am came awfully early, as it always does!  It did not seem like I had much sleep, but it was time to go, so we roused ourselves and got to the airport.  We got there 2 hours early, but were asked right away by the security agent why we had waited so long to arrive.  I thought 2 hours was the normal international check-in time, but Israel asks you to be there FOUR hours early for a flight!  She told us she would do her best to help us make it through, but could not guarantee we would make the flight!  Just a short moment of nerves, but we got through in no time, and ended up having a full hour in the lounge to relax and have breakfast.

Our first leg of the flight was to London, on British Airways.  Their business class was awesome!  And I actually got a few more hours of sleep.  I thought the flight was shorter, but in fact, it was nearly 5 hours in the air.

In London, we had plenty of time, and made our way to the lounge, a really awesome one too.  Of course, we ate more there!  But, although I had checked our gate before we went to the lounge, when we got ready to head to the plane, we realized the terminal had changed.  So we had a little race to make the plane there at the end.  No problem though, and when we walked up, they asked, “Are you Mr. Baez and Mr. Burchel?”  We walked right on, and no problem at all.

The last long haul flight of the trip was probably the best after the very first one.  British Airways 747 was very clean and fresh, which I had not really expected on a flight to a poorer destination like Mexico City.  I don’t know about the rest of the plane, but the Bubble was only half full!  Woo hoo!  So, we enjoyed the trip very much.  It was quite long as well, about 11 hours total, and I got maybe 30 minutes more of sleep there, but mostly watched movies (the latest of the Narnia movies, which I actually enjoyed a lot), read, and of course, ate.  They had some really good food on that flight too.

One cool thing, with a few hours left in the journey, I checked the flight position monitor, and was surprised to find our position just over Salisbury, NC, only a few miles from Thomasville, my old hometown and birthplace!  I tried to find any recognizable landmarks, but we were at full altitude, so roads and minor features are not very visible from that height.  Still, it was cool to know I was passing so close to home on such a long journey!

Finally we arrived in Mexico City, fully 24 hours after we got up that morning in Tel Aviv.  What a day!  We were pretty tired by the time we made it through customs and immigration.  There was quite a long line for customs also, which is unusual, and we had to scan our bags – I guess trying to fight drug trafficking.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to do the manual bag search.  They have a cools system.  You press a red button, and if the light comes on, then you must be searched manually.  If not, you walk through.  We both got no light, and walked through then!

We hired a car from the hotel, since we were admittedly a little nervous about Mexico City.  Of all our destinations – even the Palestinian Territories and Amman, this seemed the most likely to encounter some kind of problem, so we figured it was worth a couple of extra bucks to get a professional car from the hotel.  It was first class, all the way.  The driver had water and cool moist towels for us to use, and got us straight to the hotel.  Here, we had splurged a bit, staying at the best hotel in Mexico City, the St. Regis.  It is very modern and luxurious, and I never stayed someplace with quite the degree of personalization and care they showed.  As soon as we drove up, they knew who we were, and welcomed us to enter.  We did have to pass through security at the hotel, which we thought must just be normal, but in fact, was for a special event – but more on that later.

So we got to the hotel, checked in, and promptly fell into our beds and slept.  

First Israeli Prime Minister, Ben Gurion, at the airport with his name

David chilling in his "suite".  We had the two rearmost seats in the Bubble for this flight, second only to our position in the A380 on the entire trip.

Have I posted shots of every stair in every plane?  Yes!  The view looking down these babies is just awe inspiring, what can I say?!  hahaha

Mexican volcanoes remain very active, as you can see by the many plumes of smoke rising from them, a short way out of Mexico City.

 

Passing over downtown on the way in.  Our hotel is visible on the left side of the wide street, the second closest of the skyscrapers, rounded on the side facing the camera, with a sort of teardrop shape if you look closely.

Smoggy city, but vast and sprawling for sure, and amazing landscape features.  I will opt for Dallas, but it would be nice if we had those mountains to compliment our skyline!