20.10.2012 – 20.10.2012  30 °C

For me, another boring day at the office is a day spent hanging around airports.. Isn’t it funny what people determine as a boring day?? For many reading this blog they would tell me that a day spent at the airport is an exciting day, it means they are going somewhere on holidays!!! I still remember my first overseas trip to the US when I was kid.. the Sydney airport was SO exciting and my first glimpse of the top of clouds was rapture.. Those days have long gone and I now find it one big fat chore…. 🙂

Anyway, my day started at the ungodly hour of 4.30am with me leaving the hotel for the airport. I gave Allan (our tour director in CR) a lift to the bus station before we arrived at San Jose International just before 5am. Fortunately the airport was pretty quiet so it didn’t’ take me long to pay my departure tax and check in for my flights to Mexico City and then thru to Cancun.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I got fed on my three and a bit hour flight to Mexico City. I was also pretty happy when I worked out that the flight was only two thirds full so I managed to bags a window seat and a spare seat for sprawling.. Tip for those reading who don’t travel much.. get on the plane as late as you can so that you can swap seats easily (if they are available). If you get on late you know that there aren’t many more people to board so you can sit pretty much anywhere that looks spare!

Ok, so the flight to Mexico City was pretty rudimentary. I was pretty lucky though, the air was pretty clear today so I got a good view of the Guatemalan (I think) volcanos and even saw a snow capped mountain in the distance—must be a pretty high mountain to have permanent snow in this part of the world. I was surprised by the approach to Mexico City. I’m pretty sure the city sits on a plateau and it must be one big plateau because the city just goes on and on, all surrounded by some pretty impressive looking mountains. It would be a pretty view I think if it wasn’t quite so foggy or smoggy (or whatever)..

I then had the joyous task of doing immigration and customs in Mexico City before catching my domestic flight to Cancun. I think for the first time that I can recall, it took me a grand total of one minute to get thru Immigration.. No one waiting and the quickest stamping of a passport I think I’ve ever seen! Customs wasn’t quite as quick a story. All baggage coming from any other Latin or South American country is heavily inspected for drugs. It must have taken at least forty to fifty minutes for our baggage to be cleared by the dog squad before it started zooming around the baggage carousel. Once I actually had my bag I had to dump it thru a metal detector and then put it back on another baggage carousel so that it could go back out to be put on my flight to Cancun.. I guess the Mexicans are more worried about drugs than they are about insects/ food diseases etc! J

Once I had finally finished with customs I had to head back upstairs and re-do security… This meant that my $5 bottle of water I purchased in CR had to be dumped. I was a bit grumpy for two reasons; I paid $5 for a bottle of water and I’d only had about three mouthfuls out of the whole bottle. You would think if you are transferring flights you wouldn’t have to do security again wouldn’t you? Apparently not! I have to say that it isn’t the first time I’ve had this happen to me.. the same thing happened in St Petersburg in Russia. I guess some countries have higher terrorist threat levels than others?

Once I got upstairs I was pleased to discover that my flight was delayed by twenty minutes which meant I had time to go hunting an ATM and some lunch. The ATM proved to be a funny experience. It took me awhile to find the ATM, once I did I thought that the ATM only dispensed USD. Not wanting USD I thought I’d get a couple of hundred out and go and find a money exchange place. Before I got my money I got the note up on the ATM telling me that I would need to pay a $33 fee for using the ATM.. I was thinking, holy dooley fees are high here in Mexico, but thought I needed the money so…. The ATM then went ahead and dispensed Pesos.. 200 Pesos (which are denoted by a $ sign) is less than 20AUD so I had a good giggle at my mistake. Needless to say I then re-started at the ATM and got a lot more Pesos out of the machine (this time not stressing about the $33 fee!). One of those funny mistakes that are really easy to make in foreign countries!

The last leg of my trip to Cancun was even more empty than the first flight (it was less than half full) so I had almost a whole quarter of the plane to myself. I put myself directly to sleep and slept away my two hour flight to Cancun. What a shame? 🙂

I arrived in Cancun and got out of the airport pretty quickly (no dog squad going crazy at this airport) and found my transfer lady waiting. She was waiting but the transfer bus was not.. Forty minutes later (standing in +35 deg with humidity) and I was finally on my way into Cancun.

Cancun is Surfers Paradise but way more spread out.. Not my cup of tea at all. Especially when my transfer bus was full of Americans, one of which even had the gall to tell me that I must be a foreigner (based on my accent)! I merely smiled at the guy and told him that we were all foreigners in Mexico not just those who were from a little further afield. Christ, some of them think they are God’s Gift (apologies to my American friends reading this.. None of you are like this loser!).. He actually managed to look abashed, and started to stammer some sort of apology (that I ignored) so I think I got my message across.

Our hotel was not in the main hotel strip (thank Christ) so it was quite nice to pull into this little quiet oasis not too far from downtown Cancun. I spent the next two hours (before my team mtg) freshening up, working on my web page and I went for a walk to the local supermarket to get myself some water and snacks.

My group for this trip is much smaller than the last (only five of us on this trip), one lady from Switzerland, one lady from Italy, one guy from the UK and another Aussie guy. We seemed to get on well from the get go so I’m sure that I’ve got as good a group as I had in CR (couldn’t possibly be as crazy as CR but i’m sure we’ll have a good time)

We all wandered downtown to have some tasty Mexican food for dinner (Fajita con Pollo- Chicken Fajita for me!). Our restaurant felt very touristy though, with a Mexican band playing music and everyone dressed up in traditional style Mexican dress. I guess first meal needs to be fairly run of the mill until we work out what sort of people we are travelling with!