What A Difference The Rain Makes

We have had two days of rain so far, all afternoon today and it's still coming down and aside from getting wet this is the best I have felt since I landed here March 1.  I was actually bounding up the stairs like a guy half my age and when I was getting up from my seat on the Metro, I actually bounced up and grabbed the overhead rail as though it was a trapeze, just the way I do it on the bus or Skytrain in Vancouver.  The positive ions and the clean air must be having an effect and it is almost like being home in Vancouver.  This has brought me to a few conclusions, particularly that the air quality this time has generally been very poor and that it has been affecting my health and my emotional well being.  Besides the social inequality in this country and especially the grandmother beggars here in Mexico City this tells me that for health reasons alone that I had better rule out Mexico City and probably the rest of Mexico, for future vacations.  A holiday is supposed to be restorative, not an endurance test that could land you in the hospital.  During previous trips here I have managed to overlook a lot of these things, not ignore them, but simply continue to focus on the positives.  This will be my second stay here that I haven't had an enjoyable place to stay, somethng that could feel like a positive and secure base and this has certainly affected my enjoyment here, as well as the overwhelming noise, pollution, crowds and traffic.  Seriously they think Vancouver has the world's worst drivers?  Come to Mexico City and just feel the love.  Ordinarily Mexicans are lovely, kind and warm people until you put them behind a streering wheel and suddenly you get instant sociopathic drooling idiot assholes.  This, I fear is not an exaggeration and anyone who has ever lived here will tell you something similar.  I have been priveleged to be able to go on these vacations for the past six years running, Costa Rica as well as Mexico City.  I am well aware that international travel is neither human right nor personal entitlement but a privilege.  I also feel that my Spanish has reached a level of fluency that I may no longer have to spend an entire month or longer in a Spanish speaking country to improve my ability, though I'm sure it would still help.  I would also like to visit other places where Spanish is spoken but this depends on my budget as well as being able to find a situation that is relatively free of English speakers, a place that is tranquil with access to nature, little auto traffic, relatively safe, where it isn't an ordeal to eat as a vegetarian and that is highly walkable.  If anyone has any ideas, then please, I would like to know.  Meanwhile, I am getting ready to go home and this will happen withing the next forty-eight hours or so.  There is by the way much I love about Mexico, but it is time to call it a day.