The Wandering Chocoholic

I’m home! Back in the cold and snow — erm, freezing rain. Anyone miss me?

Free upgrades are awesome

My trip home began yesterday evening in Cancun. I got to the airport just after 6, and checked in. When I booked this ticket, I somehow scored a free business class upgrade for my return flight. Hey, not complaining. Anyway, that gave me access to the business lounges. The one in Cancun was crowded and didn’t have any food except peanuts, but it had free WiFi and a wide selection of tequila. I hung out there until they called my flight, following the Habs vs. Pens game on play-by-play via WiFi. (Habs are in first place — WOOT!)

The two-hour flight to Mexico City was uneventful and we landed relatively on schedule. Yes, I was flying two hours west in order to come back northeast, which felt a bit silly, except when you consider that I started my trip in Mexico City, so it was the most logical ticket I could have bought. Anyway, the direct flights from Cancun to Montreal were all cancelled due to the weather back home, so I guess it’s a good thing I took that route.

At that point, I checked again to see if my flight home to Montreal would really depart. It still said it was on time. Mexico City’s airport is a bit poorly designed, and I had to exit the terminal and re-enter on the departures level to check in again and get my boarding pass for the second leg of my flight, but on the bright side, at least I didn’t have to pick up or re-check my luggage.

Mexico City’s airport kinda sucks at night. All the shops and restaurants are closed, and the only people in the hallways are the night cleaning shift. Once again, I took advantage of my business upgrade and found the lounge, where I was able to get a soda and some miniature sandwiches.

When it was time to board, they checked our boarding passes, sent us into the ramp down to the plane, and we sat there… and sat there… and sat there. Twenty minutes later, they told everyone, just kidding, go back to the gate and wait, the flight has been delayed by an hour. Oops. I barely had time to get back to the gate when they started the process all over again. Okay then. But at that point it was almost 2am, so the bleary-eyed crowd just did as they were told. The second time, we boarded and this time we took off.

Fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a bumpy night.

The flight to Montreal was bumpy. Really bumpy. The turbulence wasn’t nonstop, but it was close enough. I suppose I should be lucky we even made it at all, given all the cancellations and delays here today. The seatbelt sign stayed on the whole time, and there was no food or beverage service, not even in business class. For what it’s worth, Aeromexico’s “business class” isn’t really upgraded service; it was just a slightly bigger seat with a footrest and a blanket in the front of the cabin. But I didn’t care. Like I said, the upgrade was free. And anyway, I was so tired that I fell asleep almost as soon as we’d reached cruising altitude, and I pretty much slept right up until we were close to landing.

The approach was completely blind; I stared out the window at complete, total whiteout almost right up until we touched down. I have no idea how pilots land in such conditions. I was told afterwards that the flight logs indicate that we actually had a missed approach first; I never would have known, to be honest, ’cause we couldn’t see a thing. At any rate, we landed safe, sound and in one piece, so it’s all good.

It was just after 7 when the plane touched down. We spent another 20 minutes waiting for a gate. And, once inside the terminal and through customs, it took another 45 minutes for the luggage to start arriving on the carousel. It was almost 9am by the time I made it onto the airport bus.

Ice Storm 2015?

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at Lionel-Groulx, and by then the blowing snow had turned into freezing rain. It was coming down pretty hard, and I was wearing only my lightweight spring trench coat and a pair of sneakers, carrying all my bags. I skate-walked to the metro entrance.

Once at Mont-Royal, I waited fifteen minutes for the bus instead of trying to negotiate the usually ten-minute walk home. Of course, the maudite bleepin’ STM being what it is, the bus never showed up. The freezing rain had worsened by then, so even though I felt a bit silly about it, I ended up paying a taxi driver to drive me the six blocks home.

The good news is, when I finally did get home, everything was as I left it, and I even remembered to raise the windshield wipers on my car before I left. I’ll deal with scraping it down later; for now, the plan involves a long hot shower and a nap.

Adios, amigos!

This trip spanned over 2,000 kilometres, a dozen cities and towns, hundreds of ruins, thousands of corn tortillas, great people and countless amazing times. I’m so glad I got to see even this small taste of Mexico, and I will most definitely be back!

Thanks to all for following along, reading, commenting and sharing. I really enjoy sharing my travels with you. It’s the next best thing to being able to pack you all in my luggage. Stay tuned for the next adventures!