I have often joked about treating Texas as a foreign travel destination. I had previously visited only Houston/Galveston where tour client/friends had promised me a party every day for four days if I would visit. They lied! We partied at both lunch and dinner and I barely escaped without a liver transpant.  I hadn’t been back to Texas in over twenty years. I was looking for someplace warm, just a brief non-stop flight from Mexico, where I could get the Pfizer Covid booster and a flu shot, unlikely here in Mexico for months if at all. I could also mail my absentee ballot and enjoy a new travel experience. I chose San Antonio because I had never been there and had heard favorable comments about it. After five days of cold rain day and night in Mexico thanks to Hurricane John, the timing was perfect for an escape and I was thrilled to have four days of blue skies and warm days. The highs got up to 95 F in the late afternoon, but that’s when I was in the hotel pool, and nights were balmy. The AeroMexico flight landed in just under two hours and the hotel was ten minutes from the airport.

Sunday Sept 29      

A friend had recommended the Hotel Emma on the River Walk in the high-end Pearl District of the city. I had booked a queen room that its website promoted as “spacious,” and the photos showed two windows in a cheerful looking space. What a disappointment. My room was the smallest I had reserved in many years, with only a narrow slit of a window. When I went to the pool to work out I found it was only waist-high, another disappointment. I do water aerobics religiously six days a week and the cold rains had kept me out of my home pool for almost a week. The Emma is a lovely deluxe hotel in a superb location and I might have stayed except for the pool.

I found three other potentially suitable hotels with pools online and took a cab to the Thompson, closer to downtown. The desk called a security guard to show me the pool and a king room, almost twice the size of my queen at the Emma for almost half the price. I was sold immediately, reserving for the next three nights. I decided to walk back on the River Walk, just around the corner from the Thompson, about two miles from the Emma. I had expected a tacky bustling walkway and was pleased to discover an uncrowded lane with a few foot-walkers and mothers pushing strollers. I avoided the busier downtown parts of the pathway. (The hotel photos are from its website, the pool and river walk are mine_.

Before arrival, I had googled “restaurants near the Emma hotel” and found raves about Brasserie Mon Chu Chu, 20 yards from the hotel entrance. The menu isn’t as exotic as the name and I found copious gourmet choices and enjoyed a genuinely remarkable dinner.

Monday Sept 30

I expected the $35 tab for breakfast at the Emma, about the average for U.S. urban hotels, including at the Thompson the next morning. The restaurant has a wonderful outdoor terrace with a view of the San Antonio River, great for people watching since it faced a public walkway to the river bank.

After reading Cuernavaca papers for my community service reports to the expats, and catching up on U.S. news online, I went to the Thomson early, planning to check my luggage and get to Walgreen’s pharmacy. It turned out that the week-end crowd had checked out and my room was ready early.  After getting settled, I took an Uber to the closest pharmacy where both vaccines were available and I could get both that day. But the pharmacist advised not doing heavy exercise afterward. I found all the shopping items I needed in Cuernavaca and returned to the hotel for a light lunch, a siesta, and an hour workout in the spacious pool. I returned to Walgreens after 5 pm and got the free Covid booster and flu shot, one in each arm, with no reaction. All my goals were fulfilled on my second day in the city.

Remarkably, a restaurant highly recommended online is on the 20^th floor of the Thompson Hotel. I love roof-top restaurants and the Moon’s Daughters boasts a spectacular view of the city with predictable lofty prices. Alas, the 40 dollar lamb chops were not available, I had salmon for lunch, and the only meat item remaining was a 75 dollar Waygu steak, drinks, sides and tip extra. The beef was riddled with grizzle, a huge disappointment detracting from the relaxing vibe and resplendent view.

Tuesday October 2

On Tuesday morning I had another disappointment in the hotel restaurant, having to ask for coffee three times, then getting the cold toast when I had already finished the poached eggs. Alas, there are no breakfast cafes near the hotel. No matter, after reading my papers online and taking care of personal issues, I took an Uber to the San Antonio Museum of Art and discovered an unexpectedly superb collection of 30 thousand objects from all over the world. There are but a handful of European masters but a good selection of lesser works by well-known American artists like Albert Bierstadt and John Singer Sargent. A pleasant surprise for me was the space devoted to Mexican and Latin American artists and some excellent pre-Columbian pieces. The Nelson Rockefeller collection of Mexican folk art is a delight. No visitor to San Antonio should miss this jewel, and it is reachable from the River Walk.

After the museum, I traveled to the Alamo Plaza since I had read the area surrounding the Alamo itself is interesting. Not. The area is obviously the most touristy section of the city with numerous name-brand hotels and crowds of visitors, but I was glad to have chosen a quieter district. I had no intention of visiting the fortress, a shrine to Texan racism. The Mexican government invited Americans to settle the area to fill in a borderland troubled by hostile native tribes.  Most settlers came from the adjacent slave-holding southern states. Mexico was moving toward abolishing slavery, repugnant to the Texans who also hated the “Papist” nature of the Mexican Republic. After the Republic of Texas became a slave-holding state and President Polk provoked an unjustified  invasion of Mexico in 1847, vehemently opposed by Congressman Abraham Lincoln, the American forces were guilty of widespread rape and murder of civilians. I don’t expect this book to become part of the Texas civics curriculum: Amy S. Greenberg, A Wicked War, Vintage Books, 2013).

After a mediocre quick lunch at a Chipotle Grill, I spent some time in a huge mall, buying a few things I needed in Mexico. I was back working out in the hotel pool by 4:30 but, tired from all the day’s walking, I only lasted 40 minutes. That evening I discovered how abandoned the area is around the Thompson hotel, not a single upscale restaurant or even a chop house, and I settled for a burger joint a long walk away, getting back to the hotel in time to watch the vice-presidential debate.

Wednesday Oct 2

The Thompson has a gym but I had enough space in my room to do pushups and sit ups before showering and waiting a long time for breakfast in the hotel dining room. Given the fall calendar, I didn’t expect a lot but couldn’t resist a visit to the Botanical Garden. Except for monotonous marigolds, there were few flowers in bloom, the roses all dried up. But the 35 acres are populated with a colorful brood of whimsical animals and alebrijes. The cactus room was uninspired, but the Exhibition Room houses assorted orchids and bromeliads, and a refreshing fog spray to keep the space humid.

From the garden, I took an Uber to Market Square downtown, knowing The Mercado there would be very touristy. The shops featured mostly Mexican handicrafts which I have seen thousands of times and I wasn’t tempted to buy a thing. There are two large indoor salons with dozens of shops offering more of the same. But I knew there would be Mexican restaurants there and I was pleased to find La Margarita, skipping the outdoor terrace due to 90 F heat and opting for the air conditioned interior. I enjoyed totopos (corn chips) with salsa, then a generous serving of flautas with frijoles and rice and an ice-cold Dos Equis Lager. I avoided most of the rice and beans since I had decided on an upscale steak house for my farewell dinner that night.

I had googled “restaurants near the Thompson hotel” and found at least two within walking distance. I chose Bohanan’s Steak and Seafood, a fifteen-minute walk, and I was lucky to get a table without a reservation. The place was jumping at 7 pm. I had a crab cocktail, non-existent in Cuernavaca, and lamb chops, good ones hard to find at home. I didn’t need the crème brulee dessert, but why not? It was pitch black out at 9 pm so I chose an Uber instead of walking back to the hotel.

Thurs Oct 3      

My complaints about the breakfast service in the hotel restaurant must have caused a stir with management. A waiter new to me brought the coffee immediately and often, the food and service as good as one should expect in a fine hotel. I read the news online and packed for my return to Mexico, checking out before noon.  I had lunch at the airport since I knew there would be only chips and nuts on the two-hour AeroMexico return flight. Everything went smoothly, my faithful driver Vicente was waiting, and I was happy to be home-sweet-home before 6 pm. It was a brief but enjoyable escape to an interesting city new to me.