Nordimex: Chronicle of an Icelander in Mexico

Finally I could arrive in Mexico. I really love to go in the middle of the dark winter in Iceland to Mexico. Get some needed sunlight and warmth, it's really the best time to go. Not so much because of Mexico itself, but because of what you miss in the frozen island that is Iceland.

Since I have travelled a few times to Mexico, already I am quite familiar with what I need to do. You arrive, you wait on the plane to exit, you exit….and boom! The humidity and the heat hits your face! Then, it's off to security for a lovely 30-60 minute wait while one dude works the whole row of foreigners entering the country through what is the largest airport of Mexico, at least those with a Mexican passport can skip this line and go directly to the “local” line, which is usually manned by at least 5 people.

There ain't really much else to say about the arrival, other than the wait at the immigration, the airport experience is most of the time quite smooth. I would have been expecting more safety measures because of COVID, however there were really none… A single officer lady asked me where I am from, when answering Iceland, she said “OK! move on”.

While driving home from the airport I am always reminded of the constant chaos that the city is. They say that New York never sleeps, try Mexico City then.

Apart from seeing my adoptive family of my lovely esposa, it’s the food that waits. The food. Food! It's just simply amazing how this country, it’s people, and the culture revolve around food. So I found out pretty quickly as I was being offered left and right foodstuffs from everybody around. This time, being a seasoned Mexico traveller, I had in mind what I wanted to eat when I got here and for the first few days we have been going out and about for the food that I have sorely missed.

If I would recommend anything to you when coming here…try the Huaraches! Daaamn! You will not be disappointed!

The city is large, very very large. I noticed this first on Google Maps, since I am obsessive and checked out the city before going. However, it hits you even more when you land in the middle of the city at the airport.

There is always soooo much going on in the city! In it’s own way it's pretty, and super diverse. Since the class divisions are so vast in the city, it's hard to comprehend both, how much some people have, and how little.

The city has it’s Metro, buses, large streets and big infrastructure. But don’t be weird out when you see a horse eating a bail of hay on a street corner early in the morning. That's all I have to say.

It’s chaos and I love it!

Always when we arrive, we get inundated with gifts from E’s family. This is something that I am not really used to. Arrival gifts? neh really not used to that, it's usually just the opposite, we get to be the ones giving out gifts after travelling.

Although I am not used to it, I do appreciate it and have gotten into the spirit of it, and it is very nice to be received with gifts after maybe years since seeing each other last time, as well as a looong travel.

It’s a shame how such a vast, vibrant and pretty city is so polluted. It’s one of the worst environmental issues that the city has. Going a bit graphic but not, at least when I went the first few times I got a nosebleed for the first few days, probably triggered by the pollution and my extremely sensitive little nose (I used to be bleeding from the nose day in, day out when I was a wee young lad).

The pollution gets so much that often the only thing you see in the distance is a yellow haze of pollution covering the “bowl” that the city lies in. It's so bad that the local government even bans certain cars from driving on certain days, to try and minimize the issue of car pollution, since you will also notice that there are a lot of cars in the city.

On the days that you will be able to see further into the distance, it's magnificent. The scenery is so beautiful and the volcanoes and mountains tower over the city from all sides, seeing this you just imagine how it must have been to watch this area with the Aztecs in full power with their pyramids towering in the center of the lake and beautiful lake gardens and mountains all around. It makes you wonder.

The only thing to say here is that COVID has hit HARD. Being such a large country with diverse groups of people, the virus has been really bad. Not as bad as some other places in the world, however worse then they maybe would have had to be.

The public takes their measurements, as well as the establishments. Masks are to be worn at all times, inside establishments, inside any place with a 3rd party, and even outside of your house. Temperature is taken and oxygen level is often measured when entering stores and other establishments, which is great for getting to know your current levels.

The only thing that can be said about the food is that it's amazing! The tacos….. amazing! I really really love all the food here. And as I said before, the culture revolves so much around food that you will be inundated by food choices and people telling you “try this”, “try that”, and so on and so forth.

My recommendation, try it, try it all. 10/10 on Yelp for Mexico!

The beer here is great. And I don’t really know if the world is aware of that. Both in Iceland and in Sweden (the two places that I have lived in) you always see the traditional “Corona”, and “Sol'' beers in the stores. Which...surprise surprise is owned by no other than the Heineken conglomerate and even produced by Heineken in Europe if I am not mistaken. Which in Europe, just buy Heineken instead then… probably cheaper.

These beers seem to have been the most popular here for many years, and probably still by most people. But it has been interesting to see the change in beer culture over the last few years since I started to come here. Just as in other places in the world, the culture for microbreweries and more artisanal beers are on the rise and you see many new breweries opening up around Mexico, selling different beers from the usual Corona or Sol.

Being from Iceland, I am used to two “big” shopping malls. One is from the 80’s and the other one is from the 2000’s, so maybe not the biggest of options. However, here in Mexico you have sooo many shopping malls. Varying from old 70’s-80’s malls with the classic 80’s look and “kind-of-dying-vibe” feeling. What is very interesting is the huge new malls that have opened and are not even in the fancy, or rich areas of the city, and maybe not even that far away from the next fancy mall. It’s a very interesting experience, and seeing all the different stores and stuff they sell, as well as the pure amount of people and restaurants that many of them have.

Something that I really would like to have in Iceland is more of the markets, where you can buy fresh fruits and locally grown vegetables. Even local producers of cheeses, meats, and more products can have a stall there and sell their products. There could be a food hall part in it where various restaurants could sell more of a typical classic Icelandic food for cheaper than a restaurant price. It's too expensive to go out in Iceland, and sometimes you would really like to go out, enjoy a bit of a drink or some nice food items, but not empty your pockets at the same time.

That's something that I really would like to have in Iceland, that I love about here. And even though in Europe these local markets exist, in Iceland they seem to have been replaced mostly by large Icelandic supermarket chains, which mostly import via the same suppliers, so the variety of foodstuff is not as big and nice as it could be.