Viva Mexico….

So…. I had lots of work, carnival, been sick twice…. and it was a really bad time to go on vacation from a work point of view but… it was booked. Lucky me! 😉 So two days ago I left for Frankfurt from where I took a direct flight to Mexico City. Watched Mamma Mia II but was not impressed… I arrived in the evening and it took forever till my suitcases came out. But I passed the time watching a customs guy with his dog. Not entirely sure what the dog was sniffing for but whenever he put his paw on a suitcase the owner put a mark on it and I am sure the owners of these suitcases were searched at customs. I had a hotel that is next to the Terminal and I knew that there was a passage way over. I got at the upper level at the right point but then I didn’t see that there were two passage ways. Of course I took the wrong on. Had to get down stairs (no moving ones) with all my luggage which was no fun and ended up at the back of my hotel. So I had to go up the hill in a thunderstorm and go around the block to reach the entrance. No fun. 🙁 If I had seen the other passageway I would have been in the lobby in two minutes without getting wet.

Didn’t do a lot as I was tired and had to get up at 3 AM again to catch my flight to La Paz. I missed the airport shuttle provided by the hotel by about 30 seconds (not sure why they didn’t wait because they saw me coming out of the door). My guess is that they are friends with the taxi drivers. Since I didn’t really want to wait 20 minutes I took a taxi to the other terminal which is about 3 km away. There is a train between the terminals but from what I read it starts service at 5 AM which was too late for me.

Flight to La Paz was uneventful. Once arrived Carlos was there to get me and drive me to Loreto which was a 4 hour drive. It was interesting to see how the landscape changed. First desert like with lots of cacti. Then there was an agricultural region. Later there were hills and Carlos at one point told me that we were in a canyon that had volcanic roots. And then we were finally in Loreto. Unfortunately it was noon and check-in was only at 3 PM so I walked into Loreto (I am a bit outside) to explore the area. And to have my first margarita and carne asado (both very good!). Loreto looks mostly unspoiled from tourism. I wanted to go to the shop with which I had tried to book the whale tours but they don’t accept bookings from single travellers. So they told me that I had to see if there were others going on the dates I wanted to go. Last week via email they wouldn’t tell me if the tours were OK and just told me to come by the shop once I arrived. Not really customer friendly. And when I went by they were closed…. so I went back to the hotel, checked in and later walked back to the ‚city center‘. This time they were open and I heard that I can go to the grey whales today. YAY! But the lady in the shop spoke only spanish so communication was a bit difficult. Then I went to the dive shop and we already did all the paper work. Later Monica came by my hotel to get my dive gear. 🙂 Tomorrow diving and if nothing goes wrong I will do my 70th dive the day after tomorrow.

And now I am curious how it will be with the grey whales. If I like it I will go back next week. 🙂