Arrived in Mexico City and Traffic Is Even Worse Than You Can Imagine

December 8 was my designated "travel to" day for this latest mini-vacation.  Destination: CDMX.

CDMX is what us cool cats call it (los gatos del cool, en español).  And here I am.  It may have taken forever to get my bag at baggage claim (which I believe -- and keep in mind I had to clear customs before getting to baggage claim -- is the longest I've waited for a bag to come out anytime other than American Airlines employees were handling my bags.  And the six-mile ride from the airport may have taken 90 minutes due to extreme traffic that continued into the seven o'clock hour.

But let's focus of what is awesome.  I am staying in the Cuauhtemoc neighborhood.  (Yes, I know it looks like an anagram.)  The hotel is amazing.  The Hotel Marquis Reforma:  high end luxury for little more than a Hampton Inn stateside.

The room is larger than the standard non-U.S. high end hotel room.  And the bathroom is sufficiently gigantic.  And there is a huge Christmas tree in the lobby.

As well as this.

I'm not sure what it is.  But I like it.

I got in so late, and I was sufficiently tired, so I ate my first meal in town in one of the hotel's restaurant.

  

That, my friends, is the most beautiful chile relleno I have ever laid eyes open.  The dark brown is from pulverized beans.  It's not mole.  It was, however, far more beautiful to look at, than it was to taste.  It wasn't bad.  But with that presentation, I was expecting the definitive chile relleno.  Tres Amigos is better (although, and my apologies to Fernando, uno of the tres amigos in the name "Tres Amigos," his do not look even one-tenth as beautiful is this).