Mexico City: Day 2 & Discovery of StartUp UnDosTres

Most importantly: it's my Mom's birthday. I love you, Mom! Happy Birthday.

Lunch: Cafe Cubana. Nothing special. Huevos Rancheros were fine, but didn't knock my favorite, found at Coffee Shop in NYC, out of the running for the best. (The Enmoladas last night, by contrast, are currently at #1 best mole ever and #1 best enchiladas ever, now that I think about it.) Honestly, I got lost and needed wifi, and I was starving because I worked out pretty hard this AM and my hotel serves 90% carbs for (free) breakfast.

Co-working space: Currently I am at The Pool, which is super cool, and the destination I got lost trying to find. I'm trying to take public transportation or walk everywhere I go, because it's cheap (ride 40 min ride over here cost less than $0.50), safe, and exciting in foreign cities. I got a free day pass online. Wifi is working great on my computer, not on my cell, but the password is very cute: Salvavidas, which means life preserver in Spanish. Also nice: bottles of alkaline "Genius Water."

Mi Español: Mas que suficiente para hablas un poquito con los locales, and getting better daily because I am talking to people and spending one hour on Duolingo cada día. Also helping a bit: my cell phone is entirely in Spanish and I haven't been translating most websites. Encouragingly, I almost immediately found myself automatically using Spanish instead of English to say the words and phrases I know well in my internal dialogue, which you just experienced a bit in reading this =)

New discoveries: Undostres, a startup in Mexico City that allows you to easily re-fill your SIM card. SIM cards are pay-as-you-go, cheap and practical and I wish the U.S. would adopt the model like everywhere else in the world. Since we have our own AT&T, T-Mobile, etc monopoly method in the U.S., I bought a new phone that allows me to insert a SIM. I will most likely be using a new SIM in every country I visit. Smart phone cost $130 and a $10 SIM initial charge got me through the first two days. I used my data a LOT though - Google Maps, Snapchat, Skype, Gmail. When I tried to add more data through the provider, Telcel, I ran into all sorts of difficulty. First I had to verify that the phone number was mine, easy enough through a text. Next, I had to verify my credit card (only Mastercard or Visa) by entering the value of a small transaction. BUT both yesterday's and today's USD/MEX exchange rates did not give me the $ that Telcel was looking for, AND CapitalOne doesn't have an option that would allow me to see my transactions in Mexican Pesos, so I got locked out. This took about 30 minutes in all and I had no idea what to do next until I discovered undostres, which is independent of the providers but allowed me to simply enter my number, and re-fill by card or PayPal, which I did. I added $6 and even earned bonus points which I can use in the future. I think 100 pesos (~$6) was the max I could add which might be the one drawback. But bonus points! Thank you undostres. I hope you work everywhere I go.

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