Mexico and Pico de Orizaba: LAX to MEX

 Cactus farm on the road between Puebla and Tlachichuca. A cactus farm!
Also airport in Mexico City, where I arrived at 5:30 AM. Except the escalators are from LAX, where I spent another 4 or 5 hours exploring airport architecture. I found Don and Spence from Brighton, who had arrived earlier, rented our small car and headed out into the chaos of Mexico City, only to be stopped by a policeman.  He was a traffic policeman, I think, or at least had a traffic police costume, he asked me to pull the car over, I started to give him a story in Spanish about Mexican American relationships, but he wanted to look at my license.  Compliant citizen that I am, I handed it over, then realized,

 he was not going to give it back until I handed over 3800 pesos, which is at least 300 dollars.  We bargained for awhile,  I should have just driven off, but I kept thinking I needed my license back.  I eventually gave him $100 and a bunch of pesos...very aggravating beginning of some serious traffic, but soon we were on the highway, which, instead of rest stops, had little vendor villages and people who would run up to the car and offer to sell you refreshments when the traffic got slow.

LAX escalators, distant view of the Orizaba and a little house in Tlachichuca