How to begin a long walk in Mexico city

It begins! With a feast of course.

Soon enough, we are chatting about how the last couple years have been, jobs, boyfriends, family — traversing the outskirts of Mexico city.

We pass through streets with colorful concrete buildings, abandoned food carts. I turnaround in my seat and say to Rachel, “Reminds me of Bogor a bit.”

Green boulevards start to emerge, signaling that we are getting closer to the city center. Before we know it, we are on Reforma. An angel, bank buildings, monuments.

We are at Terraza Cha Cha Cha. From the roof, we have a view of the city below, Reforma, and the Monumento a la Revolucion. We ooh and ahh. It’s sunset, there’s a rosy glow on the horizon and a warm breeze. How pleasant.

I can’t help but smile, how I made it here, after so many years, and am facing my friends Carol and Rachel in Mexico City.

I hardly eat out at nice restaurants, or out at all in San Francisco, and so the attentive service catches me by surprise. I catch myself pouring the water before the waiter can.

We debate over dinner, but in the end we order chips and guacamole, chapulines, birria, and sizzling plates of shrimp and pork, with tortillas of course. It’s delicious.

Every good meal ends with a stroll, and we drift onto the streets. We pass through the square, which has a market, with hats, tourist goods, and light up toys.

“It’s a monument, but I don’t know much else,” my friend Carol says laughing. “I think you will know more about this city than I will, after this trip.” Carol is originally from Northern Mexico, Coahuila and went to school in Monterrey. She moved this past year to Toluca.

We head back to the car to start our drive to Toluca.
“How do you say?” Carol makes a snaking motion with her arm.
“Switchbacks?” I suggest.
“I guess there are a lot of switchbacks on this road,” Carol explains. “I feel like we are driving to Whistler!”

The road from Mexico city to Toluca passes through a forest, and takes about 1 an hour to drive through. We wind through the darkness, bumping to a mix of old-school banda, bachata and reggaeton.