Costa Rica to Mexico

Thursday 8 January 2026

A gentle start to our last morning in Costa Rica as our flight to Mexico wasn’t until 1320. It was just as well, as the walls at the Radisson were wafer thin and we were often awakened by noise all night from the corridor and adjacent rooms.

A quick ride to the airport, with Victor our friendly Uber driver enthusiastically interrogating us in Spanish about our trip while also showing us picture of his family. All while dodging traffic. Safely at the airport, we had an exceptional quick check in and run through security and immigration- in stark contrast to our arrival on Christmas Day.

Our Aero Mexico flight departed right on time and we had great views as we flew up the Pacific side of the Central American isthmus past Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. These were all once part of the very short- lived nation ( along with Costa Rica and Honduras) known as the ‘Federal Republic of Central America’ (1823-1841). The republic was formed after these areas won their independence from Spain and Mexico. Until all of the constituencies decided ‘yeah – nah’ a few years later and went their own way.

What really stood out was the extent of settlement and the number of volcanoes. A fascinating landscape fringed by the long Pacific Coast along our flight path.

Soon enough … well, after nearly two hours, we were over Mexico.

As we headed up past Oaxaca (more to come about that later in this trip ) we saw Pico de Orizaba, the highest peak in Mexico at 5,636 metres. It is a volcano and its indigenous name is Citlaltépetl. Apparently it’s not a terribly technical climb- more of a very solid stomp up and back . It looked better in real life than the distant photo suggests.

A little while later we flew past the twin volcanos of Popocatépetl, standing at 5,452 metres (active) and Iztaccíhuatl slightly lower at 5,230 metres ( and dormant)

Seeing Popocatépetl brought closure to Mark after his grade two school project (1972) about the volcano…

Soon after we began our descent into Mexico City. The smog was noticeable!

A really smooth run again through the airport on arrival, followed by a short-ish 30 minute drive to our hotel. We are staying in the ‘Zocalo’ or central plaza part of the city centre.