Quick note, I have more to update on events before this trip, but, oddly, I'll do that AFTER this trip...
Anywho,
Miercoles, el 2 de Abril de 2008
Up at 4:30 to get to JFK. We got a good price on a flight to Mexico City, and the only catch was that it was from JFK, not Newark (or EWR to flying geeks). Left the house at 5 and made record time to JFK, getting to the long time parking lot at around 6ish. Took the airtrain a long 4 miles to Terminal one and checked in.
When we packed for the trip, we packed a bunch of bottles of water and wondered if they would be confiscated. We needn't have worried once we saw what others were passing for luggage for the flight. I literally saw sacks wrapped in tape. Once I saw that, my mere unassuming suitcase was nothing.
Killed some time at the terminal and the boarded. Oddly, we really didn't get checked for our legal status until we got to the gate. Then we got checked 3 times before boarding. Although, not all of the folks waiting for the plane got on.
Apparently, if you're flying to Mexico, it helps if you have, uh, PAPERWORK to show your citizen status before getting on the plane. Three guys in front of us hit the wall of the INS just before the plane entrance. For some odd reason, they didn't have paperwork and yet told the INS officer they were bringing 5000 US dollars to Mexico. Needless to say things did not go well for them. This was verified when we were stuck at the gate as it was announced that the bags of 3 people had to be found and removed from the baggage area of the plane.
Flight wasn't bad. Food was shockingly good on the Aeromexico flight. Breakfast was huevos rancheros, which is eggs with everything, bread, muffin, fruit salad, coffee and juice. Far far better than normal. Kids were only slightly annoying, and kept to seem following us as we moved seats on the plane. Luckily when they kicked, it felt like a massage chair so that was good.
On the flight, Marlene watched "The Golden Compass" I watched Aliens on the PSP, and something called Babylon 5: Lost Tales which was a straight to DVD special for the series Babylon 5 and had a budget of $3.75. Babylon 5 was a great tv series, but this lost tales thing mucho sucked. I started reading the movie adaptation to Iron Man because I'm a geek....
Landed a tad late, and spent a half hour in immigration. But it was the new terminal 2 in Mexico City and was quite nice. The line moved quick too. Got some pesos from Citibank's Mexico equivalent (Banamex) at an ATM right after immigration. The airport was fine and after many false starts, we found the new bus terminal at terminal 2 that had buses to Cuernavaca, our ultimate destination.
Bus ride was better than NJ Transit. But then again, most things are. This was cool because A) They gave us a soda and some cookies and B) They showed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the one that came out last year) in Spanish. We rode through Mexico City, and Seth had the best analogy for it: New York City in the '70s. Luckily, we just rode through it. The ride to Cuernavaca was easy and really cool.
We got to the bus terminal where we met up with Seth. He got us in a taxi with his wife's sister to take us to the Villa Rosa Hotel while they scrambled to work on wedding stuff.
A ride through Cuernavaca reminded me of a chase from the Bourne movies. (More on this later)
Got to the hotel, which is very pink, but very nice, but oddly, located down what seems is a back alley off a street. However, the compound here is very nice with great views. The room which was a basic room, was quite large with a huuuuuge shower and big bed. No AC, but I could stand to sweat off some weight and there is a bunch of fans to compensate.
With just Marlene and I around, we had an incredible dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. It had to be one of the top 10 meals of my life. After we headed back to the room and chilled.
Seth joined us soon after and we headed back to the restaurant (which is like 10 feet from the room) and hung out while he got dinner, we joined in on dessert and just talked for a few hours.
After, we hit the sack and went to sleep. A long day, but a very very different day.
