Return from the Sea

For some reason I thought a flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles was about two hours or the same as Dallas/Los Angeles.  Not so, it is double that with a flying time of four hours. After three hours in the air, airplane time begins to blur and it just becomes tedious.  I convinced myself that the flight back home was not so long. I really wasn't ready for a day spent in the air with small breaks standing in immigration lines.  But hey, the audience won't come to me, I have to go to them. It baffles me that some people actually *travel* for vacation.  I find nothing relaxing about traveling, it is a necessary part of my job but not my favorite part.  I have nightmares about things like the Iceland volcano causing such massive travel problems while I am on the road.  I'm glad I was on this side of the Earth this time.

At one of the immigration points,  and there were three "inspections" before I got to the US, they took my passport for a long time.  In a room full of other people I wait almost an hour while officials huddle, look at me and whisper phrases in Spanish.  After a while I hear one of the officers call out, "Yaycant".  No one responded.  The officer looks a little perturbed and says again, "Yaycant".  Nothing. Finally I hear him say with great purpose and force, "Yaycant Yonson".  I realize he is calling the name on my passport "Jay Kent Johnson." I even have problems understanding English when it is spoken in Mexico. 

We docked in Hualtulco, Oaxaca, Mx which is a days sail south of Acapulco. Now although it is spelled Hualtulco it is pronounced  Watoolco.  After mispronouncing it for a day I was told that the "h" has no sound in Spanish and is substituted with the sound of "w".  It was a guy named Hector Hernandez who told me that.  Rules such as this are very confusing to the dyslexic.

It was an hour flight to Mexico City from Hualtulco, a couple hours of layover and then the four hour flight home. I have flown Mexicana Airlines before but not since the airlines have gone "nickle and dime" on us.  I was happy to find that Mexicana still operates like the old days.  Coach class actually got a meal and free drinks, not just coke and juice, but adult beverages for free as well.  A couple of Tecatés make a coach seat much more tolerable for four hours.

As you were,

Jay