It's not Tijuana....

Well, I made it here, safe and sound. The flight went well. I had a entire row of seats to myself. Once I picked up my luggage I found a taxi to take me to my hotel. Traffic is pretty much insane!! As long as you use your horn there are no apparent rules. There was a huge rain storm moving through the valley as we were driving to the hotel. Streets filled with water and lighting was striking very close. It took about 30 minutes to get to the hotel. I am staying at a hotel in the area I am hoping to live in. The neighborhood is called zona Polanco. It is a very nice neighborhood. The first night I walked around the area for a bit before it got dark. There are a couple super nice/huge hotels only a block or so away. The JW Marriott is by far the nicest. I am staying in a hotel called Hotel Castelar. Definitely not the Marriott. It has a small, very basic kitchen, no A/C, no gym, no pool, no breakfast, and a remote with only one battery.

This morning I woke up and got ready to explore the area and look for a apartment. I had a appointment to see a apartment a few blocks away from where I will work at 11am. I got there early and a nice senora showed me the apartment. She lives/works there. I guess she does every ones laundry and cleans (awesome!). I really liked the apartment and she told me to go to the property managements office to rent it. It took me about 20 minutes to get there. I was upset to find out that someone rented the apartment the day before I got there, which means I'm back to square one. I explored the area some more and looked for "for rent" signs. I found a few but the apartment were either out of my price range or way too big. By this time my feet were super tired so I decided to head back to the apartment and search the Internet. I found a few more apartments and sent them emails so now I just wait for them to reply.

When I'm not searching for apartments or fighting crime, I am walking, walking, walking, and more walking. It is a great way to see lots of cool stuff and take in the scenery. There are tons of people on the sidewalks. About 8 of every 10 men I see are dressed in suits. Everyone but me and the gypsies are dressed really nice. There are valet parking guys every 50 feet. Parking is nuts. People park wherever they want. Turns out sidewalks are ideal for parking. It is crazy how many people live here. I guess its the 2nd biggest city/metro area in the world (Tokyo #1). The streets in this neighborhood are very clean. People are constantly sweeping or spraying down the sidewalks so they are spotless. The best part about this are is the restaurant scene. I have seen over a hundred super nice restaurants here. All of them have patios and look very expensive. Tonight I decided to go for a dusk time walk since I am more familiar with the neighborhood and it was awesome. There are old ladies out walking dogs, ladies walking ninos, and the restaurants really come alive. There were guys outside on the patios serenading customers with their guitars and there were a few ninos playing accordions. There are cops all over the place and there are "door men" dressed in suits outside of every restaurant and business.

There are lots of street vendors. Most of which are portable carts with sweets, drinks, and chips. There are a few with bakery goods. There are also people on every corner selling flowers for Mothers Day. Tonight one of the carts was blasting Pet Shop Boys from his stereo. This morning I had a apple and muffin for breakfast. I skipped lunch or at least I don't remember if I ate. So I went to the "Superama" grocery store to get some food for the next few days. I purchased mostly fruits and veggies since I brought my fancy blender. I put most of my groceries in my backpack and walked home to make dinner. I made taco soup with the stuff I bought. In the morning I will have a smoothie.

If anyone is curious where exactly I am, they can check out my google map that has points of interest marked and I will update it with my tourist visits. Hopefully this link works: http://g.co/maps/wy8y6

As far as blogs go, a blog without pictures is super boring. Since I have yet to figure out how to post pictures (aka I haven't taken any pictures yet) you will have to wait for another post to see photos.

Viva Mexico!