Living on Mexican time Friday, April 27, 2007

Anne Ginn and her father, Peter, wait for her fiance to pick them up at the airport in Mexico City, Apr. 18, 2007.

Yes, I realize that this post is a few days before the previous one, but that one seemed more pressing at the time. For the sake of continuity, I´m going to go back and blog the rest of this trip in chronological order.

I love flying to Latin America. It never ceases to amaze me how you can get on a plane in Houston or L.A., fly for a few hours, and get off the plane in a totally different world—different climate, different language, different food, different money, different music, different smell ... different.

I timed my flights to arrive shortly after my parents´flight from Toronto. After I collected my bags and cleared customs and immigration, I stepped outside the secure area of the terminal. It didn't take long to spot my sister and mother, leaning on a pillar in the terminal. That, apparently, was lucky. My dad was waiting at the next gate over, where the signs said I would be coming out.

After we found Dad and gathered all our belongings together, it was just a matter of waiting for Anne´s boyfriend, Alberto, who had left with the car to visit one of his clients.

And we waited, and waited, and waited. Two hours after he was expected, he finally arrived, attributing his tardiness to traffic.

The five of us, with three large pieces of luggage, piled into Alberto´s early-90's Dodge Shadow, and held on for the ride. The vehicle struggled to clear the numerous speed bumps that control traffic on Mexico´s roads, but it made it over the pass between the D.F. and Ocoyoacac.

On the ride, we discovered that my bottle of contact solution had opened in-flight and completely drained, and my sunscreen had partially-exploded all over the inside of the bag I'd (thankfully) put it in. Since I wanted to wear my contacts again, we had to stop on the way home to get some more solution. Fortunately, there was a Wal-Mart on the way.

We finally arrived at Anne and Alberto´s place around 9 p.m. (my flight landed about 3:30). Anne cooked us up a quick supper, showed us to our room, and we went to bed to the sound of dogs barking all around the neighborhood.