Went to Santa Fe in West Mexico City yesterday. Some observations.

I spent the entire day yesterday in Mexico City.  I went with my landlord(s) to renew a rental agreement on an apartment they manage in the south part of the city.  Because it was Mexico City, and apartments seem to rent withing seconds, the renewal took about 15 minutes to  complete, and then we were off to the San Jeronimo and Santa Fe area to have lunch at the Olive Garden.  The restaurant was located on the rooftop of and exclusive mall in this very rich area.

We had a fantastic lunch, and the prices were relatively inexpensive.  During lunch, my friend Raul told me that at the other side of the mall were the cheap restaurants like McDonalds, etc.  Anyway, after lunch, we wandered throughout the 4 story mall, and our first stop was the indoor skating rink.  It brought back memories of Canada.

As we walked through the various floors of the mall, Raul stopped at a small real estate booth and grabbed some information on apartments in the area.  Most start at about 2,000,000 (that's US dollars, not pesos), and all I could do was laugh.  We also saw a very sporty BMW on display, and the sales girls zeroed in on me, thinking I was rich or something, and we got one of their cards.

Continuing on, I noticed a lady walk by escorting three noisy children.  At the time, I didn't notice the man following them dressed in a nice black suit.  Raul pointed out that the lady was obviously an extremely wealth Jewish lady, and the man following was their bodyguard.  And here I thought I was an observant guy.  Raul also explained that her marriage was undoubtedly arranged for her at an early age, and they probably had their limosine and driver waiting for them down in the valet parking lot.

These super rich people really impressed Raul, but I didn't seem to find them anything special at all.  So what if they have million dollar houses filled with gold, money can't buy everything.  But I guess it can help in many ways.  Oh, almost forgot, on the way to the mall we witnessed a car make a retorno (cars make u-turns instead of having left turn lanes), and the turn around was so steep that the car's right front tire literally came off the pavement about 3 feet.  I laughed as we drove by, thinking that the poor city workers got even with these rich ass....es, but leaving holes in their streets so their BMW's and Mercedes fell apart sooner.

I must say, it was strange to see multimillion dollar structures on one side of the street, and poverty and little shacks on the other.  Only in Mexico.  As we drove back to Cuernavaca in our 2006 compact Chevy, I felt almost normal again.  The rich Jewish people in Mexico can keep their high prices.