Okay, it has been a very very long time since my last post.  For that I apologize.  Since my last post a lot has happened to me in real time.  I think at the time of my last post, my daughter had just been born.  She's is a very mobile and precocious nine month old.  I graduated from my master's program and I have begun CGSC (ILE).  So, I have a lot of things to blog about, but before I can get to those more recent developments, I still need to finish with my ICT experiences.  In that spirit, I offer my regional travel to Mexico from 2009.  Deposited all of the bad news you might hear on the news about Mexico, it is by far one of my favorite countries in the region.  The people were wonderful, their culture / history is exceptionally rich and the food (in all of its regional variations) is outstanding.  Below are some of the comments I wrote up immediately following my trip there in 2009:

     Regional travel is a very important aspect of ICT.  It is an unparalleled opportunity within the Army and across the other services.  My wife and both of my sons accompanied me (remember were 3 and a half and 2 years old at the time).  Traveling with two toddlers was not always easy, but well worth it.  I emphasize this because in my opinion traveling with your family is critical.  They are every bit as important to the success your FAO experience as you are. Consequently, the more they know and the more they experience your region, the more they will feel comfortable and enjoy your time overseas.  

            We departed the Embassy at 5 in the morning on 30 August.  I submitted a motorpool request prior to our departure (critical!) so an Embassy vehicle transported us to the airport.  The El Salvador airport is actually very nice.  I hadn’t seen it since the night of our arrival two months before and that night was still a little hazy in my mind.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The airport is clean, organized and efficiently run.  My family and I were flying on TACA (Transportes Areos del Continente Americano) a private airline based out of El Salvador.  I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about flying TACA.  This trip would be our first flight ever on a non-US carrier.  My rational side told me that TACA had to meet all of the US standards for maintenance, training etc in order for DOD to allow us to fly it.  However, my more skeptical side expected a propeller plane with tape on the wings and chickens running around the aisles. 

            I was very pleasantly surprised yet again.  The ticket counter personnel were super friendly and helpful.  We didn’t have to pay for any of our checked bags either.  The plane itself was a brand new Airbus (320 I think).  Each seat had a digital video player in the back of the head piece, which the passengers could use without charge.  The digiplayer was a huge bonus for us since we had our kids.  The flight was pleasant and included a meal, also with for no charge.

            The flight itself took about two hours.  I got my first view of Mexico City (or more accurately Distrito Federal, few people I ran into actually called it la Ciudad de Mexico) during our final approach.  The sheer magnitude of the city was surprising.  If you look left or right out of the windows when the plane is at about 1000 feet, all you can see is city.  Mexico City is home to about 20 million people, I believe it is the second or third largest city in the world.  The city is also very polluted.  As the plane descended, it passed through a thick layer of greenish grey clouds / smog. 

            The Juarez International Airport is huge, much like its host city.  The airport is also very well maintained and the signs are very easy to follow.  As a result, we did not have any problems getting around the airport and finding out way to immigration, customs and baggage claims. 

      The ride from the airport to our hotel was uneventful.  We rode in one of the metered, pre-paid taxis that you can pay for in the terminal.  We got to our hotel in the afternoon.  We were pretty hungry so we asked the hotel for a restaurant recommendation and headed out for dinner. 

     A note about Mexican food.  There really is no “Mexican food”.  Mexico is about 1/3 the size of the United States, which means it is a really big place.  To describe a specific type of food as “Mexican” I think sells the diversity of food, in all the regions of Mexico a little short.  However, I do think most food in Mexico shares spiciness in common. Everywhere we went to eat in Mexico, with the exception of food in the Yucatan, the food was spicy.  Now, despite the preamble, we headed to a restaurant that the hotel recommended as typically Mexican.  The food was excellent.

     My family and I stayed in the Embassy Suites in downtown Mexico City.  The hotel was very nice and the staff was excellent.  The hotel was in a nice location within the city as well.  It was about five blocks from the US Embassy. There is a Sheraton on the same block as the Embassy, but my wife and I opted for the Embassy Suites because the room was a bedroom and a sitting room separated by a door.  The “separated by a door” detail is always a critical criterion in hotel selection for my wife and me since, as I stated earlier, we were traveling with our boys.  Have you ever tried to sleep in a single hotel room with two toddlers?

    The next morning we tried to take one of the double decker bus tours of the city.  The tours were supposed to start around 1000 and there was a stop outside of the hotel.  My first meeting at the Embassy wasn’t until 1300 that afternoon, so I figured we had time to take the tour and I could still get to the Embassy.  Unfortunately, by 1100 the bus still hadn’t arrived so we bailed on the idea. 

     Instead, we opted to take a hotel cab (much nicer than the regular yellow fleet taxis) to the Zocalo.  The Zocalo is a huge square in the center of historic downtown Mexico City.  The formal name of the square is Plaza de la Constitucion and “zocalo” actually means base.  Apparently, the government planned to erect a monument to Mexican Independence in the middle of the square but only got as far as creating the base before abandoning the project.  The base of the monument is no longer there, but the square is still called Zocalo.

       Zocalo is the center of both national and city government.  Around the square are located the National Palace (seat of the federal executive – President and ministerial offices), the Federal District Buildings (seat of the Mexico City government), and the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral (largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City).  The square itself is HUGE.  It is so big that I couldn’t get the whole square in a single frame for a picture.  I have posted a picture of the National Palace that I downloaded from the internet (because it is nicer than any of the ones I took) as well as a picture of my wife and two boys in the Zocalo. At the time we were in the city there was a dinosaur exhibit (big hit with my sons) going on in the plaza, those are the white tents you can see in the background. 

      You will also notice the GINORMOUS flag.  This is a good time to discuss flags in Mexico.  This picture does not do justice to the size of this flag.  It is easily the biggest flag I have ever seen.  Furthermore, I saw three other flags of this size throughout the city.  Mexico, is without a doubt, one of the most nationalistic countries I have ever visited. Everywhere you go, you see Mexican flags.  Big ones, small one, and huge ones.  Almost every street corner and most cars fly a Mexican flag.  This nationalistic flair is not just limited to the capital either, everywhere I went I Mexico I saw the tri-colors flying.  While this is certainly anecdotal, I think it is an interesting insight into the mind-set and mentality of the Mexican populace at large.  Admittedly, I did not venture to the northern or southern border regions, so I don’t know how if those areas show the same national pride.  More to follow!