To Quito, via Mexico

I’m in the first-class lounge at Mexico City Airport, it’s 5am. I’ve just got off an 11-hour flight from London Heathrow and I feel better than I should. The flight was on time and not too bad considering. I couldn’t sleep and watched three films – The Boy Who Would Be King (for children), The Favourite (excellent) and Gone Girl, which I’ve seen before but still enjoyed immensely.

I was flying AeroMexico and the plane – a Boeing Dreamliner – was really nice. People were trying to sleep in all kinds of positions. The chap opposite had his head in the aisle and, at one stage, was kneeling on the floor with his chest and head on the seat. I was glad to get off, but a cold airport at 4am isn’t the nicest of places. I went out through immigration into the airport to have a look around, but there was little to see, so I went back through security and into the departures lounge.

I’d upgraded to business class for the flight to Quito (I got a £150 deal) and so I could use the First Class Lounge – free food and drink, wi-fi and comfy seats. Mexico City is 2250m high and I didn’t feel short of breath, but I was peeing a lot. I don’t think I’ll be much below 2500m for many days in the next month.

One thing that struck me was the number of people doing jobs that just wouldn’t be done in England. The men’s and women’s toilets both had an attendant, who opened the door for you and handed you paper towels. The floor in the lounge was constantly being swept by three different people. There must have been 11 people working in the lounge alone. My Spanish was proving adequate for requests and simple questions, but I almost came to grief when I asked for the wi-fi code. I used the Spanish wee-fee pronunciation and the noun codigo, but they call it ‘why-fee’ (god knows why). The chap thought I wanted a whisky. Lucy said she would ask for the clave (not codigo) and el internet instead of wi-fi.

A couple of hours before my flight was called I went for a wander around the airport. There are so many flights to US cities, clearly lots of Americans come here for holidays. There were also lots of Chinese people. Donald Trump should be careful with his anti-Latin American rhetoric – the Chinese will end up owning central and south America.

I arrived in Quito at 11pm on Saturday night, having been travelling almost 36 hours with no sleep. It was great to see Tom and Emelia waiting for me and great to see my bed for the night at Margi’s house where Nidia is staying at present.