Havana & Acapulco

While Mexico City is teeming with enough possibilities, places to go and things to see to easily fill every day of a six-month stay with something original and engaging, it's always good to get away from the chaos for a couple of days, a long weekend, and take advantage of being on this side of the world to enjoy some of the once-in-a-lifetime places that are within a few hours' travelling time. In the last couple of weeks we've been lucky enough to visit Havana in Cuba and Acapulco on the south coast of Mexico (although as I mentioned a while ago in my post about our trip to Mazatlán the whole north-south-east-west system is pretty hard to apply in Mexico). I'm actually writing this post, or a draft of the first couple of paragraphs at least, from the lobby of our Acapulcan hotel (see above), drinking bog-standard beer out of a tiny plastic cup (the downside of going all-inclusive), while waiting for Rosalía to join me for dinner.

Travelling to Cuba turned out to be pretty straightforward, perhaps as things there have opened up significantly since Raúl Castro took over power from his brother in 2008, perhaps because none of us were US citizens. We travelled in a group of four: me and my son who are both British, and my wife and her friend who are Mexican. We'd read about the need for visas, travel insurance, exit taxes, Canadian dollars or Euros, and various other complications that had me worried up until the moment we arrived safely back in Mexico City and could state in retrospect that it basically was as easy as just buying a plane ticket, booking somewhere to stay and showing up on time.

Some practical information: We did have to buy something called a tourist card (Tarjeta de Turista) for around 350 Mexican pesos, but we did it last minute at the airport in Mexico City, after checking in. No need to arrange a meeting at the Cuban embassy in advance as I originally believed. At no point did anyone ever check our travel insurance, supposedly a necessity for entry into the country. Exit taxes were included in our ticket (we flew AeroMexico), meaning there wasn't in fact any need to keep back a big chunk of Cuban pesos until the last minute. Try spending $100 in the departure lounge at Havana airport, there are only so many sausage sandwiches and beers you can get through in an hour and a half. We'd heard that Canadian dollars and Euros were the best currencies to take, with the most favourable exchange rates; that might well be true, but a couple of quick calculations on the back of an envelope (I mean on our cellphones obviously) showed that we were better off converting our Mexican pesos directly into Cuban pesos rather than going through any another currency. The combined commission and dodgy rates from carrying out two exchanges outweighs any potential gains. At any rate (pun, yeah!) it was actually pretty easy to find ATMs in Havana--again somewhat contrary to what we had read beforehand--so we ended up coming back with several thousand Mexican pesos in cash, the stupidity of which was highlighted by the fact that in the confusion of getting off the plane with baby Noam we left behind a bag with a good chunk of aforementioned pesos under the seat (at least we made someone's day presumably).

Havana itself was a unique and wonderful experience which I'm sure none of us will ever forget. Apart from the baby of course, he's probably forgotten already. We stayed in a great Airbnb apartment, surprisingly modern and fully equipped with everything we needed, including, crucially, air conditioning. My wife's first reaction on seeing the place was 'This is better than most of the hotels we've stayed in in England' (for some reason we always end up in one of those dingy B&Bs round the back of Paddington station). We were in a mostly residential area, somewhat removed from the tourist zone, which allowed us to see a little bit what life is like for normal Cubans, and meant that we got to experience several thrilling taxi rides to the centre in 1950s era cars, which felt like little more than metal cages on wheels, driven manically by cocky young guys in tank tops and sunglasses blasting out the latest cheesy Cuban pop music on the stereo.

We spent two days exploring the city, making sure to tick off all the plazas in the old town, the key monuments of the revolution and the famous malecón (sea front). We soaked up the atmosphere in bars and restaurants and listened to talented local musicians. We admired the curious mixtures of old and new; of young and old; of run-down and preserved. We suffered in the heat, humid and oppressive from the moment we woke up till the moment we went to bed. The trip was difficult for Noam, he struggled with the change of scene (much like our first few days in Mexico), the lack of familiar food (it was surprisingly difficult to get hold of decent fruit in Cuba, the one thing we thought we would find in abundance), and being carried around for hours on end in the blistering heat with nowhere to crawl or practise a bit of toddling. The highlight for me was watching vintage cars cruise down the wide avenues; it really did feel like being transported briefly to a bygone era.

Our final day in Cuba we decided enough sightseeing was enough and instead paid to spend the day lying round the pool at a nearby hotel. This seemed to be more up Noam's street, he had a whale of a time splashing round in the water. It also proved to be great practise for our trip to Acapulco, where we rocked up at the hotel mid-afternoon Friday and stayed put until check out lunchtime Monday. To be fair, after driving five and a half hours and 380 kilometers to get there from Mexico City, I feel we deserved the break. I did get to see a bit of the city on the way in and the way out and it's undoubtedly a fantastic place if you like the seaside (who doesn't?). It's much bigger than I imagined, with bay after bay lined with luxury hotel after luxury hotel. It's easy to see why Frank Sinatra sung about flying down to Acapulco for a honeymoon back in its heyday in the 1950s.

Moving safely around Mexico City

One of the first questions many people have about Mexico City is what the quickest and safest way to move about here is. I've personally crossed the city by metro, bus, metrobus, taxi, Uber, and in our own car, and experienced many of the quirks, frustrations, dangers and advantages of each mode of transport. I also walk about quite a bit, often with baby in tow, and have written about my despair when it comes to Mexican pavements in a previous post. The only one I haven't dared try yet is the bicycle; normally one of my favoured ways to get around but bordering on total insanity here (you do see the odd nutter cycling hopelessly against the flow of the rush hour traffic--presumably the rest have been removed by Darwinian selection).

I should also say that four months into my third trip to Mexico, despite the handful of near-miss stories you'll hear about below, I've yet to experience anything particularly dramatic when it comes to crime while out and about in the city. My own feeling is that people worry too much about the risk here; yes, bad things can and do happen, but with some basic precautions to avoid being pickpocketed in crowded places you're as safe as in any other big city (Mexico's famous drug cartels basically stay clear of Mexico City, in case you were wondering). Perhaps I'm not really qualified to write about safety and I've just been lucky so far, but here goes.

Option 1: Your own ride

As mentioned there are numerous options for moving around the city, with wildly varying prices and associated levels of comfort and security. Perhaps the safest of all is to have your own car, but this comes with the downsides of spending hours stuck in horrendous traffic and searching furiously for somewhere to park the damn thing, and being reduced to a nervous angry wreck by the actions of other drivers, cutting in from three lanes across to make an impossible turn, while equally not allowing you to cut in from three lanes across to make that crucial exit you only saw at the last minute (bastards).

The parking situation is sometimes alleviated by the fact that many places have valet parking where you just hand over your keys at the entrance and a professional will park your car for you. It strikes me as something of a contradiction that the same people who tend to keep such close guard of their valuables are willing to hand over their cars worth hundreds of thousands of pesos to a complete stranger. A few weeks ago we left our car (actually owned by my parents-in-law) to a 'valet' parking guy in the street in San Angel after a long fruitless search for a better option. Arriving back several hours later and with no sign of the guy anywhere in sight, we realised we had essentially been stopped by a random person, not wearing any kind of uniform or in any way official-looking, and just surrendered the car, keys included, in exchange for a flimsy bit of paper masquerading as a ticket. We approached a more official looking valet nearby who pretty much laughed and declared no knowledge at all of this person. Panic began to set in, but the story ends happily: our guy was a few hundred meters up the road smoking a cigarette with his mates and retrieved our car in perfect condition for a few pesos. We'll probably be a little more careful next time in any case.

Option 2: Public transport

At the other end of the spectrum is Mexico City's public transport, consisting of the metro, 'regular' buses, and the metrobus (a special bus with its own lane). This is by far the cheapest option: the metro 5 pesos (a whole 20 British pence), the metrobus slightly pricier at 6 pesos (you do the math), and the bus varying between roughly 4 and 7 pesos, depending mostly on the whim of the driver as far as I can make out. This can be a pretty effective option in certain cases; from our place to the historical centre for example the quickest option is a quick bus ride (hailed down directly outside our front gate as I described here) followed by a dozen or so stops on the metro for a grand total of 11 pesos. I have seen the metro and metrobus relatively calm--late at night or just after the morning rush hour--but for the vast majority of the day they're uncomfortably overcrowded. The phrase 'packed like sardines' couldn't be more appropriate. You should be careful of pickpockets, especially while getting on and off where it's really easy to lose concentration for five seconds. My pro trip is to put all you belongings in one place; phone, wallet and keys in a single pocket or a bag which you guard with your life with one hand; the other hand to cling on for said life to the nearest railing.

A little while ago my wife and I witnessed something very fishy at a metro station: a young guy swiftly exiting a train before furtively handing off a handbag to another guy waiting at the top of the stairs, who immediately hid it from view. Out of their sight we decided to tell a nearby police officer, bolstered by the fact that there are signs all over the place encouraging any suspicious behaviour to be reported. Big mistake. The policewoman insisted that we shouldn't have reported something that hadn't directly affected us. When we explained as calmly and politely as possible that we just wanted to let someone know what we'd seen and it was up to her whether or not to do anything about it, she turned on us, accusing us in a raised voice of being rude (we really weren't; she really was). Her reaction put is in a state of paranoia, wondering if we'd inadvertently walked into some criminal conspiracy, and for the next few minutes we were convinced we were being followed by pretty much everyone who happened to come close to us (this was all while lugging several suitcases and a baby home from the airport after our trip to Mazatlán). Thankfully a short time later we were safely home and left to reflect that it was probably just a particularly moody police officer we happened to catch on a bad day who didn't want to do her job properly. But this experience reinforced something many people have warned me: it's best to avoid authorities here as much as possible. Only interact with police officers and other security personnel if absolutely necessary. It's just not worth the hassle.

Option 3: Taxi/Uber

Traditional taxis are also relatively cheap in Mexico, more expensive than the metro of course, but we rarely have to fork out more than about 50 pesos (£2) for the privilege. Personally however this is the form of transport I feel least comfortable with. I only take taxis during daylight hours and on short routes that I know well. As I said earlier, I think the risk of anything violent happening is very small, but I generally prefer to take the higher risk of having my phone snatched on the metro to the smaller risk of being kidnapped by a rogue taxi driver. I can always buy a new phone.

During my first few weeks in Mexico I was standing in line at the post office to collect a package when a young frantic-looking guy burst in and wondered in a broad American accent "Do you speak English?" His story was that he'd just been robbed by a taxi driver, who'd deliberately driven off with his backpack in the trunk with all his belongings including passport and money. He'd only been in Mexico a couple of days and needed to borrow enough money to get back to his hotel and call his Dad in the US. The police who he'd try to report the story to hadn't been at all helpful (notice the pattern). To this day I'm not sure if this is a story about a guy getting robbed in a taxi or a story about me getting scammed. There seemed something odd about the guy and his story and the way he approached me, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and enough money to get home (and a little more). When I think about what happened, 50% of the time I think I'm a bad person even for questioning this poor guy; the other 50% I think I'm an idiot for believing him. The one surefire moral of the story, invented or otherwise, is don't put stuff in the boot of a taxi.

That just leaves Uber--the newest player in the game of course. I was an Uber virgin before arriving in Mexico but we've been using it more and more as time has gone by. It's more expensive than a regular taxi of course, roughly twice as expensive I estimate in most cases, but it certainly feels a lot safer. I have heard stories of people having bad experiences, being driven round in circles or even falling asleep and having their driver steal from them (posts on this Facebook group for Foreigners in Mexico City), but for me it's worked very well, even with the odd glitch in the software. The extra layer of safety compared with taxis comes from better, newer cars, including the presence in most cases of seatbelts (almost impossible to find in taxis), a review system for drivers, and the display of the map and GPS location at all times on the dashboard. It's perhaps not perfect, and I don't really like supporting a company which seems to have serious issues with the way it treats its female employees, but in terms of getting home safely after dark I think it's the best option out there at the moment.