Getting Started

Day 1 - Starting my trip

Monday night I didn't get home to pack my bag until midnight. After packing and re-packing 3 times, I finally crawled into my bed to sleep around 2:30am. When the alarm went off again at 4am...i wanted to cry, i won't be sleeping in my wonderful bed for 3 months! The past 2 weeks have been extremely sleep deprived and very exhausting, FUN but EXHAUSTING! I took what will likely be my last good-hot shower and got ready to head to the airport. I arrived at the airport with my mother and I could tell she wanted to come in with me, she was very nervous.

Continental's check-in was a mess, they had no idea what they were doing and i think the automated ticket machines slow people down. I would have checked-in at home, but Continental's international flights require you show a passport to check-in. So I waited in the chaos for my boarding pass. I said goodbye to my paniced mother, I thought she was going to cry and went to security. I would love to tell you about my flight from Phoenix to Houston, but I fell asleep before the plane even took off and did not wake up until it landed in Houston, like I said I am exhausted.

The Houston airport is a mess and I had to walk a long distance from my first flight to the second one, I was very glad I had a 3 hour lay-over. I grabbed some lunch and walked to my gate, where I discovered my flight was delayed 2 hours!!! OK, now I had a 5 hour layover! Yikes! I feel asleep on the airport floor! oops. I woke in time to board my flight to Cancun.

As the plane was taking off, an 8 year old boy, Jared, sitting in the aisle seat(I had the window) was leaning over the guy in the middle seat and exclaiming how cool take-off was and looking out the window with joy. I realized he probably had never flown before, and offered to switch seats with him once the plane had leveled off. Jared, spent the next two hours glued to the window narrating what he saw the whole way, "cows, on a farm! o another farm...those cars look so small!...WOW! is that the ocean?...I think i can see waves. hey look! the beach...we just flew over a volcano!...the clouds are so cool, do you think it looks like that from the front of the plane?!" It was mildly annoying but also, an amazing reminder of how fortunate I am to fly and travel regularly and that I let my (somewhat irrational) flight anxiety get in the way of truly enjoying my adventures. Thanks to Jared for reminding me that the airplane ride is just a part of the experience.

When the plane land at the airport, the sun was setting so i decided to buy a more expensive(than the local bus) group-taxi-van-thing to the ferry port. The van took forever and made me car-sick...instead of going directly to the port, the van took many other tourists to Cancun resorts and finally after an hour(it was now dark) dropped me and a German guy off at the boat. I bought my round ferry trip ticket in Spanish! (SO PROUD), board the ferry and enjoyed a warm breezy boat ride to Isla Mujeres. Turns out the German guy was headed to the same hostel and offered to split the cost of a golf cart taxi with me. I was so tired and haggered from my day I jumped at the offer!

I arrived at my hostel, checked in and ran to the beach bar to have a beer and start my adventure!