Late Night Tacos

After months of planning, our big day finally arrived. We donned our masks, stuffed our backpacks, two carry-on suitcases, and one bigger check-in suitcase into the trunk of a Lyft, and we were on our way! Our driver was friendly and chatty, and when he realized we could speak Spanish, the conversation accelerated. He was born in Cuernavaca, grew up in Mexico City, and wanted to tell us all about it. Unfortunately, I could barely understand half of what he was saying in Spanish. Vince and I have been consistently participating in online Spanish classes and meeting one on one or in small groups with Spanish tutors for the past two years to maintain our Spanish skills. Why couldn’t I understand this guy? Was it the mask, the open window, or were my ears not yet tuned to rapid Spanish? Hopefully my comprehension would improve on this trip.

Our flight to Dallas, Texas was uneventful but there were issues with our connecting flight to Mexico City. First the flight was delayed for over an hour. We finally boarded the plane and it started to taxi toward the runaway. Suddenly we stopped, and the pilot let the passengers know that we had to return to the gate for some repairs. We sat and waited at the gate for more than an hour only to be told that the part could not be fixed, and that we would have to deboard and move to another gate to catch a different plane. All the passengers retrieved their gear, filed off the plane, and made their way to the other side of the airport to wait yet again for a new flight. We finally were able to board the replacement for the two hour flight to Mexico City.

All these delays caused us to arrive in Mexico six hours later than originally planned, but we were happy to finally make it. Our trip was not over yet however. We still had to make it through customs and retrieve our suitcase. After winding through the customs line with our tourist card in hand, we approached the señorita who was checking to make sure the cards were completed correctly. She took one look at ours and told us they were not acceptable. Vince had completed ours online beforehand and had printed them at home. He did not notice that the autofill had indicated we would be in Mexico for 180 days instead of the 60 to 90 days we had planned. She said 180 days was too long and that we would have to fill out new cards. Right then. We trudged over to the nearby counter with our blank tourist cards in hand and joined many other passengers who were frantically filling out their cards. I grabbed a pen from my purse and started filling out the form. My pen had teal-colored ink and I wondered if that was acceptable or not. I tried to read the form instructions on the back but the lighting was poor and the print was small. I completed the form but when I tried to present it, I was told that it needed to be completed in blue or black ink-NOT TEAL-and that I would have to complete yet another form. ¡Ay Dios mío! I grabbed another blank form, quickly filled it out with a black pen and joined Vince in line to present it and my passport to the customs officer.

He looked at our completed tourist cards and asked how long we were planning to stay in Mexico. At first Vince said we would be there for two months but then he said that maybe it would be three months. We really weren’t sure and didn’t know if a longer time period made a difference or not. The guy gave us an exasperated look, scribbled 160 days on our cards, stamped our passports, and waved us on our way.

We still had to retrieve our checked-in suitcase, so we made our way to the appropriate carousel. We waited patiently for our suitcase to appear but to no avail. All the luggage from our flight gradually emerged and was retrieved by their owners but not ours. When the carousel stopped, we joined other passengers in line to ask what had happened to our luggage. Fortunately, Vince decided to check the next carousel and discovered our suitcase there. Crisis avoided!

We grabbed all our luggage, raced out of the airport, called for an Uber, and eventually arrived at our hotel in the Centro Histórico of Mexico City a little past 11 pm. We set our luggage in our room and went out to look for something to eat. Most of the restaurants were closed but a little taquería around the corner, Los Cocuyos, was open 24 hours. Unfortunately, they only served tacos with carne de res and I try not to eat beef. But there were no other quick options available so I ordered a taco with suadero (brisket) and gobbled it down. It was a delicious way to start our Mexican adventure!