Today we leave Columbia for that beautiful, sensation of a travel destination, Mexico City. Not having been there before, I really don’t know what to expect, although I do expect something interesting to occur at some point. I just hope that the place nothing like the boarder towns of Juarez and Tijuana. Too many guns for my liking.
I hated to say goodbye to the Radisson because the room was really nice, but we had to go.
The flight was scheduled for 2:30 pm, and so far the flights have been on time. It was suggested that we give ourselves a lot of time for traffic because of construction and just plain old traffic, and getting through security. Good thing we listened. This IS Columbia you know. Not one of the top 10 cities known for it’s open roads and efficient services.
We hire a cab at the hotel at about 10:30am, and zoom right out into a ton of traffic. And for the first several miles, we speed along at the amazing rate of about zero miles per hour, or about not much more than that. Of course you can imagine the beautiful scenery that was presented to us along the way of an old decrepit highway, so I wasn’t too happy. But somewhere along the route, the cab driver veers off to a side road that had no sign, when we actually began making headway, hopefully towards the airport. But we hadn’t a clue. This reminds me of an old Ronald Reagan saying, “Trust but verify.” We were trusting, but no way to verify. Another 15 minutes and I began seeing places I recalled seeing on the way in from the airport, so we were all right.
We get into the airport and check our bags. At this point I’m beginning to wonder about what has changed since the last time I went through this airport? It’s been about 15 years, and when I was departing, the security (as I recall it was the military back then) searched my bags quite thoroughly, and more than once before I got to the gate, and then another, more personal search as well. But that one I enjoyed. :-)
I really don’t know what everyone is complaining about these days about getting patted down – seems to be happening to me a lot these days - airports, gov't offices, doctors' offices... Back then; Columbia must have had a diversity policy because I was patted down by a very nice looking private of the opposite sex. But that was 15 years ago and we married soon after (I hope my wife can take a joke.)
We arrived quite early even though the traffic was tough, and so we decided to just hang out for a while. We were sitting at a table for 4 surrounded by restaurants, when I asked in jest, “Who brought a deck of cards? Rich pops up with, “I’ve got one.” I was just kidding, but seeing as we had a bunch of time on our hands, why not?
We chatted for a bit about what game to play, mentioning things like hearts or spades, and decided on hearts. Now I haven’t played a game of cards in a coon’s age (I haven’t a clue how long a coon lives, but you get the picture.) So Rich goes through the rules, which of course he adds to over the course of the first three hands, whereby I have had the honor of collecting the queen of spades in each hand, and a very large number of hearts along the way – so I’m way out in the lead – although in the wrong direction.
Now when I was in the army a coon’s age ago (it’s the same coon – apparently they live a long time,) I worked the night shift primarily, and during those long, boring hours of doing nothing after repairing the computers within the first hour, a group of us would play spades. After a few months, we could have entered a spades national championship tournament, and won, because we were so good at it. Of course, that also says something about the amount of work that we had to do. But, that’s the army for you.
So we played cards for about an hour, and of course, although I lost my pants, Randy and I had fun trying to put the squeeze on Rich in the one hand where he actually accumulated one or two points. We checked the hour and it was time to go through security. So we gather our things and head over to the international security line.
When we get there, the line is snaking back and forth about 8 times, and was moving as fast as the cab on the highway I mentioned earlier – near zero. It was taking forever, and time was running out. I was wondering if we cut it too short by playing cards? I guess I could have lost by a smaller margin if we had realized how long it was going to take to check our documents (not that losing by 1 point is any better than losing by about 50 points which I did,) by cutting the game short, and I probably could have kept my pants as well.
We finally crawled up to the counters, got our passports stamped, and headed for the gate. Had just a bit of time to spare before boarding.
As Randy and I were walking down the hall towards the gate, (Rich was tagging behind) we began to chat about what we remembered about the security checks. Randy hadn’t been here for quite a while either, and things seemed to have changed in terms of less security. Not so fast, not so fast! As we turn into the gate area, here is the next layer of security guards who gladly go through our carry on bags, ask a few questions, and let me go. I turn around and walk towards the seating area when I notice a young man and woman in security garb. So here’s the pat down. Ok, who’s going to take me on? They guy does a cursory pat down and I’m free to go – both happy and disappointed at the same time. I really shouldn’t have been too disappointed as only two weeks ago I had my, um, manly exam handled by a very nice looking, but professional, nurse. I must be getting old when things like that get me excited. Does that happen to anyone else reading this? (I don’t expect ANYONE to answer THAT question.)
In short order we board the plane and head off into the wild blue yonder – or brown yonder as the air ain’t so clean here.
Four glorious hours later (Randy might say it was either 2 or 6) we land in Mexico City. Just prior to landing I look out the window and see a very densely populated area that almost looks like Los Angeles. Mountains, hilly areas, very, very, dense areas of houses, tall buildings here and there, etc, and very spread out.
We get off the plane, and as we are walking down the jetway and into the hall, Randy and Rich head over to the window and start taking pictures of the half-dozen or so police cars with lights flashing that are sitting at the tail end of our plane – you know, the one that just came from Columbia! Uh oh. I was sure they were after Rich, seeing as he just got off of probation yesterday. But I guess I was wrong as nothing much was happening and we moved along.
We lied our way through immigration as we didn’t want to say that we were here on business – just tourists here for 3 days for fun and sun in Mexico City. We didn’t have a business visa so it was good that they didn’t question us too closely. Randy mentioned that he had a harder time because he spoke some Spanish, but the agent only asked me how long I was staying and where I lived. Whew. I really didn’t know whether we needed a business visa or not for what we were doing as I hadn’t checked that closely while prepping for the trip, so we were taking a bit of a risk.
After an eternity of waiting for our bags, we head over to customs where you put your bags through a scanner, and where the dogs are sniffing around.
Right after that there’s one more insult, and that’s to press a button. It’s a random security check. The agent/guard says, “Press the button” in Spanglish, and if the button/light turns green, you’re on your way. If it turns red, you win and get another security check. Randy’s in front and is just about to press the button when someone else leans in and presses the button first – green. Randy then presses the button – red. Go figure. They rummage through his stuff again - LOL. Rich and I are both green, so we’re all done.
Our taxi driver is waiting for us, so we start for the hotel. The driver says it takes 20 minutes to get to the hotel, and he says it again 30 minutes later as we’re stuck in Mexico City traffic. What? You expect something else?
But at the end of the day, we land at the Four Seasons Hotel in a really nice part of the city. It’s a 5 star hotel and the room is fantastic. In the inner courtyard are trees and flowers and all kinds of really cool greenery. Very, very nice. Couldn’t ask for a better place to stay for our last few days.
It’s a workday tomorrow – (or it actually was earlier a few days ago because I’m a bit behind in writing the blog.) It’s 10:45pm, Randy is burned out, and Rich is sending me text messages to go out and play. So we’ll see what we’ll see, and if it’s something I can write about, I will (wink wink).
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