A funny thing happened on my way to our fiesta yesterday…I got a message from my old business school friend John, telling me that he had cleared his decks and was prepared to host us in Mexico City (or slightly outside in the town of Malinalco) during the middle of November. Naturally, I had assumed that did not work for him, so I had booked us a five day excursion to Oahu in the second week of November. Suddenly, we had some decisions to make. We already have a pretty busy fall, and they’re was the issue that we had promised cousin Pete and Nancy, who we are heading off to Europe with in a few weeks, that we would include them in our plans to go to Mexico City. So, first question we had to resolve was whether we were up for adding yet another trip to our schedule. Kim and I looked at each other and made the easy decision that life is too short to equivocate and that we should just grab for the gusto while we could. We looked at the calendar and thought we could do a quick turnaround from Oahu and head down to Mexico City if that third week in November worked for John and his wife Elaine. We started our process by calling our dog sitter to find out if she was available for staying for those two weeks with us transiting through for a luggage reload (confusing the hell out of Buddy in the process). She was AOK with those dates. That way she gets a September and November, paid dog-sitting vacation and Buddy gets a good fall workout since she takes him to every beach in Southern California every day. I then spoke to Nancy, who was all in on the idea and gave it Solomon’s up if I could arrange it with John & Elaine. I then called John and he said those dates worked, and more importantly, that they would be happy to have us include cousin Pete and Nancy since they know and like them. We agreed on dpearture and arrival dates such that we would have a two day turnaround after Hawaii followed by a week in Mexico City and environs.
John said he would take responsibility for organizing our stay so that we spent half the time up in Malinalco at their home there, getting the local Mexican country village feel, and half of the time in Mexico City, where we would get a decent boutique hotel and see the sights with John & Elaine as our guides. It really was an ideal arrangement and I am expecting it to be a great way to see what is touted these days as a wonderful city to visit and enjoy for a few days. I have spent a good deal of time in Mexico CIty over the years, especially during my days running the Latin America Merchant Banking business for Bankers Trust back in the bad old days of the debt crisis. In those days, our representative in Mexico City (only Citibank had a grandfathered branch in the country in those days) was Bob Martinez and he and his wife Phyllis became dear friends of mine. As our rep, Bobb had a lovely house in the city and I remember more than a few great gatherings there with all the various government and financial people that swirled around the arena of global finance. The last time I was in Mexico City was probably 2009 when I went down to negotiate with the famous Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, who’s bank help the A-Note on the old New York Times building in Manhattan. I was the CEO of a distressed real estate company and my job was to find a way to salvage 22 trophy properties and keep them out of foreclosure after the Great Recession crash of 2008. The central property that made or broke the effort was the Times Square Building, so the trip to Mexico City to meet Slim and talk with his bank, Inbursa, was pivotal and very much a high-wire act. I went down and pitched our plan for the property and got him to agree to a refinancing plan that would also give us about $75 million in added cash to do the needed renovations and get the property on its feet. I had to concede some rate and give some equity kicker, but I got the deal done. It was the start of the most crucial deal I did over those two years in that job (I restructured all 22 trophy properties eventually). I could try to suggest that I’m a brilliant deal-maker, but the truth is that during particularly distressed time like those, people are more flexible because no one wants to get stuck with collateral in a downward spiraling market. So, my last impression of Mexico City was a very positive one, but had little to do with tourist sights and everything to do with the relief of someone who needed to get a job done and succeeded…by the skin of his teeth.
In order to coordinate efficiently, I told Nancy to book her flights and that I would then work to match ours up as close as possible. I suddenly realized that this would be our chance to try out the much talked about CBX border crossing that would enable us to use the Tijuana Airport rather than the San Diego Airport. Lots of people say it is an easier and cheaper way to fly out of San Diego, but it has always seemed more trouble than its worth to force an unnecessary border crossing into Mexico. However, this time, we were going into Mexico anyway and the flights from San Diego are not direct to Mexico City, so it seemed much smarter to take the CBX route and both save money and have more direct flight options. I spent the time to read up on the whole CBX program. The basic rundown on the program starts with parking. There are over 10,000 spaces at the CBX terminal (which is in San Diego near the border). They have reserved, self-service, and even valet parking. There are shuttle bus options, but driving will be our way to go. All the Mexican airlines fly out of Tijuana. Aeromexico, Volaris, and Viva Aerobus have counters right in the CBX terminal on the U.S. side, so you check in before crossing the bridge. TIJ offers roughly 30–36 direct domestic Mexican routes, plus a couple of long-haul options (Shanghai/Beijing have been mentioned for TIJ), which is the main draw… that route selection and pricing usually beats flying out of SAN. When departing (flying out of Tijuana), you arrive at the CBX terminal in Otay Mesa, San Diego and park. Then check in for your flight at the airline counter on the U.S. side. Bags get weighed and tagged there. You present your CBX ticket, passport, and a completed Mexican migration form (FMM) to cross the bridge, walk across the 390-foot enclosed pedestrian bridge over the border and arrive directly at Tijuana International Airport, going through Mexican customs and airport security, and then proceeding to your gate. One fortunate coincidence for us is that the FMM (Multiple Migration Form) for Mexico is only required for travelers staying a week or longer. Our trip is six days, so we are exempt. The whole point of CBX is that you never touch the regular land border crossings at San Ysidro or Otay Mesa… the bridge is exclusively for TIJ passengers with a valid boarding pass, so it’s a controlled, fast crossing rather than the general port of entry lines. I’m actually looking forward to trying it out and opening up a potential new flight option for us in the future.
So…so much for not traveling as much. I think its time to stop telling that aspirational lie at this point.