Saturday 8/12/2017 - DepartureWe woke up early to head to Guatemala City to the airport. We said goodbye to the family, including Paola who was heading to school for a nursing exam.Yasmin and Yoselin gave us lovely water bottle holders which they crocheted at school, upcycling pull tabs from beverage cans. It was so sweet of them to get up early on a Saturday morning to see us off and present us with these gifts! Rodolfo drove us to the airport, and we stopped at the Katok restaurant along the way to pick up more bottles of picante. We arrived at the airport at 11:06 a.m. from our 2 p.m. flight. The airport experience was horrible. Despite asking for a wheelchair for Craig as soon as we arrived, he had to stand in line for over an hour. We were told to go through two lines (first a kiosk and then a person), even though locals did not have to do that. And apparently the kiosk computers don't talk to the regular computers, so we had to re-do the check-in process and luggage check with a human...what a nightmare. We didn't have time to eat at Pollo Campero, and had to rush to the gate. We were frazzled beyond belief as La Aurora airport is usually nothing like this. When we finally boarded the plane, we got settled into our coach seats. Someone arrived and we found that Craig's ticket had been double-booked. What next?! We got conflicting instructions from flight attandants. One told Craig to stand up and await reseating. When he stood up, he was reprimanded by another, saying that he needed to stay in his seat to await further instructions. Abby, a lovely Alexander Hamilton leadership scholar who was seated next to us, observed this whole debacle. She had just spent a week volunteering in public schools in Guatemala, and was very empathetic to our plight. This made us calm down a bit. She validated our feelings that it wasn't "just us," this was ridiculous. Finally someone came to collect Craig and reseat him. This reseating took place in first class, so that was at least a benefit. We got him situated and I returned to my seat in between Abby and the guy who had also been booked in Craig's seat. I was happy for Craig and was perfectly content to finally be able to relax, when they came to get me and re-seat me with Craig in first class! Bonus! And I'm sure Abby and the guy were happy to suddenly have an empty middle seat between them so they could spread out a bit. Win-win for all, but especially for us! The day was wonderful from there on out. We had warmed cashews, pistachios, and almonds, along with drinks in actual glassware! They served us a burrito and salad worthy of any restaurant, and the flight went by way too quickly (when do you ever find yourself feeling that way)! We had gorgeous view of the Yucatan peninsula, and the flight attendants were superb. We could get used to this! Miami was a breeze with Global Entry, and we made friends with fellow passenger Carlos from Framingham (by way of Antigua, Guatemala) and his father-in-law. They were confused about where the bathroom was, and after spending 3 weeks in Latin America, I told them in Spanish where it was. Carlos complimented my Spanish, and then sparked a conversation in English. We finally arrived in Boston at around 1:00 a.m., so we simply took a taxi home after collecting our bags. It was an amazing trip, ticking all the boxes:
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 Yoselin, Craig, Steph, Yasmin, and Vanesa  Business class  Yucatan Peninsula See all photos from August 12, 2017 |
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