We had alarms set for 4:30am but were not surprised when we both woke well before that time. We prepped, and hit the road to the AeroMexico departure area umdiditally. The advice we got yesterday as per its post was right. We were with a yellow-vested agent for about 20 minutes, and left with appropriate authorization.
Security through area K was next. Dominique breezed through but a few agentd were very interested in the contents of my knapsack. Here is what went down:
- Go through all my pockets
- Take out a few items
- Put them in a bin
- Put bin through scanner again
- Keep track of what numbered scan this was (starting with 1 and adding 1 every time there is a rescan)
- If scan number was less than 5, go to step #1 above
- Done
They kept rifling through the backpack pulling out new items to send back for a scan. 30 minutes later we are off to get the flight to ZIH. We went to gate A and did not see the ZIH flight on the departure list so we asked someone from AM. We were told it would leave via gate D so off we went.
Dominique kindly fetched coffee and blueberry muffins and and we hung out for about 1h40m until it was time to board the plane. We were herded down a cattle path (seemingly on the way to the slaughterhouse) but managed to get to a bus for transport to the hardware, i.e., the plane. We drove half the way to ZIH then parked beside an empty Embraer regional jet. We waited 10 minutes then the bus doors were closed to ensure none of us escaped or managed to stay cool. About 20 minutes later, an AM van pulls up and a VIP gets out. Guess who it was:
- The King of England
- The co-pilot
- The pilot
If you guessed #2 you are right. Another 20 minutes goes by and the same thing happens, with the bus doors still closed so we cannot escape. Guess who this time ... tada ... the pilot. Meanwhile the co-pilot has done her visual flashlight inspection of the plane. Someone on the bus asked the driver to turn on the air which was done. WHY did someone have to ask? Was it not obvious that the air in the bus was stale and warming every minute?
We finally boarded and had some trouble getting my carry-on in the overhead bin so tried under my seat. Dominique managed to get it far enough under the seat by removing a few small items. Then we discovered we were in row 7 rather than row 8. So we undid the knapsack-under-the-seat squeeze and she worked her magic again. As it turned out seats 7A and 7B were empty for the flight.
The plane landed in heavy rain about one hour late and we were handed umbrellas as it was quite wet. We get our bags and toddle off to our condo, arriving to the smiling faces of Sigi and Hugo. We have a short visit then start unpacking. Dominique was delighted when we found the Nespresso coffee maker and milk frother. The only thing missing that I have not yet found is the remote control for the TV in our room.
We madly unpacked, me the electronic crap to run the streaming devices and her whatever she fancied needed to be retrieved. That darling lady put together meat sauce and pasta for dinner later today. The Apple TV and Amazon Fire are set up in our room, useless until we find the Sony TV remote. The Fire in the second bedroom is running. There is not much more electronic stuff for me to resurrect. The printer we just got last year is hooked up ... a good thing since something we bought at Amazon Mexico needs a return label printed.
Mañana vamos para comprar comida, verduras, carne, y muchas cosas que necesitamos alrededor la casa. Necesito un SIM por mi teléfono móvil que obtendramos de OXXO tambien. ¿Quien sabe que otras cosas que vamos a comprar? Probablamente saliremos aqui alrededor las nueve asi que podemos desayunar a Doña Liche antes de otras responsabilidades.
Aunque acabamos de llegar, estando en Zihua otra vez está gran. Estando aqui por la más larga tiempo todavia para mi es muy muy grande.
<== Ahora, en inglés ...
Tomorrow we go to buy food, vegetables, meat, and many things we need around the house. I need a SIM for my mobile phone that we will get from OXXO too. Who knows what other things we will buy? We will probably leave here around nine so we can have breakfast at Doña Liche before other responsibilities.
Although we just arrived, being in Zihua again is great. Being here for the longest time yet for me is very very big. ==>
I finished my unpacking. Now that I leave a lot if stuff here, it is remarkable how little I need to bring. Dominique is making progress in leaps and bounds. A lot of the stuff we have placed somewhere is actually in a temporary location until bounced somewhere by my girlie. The sunset should be a beauty as the last twinkles are peaking through the cloud cover. We are having a bite then committed to NO unpacking since it's time to hang due to the franticness of two days of flying which was supposed to be one.
The best and worst behaviour of AM:
Best - there was always a bevy of yellow vested employees everywhere to answer any questions we had. No searching required, always no more than a few dozen feet away.
Worst - cancelling the MEX to ZIH 8:01pm Monday flight and NOT leaving it up on the departure screen with a CANCELLED status to let all waiting to board that it was rescheduled for Tuesday at 7am.
Benito Juarez airport is a monolith and lots of walking required. It alone bears a large percentage of the 57+ million passengers carried by Mexico's 7+ airlines. The number of flights (cargo and passenger) that touch down at this airport is north of 350,000 yearly as of 2022.
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