Highlights of Mexico (4): outward bound
Day 1 (Wednesday) of our trip was wholly a travelling day. Flying with British Airways on a Boeing 747-4000, at 1.15 pm we departed from London’s Heathrow Airport where security was obviously tight following the previous day’s murderous terrorist attacks on the international airport and metro station in Brussels. On the journey, Roger read a book titled “Mexico: What Everyone Needs To Know” (Roderic Ai Camp), while Vee watched three movies: “The Danish Girl”, “Spectre” and “Bridge Of Spies”.
Our route was directly across the North Atlantic, then down the east side of Canada and the United States, and finally over the Gulf of Mexico. It was a long flight of just over 11 hours, but there is currently a six-hour time difference between London and our destination of Mexico City, so we arrived at 6.20 pm local time.
At the airport, the combination of jet lag and the city’s high altitude made us feel a bit wobbly – but that might just be old age. Then, when we saw that the official processing our immigration was called Jesus, we thought maybe we had died and gone to Heaven. We quickly came down to earth as we observed more evident security than at Heathrow: soldiers in threes with heavy machine guns.
We soon met our local guide Luis and our companions for the next two weeks. When we booked our holiday, the Cox & Kings brochure said that the group would be up to 26 but, in fact, it is a mere five – the smallest we have ever known. Besides us, there is only another couple John and Phyllis and a singleton Susan. Indeed it is so small a group that we will not have a guide with us throughout the holiday but only in each individual location.
We took a public limousine to our accommodation in Mexico City, the Hotel Galeria Plaza which is a large (434 rooms), modern hotel centrally located in the heart of the city’s financial district.