With close to completing two months of my stay in Ecuador, the 'itch' started. You know about the itch right???...The 'Travel itch'. Before you think or say anything, I know I have been travelling almost every weekend to places in and around Guayaquil; but this itch is different. This itch involves getting into a flight and crossing borders to another country.The travel itch: "It won't go away until you do..."
I have been suffering from this disease for a while now. It spread massively once I started my job, got independent and had my own money to spend. This itch, is the reason in the past I traveled almost every second month, either within the borders or outside. But, I traveled. And now, the itch was back.
So to take care of this, I had researched and pre-planned on my medication and form of therapy that I would require. Here is the prescription- My friend(soon to be sister-in-law) was travelling to Mexico for work purpose, and casually mentioned once that I should join her. That's it. That is all that I needed- an invitation. Soon afterwards my planning started. Ooohhhh....that is the best part about travelling- Planning the itinerary.
With the dates fixed( 4-10th May), tickets booked (Avianca worked out cheapest) and 'things to do' list prepared, I was counting days for the D-Day to come. The plan was: 4-6th May in Mexico City, 7-8th May travel to Acapulco(for me a vacation without beaches is incomplete) and then 9-10th May back to Mexico City from where on 10th we catch a flight back home to Guayaquil.
With the day finally having arrived, I along with my other sister-in-law, who happened to be visiting us from India, were at the airport well in time as we did not want to risk any delays which in turn might cause any kind of threat to us going for the trip of a lifetime.
Ciudad De Mexico- Here we come :)
Our flight was an early morning one, with a total travel time of 7 hrs, with one stop at El Salvador. Since we had a valid US visa, we did not require to get any visas for entering Mexico, thus saving us a lot of trouble with paperwork etc.
Finally, at 2 pm(Mexico time) we landed in the city which we hoped would make our one week stay, more than just MEMORABLE. The advantage of having come as a plus one(or two in our case)with someone on work, makes the travel within cities- a piece of cake.
Why?
Well, for one we had the official car waiting for us when we landed, we had a chauffeur standing outside with a placard having our names on it and most importantly the chauffeur was pre-instructed on where to take us, thus ensuring that I got to use my minimal Spanish skills as less as possible.
Moral of the story: When jobless and broke with no direct income being generated, and yet you still feel the urge to travel- Tag along with the people you like(more importantly who like you ), to keep the expenses as minimum as possible ;)
On our way from the airport to the apartment which would be home for the next few days, I observed the city as much as I could to understand the flavor of it. What struck me most was the similarity of it to my own country- India. Same kind of buildings, same congestion on the roads, slow moving traffic, similar looking people etc. It literally took us almost 2 hours to reach our destination(Almost equivalent to the flight time between Guayaquil and El Salvador). But alas, all our tiredness, irritation of delay etc etc vanished when we arrived to our apartment. In fact the area around where we would be staying was totally different from the old, unstructured buildings we had seen earlier. This part of the town was artistic, elegant and very classy.If only I could describe our apartment as beautifully as in reality it actually was. An apartment which we rented online through Airbnb, was not just an apartment. It was a PENTHOUSE, and that too a magnificent
one. Since we were close to 6 people who planned to stay together(3 office colleagues and 3 of us), we had decided to book a grand apartment. But this was way beyond grand. It seemed to be an apartment straight out of an home decor magazine . With each corner of the house done up beautifully, decorated with wonderful pieces of art and pottery, with the classy pieces of furniture in each of the rooms, the lovely open kitchen in one end of the living room and with the unique spiral staircase connecting the two levels:I had completely fallen in love. Airbnb definitely knows how to keep it's customers happy and believes in giving them more than they expect.
I, hereby solemnly pledge to be a regular customer of Airbnb, to love and to cherish, and to bask in your luxury; in sickness and in health. "I DO".
So, after kind of getting over the awe of our penthouse, we decided to get on to one of the top things Mexico is known for- it's FOOD :).Lunch time, we decided to walk down the street(Cuauhtemoc, Juarez, 06600) to explore the various options we had. The street was full of small street side shops selling variety of Mexican food like Enchiladas, Tacos, Burritos etc at an extremely reasonable rate, and we promised ourselves we would be back when the hunger pangs knocked again for their evening snacks. But for now, we decided to enter one of the restaurants which seemed to have quite a number of people(thus giving us a comfort that the food must really be good), and ordered a lot of the local food to relish. We had it all- Tacos, Tostadas, arroz con camerones and to top it all a yummy desert called the chocolate flan.
After such a grand meal, and after the long day we had had, we decided to take an afternoon nap to be fresh for the evening ahead. So for three hours, we switched off our phones, pulled down the curtains, switched off the lights and were busy in our Mexican dreamland.
After the siesta, with the battery fully recharged, we were ready to get out and explore the neighborhood. Having been warned adequately and numerously about the safety issues that we might face in the city, we were extra cautious and had our defense antennas up and running. But at the same time, we knew that we might never get a chance to be back to this city and tried to take it all in. After walking for around 10 blocks, we came across a cute little Cuban restaurant and decided to go inside and give it a try. This restaurant was called the : La Bodeguita Del Medio or the La B del M.
You know, there are those times when you enter a place and feel instantly comfortable and at home. Well this was definitely one of those places. The walls of this place was full of messages left behind by happy customers, there were crazy weird yet uber cool artifacts on display and then there was the live band singing foot tapping numbers.
Once we entered, we instantly fell under the Cuban spell casted upon us.The food, the drinks, the music, the staff were all amazing and at the end of the day we were all very happy people.
In fact the manager was kind enough to make us happy girls, even more happier by showing us some amazing bar tricks.
Check it out:
With this, we called it a night and headed back home for a good nights rest. All in all, our first day in Mexico City was super memorable and very welcoming, and reassured us that the rest of our days here would be as good or maybe even better than the first one.
My next blog will cover on all the must visit places and must do things when in the wonderful Ciudad De mexico.
Read more about Mexico in my other blogs:
1)About Mexico City a.k.a Ciudad De Mexico- Places and Things you just CANNOT miss.
2)Airbnb Apartments,Mexico City: Take a dive into Luxury
3)La Bodeguita Del Medio (La B del M), Mexico City: A true Cuban Experience
You can also refer to these other articles which I found helpful while looking for more information on Mexico City:
1) All about Mexico City
2) CNN
3) Tripadvisor
Till then,
Chao!
Adiós!
Hasta Luego!
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