A day of travelling

The day started quite early, around 3 am or so. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get showered before JK picked us up at around 4. John had kindly offered to drive us to the airport (actually so had Bonnie, but we didn't feel right asking a new mother to get up so early :) ) so we took him up on it. I think we arrived at the airport at around 4:30 or so, perhaps a bit later. We dragged our bags inside and proceeded to look for the AeroMexico booth so we could check in. Well, that was the first problem of the day, there didn't seem to be an AeroMexico booth...

I asked around and it was thought that perhaps Delta handled the AM flights, so we headed over to the Delta desk. Unfortunately there was a sign on the Delta desk which read "The Delta/ASA counter is open for check-in and ticketing from 0530-1430" Aw man! We could have gotten another hour of sleep! Oh well. Eventually (around 0545) the attendant arrives at the desk and we get checked in with no problems. We had forgotten to bring a pen with us which is never good when you have to fill out all kinds of customs forms and things. Luckily we were able to borrow a pen from different people without too much trouble.

Our trip down was actually from Ottawa to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Mexico City. We had just under 2 hours to kill in Atlanta. I was going to get $20 of my Canadian funds changed into American $$ so we could get something to eat, but the money exchange cart guy told me they charged $5 USD on every transaction which meant I would have gotten just over $9 USD for my $20 CAD! Screw that! Anyways, turns out that the Burger King at the airport took M/C. It was strange though, she simply swiped my card and it seemed instantly my receipt was ready...and I didn't have to sign anything. That is not a good thing if you happen to lose your credit card.

Our flight from Atlanta to Mexico city was pretty uneventful. We got to sit very close to the wings (just behind I think) so I spent a lot of time watching the flaps and ailerons. :) Actually, both flights were relatively empty which meant we had lots of room to move around which was nice.

Arrived in Mexico city on time (around 1430) and cleared customs without any trouble. Actually, the customs guy didn't say ONE word to us. Oh well. We ended up walking right past Scott's family who were waiting for us at the exit of customs. No big deal though, Scott found us since he was waiting at the alternate meeting place. We got our money changed over (got 7.6 pesos to the Canadian dollar) and then headed out to see about a bus down to Puebla.

We let Scott and Luisa take care of purchasing the tickets while we stood around guarding our bags. :) Well it turned out one of the bags was left near the bus ticket counter and was soon noticed by airport security. Oops... :) Not to worry though, Scott ran over and grabbed it and all was well.

The bus arrived after a short wait and we all piled on. The trip to Puebla took just over 2 hours I think and it was quite a scenic drive.

We took cabs from the bus station to the historic downtown centre of Puebla where our hotel (The Hotel Colonial) was located. The hotel looked pretty amazing when we walked inside. There was some confusion about what rooms had been reserved and Scott and Luisa ended up going to another hotel for the night. When Scott returned from dropping off their luggage at the other hotel he had realized that his wallet had been stollen at the Mexico City airport! D'oh!

The next 3 or 4 hours were spent trying to figure out the right numbers to call to get all his cards cancelled. Eventually everything was figured out, but it was nearly 11 pm by this time. Oh and while all this was going on, Gustavo's family stopped by to pick up the things that had been sent down for them. They seemed really nice!

After everything was sorted out, we headed to Sanborns to get something to eat. Sanborns is a kind of a department store that has a restaurant in the back. Good food! I nearly didn't get to have a beer on St. Patricks day, but I think I got one in just in time. After supper it was back to the hotel and off to bed. Amy and I had been up for nearly 24 hours by then...