Day 295 – Miami to Mexico City, MEXICO
Today we packed our bags into the rental Toyota Corolla and checked out of Holiday Inn Miami. We didn’t even think about having breakfast at the hotel, as we were leaving before breakfast time, but the staff insisted we eat before we left. Excellent service!
We then had to fill the car with petrol, which once again involved prepaying the petrol and then getting a refund later. I’m still unsure if going a second time is required, but I do like to know I’m only paying for what I used.
On the way to the airport by bus a few days ago, was when I first noticed the price of petrol in Miami. Right near the airport, petrol is almost double the price of everywhere else. I would recommend filling up away from the airport, like we did.
Miami International Airport
The short drive to the airport was uneventful, and we returned the car to Ace Car Rentals, without any issues. Then we took the free tram service from the rentals terminal to the main airport.
We had bought our tickets with American Airlines via the website Skyscanner. We weren’t sure if luggage was included, which is one of the annoying things about the website. Unfortunately, luggage wasn’t included so we paid $30 USD / $44.36 AUD per bag.
After dropping the bags off, we had to wait in long lines for the security check. Once we got to the front of the line, one of our reusable water bottles was half filled with water. The only options were to either throw out the bottle or stand in line again. I left my wife inside and went back into the line with my ticket, passport and now empty water bottle (I drank the water).
We got to see our backpacks be loaded onto the plane 🙂 
Besides that, the 3 and a half hour flight went without any incident.
Mexico City
When we arrived in Mexico City, we were excited to be in a completely new country. Unfortunately, as we waited in the line for immigration, our excitement wore off, as the line took ages. Near the start of the line, I saw officials getting people to fill out more parts of the arrivals form. For some reason the parts that need to be filled are separated by official use sections. We were able to fill the form while standing in line.
With our Australian and New Zealand passports, we were given 6 months visa without question. We picked up our bags before going to the information centre to ask about SIM cards and how to get to our hotel. They were helpful, but warned us about the neighbourhood we had booked in…
We bought a SIM card from Telcel with 5GB of data and unlimited calls/SMS for 30 days, which cost 329 MXN / $24.79 AUD. We then caught an Uber from the airport to Hotel Villa de Mar. Getting away from the airport took a long time due to traffic. Mexico City was surprisingly like any other modern city during our drive through it.
At Hotel Villa de Mar the receptionist couldn’t speak any English, but we managed to pay and make our way to the room. The room looked very nice and clean.
I have been practising Spanish with the app Duolingo, very intermittently. I can understand one in every one hundred words. My wife has never tried to learn Spanish. This will be fun =)
We walked down the streets to an area that was meant to have some restaurants. The neighbourhood had plenty of people on the streets so we didn’t feel afraid despite the airport staffers comments. After dinner, we bought some water and walked back to our hotel.
Cheese and Mushrooms Burger
