Air Mexicana struck the first blow when their departure time from Buenos had changed by an hour – not delayed, “Just changed!” This left us with an hour to negotiate Mexico City Airport & make our connection to LA. Ric & I were determined that we didn’t have to leave the airport in order to re-enter & make another flight…
The flight to Mex City was quite funny! Armed with better Spanish than when we arrived, we chatted with the Hostesses when they passed through & they giggled at the two bald guys & kept topping our drinks up without us asking! At one point Ric came back from the bathroom & they’d handed him 2 cervesa’s, even though they weren’t needed!!
Upon disembarking we confronted a girl in an Information Booth. We were fairly successful in communicating the fact that we were in transit but she still didn’t seem to be able to point us in any direction helpful at all. We headed back towards the Customs area, preparing to admit defeat & have to do the mad dash back to our connection. As we did, we noticed that there were a few passengers who were of Caucasian decent at a counter well away from the others… Shrugging our shoulders we headed down that way & with a few words of Spanish we were allowed through and were then stuck in a glass walled corridor that led us all the way back to the main concourse…! We had stamps in our passport & forms filled out & found our Gate (eventually!) & settled in to fly out.
As the saying goes, "Don't F*ck With Chuck!"
Whilst waiting an Aussie backpacking couple came up to the Change Bureau near us, trying to exchange pesos for the next part of their trip. From the look of it they were boyfriend & girlfriend & only she spoke Spanish – and quite well. He on the other hand spoke not even a word & got really frustrated with the girl behind the counter. They were trying to exchange pesos into Euros but were going to end up with a chunk of pesos in change as the Bureau didn’t have enough small notes. The guy didn’t want this, knowing that they would be worthless & hard to exchange outside of Argentina. The girl was getting quite frustrated with the guy & proved the fact that he spoke no Spanish by calling him a stupid pig (chancho beleuro) a number of times without him even flinching – once when he said “Make sure you tell them how this is crap & that they should have enough money!” It was quite funny!!
The street where our hotel was. Automatically had to one round of the chorus!
We arrived in Los Angeles at approx 2300 & Air Mexicana, in all their glory, had three baggage carousels onto which our luggage could appear from & each had a different flight number attached to it – despite it being the ONLY Air Mexicana flight to have arrived from anywhere…! (I know that flights can have multiple numbers/codes but this situation didn’t fall into that category!) We eventually found our luggage on a carousel marked for Flight 906, even though we’d boarded Flight 904…!!
Our shuttle bus to our hostel was an adventure within itself. To cut a long story of the history of why short, they’d combined 2 routes into the one bus – meaning that we had to cover more than ½ of LA to get to our final destination! The overall trip took nigh on 2hrs as the added on route was closer to the airport!! There was a great feeling on the bus though as all us passengers thankfully found humour in it!! A guy sitting next to us was great, he was giving the driver directions that took us off the GPS navigated way, determined to get off the bus as quickly as possible. His flight to LA took 45mins from Texas & the shuttle bus took him 2.5hrs to get him home…!!
Another famous street that isn't as glamorous as one would think!
At one point I made a throw away line that got huge laughs throughout the bus thanks to my line actually being given ‘life’! We were forced to stop outside a Fire Station as three massive trucks & a paramedic vehicle were returning back home. A fireman was stopping traffic & directing them back into the station as they reversed in. It took a good 5mins & as the last truck cleared the road I said “Off you go mate, back into the station like your friends” – mainly meaning, get off the road so we can get moving – and that’s exactly what he did!! He walked backwards into the station – I immediately added in the mandatory ‘beep, beep, beep’ sound!!! As soon as he moved pretty much everyone on the bus had a decent old chuckle! I was quite impressed with my impromptu comedic turn – even better than my usual superior wit..!!
Upon finally reaching our Hostel we realized that they had messed up our booking and provided us with a double BED, not a double ROOM with bunks…! As the hostel was pretty busy, they had no more room at the Inn for us and wouldn’t be able to correct our booking! We spent one night with Ric in his sleeping bag on top of the bed whilst I used the doonah & we’ve now moved into an actual hotel room. Due to the lateness of our booking, we got a twin share room for around $70 a night – works out only slightly dearer than the hostel. They were great too – when they realised what had happened & that we were brothers & not ‘really close friends’ they happily gave us our money back, which was very generous.
Me with one of my heroes....
We’re off to Universal Studios tomorrow. There’s a few Amusement Parks around LA but due to the time of year & their Winter Opening Hours, Universal is the only one that’s open whilst we’re in town. Should still be decent though – there’s The Mummy Roller Coaster & Jurassic Park, The Ride… stay tuned!
...& Ric with one of his!!
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