the trail mix will be our demise!

6.15.2008
Sunday

Well we had a very interesting start to our trip indeed. Holly and Travis picked us up promptly at 5:45 am and drive Jill and me to the airport. We arrived at Sea-Tac to check in with AeroMexico at 6:20, however we were unable to check in until 7:30! Turns out our flight departure time had been changed to 9:30 from 8:30. A potential whole extra hour of sleep wasted! As we sit at the gate, waiting for board, we realize we will only have about 40 minutes to catch our connecting flight. AH!

The 4 hour and 45 minute trip from Seattle to Mexico City was grueling. Jill and I were both balled up nerves, not helped one bit by the dozens of small children on the plane doing what they do best.

We talked to two flight attendants on the plane about what to do to make our connecting flight on time. All we got was a “oh we’ll let the front know to send a message; they’ll probably hold the plane for you.” As soon as the plane touched down and the seatbelt sign chimed off, Jill and I rushed the front of the plane. We had been about three rows from the very back. We made it about ten rows and came to a dead halt. As we finally “exited the aircraft”, we began sprinting down the hall, ONLY to find a snaking line of people waiting to pass through immigration. On our way to the horrific line, we stopped to ask where our next flight would be and he wrote it on my boarding pass.

Then we waited. And waited and waited and waited in line for immigration. Forty minutes till departure. Thirty minutes. Twenty minutes. FINALLY we make it through immigration…only to get into another line for customs! So we go through customs.

Woman – “Excuse me, tienes comida.”

Shit shit! The trail mix will be our demise!

Woman – “Push the red button.”

I push. Green means go.

Woman to Jill – “You too.”

She pushes. Red. OH THE AGONY!

The woman unzips the top of her bag. “Ok good, you can go.”

So we r.u.n. We RUN. Up the escalators, down the corridor. We come to another checkpoint! Security. By now Jill is so frazzled she thing the guy is speaking Spanish, telling her to take off her shoes. Turns out he was only asking, in English, if we had any laptops. So we run again. And stop again at another checkpoint. All clear. RUN! We run and run. Like in a movie. Running, checking for our gate number, and running. We check for our gate number one last time and sprint down the corridor. Oh it burns!

Then we see it. Our gate. And a man waving his arms dramatically. What does he mean by the arm waving? Is it a “you’re too late” wave, or a “no worries, we’ve held the plane for you” wave? Turns out it was the very same man we had spoken to earlier, before the immigration mess, about where our gate would be. He had gone up to international flights to make sure we made it. He held the plane for us!

This was good news. Very good news. If we had missed this flight, we would have had to wait six hours (six hours!) until the next flight to Lima. We would have then missed our flight to Cusco, thus throwing the whole trip off schedule! Well, ok. Not the entire trip. But the first day. And maybe our Machu Picchu trip. That was a risk we were not willing to take! In the end it worked out. We had made our connection with zero time to spare.
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A small side note: Jill called me the Friday before our flight and left a message on my voicemail. “We have a big problem. Our flight to the jungle has been cancelled. Call me when you get this.” My stomach balled up. Shit shit! The jungle trip is the grand finale, the mini-trip on our adventure that cost the most. The one that really required the Yellow Fever vaccination. How could this be happening two (2!) days before we leave!

Jill and I spent the next two hours trying to secure another flight that wouldn’t cost double, or even triple, what we had initially paid. Finally, we resorted to going through GoTo Peru.com. GoToPeru.com had become an evil empire. They were who we booked our first flight through and were slow as hell about getting back to us that time. What could we do with only a day and a half until leaving civilization and entering the very unknown land (technologically speaking) of Peru?! We had no other choice. So we hope to get a confirmation from them in the next couple days, confirming our flights.

P.S. Our plane to/from the jungle was cancelled because Peru (as a collective whole) grounded all AeroCondor flights. Due to critical engine and safety issues.
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And so our adventure begins…

Sea-Tac to Mexico City Airport