In Transit to Mexico

The Melbourne to Los Angeles leg of my trip went reasonably well, despite not sleeping for the entire flight. There was a wide array of in-flight entertainment available to keep me occupied for the 14 or so hours. I even managed to finally watch Citizen Kane. I was seated next to what appeared to be some indie skateboarder guys who were travelling around Central America. They didn't get too annoyed when I asked to get out and use the facilities.

I just made my connecting flight in LAX airport. I had to go through immigration and recheck my luggage again, although I wasn't stopping in L.A. There was even an express line for those boarding before 9am. But I didn't realise there was a time difference between Los Angeles and Mexico City. I only remembered the flight was 4 hours and I arrived there around 2pm, so I thought I had heaps of time to saunter over to the other side of the massive airport. But when I got through security I realised that it was leaving soon because there was another guy from the same flight with a Mexico football scarf looking very flustered about getting his connecting flight. I made a bit of a dash and fortunately took the right turn to go towards the boarding gate and they were in the middle of boarding.

The connecting flight to Mexico City was a bit more no frills style i.e. no food and no TV programs. I was sitting next two a couple of Latino kids who slept most of the time. I assumed that they were residents of Mexico, but when they flight attendant came to tell them to put their bag under the seat and I tried to help by saying it in Spanish. But they didn't seem to understand and started talking in English. I read for a while, but jet lag had finally caught up with me and I had to crash out for a while.

I finally touched down in Mexico City, but I spent another hour waiting in line to go through Mexican immigration. It seemed like all the planes had arrived at once. It was surprising how many of the people in the foreigners line seemed to be Latino families from the United States, although they didn't speak Spanish, especially not the kids. I think a lot of them might have been visiting relatives during the summer holidays. I had an annoying old white Seppo guy standing behind me complaining and making obvious statements to his Latina wife and son for the whole hour.

There wasn't any free wifi in the airport so I couldn't inform my girlfriend, Abril, about the delay in immigration. My bags had already been unloaded from the baggage carousel and put on the floor nearby. I picked them up and looked for the exit. In the customs area, the searches were random and decided by pressing a button. If you got the red light, you got searched, but if you got the green light you were allowed to go through without any hassle. Luck was with me and I got green, so I wasn't further delayed.

I got outside and found you couldn't take the baggage carts any further. So I saddled myself up while looking around for Abril, but I couldn't see her on the other side of the fence. I walked around the other side scanning the crowd and I saw her on phone trying to call me. She had been the airport since 1pm (an hour before the flight arrived) and had even made a sign on fluoro pink cardboard, but she had folded it due to the long wait.

We loaded my two big heavy bags into her car that she had driven to the airport for the first time: she usually took a taxi there. It didn't take long to reach her house, despite some traffic that wasn't bad for Mexico City standards. Upon arrival, I met her family with whom she lives which includes: her mum; an aunt, uncle and cousin; grandma; and two small white dogs. They were pretty friendly even the dogs and there wasn't any sign of an intense in-law vibe at all. We took my bags to the room Abril had cleaned, painted and furnished for me to stay in. I was quite surprised how big it was and also that it had it's own small bathroom. Abril and her family made me feel right at home! Due to the time difference and staying up for so much time during the trip I ended up crashing pretty early.