Thursday - Returning to Mexico

Wednesday night was spent organizing and packing to leave.  To make the plane on time, we needed to leave at 4:30 am for a 7 am flight.  I got about 3 hours of sleep and Beth didn't sleep.  We left the motel at 4:30 and headed for the Miami airport.  Beth was driving and dropped me and the luggage off and I proceeded to check in while she returned the car. Surprisingly enough, I didn't get hit with extra baggage charges for the bags. They both had to weigh over 70 pounds each.  Even if they had charged us for overweight bags, it would have been cheaper than shipping the stuff to Mexico.  Beth made it to the counter at 6 and we proceeded to the gate.

An uneventful flight to Mexico City on which we both napped off and on.

Approaching Mexico City we noticed the air had a brown tint and appeared quite stagnant.  There was also an odor associated with it.  The country side appears brown and crowded with development.  We landed and taxied to the gate.

The Mexico City airport had very good signage and there were staff around to direct you where you were supposed to be going.  I was using the cane and carrying the computer bag while Beth was lugging the backpack and the two dog carriers.  The cane helped us get through the lines a little quicker and people tended to move out of my way.  We breezed through immigration but there was a hold up at customs.  While most of the people we had encounterd up to this point spoke very good english, the lady at customs had missed a few classes.  She was very concerned about the dog treats Beth had brought back.  The dog carriers are part mesh so you can see into them and while a dozen people had asked us if the pets were inside, no one had really questioned the contents other than are there any liquids in them.  The customs agent decided to go through them and called over a couple of other people to help. Meanwhile, an AeroMexico agent instructed me to put our two checked bags on the connecting flight conveyor belt.  This was good news as we didn't really want customs checking those bags as they were full of the booty we bought in Miami.  I placed the bags on the conveyor and returned to the dog treat discussion.  Apparently there is some ban on bringing beef, even processed into dog treats, into Mexico at the moment. Something about E-coli or such.  We explained that the dogs were already in the country, blah blah but were making no progress.  They had about 8 bags of dog treats they didn't want into the country.  After the discussion, they settled on keeping one bag and letting us proceed.  We were officially back in Mexico.  We strolled around the airport as we had an hour to kill before boarding the flight to Cancun.  The temperature in Mexico City was 75F and we were both chilly.  This was the lowest temp we had experienced since we left in May.  We were chilly in Miami, I guess we are both getting acclimated to the hot weather.  We are really gonna freeze when we return to Ellijay for the holidays.

We headed back through security where they proceeded to recheck the carry on bags but didn't take anything away from us.  We headed to the gate, which of course was the furthest one down the concourse.
When our flight was called to board, We headed toward the plane with the "pre board" people which was kind of nice. The ramp to the plane had to be 200 yards of inclined pathway which really took its toll on my walking abilities.  Upon boarding the plane, I requested a wheelchair meet us in Cancun and the uniformed flight crew assured me that it would as long as I was able to make it down the steps as this flight didn't go to the terminal but parked on the tarmac.  I assured them I could make the steps.

Departing Mexico City

Flying out of Mexico City we were both amazed at the mountainous terrain around the city.  They still had snow on the mountain tops.

We arrived in Cancun about 2pm and after making it down the steps and taking a bus ride, there was a wheelchair waiting for me.  Beth loaded me and all but one bag on the wheel chair and pushed me through the crowd of people to baggage claim.  We got a porter to get the big bags and take us to our reunion point with J and Jerr.

J and Jerr picked us up and we headed back toward Puerto Morelos, the boat and the babies.  We were very happy to see our friends and be back in Mexico.  We stopped at Sam's Club on the way back so J and Jerr could pick up a new TV and a few items.  We went to David Lau's Chinese and Pizza place in Puerto Morelos for dinner and were greeted warmly by the staff.  Valerie was surprised to see me walking, albeit with a cane but was glad to see all of us.  Tippy greeted us with a smile and promptly took our orders.  The food was excellent as always as was the company.

Back at the boat, the babies were very happy to see us and yipped for quite awhile.  Beth started unpacking the booty only to find that the grits we had picked up for Jerr had opened and were on everything.  After de-gritting everything, things were put away and the boat rinsed off.  We settled in for a restful evening and watched the latest episode of True Blood.

BTW, I was able to upload the July pictures in the Photo Album off the main page of bethandjohn.com.  Thank you Wyndham for great broadband internet service.  Back at the marina at El Cid, we have internet but it is a slow wireless connection.  Beth also posted a bunch of pictures on her Facebook album.  New links added to the main page !