Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Homeward bound from Mexico City to LAX

Walked from the museum to a nearby place for lunch, but it was closed.  Happened to walk through a part of the city that appears to be their small Chinatown area.
Tried another place nearby but it was upstairs and hot inside.
Decided to head to the airport early and have a late lunch at the airport.  So, caught an Uber back to the hotel.

Our Uber driver back to the hotel was very calm and drove calmly and smoothly.
I think he was driving a Nissan Versa.
We asked him to wait for us when we got to the hotel, so that he could also take us to the airport.
when we checked out in the morning, we had left our luggage at the hotel for the day.
We picked up the luggage & headed for the airport.
The airport is not too far.  It's on the east side of the city.  About a 25 minutes from the hotel.

Got dropped off at terminal 2 (there's 1 for domestic and 2 for international).  I tried to tip the driver $10 on the Uber app but it had a maximum tip allowed of $7.50.

To the right is the entrance for security.
There was almost no line.  Went through very quickly (don't have to take off shoes, watch, etc.; did have to take off my belt because of the buckle).

On the jetway waiting to enter the plane.
I was able to change my seat to move a little bit more forward in the plane.
An exit row window seat was available.

Waiting to pull back from the gate.
Flew Delta.  They wanted to be on time for departure, which they made.

Taxiing out to the runway.

Taking off.
Mexico City is surrounded by mountains.
They have to be very high since the city itself is already at about 7,400 feet!

Flying over the San Diego area.

Coming in to land at LAX.

It got very foggy as the plane approached the airport.
The pilot made a very smooth landing.

We arrived at the International terminal (Tom Bradley).
The immigration/customs area must have been redone.  it was huge!
There were dozens of stations.
There was no line so we went through in a couple of minutes.

Took the bus to the cab-ride sharing area.
We took a cab home (Got off the bus and directly into a cab.  No waiting.)
We're close enough to the airport that the cab ride home is only about $25, including tip.
End of a pretty great trip.