Mexico & Cuba - a colourful cocktail
Our central American adventure begins – the one of restless sleep, the maxi taxi, the 4am pickup of Denise and David and the October departure had Denise and I reminiscing of our Vietnam family holiday way back in 2006!
DAY 1 : PERTH TO MEXICO CITY
Our central American adventure begins – the one of restless sleep, the maxi taxi, the 4am pickup of Denise and David and the October departure had Denise and I reminiscing of our Vietnam family holiday way back in 2006!
There was however one huge difference in 9 years ... the 1 hour wait to get through security at the DOMESTIC airport in Perth (yes our international flight wasn't starting until Sydney) due to literally 2000 fifo workers going to places unknown and far reaching such as Christmas Creek, Paraburdoo, Leonora and the list goes on. It did mean we actually could walk straight onto the plane, not a person in sight at the departure lounge and only 10 mins to wait until take off!
The same scenario greeted us in Sydney (minus the fifo hi-vis). With only an hour between flights it seemed that half the plane from Perth was also flying to Dallas Fort Worth and we were all whisked off in a bus to the international terminal and once again straight onto the HUGE Qantas 380 airbus. Unfortunately, no chance of being upgraded when you are flying on frequent flyer points!
Well here are my tips on how to make a 16 hour flight feel like 4 hours – watch a couple of episodes of Grand Design followed by some good old Aussie humour; a couple of little bottles of wine to enhance the food followed by a "Snuzaid"... easy! Arrived in Dallas fresh as a daisy, waited 4 hours for our Mexico connection; a 2 hour flight ... then things slowed down to an abrupt halt in Mexico City's immigration halls being 9pm on the dot and home time for all the staff leaving a rather disgruntled queue of travellers. Finally arrived at our Hotel Majestic and despite the beautiful, historical Moorish surrounds didn't even notice the somewhat firm bed and even firmer pillow (helped by some Melatonin). Tomorrow we discover the city.