Category: Mexico

Our day started at 3am, which was brutal, but it allowed Anthony, Cole, and I to make it to Mexico City by 12:30. One of our reasons for our visit was to see their friend, Fernando, whom Anthony hadn’t seen since I had been in the picture (so, a long time). Fernando and his wife, Loraine, picked us up at the airport, navigating the crazy traffic to take us to our AirBnB, which was a beautiful apartment in the Roma Norte neighborhood.

We changed, freshened up, and walked a few blocks to La Pitahaya, a vegan restaurant so that I could have something to eat, which was amazing. Presentation was beautiful, and the food was so delicious.

After that, we caught an Uber to Fernando’s parents’ house where they were having a rooftop cookout for us. I got to meet his super sweet parents, his adorable kids, some friends, and his brother and new sister-in-law who were so friendly and spoke to us in English all night so that I wasn’t a total loner. Their hospitality was amazing and very much appreciated. We drank way too much tequila, his mother gifted me a hat for the pyramids the next day, and then we made our way back to the AirBnB for a reasonable bedtime after a long day.

The next day, we slept til sunshine was pouring in, and got up to wander the neighborhood.

Anthony and I walked to a farmers’ market in the neighborhood for a cheap breakfast and a stroll around the park. 

Afterward, Fernando picked us up to drive us out to Teotihuacan, the ancient Mesoamerican city with massive pyramids. 

The crowds were huge and noisy, but the pyramids were impressive. We walked the avenue of the dead, climbing steep stairs here and there for the views, and then climbed the second largest temple (the largest had about the longest line I’d ever seen). 

We were still feeling pretty good at that point, so Anthony decided we needed to walk forever more to see the last temple. 

By this point, I was tired and thirsty and ready to sit down, so we walked back to the car, bought some water and chips, and headed back to Mexico City. 

That’s when things got a little stressful. We needed to pick up our tickets for the game the next day. The NFL puts on one game in Mexico City each year, and since we’re Chiefs fans, we decided it was an opportunity not to miss. But, we realized we didn’t have the credit card that was used to purchase one set of the tickets (we had to buy them in two sets – long story), which apparently was required. We hoped we’d be able to sweet talk them, and thank goodness, we had Fernando with us to speak Spanish to them (no offense to Anthony). 

But, they told him we needed to call and figure out what needed to be done. So he called, sat on hold forever, and finally they decided they’d cancel the one order and then put it back on our new credit card. Crisis averted.

We grabbed some food and a bottle of wine there at the mall, and then Fernando took us on a short tour back into town where we stopped at Coyoacán for a brief stroll and then some drinks at a bar so that we could try Mezcal. 

The next day, Anthony and I wandered around the neighborhood a little bit before the three of us went back to Coyoacán for a deeper exploration. Unfortunately, it was a holiday, so most of the things we wanted to do were closed. 

We did a little shopping, got some breakfast, and then walked over to the pleasant Chimalistac neighborhood.

After that, we went to the vegan street taco stand, Por Siempre Vegana, which was awesome (and, like, $4 for Anthony and I to stuff our faces). 

We went back to our AirBnB to pre-game with some wine. Fernando and Loraine met us there to help us finish off said wine, and then we met up with a couple more friends of theirs for the Uber on over to the Chiefs/Chargers game. 

The stadium was huge.  We grabbed some beers and settled in for the show.

It was way too close for comfort, but I screamed my little heart out, surrounded by Chargers fans, so that my voice was cracking and going hoarse by the end. I, of course, credit myself for their eventual win after Philip Rivers with the Chargers threw a game-ending interception. 

Getting out of the stadium was a little scary because of all the bodies packed together not knowing what direction to go, but we made it out unscathed and all together, and then walked for a century before getting a ride back home.

The next day, I was completely worn out. But, we managed to do a few touristy things – Palacio de Bellas Artes, el Zócalo, Templo Mayor museum… 

I had hoped to do Chapultepec Castle as well, but we weren’t able to fit it in. Instead, we went back to the apartment for some rest. We grabbed a little bit of food at La Pitahaya again before meeting up with our tour group for some Lucha Libre.

Our group got to know each other a little over some beer and mezcal, which is where we discovered two of the guys in our group were quite possibly the biggest douchebags alive, but I digress.

We then went to a taco stand for some street tacos. They threw together some vegan ones for Anthony and me, but unfortunately, I was feeling really sick and didn’t want any. 

After that, we walked the rest of the way to Arena Mexico for the match. We all got our own masks and sat down for the show. It was definitely unique and would have been a lot of fun if I had been feeling better. But unfortunately, we had to leave before the final match since I was feeling sick.

I had a lousy night’s sleep, and then we headed to the airport early the next morning, and thank God we got there early. At check-in, we discovered that apparently we were supposed to have kept the immigration form we had gotten upon arrival. Since we hadn’t realized this, they sent us down to immigration to pay for a new one. It was a really stressful situation where we felt a bit like criminals, but I’m sure it would have been even worse if we hadn’t had the privilege of being light-skinned, blonde-haired Americans. After they grilled us a while, they gave us new forms, sent us to the bank to pay for them, and then back up to the airline desk to finish check-in. All while I was still feeling completely nauseous.

And so ended our exhausting and fun-filled trip to Mexico City, but I’m sure we’ll be back in the future.

We made it safely to Guatemala after, where we planned to have much more time for relaxation.

 

A couple days before we left for our whirlwind Mexico vacation, we received the word that the Playa del Carmen wedding we were going for, and all the Playa del Carmen guests, were going to be moved to Cancun due to construction at the original resort. Well, Anthony and I were not staying at Playa del Carmen to begin with – we were staying just across the water at the sister resort in Cozumel. So we left bright and early on Thursday morning, not really knowing what our plans were the next few days, but down for whatever and ready to relax in warm weather.

We landed at 4pm, caught our transport to the resort, enjoyed a nice welcome drink while getting checked in, and scheduled our activities for the next day. We explored our resort, looked out at our beautiful view of the ocean from our room, and hung out with a bottle of red wine in our jacuzzi that evening.

At 8:00 the following morning, we got all suited up for our 2 tank morning dives. The storms we were supposed to have turned into nothing but a light sprinkle early on. Our first dive site was about an hour-long boat ride out, but I was mesmerized by the bluest waters around us, so I didn’t mind. Soon enough, we were stepping out into the water and sinking down, navigating gorgeous coral reefs.

Our next dive didn’t have as much coral, but the sand plains showcased a lot of great sea life, from sting rays, to large colonies of lobsters.

I was chilly under water, but the sun was shining brightly when we came back out, so it didn’t take me long to warm up.

We made our way back to the resort, rinsed off our gear, and hung out at the outdoor bar for a quick lunch. Anthony left for a third dive while I stayed behind to get a massage.

I was led up to the massage room, a lovely massage table overlooking the beautiful water outside. I picked out the essential oil I wanted to message, undressed, and settled on the table under the sheet. The hour-long deep tissue massage was heavenly, and I wished for another hour of it.

Nice and relaxed, I grabbed a beer and hung out in my hammock and waited for Anthony to get back from his dive.

A children’s choir showed up to put on a show, so we escaped the chaos and went outside again for dinner. It was a gorgeous evening, even when the rain blew in.

By the time we went back in, things had settled down so we grabbed some cocktails from the bar and took them up to our room to hang out in our jacuzzi again. Some late night room service later on made me nice and sleepy for a full night’s sleep.

The next day was wedding day. The resort got everything set up to transport us there for the night. We took the ferry to Playa del Carmen, a 45 minute rocky ride. Once we arrived, the resort there got us a taxi to Cancun. There was an accident slowing down traffic on the way, so we arrived an hour later than planned, had a not-so-smooth check-in, and made it to our room with barely enough time to change clothes and brush our hair.

Not that brushing our hair ended up being worthwhile because it was a windy evening on the beach, but it was a beautiful beach and a beautiful wedding, so no complaints.

After the ceremony, we hung out for a cocktail hour while pictures were taken and then danced the night away at the reception, having a fabulous time. Cheers to Keaton and Brooke on their marriage and throwing a great party.

After eating breakfast with family the following day, we got our transportation back to Cozumel set up. A much easier taxi ride, and a much rougher ferry ride than the previous day got us safe and sound back on the island. We had an hour to kill, so we found a little local restaurant for lunch.

Unfortunately, the little local restaurant didn’t accept cards, which we found out after eating. We were $10 in cash, but no big deal, because there was an ATM real close. Anthony went to pull out some cash while I stayed, but he quickly came back, letting me know his debit card was missing. That wasn’t ideal, but I figured we’d worry about that later, and gave him my debit card to used instead.

Fifteen minutes later, he came back having had no success. The card didn’t work at either ATM he tries. Thinking someone must have found his debit card leading to a hold being placed on our account, I called the bank in a panic, as we were now running late for getting to the airport for our flight. Turns out, Anthony was just putting in the wrong PIN. So, I ran and got the cash, paid, and rushed over to get a taxi to the airport. A bit of a chaotic ending to a great little trip, but it wouldn’t be a vacation without at least a little bit of stress.

Those four days left me wanting to see much more of Mexico, so we will be back to explore more than just the Caribbean.