Thursday, October 29, 2009

Mexico City

Sitting in the airport in Mexico City, eleven hours into this twenty-hour journey. But already it's been a trip.

el sparrow naranja

After endless gray-area moments of safety and fear waiting at Euclid Avenue for the Far Rockaway train, I made it to Howard's Beach. On my AirTrain trip, two Europeans became fast friends leaning torsos over me as they inspected the map.

There were sparrows perched on inner beams inside Terminal 8 at JFK.

Mexicana Air is apparently a sub-company of American, but it was all-Spanish all the time. I can say "jugo de naranja y vodka" and "gracias." I survived just fine.

There is no music, no movie, no real-time air travel tracking map on Mexicana. There is jugo de naranja y vodka. Gracias. Uno Mas? Si. (There was actually no uno mas, but there was a sweet little tray to place my coffee cup on at roughly 3am for another cup of pitch black joe.)

Now, in Mexico City, the sun slowly rolls its light around soft hills. I changed two dollars for 24 1/2 pesos. I bought a cereal bar with blackberry jam in it. I didn't understand a word the cashier said. Gracias. No mas naranja.

In two hours, I will be back in the air. Uno mas, jugo de naranja. Uno mas.

2 comments:

Mr. Apron said...

I would be scared to fly on "Mexitaco Air" or whatever it's called.

Does that make me a.) racist, b.) a pussy, or c.) both?

Cait said...

Mr. Apron - you know, I was a little intimidated too. I don't think I'm a or b, so especially not c, but what got me was the fact that the ticket was conspicuously lower than any other major airline's (by around $300, actually) and I had to agree to fly out of JFK in the dead of night. Sketchy.

However, the flight was far more seamless than any Continental, Delta or Southwest flight I've ever taken, and they gave me free booze to boot. A+ to Mexicana. Give it a try next time you want a thrill - really - it's not scary at all. Once you get past the shady, shady details...