Traffic is still bad, odorous sewage continues to randomly waft, the food is excellent and the people friendly. It is warm and sunny.
This time I am working in Toluca. Flying to Toluca is difficult, despite the international airport. All flights to Toluca connect through Houston, Los Angeles etc. whereas there are direct flights from Minneapolis. Plus it is expensive to fly to Toluca. There's a story behind this airport.
Toluca is about 30 miles west of Mexico City, and the Mexico City's airport is on the east side of town. So ... to get from the Mexico City airport to Toluca, we have to go all the way through town, then over the mountains ... depending on traffic this can take three hours. Therefore, the government decided to expand the Toluca airport to handle international flights, and more flights in general. They expanded the airport, built suspended highways to clear local traffic etc. in an attempt to offload flights from the Mexico City airport. After doing all this work they told the airlines "Ok, fly here!".
You read that right ... they spent a butt-load of money improving the airport and infrastructure without consulting with the airlines. This is important because Toluca lies at 9000 feet ... and at that altitude jets need a lot of fuel to take off. Therefore, very few airlines actually fly to Toluca, and when they do, it is expensive.
Thus, I flew to Mexico City. Fortunately I chose to travel when traffic is light and it didn't take long to get to the hotel in Santa Fe (southwest corner of the City, 30 miles from Toluca). Toluca doesn't have much for hotels or restaurants and I could catch a ride to/from the client with a local IBM'r who goes past my hotel every morning. Perfect!
The morning commute was actually pretty nice, with little traffic and a view of the nearby volcano.
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