The crazy New Zealander at Estadio Azteca

Where in the world... 

Mexico VS New Zealand

By: Tania Swasbrook
 
When my husband, a New Zealander born and raised, proposed going to Mexico City to see the soccer game between Mexico and New Zealand for a spot in the World Cup 2014, I thought it was a great idea! For a whole minute that is...

Then I thought...Are you NUTS? Do you know what they would do to you if NZ won? In a stadium that fits 104,000 fans, you will be one of at most 10 fans from New Zealand in "Estadio Azteca". 

So of course we went.

Our friends at Las Alcobas, a trendy hotel in Polanco, invited us to stay for the 2 days we would be there and we dragged along another Kiwi friend, my mother and brother for support. It was a sight to be seen!

THE GAME PREVIEW

I always love Mexico City but you need to be careful with the smog, altitude and the fact that it now has 24 million people. This wasn't a site-seeing trip but as a side-note, there is SO much to do in Mexico City. You just need to a) have local contacts and b) have it well planned out in advance.

We got there pretty late...close to midnight...so obviously we went straight for tacos near our hotel.  Midnight is still pretty early in Mexico so we were able to get a seat.

 

TACOS EL PASTOR

Las Alcobas hotel is very quaint. It's perfectly placed in Polanco which is the ritzy area of Mexico City...somewhat mixed with trendy. You have the more upscale hotels and shops and it is a tad more secure. The hotel had great service (well, that's not hard as Mexico has some of the best service in the world) and everything was VERY high-tech. Almost a bit too high-tech to be honest. It took forever just to find how to turn on the light or where the safe was. They did have very cool amenities though which were these cool soup collection bar.

Las Alcobas
Trendy/Boutique luxury
Location: Polanco, near upscale neighborhood/residential zone so quiet
Tech: WiFi included. Room very high tech (almost too much!)
Service: Excellent
Kids: Welcomed but as with any trendy boutique hotel, not that much to do. Although with this type of hotel, you come to visit the city, not stay inside.
Restaurant: Delicious and very "cool"

BEST TEQUILA

WE HAVE THE TICKETS!

The next day was game day. My mother had to meet with some clients before going (they gave us a wonderful gift at breakfast) (and they had some of the most incredible offices I have ever seen). Then we were off.

Traffic was obviously going to be horrible but Mexico City has this very complex highway system. One  you pay and has no traffic, the other you don't and you have traffic. So we paid. We got there on time. As predicted, we were amongst the only New Zealanders there.

     

I won't lie. We started off great but then it started to get a bit scary. Yes, Mexico was up by 4 points but it doesn't matter. We were the enemy (of course I was cheering for Mexico but I at that moment was with the enemy). So we ended up leaving about 20 minutes before the end as it started to get a bit rough and we started to see the riot police coming in. 

RIOT POLICE COMING

We had an extraordinary time and once in a lifetime experience!






My daughter, supporting the best team, asking: "Are you guys nuts"?
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