Trip to Mexico City

I don't normally blog my professional conferences, but I don't often travel out of the US for conferences, so I decided I couldn't resist posting some of my observations about my trip to Mexico City this week.

I left bright and early in the midst of a rain storm, but the view of the sunrise above the clouds was quite spectacular this morning.  Gave me a real appreciation for the beauty of this world.

As usual, my powers of observation were on overdrive even before landing.  We flew along the coast for quite a ways before turning inland to Mexico City.  I was mesmerized by the ever changing coastline with its barrier islands and waves.  The clouds were pretty too.

As we turned inland, the landscape below was pretty arid.  There were small tracts of farmland, but they were not very green this time of year.  I found it interesting that the farmland looks so different from the Midwest in the US where you have large tracts of land with a farmhouse on each field.  The areas that I flew over had lots of small fields on the outskirts of villages, but all of the houses were in town.  People just go out to the fields each day to tend them I guess.  A really different lifestyle from the isolated Midwest farmer who has to drive 30 mins to get into town.

Just before we started our descent, the landscape became much more rugged with steep hills and canyons.  There were some towns, but a lot of the land was not in use.

As we approached Mexico City, I was reminded of what I already knew, that the air quality in the city is pretty poor.  The city is in a valley surrounded by mountains.  You can see the mountains sticking up on the horizon, and the valley filled with smog.

I was glued to the window as we landed, taking in the largeness of the city (population approx 20 million).  Lots of planned housing divisions on the outskirts much like the US.  Lots of densely packed buildings in the center of the city.  We flew over an area with high rises.  I'm not sure if it was the "downtown" or not.  The visibility was pretty poor to see any great distance.  One thing that was obvious was the bright colors of the buildings.

We got on the ground and then it was immigration, customs, and a rendevous with my driver.