In which Sid and Doris experience Cancun airport and thwart the Presidential Proclamation.
Club Med had been a good bolt hole for the remaining five days of our Mexican adventure. Five days in Mexico City, five days on the Yucatan Maya road trip and finally five days of beach life. We enjoyed the yoga, swimming, sailing, snorkeling, trapezing, petanque, the variable restaurants and hiring a speedy boat to tour the mangroves and look out to sea where the touristicable pirate ships live. But by the last day we, especially Sid, had had our fill. And besides we have now done our required 15 days outside the UK and Schengen so it is time to test our documentation and go to America.
Cancun airport is only fifteen minutes away from Club Med so setting out at 8.30 for an 11.00 flight seemed OK. Getting into the airport we find the Spirit check in line is maybe two hundred yards long and barely moving. The place is packed and the advice to allow three hours suddenly seemed very good. This was advice we had ignored. Fortunately the 10.53 flight is moved to 11.40. The Spirit check in was the point at which all Doris’s good work with the docs would be tested. ESTA, tick. Covid test, tick. Tickets, tick. Address in USA, tick. Flight home ……? We do not have one and then Doris recalls we have a flight booked from Mexico City to London, bought only to reduce the price of the outbound flight.
The print out is still on the Clipboard of Glory and is the final tick required. The clerk prints luggage tags. Sid and Doris breathe again. Time is crashing on as the doughty duo head for security. [If you look closely you can see the boarding passes were printed at 10:05 and the original boarding time was 10:08 – D.] Here is another floor full of non-Covid-distanced panicking passengers who have all found a new and unexpected challenge. To get into the line you need a new Covid Attestation which we finally fill out illegibly on paper when the airport app fails to load. Then we get to join a new queue for security. We carry on walking quickly to the furthest gate, and the doors finally close on the plane about an hour after its original scheduled time. Phew. The general feeling among our fellow passengers is that they had chosen to delay the flight as they knew it would be impossible to get most of us onboard on time.
In bound at Baltimore where the US/non-US passport queues show clearly that we are the only non-US-residents on the flight. We are questioned by a pleasant and competent clerk and sent on our way. Phew, again.
And huzzah, Joe is waiting for us [I’ve never been met at an airport before!! And we can tell it’s a special treat even in America as Joe seems to be the only person standing in an echoingly empty terminal – D] to whisk us to the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay and their new house on the water. Much joy to see Alzbetka again. We last saw Joe days before we set off for Istanbul in 2019 and AK in Monterey in 2018.
We are shown to the guest house where we are proud to be the first inhabitants. We take a tour of the deer park and see all the new construction and planting to maintain the beautiful shoreline. Just walking around we see birds, butterflies, beetles and a turtle (or maybe a terrapin) on the beach laying her eggs. It really is a great location.
Dinner is a whole family affair and we start to catch up on news and make plans.
We will be here for a few days before setting out for Maine and some big boat sailing.