A Weddings Adventure Part III: The Journey

We got to the airport the next morning, exchanged currency, and met up with Kevin and Ellen.  We also met our first new Alaskan, Alexis, who had sent all of us a message that she would be on our flight and that she spoke Spanish, a useful skill when going to The United Mexican States.  We boarded what would be Becky's first international flight to Manzanillo.

The Alaskan airlines flight took about three hours, but it was significantly more cramped than our cross country journey.  We ended up sitting around some pretty grouchy people.  A person behind us demanded that an airline employee call her boss about him not receiving first class accommodations, while the lady next to me thought having a broken seat recliner was the worst travesty in the history of mankind and only shut up about it when they agreed to her request of a free drink.  Not exactly great for setting the mood for a relaxing sojourn.  On the other hand, the guy in front of me had recently discovered the Ipad 2's photobooth feature, and thought it was the coolest thing ever, showing off all the funny faces to his partner and passing flight attendants.

We arrived in Manzanillo at 3:15 local time, which happened to correspond with CST.   It was a tiny airport practically on the beach with only a handful of flights a day.  They rolled up a couple of staircases and let people out from the front and back exits.  We did learn our first Mexican lesson then.  Do not sit in the middle of the plane or you will be last on the very slow moving customs line.

Becky Debarking

The entire airport runway

While on the customs line I noticed that Alexis was talking to the couple who was seated in front of us. As it turns the Ipad enthusiast, Paddy, was best friends with Bo growing up.  In retrospect this shouldn't have been a shocking development.

Once customs conferred we weren't carrying more than 12 video cassettes, two musical instruments, or one portable typewriter, we were able to officially enter Mexico.  We shared the hour long taxi with Kevin and Ellen.  The driver drove through a couple of small towns and offered to stop for us to get beer, but we declined since we would get all the free drinks we would want soon enough.  The resort, Punta Serena, was built on a cliff, so the the last part of the treck involved a twisty, dizzying cobblestone road.

Taxi to the Resort