Mexico City, 5:30am
I did manage to fall asleep after all. Writing helps, although I awoke in confusion less than an hour later to my alarm going off. Woke up cold and shaking. I'll try to sleep a bit on the 2 hour flight to San Antonio. This morning was a confused blur of last minute packing and sweeps through the apartment. I nearly left behind my Bluetooth keyboard and tablet charger. I paused for a moment in the threshold and closed the self-locking door behind me. I had all the important stuff anyway, passport, wallet, cell phones.
The journey begins, with all my 17 tons of luggage. I hauled all my bags to the sitio taxi and after I woke up a driver we vamosed off to the airport ahead of schedule. The freeways were largely empty so we got there in about 20 minutes.
Checked in with no line, cleared security, and after six months of walking on broken, uneven city concrete, ancient wooden parquet, and dusty village roads, I was was strolling through mirror-gloss white tile floors and advertisements featuring impossibly beautiful anglo people. The international departures concourse makes me feel like I've arrived at the orbiting city of the elites.
San Antonio, 11:00am
Had a really good flight with Interjet. I think they're a relatively new Mexican airline- definitely a Spanish-first airline, with a few small typos in the air safety card. I was just really impressed with the special deal I got ($120 mexico city to San Antonio) and the fact there's much more legroom than any other airline coach.
One thing I never got to see, mostly due to timing or pollution or haze, was the twin volcanoes which loom southwest of the city. When our plane punched through the clouds we were suddenly flying in the orange and pink light of the dawn, and amazingly, with crystal clarity, above the city, the twin snow-capped peaks of the two ancient volcanoes revered by the Aztecs. Popocatepel had a steady stream of smoke rising from the crater. It was the city's parting gift to me.
When we landed in SA, we had to wait to collect our luggage before clearing customs. I was expecting to be grilled but all I got was a few cursory questions and I was waived on.
I'm kind of surprised by all the Texan drawl here. At least at the airport, people are real friendly, and also apparently super Texas jingoists. We really a confederation of states with very different ideas about who they are and what they need.
Checked in to my Houston flight and dropped all the luggage off, ate a greasy American breakfast Stromboli and a root beer (first in six months?), now just killing time before my flight. Didn't expect everything to go so smoothly. It probably means either my flight to Houston will be a nightmare, or all the pottery I bought is broken.
I did manage to fall asleep after all. Writing helps, although I awoke in confusion less than an hour later to my alarm going off. Woke up cold and shaking. I'll try to sleep a bit on the 2 hour flight to San Antonio. This morning was a confused blur of last minute packing and sweeps through the apartment. I nearly left behind my Bluetooth keyboard and tablet charger. I paused for a moment in the threshold and closed the self-locking door behind me. I had all the important stuff anyway, passport, wallet, cell phones.
The journey begins, with all my 17 tons of luggage. I hauled all my bags to the sitio taxi and after I woke up a driver we vamosed off to the airport ahead of schedule. The freeways were largely empty so we got there in about 20 minutes.
Checked in with no line, cleared security, and after six months of walking on broken, uneven city concrete, ancient wooden parquet, and dusty village roads, I was was strolling through mirror-gloss white tile floors and advertisements featuring impossibly beautiful anglo people. The international departures concourse makes me feel like I've arrived at the orbiting city of the elites.
San Antonio, 11:00am
Had a really good flight with Interjet. I think they're a relatively new Mexican airline- definitely a Spanish-first airline, with a few small typos in the air safety card. I was just really impressed with the special deal I got ($120 mexico city to San Antonio) and the fact there's much more legroom than any other airline coach.
One thing I never got to see, mostly due to timing or pollution or haze, was the twin volcanoes which loom southwest of the city. When our plane punched through the clouds we were suddenly flying in the orange and pink light of the dawn, and amazingly, with crystal clarity, above the city, the twin snow-capped peaks of the two ancient volcanoes revered by the Aztecs. Popocatepel had a steady stream of smoke rising from the crater. It was the city's parting gift to me.
When we landed in SA, we had to wait to collect our luggage before clearing customs. I was expecting to be grilled but all I got was a few cursory questions and I was waived on.
I'm kind of surprised by all the Texan drawl here. At least at the airport, people are real friendly, and also apparently super Texas jingoists. We really a confederation of states with very different ideas about who they are and what they need.
Checked in to my Houston flight and dropped all the luggage off, ate a greasy American breakfast Stromboli and a root beer (first in six months?), now just killing time before my flight. Didn't expect everything to go so smoothly. It probably means either my flight to Houston will be a nightmare, or all the pottery I bought is broken.
No comments:
Post a Comment