Mexico 2011

The 12 hours flight was just as painful and boring as I expected it to be.. After countless tries to find a position where it would be possible to catch some sleep we finally landed to Mexico City.

Going through the mandatory immigration, customs etc checks was pretty fast and easy, but an unpleasant surprise awaited us when we got our luggage. Our bags obviously had been searched through, and at least my bag totally looted out of anything valuable.

I wouldn't be so annoyed about losing a Sigma 70-200/2.8 lens worth around 800eur, as the bag was under responsibility of the airline and travel insurance should cover it anyway.. But I'm more than slightly annoyed about losing battery chargers of my both cameras. Only their wall cords were left, the chargers stolen.. And finding new ones in Mexico City is not going to be the easiest task.

I would suspect the bag was looted at Madrid airport by the bag handling people.. Well, we will see what we can do about those tomorrow.. Today we just found our way to the hostel and after breakfast will maybe go out to check the Mexico City zoo. We have visited it before, but Laura wasn't with us and she likes to visit zoos in different countries. Speaking of Laura by the way, she sees to suffer of pretty serious altitude sickness.. Well, she will get used to it. Mexico City is at over 2 kilometers above sea level, so air is pretty thin.

First four hours were surprisingly painless. Maybe my emergency row seat helped to survive.. The only problem was that the plane was full of small babies, which caused rather unpleasant effects like constant noise and smell.. Well, not that bad.

We decided not to leave the airport and just stay in the transit area while waiting for the second flight. That probably wasn't the best decision.. Madrid Barajas airport seems to be a quite beatiful "architectural wonder", but all the practical things are missing. Seems like all the comfortability has been sacrified in the name of design..

The airport is huge, but there are no decent bars or restaurants and electricity outlets seem to be totally unknown to Spanish.. We found one electricity socket nearby a small cafe, which provides us a chance to recharge our laptops a bit before the long flight.

By the way, +15C outside air temperature felt really strange and good. I haven't been able to be outside wearing only a t-shirt for almost half an year, and damn it felt good.. :)

There's an old saying: Every good trip from Helsinki-Vantaa airport starts from Oak Barrel. Once again we are sitting in the same airport bar sipping beer and waiting for the departure.

Our car was left at Timo's place, and so were the winter coats. No need for them anymore, it should be around +15C in Madrid and +25C in Mexico City.

One hour more and Finnair Airbus A321 will take off for four and half hours flight towards Madrid. So long, Finland and winter, see you in a month. :)

It's one day to the departure and we are all packed and ready to go. Can't wait for some warmness, it has been around -25C in Finland every day..

Tomorrow morning we should drive to Lahti, drop our cats to Laura's mom and sleep the night in there. Saturday morning we will drive to Helsinki, to the airport ready to spend multiple boring hours in an aluminum tube. It's four and half hours flight to Madrid and then twelve hours to Mexico City.. :P

Take two drunken guys, a late Saturday night, typical Finnish -20C degrees temperature outside and IRC. "F*ck it's freezing out there. Imagine if we were in Mexico?" "Hmm.. Wait.. How much do the flight tickets cost?"

In the morning we found booking confirmations from Iberia in our mailboxes, one for Laura also. Well, that wasn't exactly planned or carefully considered but looking outside it probably wasn't a bad decision. I still haven't had my summer vacations from last year and it's getting colder and colder every day.

So, in a bit over one month we are returning to Mexico and probably not only Mexico, but Guatemala, Belize and maybe some other Central American countries. We still don't have any exact plans, but I guess they will form during the trip if not before. Probably we are taking some kind of transport to Cancun or Yucatan in general, and then find our way south to Belize.

I'm already really looking forward to returning to Central America, last visit was almost two years ago and way too short. Stay tuned for blog entries, pictures and videos from another side of the world. :)