Adriana Quintana wakes up at half past five in the morning in Ixtapaluca, in the State of Mexico.

She washes her face, prepares her backpack and leaves the house, where she will not return until 10 at night.

She makes four transfers on public transportation to go to her 46-hour-a-week job in the center of Mexico City.

She is a cook.

It takes her five hours each day to go and return to her job.

Like her, two million people in the capital and the surrounding municipalities spend more than two hours a day commuting to and from her job.

Between the red walls of her small house, in a neighborhood within the Ayotla neighborhood, Adriana, 41, explains why she does not live closer to her job in the Hidalgo market, in the Cuauhtémoc mayor's office.

“I have lived here all my life,” she details.

She separated from her after becoming the mother of two young people who are now 16 and 21 years old.

The children stayed with her father.

“I decide to stay in the area for my children, to be able to see them and be close to them,” explains the woman.

Adriana Abigail Quintana Torres aboard a bus.NAYELI CRUZ

6.00 Mototaxi

She leaves her home warmly dressed at six in the morning to take a motorcycle taxi that for seven pesos (about $0.40) leaves her on the main avenue of Ixtapaluca.

It is a short trip that can be done on foot, but Adriana suffers pain due to the poor condition of the cartilage in her knee.

The night is dense.

The cook brings to light the other reason why she has lived here for six years, but she has not looked for a job here.

The paradox is simple: in the center of Mexico City jobs pay better, but renting an apartment is much more expensive;

In Ayotla he only pays 1,500 pesos in rent ($90), but the positions are more precarious and less well paid.

In the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM) more than seven million trips are made per day for work reasons.

Of them, 3 out of 10 are employees who spend more than two hours a day going to and from their jobs.

In total, more than two million people.

And the work is usually concentrated in a single point.

Like Adriana, more than 800,000 people from the ZMVM go every day to a company or their own business in the central neighborhoods of the city.

Among the four areas that receive the most employees, the first three (Centro Historico, Buenavista-Reforma, Condesa) are from the Cuauhtémoc mayor's office.

Exact data on mobility in Mexico City is limited, only collected on a large scale every decade.

The latest study available is the 2017 Origin and Destination survey, in which four public institutions analyzed 66,000 homes in the metropolitan area to find out what the travel dynamics were like between 69 municipalities in the State of Mexico and the capital.

6.06 Minibus

Adriana gets on a minibus at 06:06.

This is the most used method of transportation, with 11 million daily trips, according to the Origin and Destination survey.

The main problem with this vehicle is insecurity.

6 out of every 10 assaults that occur on public transportation occur in small trucks, according to the National Public Security System.

“It's the fact that you go out at dawn and you might find someone who wants to assault you,” explains the woman.

They stabbed her brother to take her cell phone.

Luckily, nothing has happened to her so far.

After a 25-minute minibus ride, Adriana pays 13 pesos to the driver through the window and arrives in Santa Marta.

Here she is going to take the cablebus.

Before, their usual route was to go to the Pantitlán metro stop, but three stations on Line 9 were closed due to construction.

It is common for people who use public transportation to get to work to have to modify their trips due to renovations, road closures or mechanical problems.

An extra that often translates into arriving home even later.

On those days, Adriana just wants to go straight to sleep.

Adriana Abigail Quintana Torres during her commute to work.NAYELI CRUZ

6.40 Cablebus

Adriana takes the cablebus for seven pesos.

This transportation changed the way of moving through the Iztapalapa neighborhood.

It's still night.

At 6.40 she enters the cable car, she sits down, puts on her headphones and disconnects from the world.

“I try to fall asleep.

I can't, but I close my eyes because I'm afraid of heights,” she explains.

Despite the vertigo, this is the shortest route.

—What would you do with the time it takes you to go to work?

—On Saturdays I take a Mexican baking course.

I would like to take the diploma.

The training opportunity, at the moment, is unaffordable with their schedules.

Also simpler things.

“I dedicate myself to making Huichol crafts, bracelets and things like that, I would like to have more time to make them,” she says with some sadness.

A survey by the Indeed job portal of Mexican office workers showed that 4 out of 10 would use the time traveling to work to spend time with their family and friends, 18% to their professional development and 15% to their hobbies.

Adriana has distanced herself from her friends, but when she gets home she just wants to rest.

Adriana Abigail Quintana Torres travels aboard a cablebus cabin.NAYELI CRUZ

During the almost one-hour journey, it has dawned and you can see the rooftops painted with colorful graffiti, made especially to be enjoyed from the height of the cable car.

He stops with a strong pull.

The doors of the cablebus open.

And from heaven it has to come down to earth.

7.38 Meter

While walking along the walkways that lead to the subway, the rap of Cartel de Santa comes out of Adriana's headphones.

The group's harsh lyrics match the atmosphere.

At the Constitución de 1917 stop on Line 8, long lines are waiting to get into the car.

The train arrives and the typical gestures begin: backpacks in front, elbows out and pushes in.

Adriana decides to go in the car reserved for women and children.

She can't get in on the first ride and she has to wait for the next one.

The subway, at rush hour, is overwhelming even for those who don't have to go to work.

A 2022 survey by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) estimates that 18% of residents of the capital feel stress when traveling on public transportation.

This figure rises to almost 4 out of every 10 people if they are from the State of Mexico and travel to the city center.

“It stresses me out that I'm going to be late,” explains Adriana about the days when the train stops for up to 15 minutes at the stations.

Among the large crowds of people there is no place to read a book, listen to a podcast quietly or look at your cell phone to take advantage of the travel time.

Hardly enough to breathe.

“I come to work tired of standing,” says the woman when she gets off at Obrera, the stop that leaves her next to the Hidalgo market.

8.30 Time to cook

Adriana leaves the station and greets an old acquaintance who sells marzipan sitting on the stairs.

“Today we took less time than usual,” she says as she arrives at 8:18 at the small economical kitchen where she prepares her recipes.

It took her 2 hours and 18 minutes from her house, a journey that she repeats from Monday to Friday.

You will still have nine hours left—sometimes more, sometimes less—of making pots of seafood soup, heating pans to prepare steaks, or taking orders from diners, for a salary of 250 pesos (less than $15 a day) — of which it spends 64 on transportation.

He works 46 hours a week, while Mexican society and politicians are still debating whether working hours should be reduced to 40 hours a week.

Adriana Abigail Quintana Torres at her job at a food market in Mexico City.NAYELI CRUZ

When Adriana finishes working at six, seven or eight, she will still have two and a half hours left to return to Ixtapaluca.

She will come home between 9 and 11 at night, she will put on some YouTube video and, finally, she will relax.

She goes to bed around midnight to sleep for five to six hours.

The problem of long commutes and few hours of sleep is not exclusive to Mexico.

Millions of people in many capitals of the planet spend their lives on public transport.

Adriana almost always uses the weekends to clean debris, wash clothes, and clean the dishes.

This is the life of a person who spends five hours just getting to and from work.

And also dreams: “There are times when I wake up every so often at night thinking that I'm going to be late.”

Subscribe here

to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in this country