El Chorro

Phoenix airport worked well. Nice guy checked us in, accepted our Nexus card and gave us pre approval. We zipped through security - no need to remove anything. We booked seats in advance but still didn’t board until Zone 5. There was no inflight entertainment - at least not that we could figure out.

When we arrived in Mexico there was a huge queue. We left the line to see if there was another way - signage was confusing. Fortunately when we came back a young American girl working with an NGO for animals let us back into line where we were before.

As luck would have it, when we were about 1/3 the way to security, they open the rope and ushered Americans & Canadians to another line and we got through quite quickly.

We took an Uber to Hotel Gillow. Super efficient and cheap - only problem is the car totally stopped at one point and the driver had to open the hood and fiddle with something. It stopped again, but fortunately he was able to get it going again and we made it to the hotel

Hotel Gillow is in the heart of the old city, just off the main walking street and close to the Palace. It’s old but charming - rooms encircling the inner courtyard. We had a room on the 6th floor with a fair sized balcony. Needless to say we climbed the stairs up and down for 3 days. A good workout especially at that altitude - 7,000 ft.

We headed out to explore and I actually felt a little weird - the combo of heat, sun reflecting off the slate streets, and altitude made me feel light headed.

That evening we found a little place on the walking street for dinner - panini and Bohemia light for me, salad and Bohemia dark for Peter. It was actually really good.Read more