Veracruz: The Final Chapter

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Fokker Almost Crashed.

The stupid plane that started all of our problems (I got in trouble for taking this picture, we were walking here to board the plane.)

Papi and Ben exhausted.

The Story:
I realize it's a play on words, but I really am not swearing here. That's the real name of the stupid airplane that started it all. The Fokker 100.

I really wish this never happened and we could have ended with our happy beach memories. But it did, and it's taken us 2 weeks (today) to recover from it all.

Our plane took off on a Friday at 3pm. It went up in the air, circled the port of Veracruz, and then landed again at the Veracruz airport. I was too busy enjoying the view to realize when we landed that we were right back where we had started!

They told us they were going to fix the error and that it would be about 45 min. We got off the plane and ate lunch. 45 minutes later, they canceled our flight. When the news was announced, everybody started running for the doors so that they could get in line to make their arrangements. But since we had the 2 kids, we weren't so fast.

We were at the end of the line, and we were there for about 2 hours. I noticed the line was not moving. It seemed they were taking 30 minutes per party to fix their tickets and get them compensation. There was this french woman in front of me with a toddler like Emma. Both kids were irritable and antsy. (The portable DVD player's battery died and there were no more Dora episodes for the princess.) I watched the French woman as she cut in line and asked to be attended to because of her little one. Anger welled up inside of me as I watched her wait, Emma cry, and Ben get sleepy,and all as time passed and it was getting dark outside. I gathered all the courage inside of me, took Emma in my arms, and placed myself right behind the Frenchwoman (who was now being attended to). I could feel people glaring at me. These 2 annoying ladies kept trying to get in front of me, but I was bigger than them, and I let them know it. I was really mad that we had been there 3 hours with our little kids.

We left the airport by car around 7:30pm with flights scheduled for 6am Sunday morning (remember it was Friday). That was the best they could offer us, my guess is because of all the people who were in front of us. There was one catch that I didn't pay much attention to at the time. They changed airlines in the process. We were flying Click Mexicana, and they changed our tickets to Aeromexico. We would soon find out that this was a problem.

The whole week we had been staying with Emmanuel's sister. But she had some other family coming in town the weekend we were leaving. So we went to Emmanuel's mom's house. We had to all sleep in the same bedroom, so we decided to have me and Emma sleep in one bed, put Ben in the pack and play, and have Emmanuel sleep in the twin bed. When Emma discovered that I was there sleeping with her at about 2am, she would not leave me alone. She was kicking me, rolling on me, putting her cheek against mine, hugging me. A side note - Emma and I have NEVER slept together. She's always been made to sleep alone in her crib. Also worth mentioning is that I'm the type of sleeper that needs to be left alone, untouched, or I can't sleep. Emmanuel knows to keep his distance :) Around 3am, Emma woke up completely. She stood up in the bed, wanted to go downstairs, etc. We tried to leave the room and make her fall back asleep, but we came back in too early, she heard us, and proceeded to throw a fit. We didn't get back to sleep until 5am.

The next night we had to get up at 4:30am to get to the airport on time. Emma screamed herself to sleep that night because we made her sleep in the pack and play. This time, Ben and Emmanuel slept together. We did this because the previous night we tried putting Ben with me in the bed and Emma in the pack and play and she was all jealous of Ben and wanted to be with mami too. So I slept in the single bed. There was something in the bed that kept me scratching my throat all night, and before I knew it it was 4:30 and I hadn't slept at all.

We arrived at the airport on time. When we got in line to check in, Aeromexico told us that they would not honor vouchers that Click Mexicana gave us to fly and that we could not board the flight. I was steaming inside and about to flip out, but Emmanuel kept his cool and talked real smooth to the lady and got her to put us on the flight. We arrived in Mexico City at 8am.

Our connecting flight to Reynosa (the Mexican side of the border) was at 11am. Before we could board, we had to talk to both Mexicana and Aeromexico several times to verify certain things and pay some taxes. Everything seemed fine. We got a bite to eat, and when they called our flight, we were the first ones in line. We were on the bus that was going to take us to the plane when we heard them calling, "Emmanuel Garrido!"

They took us all off the bus and told us we weren't verified to fly and that (yep, you guessed it) Aeromexico was not accepting vouchers from Mexicana. We asked to speak to their supervisor, they wouldn't let us. We told them the same thing happened that morning. They didn't care. We told them that we had already talked to several different representatives from both airlines that morning. They didn't care. I couldn't hold back my emotion. I started to sob. I was functioning with a combined total for both nights of 4 hours of sleep, the portable DVD was dead (I had no energy for entertaining Emma, and I really needed Dora!) Emma's eczema was horribly flared up, Emmanuel and Ben were dead tired, and we just wanted to go home!

Let me mention here that we were just trying to get to Reynosa (the Mexico border). We STILL had to drive from Reynosa to San Antonio and cross the border. That's why it was so important that we were on the 11am flight, so we could get home in the same day. We didn't have a hotel set up for that night because we expected to have plenty of time to get home.

Mexicana was visibly mad when they heard what happened and took care of the mix up, after an exchange of words. Aeromexico gave us tickets to have lunch and assured us it would not happen again. Mexicana said they could do nothing more for us. I'm still mad about this. They gave us some food vouchers and (3) $100 coupons (one for me, Emmanuel, Emma) for future flights in this calendar year with Mexicana. This was all for cancelling our flight, making us 2 days late, and then getting held up in Mexico City all day with 2 kids? Is this happening? It's outrageous and unfair. And who the HECK wants to ever fly with Mexicana again after their elaborate mix-up, poor customer service and disorganization?

So, the ending. We were stuck in D.F. from 8am to 4pm. We got to Reynosa around 5, got in the car around 6, crossed the border around 7-8, and made it back here around 1am. The kids hate sleeping in the car. They were crying for stretches of the way home. I was fighting my eyelids so that I could be alert for Emmanuel who was driving. But we made it safe, and we all slept in our own beds that night. Home sweet sweet home.

It really took me 2 weeks to recover. I got pretty sick with mean flu symptoms and could do very little but rest and take care of the kids. We got back 1 am Mon. and I didn't go grocery shopping until Wed.! We ate from the freezer those 2 days :)

Right now, it really just feels like a bad dream. You know when something really crummy and almost traumatizing happens to you and the memory fades as time passes? That's what's happened. I've been remembering the beach and the good family times more and more as time passes. And you know what? We'd do it all over again if we had to. It was horrible. But nothing replaces the memories you make with the family that you live so far away from. The time spent together will never be the same. The kids will never be 2 and 5 mos. again. The cousins will also never be the same ages. This trip might have had a monstrous ending, but this trip to Veracruz, while we were in Veracruz, was the best trip of my life.