Los Mochis

 

Last meal at Mexico City Airport. Another taco.  Note the unusually shaped chips.

On 30th September (here), we flew to Los Mochis.  We were in an Embraer 190, which was chockers.  But being at sea level again is wonderful!

I sat next to a young man who saw my CO2 meter and knew what it was.  His job was to monitor CO2 levels for potatoes in storage, which are then sold to Frito Lay.  We did  our best to have a conversation, but I got a lot of heads-up on Los Mochis, which was his home town.  He reassured me it was safe, but in Mexico City, he felt very "insecure" and would hurry back to his hotel.  Hardly a selling point!

But Los Mochis is a much smaller affair.  We are now in rural Mexico, which is very interesting.  I am not recommending it as a tourist destination unless you are fascinated by Mexico, but with a company that takes care of everything, it is good way to see it.  Not a lot of English is spoken, so getting some Spanish under your belt would be useful.

Bits and pieces

Saw these taps for the first time yesterday.  How would you get the water to run?

No sitting! 

Answer to the running water problem - you push the little dangling thing to the side and water comes straight down.

Pics from the trip.

A  first!

 

Leaving SFO into Mexico.  The land below.

Flying into Mexico City

 

Dinner was cactus

Last night, we went to Dynasty food stall which had a selection of chinese-style food.  We shared a helping of fried rice, beef with brocoli and beef with cactus.  I said I had never eaten cactus before.  The young man said "well, this is Mexico!"  Couldn't resist trying it!

Not too bad - a relative of capsicum, in taste anyway.  This is a close-up.

Triple Whammy

We are in Mexico City tonight for two nights.  We flew from  Sydney to SanFrancisco (SFO) and had to transfer to a domestic flight to Mexico City.  Such a thing is to be avoided as you have to clear immigration (45 minutes in the queue), collect your luggage, re-check it, and find the gate for your next flight.  All sounds ok until you try to do it at SFO.  Crappy signage, - well no signage for the airport as a whole - and you have to go through a security check before you enter any group of gates.  We found ourselves in the wrong group and were there an hour before we realised our mistake.  So through another lot of security to get to the F-G gates.  We could catch our breath in the lounge for an hour or so, and then got on the flight to Mexico City, for two nights at the airport hotel.

This morning, we woke up at 10:30am and I was hit with a triple whammy - jet-lag, fatigue and altitude.  Business class makes for a comfortable flight, with the best chance of sleep, but it doesn't change the time zones.  As for altitude, Mexico City is 2240m - not dangerous, but enough to be felt, and growing up in Longreach does not prepare you for altitude!  I felt like throwing up - which is my usual reaction to altitude.  It didn't actually happen, but I went back to the room and slept till 3pm.  In addition, the humidity is about 15-20%, so we have to manage our water supply, especially as you cannot drink the tap water.  And the pollution is awful - who needs filters?!

Tonight we checked  where we have to go tomorrow for our flight to Los Michos - which is by the sea.  There we are met by the travel company - looking forward to that!

We noticed that at check-in, "active military personnel" get priority boarding.  One lady added 'and we thank them for their service".  ScoMo and Dutton would be right at home!

Despite all the grumbles, I did get some pics, which I will post next - internet speed permitting.

Visas!

Before I even begin our story about travelling to Mexico for the total solar eclipse on the 8th April, I had to endure the US visa experience. 

Innocently, we had decided to fly through San Francisco.  For this, just to transit, you need a visa.  I am no longer eligible for the visa waiver programme because we went to Iran in 2017.  So I have to apply for a full-on visa.  My previous one had expired, and I thought it would the easy process that it had been in 2017.

But no.  Beginning in December, it took me two weeks to sort through the many glitches in the website as well as try to upload a photo, which was rejected.  You had two websites to deal with - one for  filling in information and another for scheduling an interview.

Then I found that I had to wait two and a half months for an interview.  It had been something like 2 weeks in 2017.   I had an appointment 13 days before we were due to leave.  I will spare you the story of my attempts to get an earlier appointment.

On the day, I arrived an hour before the interview time.  There were already 40 or so lined up on the footpath outside the Embassy in North Sydney.  I got to the door at  the right time.  So that was one hour. I did have a chance to chat to some others in the queue.  Was pleased when a much younger lady said to me "Wasn't their website terrible!" 

Once inside you had to declare any laptops or tablets, and phone had to be OFF.  Security meant everything had to be scanned - I do not recall ever being asked to remove my watch for scanning.  Then you go through this huge, thick  door to the entrance to the lift and up to the appropriate floor.  

More queuing - for fingerprinting, and recording of the photo that is now apparently acceptable.  

Another queue for the interview.   Why do you want to go to the US?  What did you do in Iran?  Have you been to North Korea or Cuba?  She was able to give me a tourist rather than just a transit visa, and told me to renew my visa by email next time.      

My parting words to her were that I had been on my feet for 2 hours and 5 minutes.  There was no  chair anywhere.  I had drunk all my water and just couldn't get out of that building quickly enough.

Down the road was a lovely French bakery where I got a coffee and quiche for lunch.  

Which country has the best PR?!