Touring Mexico with Zenler 2023 - Part 2: Mexico City

Team Zenler Author

Jul 17, 2024 |

From Cornwall, UK, to Mexico City: Part 2 shares my journey and experiences so far, plus any technical problems already faced while working remotely.

Date Stamp: January 1 - The Trip, Day 1-2

Making our 5-hour car journey from St Ives in Cornwall on the 1st of January, you would expect no traffic on the roads. "Wrong!" It was pretty busy. The journey back is always a nice drive; we pass some amazing scenery like Stonehenge and some very beautiful landscapes.

Then a quick visit to my brother's, where we got a lift to Heathrow Terminal 3 (Christmas lights still up!). Everything went very smoothly, with me carrying my hand baggage, which incidentally weighs more than my main rucksack!

So, let's not bore you with checking in and all that jazz. The flight was good. A top tip for plane booking, if you're an economy flyer like me, is to get a back seat on the plane. Plus, if it's two seats, it gives you a lot more legroom and even a place to sleep, albeit squashed!

On arriving at Mexico City early, at about 4 am, the fun really began with the queues! We were queuing to get out for about two hours and missed our pre-booked taxi.

Eventually, we got to the hostel, which is right in the main city centre, with the cathedral and palaces, plus architectural ruins all around it - I mean, like a two-minute walk away. The hostel itself is great, with a terrace bar, Google-type office desks, and super-fast broadband!

Tech Bit of The Blog!

If you saw the first blog here, you'll notice that I'm using a 13-inch screen. Although I do have a second screen, most of the time, one screen suffices. However, coming from a setup with a massive 32-inch 4K monitor and three screens at home, it's taking some time to adjust, especially when relying on the laptop's screen. Nonetheless, I anticipate it will become more intuitive to me later.

During an office meeting, I encountered an issue when I plugged in my headphones and mic after the meeting had started, which messed up my mic settings. It's a good reminder that setup must be done beforehand, not during the live session. As we at Zenler say, test, test, and test again, so I should know better! Doh!"

What Are the Three Main Attractions in El Zócalo, Where We Are Situated?

Our location: Zócalo: The Birthplace of the Constitution

Dominated by three of the city's most visited tourist attractions - the National Palace, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Templo Mayor with its Aztec relics - Zócalo is the perfect place to begin exploring this historic city.

Date Stamp: January 2, Day 1 - Exploring

First, a walk around the city's top sites and sampling street food, tacos, and enchiladas, washed down with some Corona beer, followed by a few cocktails in the hostel's terrace bar.

Managed to beat the jet lag, as Mexico is 6 hours behind the UK, by staying up as late as we could, until 8:30 pm.

Date Stamp: January 3, Day 2 - We are meeting Chris M de la Barrera (https://www.facebook.com/chris...) at 12 to visit Polanco, a super-rich district that hopefully will not blow the budget :)

Polanco

Source Wikipedia: "Polanco is a neighbourhood in the Miguel Hidalgo borough of Mexico City. Polanco is an affluent colonia, noted for its luxury shopping along Presidente Masaryk Avenue, the most expensive street in Mexico, as well as for the numerous prominent cultural institutions located within the neighbourhood.

Polanco is often called the "Beverly Hills of Mexico", having one of the country's densest concentrations of luxury shopping, with the most upscale restaurants, high-net-worth individuals, upscale hotels, and diplomatic missions and embassies. It is one of the most expensive real estate markets in Latin America".

Chris picked us up from the restaurant and took us around a local park before we chatted and drank coffee for a long while. Chris is a nutritionist and although being with Zenler for a long while has not done anything with her Zenler site. She is now motoring to get her first fully featured course out as soon as she can.

We had an amazing time chatting with Chris about all sorts of interesting subjects over the course of the outing. When we returned to the car, we found that she had been clamped! Chris had just bought the car, and there was an existing ticket on it. We all felt so bad, but luckily, a valet assistant helped her sort it out. While waiting, we had churros, which are like long fried doughnuts. We ended up laughing about the clamping, as this is exactly what happens to me all the time.

Chris dropped us at the tour bus depot, where we caught a city tour bus back to the centre.

Date Stamp: January 4, 2023 - Day 3: Boat Trip and Frida Kahlo

Getting in the habit now of 5-6 am starts, for two hours of work before the day begins. Today, we were not leaving until 9, so plenty of time to work and have breakfast.

Traffic at this time of year is not too busy, but to me, it feels extremely so. I cannot imagine what it will be like in a few months' time. We were picked up and met a group of travelers, most of whom were Spanish. One in particular was extremely helpful as she spoke fluent English. She has given us many insider tips on where to visit when we leave for Puerto Vallarta tomorrow.

Highlights of the tour were the Olympic Stadium, Aztec Stadium, and Frida Kahlo Museum, finishing off with a boat trip at Xochimilco along a river. We had lunch from the boat, as other restaurants cooked the food on their boats and passed it across. There were also mariachi bands playing. Check out the picture, as it was like a crazy racetrack, with so many boats colliding with each other! Funny enough, it was peaceful. Go figure!

We got back at about 5 pm to finish off the day with a last walk around the town to a park full of dancing and comedy acts.

Tomorrow we are off to Puerto Vallarta on a 1 3/4-hour flight from Mexico City airport, so I'll see you in the next installment...

Categories: : Zenler Digital Nomad/Stories