It's quiet up here, somewhere over Central America, the Big Bang Theory playing on the screen in front of me, some 4 hours into the Houston to Lima leg of my trip. There's something about long flights that makes the mind wander, and mine is meandering like the streams and rivers that I'm sure we're flying over down there in the dark. Most of the plane is asleep, but not me. I am wide awake, mind jumping from contemplation over whether I'll ever find somewhere back home that my roots will be happy to settle into permanently to random musings and excitement over the upcoming experiences that I am about to have over the next 5 weeks. My inner child has been buzzing with anticipation and producing the lyrics "I'm flying in an airplane, I'm going to Peru, to see Machu Picchu and the Incans too!" to the tune of that childhood song that goes "I'm going to the country, I'm going to the fair, to see the señoritas with flowers in their hair" over and over again. When it's quiet like this, and I'm up here by myself, I figure it's safe to let that inner child play. No responsibility up here, no clients calling, no one I know here to judge, just me and the child singing in my head. Travel gives me that, a space and time to get a way from all the heaviness that "real life" brings with it, a temporary escape, a time to play, and a chance to explore not only the world but also the parts of myself that everyday life suppresses. I know at the end of the journey I will have to go back home and find a way to fit back into the life I have created, but for now, until my traveling is done, I get to just exist in a space, figuratively and literally, above it all...And that is why I'm here. Greetings to all from up above the clouds!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Jul 7, 2011
Jun 29, 2011
Blogging REBOOT: Cara the globetrotter...back with avengance!
So, I know it's been a while. Quick update: After a glorious year and half in Mexico, I moved back to the US at the end of December, and I've definitely been missing my adventurous and discounted lifestyle. But do not fear, we all knew I couldn't sit still for long...the mission to reach 30 countries by the time I'm 30 is still looming, but it's getting a healthy boost this summer!
I managed to line of 5 weeks of summer travels...flying to Lima tomorrow to spend 10 days in Peru (my company's Peru: Incan Adventure tour) and then 2 days later I'm off to finally "back-pack" Europe (not hiking, just meaning traveling with minimal stuff on my back). I figured there's no easier way to wrack up new countries than traveling Europe, so when I saw that I could manage 3 weeks of leave, I booked flights into London and home from Rome and set about filling in the rest. I found a few people through the website www.travbuddy.com who had posted that they'd be traveling around the same time as I would be, had a few chats, and we plotted out a route that would hit some of the Central & Eastern countries that I've yet to explore: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. England, France, and Italy won't be new countries in my list, but they're definitely countries that deserve multiple visits, so I plan to make the most of those stops as well. We'll be taking trains through Germany, Austria, and Slovakia along the way, but we don't really have plans to make any serious stops there. I'm told I get to add Slovakia to my list even if we don't stop there since traveling by train means I will physically be IN the country, and I'll by into that logic if it helps my cause!
So where will does this put me on the 30 by 30 mission?
US (1)
Canada (2)
Mexico (3)
Bermuda (4)
Bahamas (5)
England (6)
Ireland (7)
Wales (8)
France (9)
Spain (10)
Germany (11)
Austria (12)
Switzerland (13)
Italy (14)
Greece (15)
Turkey (16)
New Zealand (17)
Cook Islands (18)
India (19)
China (20)
Belize (21)
Peru (22)
Netherlands (23)
Czech Republic (24)
Poland (25)
Hungary (26)
Slovakia (27)
So that means I'll have 3 countries and 2 years to reach my goal, I can taste it!!
Stay tuned for posts from Peru & Europe, Cara the globetrotter is back...
I managed to line of 5 weeks of summer travels...flying to Lima tomorrow to spend 10 days in Peru (my company's Peru: Incan Adventure tour) and then 2 days later I'm off to finally "back-pack" Europe (not hiking, just meaning traveling with minimal stuff on my back). I figured there's no easier way to wrack up new countries than traveling Europe, so when I saw that I could manage 3 weeks of leave, I booked flights into London and home from Rome and set about filling in the rest. I found a few people through the website www.travbuddy.com who had posted that they'd be traveling around the same time as I would be, had a few chats, and we plotted out a route that would hit some of the Central & Eastern countries that I've yet to explore: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. England, France, and Italy won't be new countries in my list, but they're definitely countries that deserve multiple visits, so I plan to make the most of those stops as well. We'll be taking trains through Germany, Austria, and Slovakia along the way, but we don't really have plans to make any serious stops there. I'm told I get to add Slovakia to my list even if we don't stop there since traveling by train means I will physically be IN the country, and I'll by into that logic if it helps my cause!
So where will does this put me on the 30 by 30 mission?
US (1)
Canada (2)
Mexico (3)
Bermuda (4)
Bahamas (5)
England (6)
Ireland (7)
Wales (8)
France (9)
Spain (10)
Germany (11)
Austria (12)
Switzerland (13)
Italy (14)
Greece (15)
Turkey (16)
New Zealand (17)
Cook Islands (18)
India (19)
China (20)
Belize (21)
Peru (22)
Netherlands (23)
Czech Republic (24)
Poland (25)
Hungary (26)
Slovakia (27)
So that means I'll have 3 countries and 2 years to reach my goal, I can taste it!!
Stay tuned for posts from Peru & Europe, Cara the globetrotter is back...
Oct 24, 2010
Getting excited for all of the day of the dead altars!
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Jul 29, 2010
La Gringa y La Yuca's Crazy Adventure: Day 2
The second day of our journey started at 4am, when the MegaBus dumped us off in midtown Manhattan. Since the bus was double-decker, it couldn’t drop us off in the normal bus terminal, Port Authority, because of the low ceilings there, but I was a little confused with the location they chose to unload. If I recall correctly it was on 7th Ave., but about 4 or 5 blocks down from Penn Station, which looked a bit deserted at 4 o’clock in the morning. I’d gone on and on to Grace about NYC being the city that never sleeps and that corner where we were left didn’t prove my point at all. All of the businesses were closed and a good number of bums were roaming around and were literally asleep on the sidewalk. Once I spoke to a cab driver to get my orientation, I assured her we weren’t far from the all-night diner that I’d promised her, Tick Tock; we just needed to lug our suitcases a few blocks to get there. We put on our “don’t mess with us” faces and walked the few blocks past rows of meandering and sleeping homeless guys up to Penn Station and, with the help of a public service worker, found the diner on the next avenue over. I remember the neon sign reading Tick Tock looked like a glowing beacon when I finally saw it because it meant we had a safe place to sit for the next few hours and would have something to eat in the meantime.
Once inside, I was disappointed to learn that they didn’t even have outlets at the tables that we could use to charge up the mini-laptop, but we were able to settle into a nice comfy booth, so that almost made up for it. I ordered the “Novi Plate” for the whopping NYC price of $10.50 for us to share so that Grace could experience her first New York Bagel and lox, which I had also gone on and on about prior to the trip. And her verdict: She liked it!! I told her she passed the test, and could officially be a New York Jew if she wanted, or at the very least, she’d be accepted by my bagel-and-lox-loving family. We also enjoyed 3 free refills on our coffee, and while the prices were definitely NYC standard, Grace seemed a bit amazed that they’d continue refilling our coffee cups even after we paid the bill. Our nice Spanish-speaking waiter also brought us an extra plate of veggies to munch on during the 3 hours we were there at no charge—so I gave him a very healthy tip in appreciation. Another gentleman started to give us a little attitude by our 3rd hour because we weren’t ordering anymore food and taking up room with our suitcases, so we knew it was time to start looking for a friendlier venue.
Around 7am, when it appeared the city was starting to really wake up and get into full gear, I ventured out of the diner in search of a Starbucks so we could plug in and get online. Free WIFI is a wonderful thing!! There was literally one on every corner (sometimes more than one per block) so the choices were unlimited. We picked the one right across from the LIRR entrance to Penn Station, thinking early in the day that we might try to navigate the LIRR and JFK shuttle later on when it was time to head to the airport to save a little money. We sat in that Starbucks for close to 5 and a half hours, and amazingly they didn’t give us any trouble about it. We ordered one drink each and hunkered down for the hours of sleep-deprived waiting with our luggage. The caffeine didn’t help one bit. Grace and I stared at each other and laughed as each of us had our boughts of falling asleep sitting up or in the middle of our sentences. Also I found it super convenient that there was a Kmart right across the street, and I was able to pick up all of our last minute items at fairly low prices (things link travel-size shampoo, inflatable neck pillows, an extra voltage and plug converter, medicine and contact lens solution, and the obligatory travel snacks)…only problem with a store that has everything you need in one place and everything you don’t really need, but looks like too good a deal to pass up, you buy it all…$70 later, and I felt good to go. I returned to Starbucks and announced myself as the conquering hero to Grace, who I’m sure was excited on some level for my new finds, but her tired factor was off the chart, so I think I may have gotten a little “oo” out of her before she went back to leaning her head against the wall, understandably.
When it came time to finally go to the airport around 12:30pm, we were so tired that I just couldn’t even fathom trying to navigate the public transportation system, which I’m sure is very efficient. My brain was officially mush, so we opted to take a NYC cab at the flat rate of about $50 to the airport. In the end, it only worked out about $15 more than taking the trains, and it felt more than worth it. Our cab driver, Francis, was nice enough, kind of deaf, but became very articulate in reminding us that the tip was not included in the $50 rate. I opted for the 15% tip on the credit card screen when paying, which he didn’t make any comment about, but his choice to not get out of the cab and help remove my 50 lb. suitcase from the trunk expressed his opinion of my tip loud and clear. Oh well…I’d had my fill of New York attitude at that point…15% tip was a completely standard amount. I have to schlep that suitcase around China, so one lift out of a trunk didn’t hurt me one bit. It did make me miss the kinder nature of Merida taxi drivers, who help women with heavy items no matter what…chivalry is still alive in Mexico. New Yorkers could learn something from them!!
So there we were, standing on the curb outside the JFK entrance for Air China. I think that’s when it started to sink in for Grace and I that our journey was really finally getting us to CHINA!! We looked at each other, exchanged a smile, and proceeded inside to check-in. I had been a bit worried that I would need to find a way to really consolidate my bags because the Air China website seemed to indicate that only one checked bag and one carry-on (no personal item listed) would be permitted. Instead, we found out the international flight permitted two checked pieces per person at no cost, and that domestically in China they generally allow both bags as well on domestic flights if you show them that you’re part of a tour and traveling internationally before and after the flights. That made dropping off our luggage totally stress-free and alleviated a few of my worries. I do believe I even bragged a bit to Grace that in the end I didn’t need to edit my packing choices. I know I suck at packing the right amount of stuff, but at least it sounds like the airlines understand, somewhat, maybe…I’ll keep telling myself that at least.
We were fully checked-in and had boarding passes in hand by 2:30pm, so we had a few more hours to wait until boarding. We grabbed a wonderfully airport priced lunch at the food court—two sandwiches and one bag of soy crisps—just $18.90!! Seriously, I miss Merida prices; here’s hoping prices in China will make me smile again. We proceeded through security and did a lap of the little shops, which I encouraged Grace to do because we’d be sitting for 14 hours on our flight so it was a good idea to walk around the airport for a little bit beforehand. She only complained a little ;) In typical Cara-fashion, I splurged on a stress-relieving massage at the mini-spa next to our gate and let Grace take advantage of the “free” massage chair time that was provided as a bonus for booking the massage. Totally worth it, but warning to Jardiel (Grace’s boyfriend), she now wants her very own massage chair. I think those things run like $3000US. The lady ended up letting me try it for free as well, and it was very very nice. My lower back and shoulders were very happy. It was hard to pry ourselves out of the chairs, in fact, when they started announcing boarding for our rows. I seriously wanted to take the chair on the plane with me. Unfortunately they said that wasn’t possible. Bums!
And that pretty much wraps up the events of day 2 for La Gringa y La Yuca´s Crazy Adventure. We boarded the Air China (mega) plane and found our seats. Thankfully not as small as I was thinking they might be, but without personal TVs for movie viewing, c’est la vie! So here we are cruising at like 35,000 feet somewhere over northern Canada en route to our first city in China: Beijing. This post will likely be posted at the first place we can plug in and find WIFI, but stay tuned for tales from our first days in the far East…
Once inside, I was disappointed to learn that they didn’t even have outlets at the tables that we could use to charge up the mini-laptop, but we were able to settle into a nice comfy booth, so that almost made up for it. I ordered the “Novi Plate” for the whopping NYC price of $10.50 for us to share so that Grace could experience her first New York Bagel and lox, which I had also gone on and on about prior to the trip. And her verdict: She liked it!! I told her she passed the test, and could officially be a New York Jew if she wanted, or at the very least, she’d be accepted by my bagel-and-lox-loving family. We also enjoyed 3 free refills on our coffee, and while the prices were definitely NYC standard, Grace seemed a bit amazed that they’d continue refilling our coffee cups even after we paid the bill. Our nice Spanish-speaking waiter also brought us an extra plate of veggies to munch on during the 3 hours we were there at no charge—so I gave him a very healthy tip in appreciation. Another gentleman started to give us a little attitude by our 3rd hour because we weren’t ordering anymore food and taking up room with our suitcases, so we knew it was time to start looking for a friendlier venue.
Around 7am, when it appeared the city was starting to really wake up and get into full gear, I ventured out of the diner in search of a Starbucks so we could plug in and get online. Free WIFI is a wonderful thing!! There was literally one on every corner (sometimes more than one per block) so the choices were unlimited. We picked the one right across from the LIRR entrance to Penn Station, thinking early in the day that we might try to navigate the LIRR and JFK shuttle later on when it was time to head to the airport to save a little money. We sat in that Starbucks for close to 5 and a half hours, and amazingly they didn’t give us any trouble about it. We ordered one drink each and hunkered down for the hours of sleep-deprived waiting with our luggage. The caffeine didn’t help one bit. Grace and I stared at each other and laughed as each of us had our boughts of falling asleep sitting up or in the middle of our sentences. Also I found it super convenient that there was a Kmart right across the street, and I was able to pick up all of our last minute items at fairly low prices (things link travel-size shampoo, inflatable neck pillows, an extra voltage and plug converter, medicine and contact lens solution, and the obligatory travel snacks)…only problem with a store that has everything you need in one place and everything you don’t really need, but looks like too good a deal to pass up, you buy it all…$70 later, and I felt good to go. I returned to Starbucks and announced myself as the conquering hero to Grace, who I’m sure was excited on some level for my new finds, but her tired factor was off the chart, so I think I may have gotten a little “oo” out of her before she went back to leaning her head against the wall, understandably.
When it came time to finally go to the airport around 12:30pm, we were so tired that I just couldn’t even fathom trying to navigate the public transportation system, which I’m sure is very efficient. My brain was officially mush, so we opted to take a NYC cab at the flat rate of about $50 to the airport. In the end, it only worked out about $15 more than taking the trains, and it felt more than worth it. Our cab driver, Francis, was nice enough, kind of deaf, but became very articulate in reminding us that the tip was not included in the $50 rate. I opted for the 15% tip on the credit card screen when paying, which he didn’t make any comment about, but his choice to not get out of the cab and help remove my 50 lb. suitcase from the trunk expressed his opinion of my tip loud and clear. Oh well…I’d had my fill of New York attitude at that point…15% tip was a completely standard amount. I have to schlep that suitcase around China, so one lift out of a trunk didn’t hurt me one bit. It did make me miss the kinder nature of Merida taxi drivers, who help women with heavy items no matter what…chivalry is still alive in Mexico. New Yorkers could learn something from them!!
So there we were, standing on the curb outside the JFK entrance for Air China. I think that’s when it started to sink in for Grace and I that our journey was really finally getting us to CHINA!! We looked at each other, exchanged a smile, and proceeded inside to check-in. I had been a bit worried that I would need to find a way to really consolidate my bags because the Air China website seemed to indicate that only one checked bag and one carry-on (no personal item listed) would be permitted. Instead, we found out the international flight permitted two checked pieces per person at no cost, and that domestically in China they generally allow both bags as well on domestic flights if you show them that you’re part of a tour and traveling internationally before and after the flights. That made dropping off our luggage totally stress-free and alleviated a few of my worries. I do believe I even bragged a bit to Grace that in the end I didn’t need to edit my packing choices. I know I suck at packing the right amount of stuff, but at least it sounds like the airlines understand, somewhat, maybe…I’ll keep telling myself that at least.
We were fully checked-in and had boarding passes in hand by 2:30pm, so we had a few more hours to wait until boarding. We grabbed a wonderfully airport priced lunch at the food court—two sandwiches and one bag of soy crisps—just $18.90!! Seriously, I miss Merida prices; here’s hoping prices in China will make me smile again. We proceeded through security and did a lap of the little shops, which I encouraged Grace to do because we’d be sitting for 14 hours on our flight so it was a good idea to walk around the airport for a little bit beforehand. She only complained a little ;) In typical Cara-fashion, I splurged on a stress-relieving massage at the mini-spa next to our gate and let Grace take advantage of the “free” massage chair time that was provided as a bonus for booking the massage. Totally worth it, but warning to Jardiel (Grace’s boyfriend), she now wants her very own massage chair. I think those things run like $3000US. The lady ended up letting me try it for free as well, and it was very very nice. My lower back and shoulders were very happy. It was hard to pry ourselves out of the chairs, in fact, when they started announcing boarding for our rows. I seriously wanted to take the chair on the plane with me. Unfortunately they said that wasn’t possible. Bums!
And that pretty much wraps up the events of day 2 for La Gringa y La Yuca´s Crazy Adventure. We boarded the Air China (mega) plane and found our seats. Thankfully not as small as I was thinking they might be, but without personal TVs for movie viewing, c’est la vie! So here we are cruising at like 35,000 feet somewhere over northern Canada en route to our first city in China: Beijing. This post will likely be posted at the first place we can plug in and find WIFI, but stay tuned for tales from our first days in the far East…
Jul 27, 2010
La Gringa y La Yuca's Crazy Adventure Begins...
Ok, folks, I have 21% battery on this mini lap top, so let's see how much I can crank out about day 1 of our trip before this thing shuts off on me here on the MegaBus...hurray for WIFI on the road.
Sooo, the adventure really started last night when I finally finished packing after days of procrastination, not wanting to even think about the packing process—my least favorite part of traveling. I left my house and headed over to my friend and travel companion's (Grace's) house around 10:30pm. I was supposed to be there around 8, but Grace and I have a wonderful understanding about "ish" timing; she's really the one who introduced me to the concept of Mexican Standard Time and even Grace Standard Time, so the 10:30 arrival with the 8ish plan, was definitely still on time.
Once there, her boyfriend, Jardiel, helped me weigh my bag to ensure it was close to the 20 to 25 kilo limit, which I was right at and verging on the maximum, so it required a little rearranging. I also decided it was necessary to add an additional carry-on to distribute some items. Even with those efforts, I still had to remove two pairs of jeans, much to my chagrin, this morning at the airport because I was just over the limit on their scale. Grace's mom promised to take good care of them for me. While I am an avid traveler, packing is my achilles heal because I like options and back-ups for clothing AND I have a wonderfully large suitcase that does not encourage me to edit my selections at all. I still have my fingers crossed that my bag will be allowed on our internal flights in China where Grace has read the weight limit is 5 kilos less...here's hoping a big smile will get my bag on those legs of the trip. We shall see!
I had a brief 4-hour sleep in Grace's pink hammock, which is becoming our pre-travel tradition now since our trip to Mexico City earlier this year, before waking up at 4 am so we could take showers and get to the airport by 5:30am with the help of Grace's parents. Everything went smoothly with check-in besides having to give up my 2 pairs of jeans and we got on the plane on schedule for the 7am departure. Everything looked good, until 7am came and went and we continued to sit on the tarmac and not pull away from the gate. The pilot informed us about half an hour later that there was a mechanical issue with some part of the engine being stuck open, but they were getting a mechanic out there and we should be pushing off in "10 minutes". I don’t know if it is just me, but I hate those kind of announcements. I wish they’d just lie to me and tell me that there’s a family of bunny rabbits blocking our way and we need to wait for them to move before we can depart. I don’t want to know anything is wrong with my plane…ignorance is bliss! Well fast forward 2 hours and 5 more "10 minutes more" announcements, and we were still sitting on that plane. Well, I admittedly had been dozing, but we hadn't budged an inch, and it was evident that the passengers were getting antsy and hungry. At that point, the airline offered to let people get off the plane and have a snack in the waiting area while they continued to work on the issue. We knew at that point our connection to Boston out of Houston would be missed because we had a 2- hour connection time scheduled, so we accepted our fate and disembarked to get our sickeningly sweet, sticky muffins and stretch our legs. Thankfully we planned our journey to the US with lots of buffer time built in for these types of things, and with our flight to China out of NYC not until 4pm tomorrow, we knew we’d be alright.
We got back on the plane about an hour later, and there was yet another small delay while “paperwork for our new flight times and scheduling were being processed and while we got clearance from air traffic control”. That was the story the pilot was telling us at least. My favorite quote of the day came when he got to his 3rd announcement on this delay and finally admitted “ok, I have no idea when we’ll be cleared for takeoff, but hopefully soon.” So for the first time in 3 and half hours, we finally lost the “10 minutes more” message and got a real honest announcement, which at least made us laugh. It was what it was—when traveling, you must expect delays!
We landed in Houston just prior to a downpour and electrical storm, which made for a slightly bumpy landing, but definitely not the worst I’ve been through. Nothing like the landing of our single-prop engine plane during a storm while visiting the island of Mangaia in the middle of the Pacific back during my semester abroad. That landing scared the bejeezus out of me when we had to make 3 attempts at the sand runway before touching down and lost good amounts of altitude over and over again. The worst part of this storm was the lightening hitting the airport 3 times after we got off and knocking out power as well as preventing the ground crew from unloading the plane for an hour. Hurray for more delays! Grace and I sat right down on the floor near the luggage belt and waited patiently. We had already made it through immigration in truthfully record time for Houston since our plane was the only one being processed at that time. All we could do at that point was wait. The Continental Airlines rep also had already given us new boarding passes for a supposedly 3:50pm flight up to Boston out of gate C42. We had just under 2 hours, so we figured we were still golden.
Once the storm passed and our bags came through, we walked through customs and on to talk to the Continental customer service rep to see if they could do anything special for us due to the mechanical delays from the morning. I was hoping maybe in compensation they’d agree to put us on a flight directly to JFK so we could cut out the 4 hour bus ride (Boston to New York) that we already had planned, but it was not to be. My negotiating skills proved fruitless since our tickets were “only good for Boston”, and they were not willing to make a change. Bums! I did insist that they honor the food vouchers that had been offered on the plane, which the rep tried to get out of by saying that wasn’t standard for “weather delay.” I quickly corrected her and said, “no, no, no, it was definitely a mechanical problem with the plane,” so I firmly stated that we were entitled to some compensation. Sometimes, you just have to stand up for your consumer’s rights. PLUS, we were hungry! That 15 minute wait in line yielded two vouchers for $8 each, so about a dollar a minute, not too bad when you think about it. We put those vouchers to good use on some delicious turkey burgers from a retro-style diner in the airport.
By the time the waitress gave us the burgers and conveniently forgot to pack the $3 bottle of water that we paid for in the bag, we realized that we needed to book it through the airport to get to the gate written on our boarding pass (C42) in order to make it there for the boarding time in less than 10 minutes. So off we went, burgers in hand, not quite old-school OJ Simpson-style airport dashing, but definitely hoofing it through the E terminal and on to the C terminal. We arrived at our designated gate just a few minutes late, but we were greeted with a board listing Los Angeles as the destination. So I ran over to the big departures board, and lo and behold, found out our gate had been changed to E10, one of the very first gates we had passed. Cursing under our breaths and stomachs growling, we took off back down the concourse for the new gate. At least all that rushing hopefully burned off a few calories, since we’re doing a lot of sitting during all of our flights & bus rides. Once at E10, we learned that the boarding time had been pushed back 20 minutes due to the storm, thankfully, so we were able to sit down and eat the burgers and did our best not to absolutely inhale them. And let me just say, they were glorious!
Pretty much from there on, things have run smoothly. The Boston to Houston flight arrived around 9pm and my friend Samantha picked us up at the airport. She took us back to her place in Somerville so we could chill with her and another friend for an hour or so, and then she drove us to Boston’s South Station so we could catch our midnight MegaBus to New York (an absolute steal considering is was only $6 for the ticket and the bus has WIFI). Grace and I made friends with a Chilean guy traveling on his own in line waiting to board, and we were able to find the last two seats next to each other on the top floor of the double decker bus(they weren’t kidding when they called it a “Mega”bus).
Now we’re on the road to NYC and should be arriving around 4am. The goal is to get to the 24-hour diner that I know of by Penn Station called TikToc and hang out there until the Starbucks start opening so we can move over to one of those and set-up camp for the day with our luggage in a place with free WIFI and caffeine.
Long story short (already too late, I know), it was an eventful first day of our journey and definitely tiring. But there was nothing this Gringa & Yuca couldn’t handle. We are aware that we still won’t see a bed for over 24 more hours, and there is a 14-hour flight and at least a fun-attempt at communicating with a Chinese-speaking taxi driver to get us to the correct hotel in Beijing before we see that bed. But once we make it to that bed, trust me, Grace and I will be in HEAVEN. Stay tuned for tales from an extremely sleep-deprived day 2…
Sooo, the adventure really started last night when I finally finished packing after days of procrastination, not wanting to even think about the packing process—my least favorite part of traveling. I left my house and headed over to my friend and travel companion's (Grace's) house around 10:30pm. I was supposed to be there around 8, but Grace and I have a wonderful understanding about "ish" timing; she's really the one who introduced me to the concept of Mexican Standard Time and even Grace Standard Time, so the 10:30 arrival with the 8ish plan, was definitely still on time.
Once there, her boyfriend, Jardiel, helped me weigh my bag to ensure it was close to the 20 to 25 kilo limit, which I was right at and verging on the maximum, so it required a little rearranging. I also decided it was necessary to add an additional carry-on to distribute some items. Even with those efforts, I still had to remove two pairs of jeans, much to my chagrin, this morning at the airport because I was just over the limit on their scale. Grace's mom promised to take good care of them for me. While I am an avid traveler, packing is my achilles heal because I like options and back-ups for clothing AND I have a wonderfully large suitcase that does not encourage me to edit my selections at all. I still have my fingers crossed that my bag will be allowed on our internal flights in China where Grace has read the weight limit is 5 kilos less...here's hoping a big smile will get my bag on those legs of the trip. We shall see!
I had a brief 4-hour sleep in Grace's pink hammock, which is becoming our pre-travel tradition now since our trip to Mexico City earlier this year, before waking up at 4 am so we could take showers and get to the airport by 5:30am with the help of Grace's parents. Everything went smoothly with check-in besides having to give up my 2 pairs of jeans and we got on the plane on schedule for the 7am departure. Everything looked good, until 7am came and went and we continued to sit on the tarmac and not pull away from the gate. The pilot informed us about half an hour later that there was a mechanical issue with some part of the engine being stuck open, but they were getting a mechanic out there and we should be pushing off in "10 minutes". I don’t know if it is just me, but I hate those kind of announcements. I wish they’d just lie to me and tell me that there’s a family of bunny rabbits blocking our way and we need to wait for them to move before we can depart. I don’t want to know anything is wrong with my plane…ignorance is bliss! Well fast forward 2 hours and 5 more "10 minutes more" announcements, and we were still sitting on that plane. Well, I admittedly had been dozing, but we hadn't budged an inch, and it was evident that the passengers were getting antsy and hungry. At that point, the airline offered to let people get off the plane and have a snack in the waiting area while they continued to work on the issue. We knew at that point our connection to Boston out of Houston would be missed because we had a 2- hour connection time scheduled, so we accepted our fate and disembarked to get our sickeningly sweet, sticky muffins and stretch our legs. Thankfully we planned our journey to the US with lots of buffer time built in for these types of things, and with our flight to China out of NYC not until 4pm tomorrow, we knew we’d be alright.
We got back on the plane about an hour later, and there was yet another small delay while “paperwork for our new flight times and scheduling were being processed and while we got clearance from air traffic control”. That was the story the pilot was telling us at least. My favorite quote of the day came when he got to his 3rd announcement on this delay and finally admitted “ok, I have no idea when we’ll be cleared for takeoff, but hopefully soon.” So for the first time in 3 and half hours, we finally lost the “10 minutes more” message and got a real honest announcement, which at least made us laugh. It was what it was—when traveling, you must expect delays!
We landed in Houston just prior to a downpour and electrical storm, which made for a slightly bumpy landing, but definitely not the worst I’ve been through. Nothing like the landing of our single-prop engine plane during a storm while visiting the island of Mangaia in the middle of the Pacific back during my semester abroad. That landing scared the bejeezus out of me when we had to make 3 attempts at the sand runway before touching down and lost good amounts of altitude over and over again. The worst part of this storm was the lightening hitting the airport 3 times after we got off and knocking out power as well as preventing the ground crew from unloading the plane for an hour. Hurray for more delays! Grace and I sat right down on the floor near the luggage belt and waited patiently. We had already made it through immigration in truthfully record time for Houston since our plane was the only one being processed at that time. All we could do at that point was wait. The Continental Airlines rep also had already given us new boarding passes for a supposedly 3:50pm flight up to Boston out of gate C42. We had just under 2 hours, so we figured we were still golden.
Once the storm passed and our bags came through, we walked through customs and on to talk to the Continental customer service rep to see if they could do anything special for us due to the mechanical delays from the morning. I was hoping maybe in compensation they’d agree to put us on a flight directly to JFK so we could cut out the 4 hour bus ride (Boston to New York) that we already had planned, but it was not to be. My negotiating skills proved fruitless since our tickets were “only good for Boston”, and they were not willing to make a change. Bums! I did insist that they honor the food vouchers that had been offered on the plane, which the rep tried to get out of by saying that wasn’t standard for “weather delay.” I quickly corrected her and said, “no, no, no, it was definitely a mechanical problem with the plane,” so I firmly stated that we were entitled to some compensation. Sometimes, you just have to stand up for your consumer’s rights. PLUS, we were hungry! That 15 minute wait in line yielded two vouchers for $8 each, so about a dollar a minute, not too bad when you think about it. We put those vouchers to good use on some delicious turkey burgers from a retro-style diner in the airport.
By the time the waitress gave us the burgers and conveniently forgot to pack the $3 bottle of water that we paid for in the bag, we realized that we needed to book it through the airport to get to the gate written on our boarding pass (C42) in order to make it there for the boarding time in less than 10 minutes. So off we went, burgers in hand, not quite old-school OJ Simpson-style airport dashing, but definitely hoofing it through the E terminal and on to the C terminal. We arrived at our designated gate just a few minutes late, but we were greeted with a board listing Los Angeles as the destination. So I ran over to the big departures board, and lo and behold, found out our gate had been changed to E10, one of the very first gates we had passed. Cursing under our breaths and stomachs growling, we took off back down the concourse for the new gate. At least all that rushing hopefully burned off a few calories, since we’re doing a lot of sitting during all of our flights & bus rides. Once at E10, we learned that the boarding time had been pushed back 20 minutes due to the storm, thankfully, so we were able to sit down and eat the burgers and did our best not to absolutely inhale them. And let me just say, they were glorious!
Pretty much from there on, things have run smoothly. The Boston to Houston flight arrived around 9pm and my friend Samantha picked us up at the airport. She took us back to her place in Somerville so we could chill with her and another friend for an hour or so, and then she drove us to Boston’s South Station so we could catch our midnight MegaBus to New York (an absolute steal considering is was only $6 for the ticket and the bus has WIFI). Grace and I made friends with a Chilean guy traveling on his own in line waiting to board, and we were able to find the last two seats next to each other on the top floor of the double decker bus(they weren’t kidding when they called it a “Mega”bus).
Now we’re on the road to NYC and should be arriving around 4am. The goal is to get to the 24-hour diner that I know of by Penn Station called TikToc and hang out there until the Starbucks start opening so we can move over to one of those and set-up camp for the day with our luggage in a place with free WIFI and caffeine.
Long story short (already too late, I know), it was an eventful first day of our journey and definitely tiring. But there was nothing this Gringa & Yuca couldn’t handle. We are aware that we still won’t see a bed for over 24 more hours, and there is a 14-hour flight and at least a fun-attempt at communicating with a Chinese-speaking taxi driver to get us to the correct hotel in Beijing before we see that bed. But once we make it to that bed, trust me, Grace and I will be in HEAVEN. Stay tuned for tales from an extremely sleep-deprived day 2…
Jul 7, 2010
4th of July Abroad: If you grill it, they will come!
Soooo, 4th of July was this past weekend, and what a glorious 4th of July it was despite being south of the border where that date holds absolutely no signficance and there being no red, white, and blue in sight. I can't really say there was much celebrating of American Independence, but rather a simple celebration of grilled foods, which no one can resist. On a whim, I made the suggestion to a new group of friends that we should "grill some food" for 4th of July and that comment resulted in a gathering of 4 Americans, 2 Canadians, and 2 Mexicans on the beach at Chaburna for some grillin' and boozin' good times on Sunday. When the first thing you drink for the day is RUM, you know it's going to be a good day! As I was shopping with some of my new friends for snacks and "POP" (by request from the Canadians) for our grill-fest, I realized that my "little travel habit" has kept me out of the US on the 4th of July quite a few times. I actually can't remember the last time I was anywhere that had fireworks for 4th of July, which made me a little nastolgic for the fireworks off Jones Beach (Long Island) that we used to watch with my grandparents when I was a kid. I realized that I've spent 4th July in London (where they're not all that thrilled to celebrate the Indepedence of the "Unruly Colony"), Barcelona, Auckland (New Zealand), and Madrid (3 times)...and now I have Mexico to add to that list. The Canadians contributed "Canadian-style burgers" to the grill menu, which entailed cooking up some deliciousness in the form of bacon, onions, garlic, and mushrooms on the stove, and then blending them into a paste that was mixed in with the ground beef before grilling. So basically all of the yummy stuff we Americans put on top of our burgers, they put inside the burger for a quite nice affect. They even stuffed a few of the burgers with cheese. It certainly made for less mess when eating and all of the yumminess mixed into every bite. My contribution was grilled pineapples, which went quite perfectly on top of the Canadian-style burgers if I do say so myself. We also eventually went and picked up some seafood for the one semi-vegetarian in the crowd. Somehow, despite how late in the day we went out to try to find the seafood, we managed to bring back a big bag of 
shrimp and a WHOLE shark. Luckily, I was spared the task of butchery the shark, but I ended up being the one to grill up the shark fillets and shrimp kibabs on the BBQ because the other grillers we're fairly boozed by that point. I added my own special touch by dousing them both in lime and pineapple juice and they went very well with a modge-podge tarter sauce that my friend threw together from sour cream, mustard, and relish. Short on-and-off rain delays produced a beautiful rainbow just down the beach, but also left more time for drinking instead of grilling so everyone was toasty by the time we got around to the actual eating part of the day, which just meant that there were lots of laughs to go around in addition to the good eats.
shrimp and a WHOLE shark. Luckily, I was spared the task of butchery the shark, but I ended up being the one to grill up the shark fillets and shrimp kibabs on the BBQ because the other grillers we're fairly boozed by that point. I added my own special touch by dousing them both in lime and pineapple juice and they went very well with a modge-podge tarter sauce that my friend threw together from sour cream, mustard, and relish. Short on-and-off rain delays produced a beautiful rainbow just down the beach, but also left more time for drinking instead of grilling so everyone was toasty by the time we got around to the actual eating part of the day, which just meant that there were lots of laughs to go around in addition to the good eats.
Other highlights of the day included two of the guys jamming together on their guitars (shirtless, which I certainly did not mind), 3 outfit changes by my friend's wonderfully hippy-esque mother, swimming in the ocean right in front of our friend's condo, and endless good conversation. While I'm loving every minute of living in Mexico and all the Spanish-speaking that entails, it was definitely nice to party with a predominantly English-speaking crowd for a small change. I know I must practice my Spanish more to improve, but my brain was thankful that it got to relax a little at this party and did not have to constantly be in translation mode. So the moral of the story here was this 4th of July in Mexico was my best 4th celebration abroad yet simply because the primitive idea of food cooked over an open flame appeals to just about everyone and provided an excellent excuse for friends (new and old) to gather and get their grub on.Jun 16, 2010
Home Sweet Merida
Merida really is feeling like home these days. I was just up in the states last week running around from New Jersey to NYC to Boston then back down to Long Island and Jersey again for the flight home. It was a great week including a big family party for my grandmother's 80th birthday, a food festival on "restaurant row" in NYC, a new broadway show (Next to Normal), celebrity spotting Claire Danes at the Chinese consulate while getting my visa processed, spending time with great friends in Boston, a lovely party celebrating my friend's graduation from Harvard Law, and discount shopping!!!! But after all that running around, it was nice to get back to my little house and my CAR, which my friend drove to the airport for me, here in Merida. I was easily able to slip back into my healthy routine of work followed by an hour at the gym and back to my healthy food venues: Pollo Brujo & GoGreen. I can't wait for the weekend to finally relax...but in the meantime it feels nice to be home! Viva Mexico!
Location:Merida, Mexico
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