Week 139 – Mexico City – JC Travels -The Blog

Been awhile since I travelled outside the USA (although weekly I have gone somewhere domestically and posted a few pictures). Had a business trip to Mexico City and was able to bring Sharon along for the long Labor Day weekend, work for a week, and then and flew directly to Atlanta/Athens to see Annelise. I had been to Mexico City several times, but hadn’t spent much time in Reforma nor been on excursions just outside of town.

Of course, since we arrived two days after another American, many people were interested in our view of Mr. Trump…only one person less popular than Trump, President Peña Nieto. The business view from Mexico is mixed – they just passed energy reform which will allow USA companies to invest directly in oil/gas – but with drop in prices, exploration is delayed and continued importation of natural gas flows from the North is expected. Separately, the talk of NAFTA renegotiation is causing delayed investment from Asian companies – without the access to the USA market and free import of some components from USA, it is better to manufacture in Asia and import specialty components from Japan then export to USA.

Mexico City

The Paseo le Reforma is the main boulevard running from near the historical center of Zocalo to the main parks containing the various national museums. It is tree-lined and very much patterned after a European capital (although it is no “Cheonho-Daero”). Most of Mexico City seemed very safe and with Uber the transportation is now much safer than just grabbing a taxi (big fan of Uber in Mexico City). My energy levels still aren’t great, so we didn’t get out much at night and I found out after Sharon left many great restaurants were on the streets just a couple of blocks off Paeso le Reforma where I had my first “Mexican Caviar” with a former work colleague from Samsung. It is called Escamole and is made from giant black ant eggs. I attached pictures of the cooking process. First day we hit the main tourist sites in town, Palacio de Bellas Artes, and Zocalo at the other end of Paseo le Reforma.

One interesting observation, college football on TV’s was non-existent in the hotels and restaurants and hard to even find a channel with a game. But come Thursday night NFL kickoff – it was on every TV in every place I walked by. NFL big in Mexico City.

**“Mexican Caviar” or Escamole. Put the giant ant eggs in a sauce pan, flame cook in Tequila, and serve on a corn tortilla. Not much taste actually.**

Paeso le Reforma

***Hop on / hop off – not so good in rain***

Zocolo

Teotihuacan Pyramids

On Sunday, we headed out early to the Teotihuacan pyramids. Interesting trip as we had a good guide who explained a lot of the science and a lot of the theories – different than I expected as I had pictured a desert but it was green and many trees. And at an elevation of about 7,000 feet, I was pretty worn out after a day of climbing around. Afterward, we “got” to go to a tequila factory and a handy craft shop….partook about a 1/4 shot…still too much for me.

Xochimilco

On Sharon’s last day, we went to another tourist site just outside of town – Xochimilco. Not quite the Venice of Mexico. Because it was a Monday, very few people but seems like the type of place would be more fun with more people. In addition to the tourist boats, they had other boats, selling food, beer, Knick-knacks, and Mariachi bands ready to board your boat for a song or two. We didn’t to the full three hour tour -so we didn’t get to see the full floating flower gardens but it was definitely a good distraction for a morning – Glad Sharon was there to drag me out to see it – would have just stayed in bed without her there to push me along.