Day One Mexico D.F.

Saludos desde Mexico!

Its about 9 am on Saturday. My flight arrived at 3:30 in the afternoon
yesterday. I went directly from the airport to Casa Tarami, where I'm
renting a studio apartment. I'd only slept an hour the night before so
I took what I thought would be a nap.

I discovered during my nap that there is a little insomniac dog in the
neighborhood. He or she barked from 2 am to 5 am. Maybe it was a
desperate cry for Ambien. Or just a lonely night in the big city for a
little pooch. Love my earplugs.

I'm sitting right now in a department store restaurant. It reminds me
of the Little America Hotel restaurant with Mexican muzac. There are
almost 200 of these Sanborns stores throughout the country. They were
the creation of two American Brothers, one of whom was a pharmacist.
They eventually sold to Wallgreen (the pharmacist founder of the
Wallgreens chain) who in turn sold to the current holder. He is
apparently the richest man in Latin America.

I was so preoccupied with getting to Casa Tarami without incident and
when I arrived there so tired that I left myself with about four
ounces of water collected from a Phoenix airport fountain.

I woke at 5 just as my dog friend must have gone to sleep. I watched
CSI NY and then CSI unknown whereabouts in English with Spanish
subtitles and waited for to get light. When I poked around the
neighborhood at 7am, the little store across the street still had it's
metal gate down. The streets were still fairly deserted. The few
people about were male workers and I'm not taking chances. What an
unusual morning- calling a taxi to get a drink of water!

But I got so much more! Papaya served by waitresses in floor-length
skirts with pointy starched collars extending beyond their shoulders.

They're gearing up for Independence Day around here. September 16th.
During the Revolution one of the leaders made a Mexico City Sanborns
the rendezvous for his troops. That particular store is now a national
monument.

Anyway, I'm safe and finally, relaxed.