Is Mexico City safe to visit – This was the question on top of my mind before my trip to this beautiful city. Here are my Mexico City travel tips (for Indians) that can help you with your trip to Mexico City. This is my Mexico City travel blog.
November 2018, Mangalore: I was to travel to Mexico City for work, and truth be told, I wasn’t feeling exactly comfortable about the proposition.
For, up until that point, the imagery I had in mind about Mexico (based on what I had read and heard) was that of a heavily populated, impoverished, crime-infested city where drug cartels fought each other on the streets.
During the next few days that ran up to my travel date, my mind went on an overdrive whenever I slept, and presented vivid dreams of me getting caught in a crossfire between drug lords and working alongside Mexicans to build the wall that the U.S said they would.
To calm my nerves, I turned to Google to get the facts before I travelled. Though many articles did allude to the kind of visuals that my mind had made up, I was comforted in knowing that most of my fears were misplaced. And so I boarded the plane to Mexico City.
Now. Me, in Mexico City: Time to apologize to this beautiful city and its people for carrying prejudiced, ill-formed notions about the city. This is a wonderful city, with that small, dark side that any big city in any part of the world would have. It has been 3 weeks since I landed in Mexico City (Ciudad De Mexico, or CDMX for short), and I have already started feeling like a local.
Here are a few Mexico City travel tips based on my stay so far:
- English is still not very popular around here. You will need to learn Spanish. So download the Google Translator app on your phone.
- While most of us Indians don’t believe in niceties when meeting strangers, it is a culture here to acknowledge a stranger with a Hola (Hello), Buen Dia (Good day) or Buenas Noches (Good night). For the ladies, a peck on the cheek is in order. And if you meet someone who is in the middle of a meal, wish them with a ‘Provecho’ (meaning something along the lines of ‘enjoy your meal’.) If someone sneezes near you, call out ‘Salud!’ (meaning ‘health’ – similar to ‘Bless you).
- Food: If you are a chicken lover like me, Pollo is the word for chicken. I loved the churros, Flan de la Abuela (a custard of sorts), anything with Mole (a dark sweet/spicy sauce) and the hot sauces (like the Exxxtra Picante chile habanero ones)
- While on the topic of Mexican food, here are some simple formulas to remember a few popular Mexican dishes (as taught to me by mi amigo, Manuel):
- Tortilla + Cheese = Quesadilla
- Quesadilla + Meat = Taco
- Taco + Sauce = Enchilada
- Tortilla strips + Sauce = Chilaquiles
- Bread + Beans + Cheese = Molletes
- Transport: Uber is the safest mode. You can take the local pink taxi as well, but make sure the number plate matches the one painted on the body. If you want to travel by Metro Bus or rail, travel light. And make sure you keep your wallet and phone in your front pockets where you can keep a check. I’ve heard that pickpockets are really good at their work around here.
- And finally, Mexico City is a well-developed, happening city with its own quirks. Art, food and history lovers will love this place
There’s more; these are just some of my Mexico City travel tips. More to come!
How to get a Mexico visa from India: I travelled to Mexico on a Business visa. If you have a valid US visa, you can enter Mexico. If you are looking for information on Mexico work visa for Indians, Mexico visa fees for Indians or Mexico visa documents requirements for Indian citizens, please visit Mexico visa site at https://embamex.sre.gob.mx/india/index.php/consulares/visas. Mexico visa fee for Indians (application fees) is around Rs. 4000.
It is not possible to get a Mexico visa online – you will need to visit the Mexico consulate, and the process usually takes 2 days. Mexico Embassy in India opening date
Please follow all the instructions mentioned on the consulate site – while verifying your documents, they are extremely strict and may ask you to resubmit documents if there are any discrepancies. (Try to get a morning appointment, so that, if they ask you to resubmit your photograph or something you can manage within the day, you have some time to resubmit the documents on the same day. Otherwise, you will have to rebook an appointment and make another trip to New Delhi.
Hasta luego amigos!
If you liked this post, you may like these other posts about Mexico City:
Good post as usual. TFS
Muchas gracias, Shetre.
Beautiful illustration.
Thanks Lakshmi!