Take off

I'm writing this from Mexico City.  It's 8:30 pm now, and we've been here for hours. We left a humid Houston around 1:30 this afternoon, after arriving at the airport right at 3 hours before our flight, as suggested by aeromexico. My dad and Matt drove us to the airport. Caden was pretty subdued, but I got a grin or two out of him. Once we got into the airport, he perked up. He's definitely apprehensive about the language barrier, but he is absolutely an adventurer. There was hardly anyone at the counter and only one person in front of us at security. From arrival to sitting at the gate, it probably took about 25 minutes. Tops.  

We boarded the plane, which was much smaller than the planes we usually fly in. Two seats on either side of the aisle, so no one was stuck awkwardly close to a stranger, in the middle. The flight was half empty, too. Took a couple of hours to get to Mexico City and as it was lunchtime, they served us sandwiches, which were actually fabulous- deli turkey, thickly sliced cheese and real hellman's mayonnaise. Little better than the peanuts and pretzels we are used to. Caden immediately conked out. I tried to sleep on the plane, but I think I'm just past the point of exhaustion. So I read for awhile and then the flight attendants gave me a couple of forms I had to fill out for our arrival into Mexico City.

When we deplaned, I sorta just followed the herd. Our connecting flight didn't leave till 9:30, and it was only 3 something, so we had a lot of time to figure out what we were supposed to do. After exiting the plane, everyone had to go either through a line marked "foreign" or "Mexican Nationale", in order to gain access to the rest of the airport, and find our connecting flights.  Wasn't quite sure what they were doing at the front of the line….which was about 100 people or so in front of us. I was fairly intimidated because I wasn't even sure if this was where we were supposed to be, and although many of the signs had English subtitles, the announcements were pretty hard to follow- even the ones in English. And, I was hot. This airport is stifling.   My bags were cutting into my shoulders and Caden was beginning to get antsy. When we finally got to the front of the line, I found out that this was where they asked us about why we were going to Mexico and stamped our visas and passports. Pretty harmless encounter. The woman who helped me didn't actually ask me any questions at all, but I heard other workers asking other travelers. Fine by me. I was starting to sweat. 

We walked through automatic sliding glass doors, and continued to follow the herd, into customs.  Customs and baggage claim share the same area, so it was a mad house. I was confused as to why I was directed to baggage claim when my bags were supposed to be going to Durango, but the way it is set up, you retrieve your bags and take them through customs, where you then load them yourself onto a moving belt, which deposits them at the next plane.  So I spot our bags, just sitting off to the side of the baggage claim,  and wonder how the hell I'm going to get them all over to the customs counter, without making separate trips.  Between Caden and myself, we had four fairly heavy, large suitcases. One was pushing 50 lbs and the others probably weren't far behind it. Plus our carry on items- he had stuffed his backpack to the brim, with his ds, books, a dvd player, etc. Oh, and Bobs. I had two bags full of books and teaching materials, my laptop carrying case and my purse. All full and heavy. So I'm trying to arrange them, sweat dripping into my eyes, knocking several of the suitcases over in my attempt to stack, pull and push. Thank god, an older man who worked there took pity on me. He pulled two of the suitcases and stood with us at customs,  while I handed over our declarations sheet and passports. The guard then had me push a button. If it stays green, you go through, and don't get your bags checked. If it turns red, you've got to go off to the side, and they go through all your bags.  Luck was our our side.  We had three vacuum sealed bags. I cannot imagine what would have happened had they opened them.

Our knight in shining armor walked with us through customs, loaded all of our luggage onto the belt for us, and then pointed us in the right direction. I couldn't thank him enough, but he brushed us off, and went about his way. 

So after customs, we had to go up an escalator, and through security again, which was much more lax than at any other airport I've ever been to. We went through security and wandered around a bit. Because our flight wasn't for a few more hours, it wasn't up on the board yet, so I didn't know which gate to head towards.

Everyone has been so helpful, and most of them speak English, to varying degrees. I've repeated, "Lo siento, no hablo espanol" countless times.

The flight attendants here are rocking. They are all seriously beautiful, and more sharply dressed than any other flight attendants I've seen. They are dressed to the nines, with red accents. Red heels, red purses, stacked on their navy suitcases. I've also noticed how friendly Mexicans are to each other. I've seen lots of hugging, and greeting with a kiss on the cheek. 

I managed to get a wifi connection for a few minutes and was able to at least check in on fb, so everyone who is freaking out today would know we were about half way. Then the wifi died. 

So,now we are just sitting, waiting.