Beautiful Merida, Mexico – Lessons Learned On This Flight!

We made it! We will share with you our mistakes or – rather – lessons learned from our Merida, Mexico flight…

Flight to Mexico

We were so excited when we bought our initial tickets to Merida, Mexico that we overlooked several issues. Those few items that we should have researched a bit are listed below. At the end of the day we made it to Merida & have not looked back but know that we cannot afford to make these type of silly mistakes again. You know – lessons learned!

In no particular order here is what we did wrong that will not happen again.

Flight – We bought our tickets at the very beginning of this year in anticipation that the border would be open & allowing flights into Mexico. In being so excited that we were actually going to make our escape we did not research flights thoroughly. Really all it hurt was our pocketbook but we spent more than we had to. We flew out of Austin to Merida with two connections. I’m pretty sure we could have found a more direct flight for close to same price if not cheaper but since we chose to use credit card miles we were limited to which flights/airlines we could use.

Lesson Learned – shop airlines. Sometimes direct flights are comparable priced to flights with a few stops.

We Got Searched! – The Big Guy bet me he would be searched at the Airport & yes he was pulled to side & scanned. I, on the other hand, was searched, scanned & backpack emptied when we hit the Atlanta airport. I had gone thru the checkout first so I could watch our backpacks while Horace was being searched BUT GUESS WHAT?! While they have me standing to the side waiting on a female to search me, they waved The Big Guy to move on, he was fine. You know he got a kick out of that!!

Electronic Tickets – We thought we were being proactive loading our airline app w/flights on our iphones. Electronic check in was so easy until we got to Mexico City Airport. When we got to the final check though to get to Gate C, we were denied entry. The airport app we had on our phones [that had been fine at the other U.S. airports did not contain a date!] so we had to go back to the main airline desk to request paper tickets. On our side was the two hour layover & the flight attendant was great printing our paper tickets for us. Once we got the paper ticket in hand, we were told to look for the flight number & departure time [circled in red on our boarding ticket] as they did not print gates on tickets. Once we got back thru security we were able to check out the Departure Displays to see that we needed to go to Gate C.

Lesson Learned – We will always have a printed copy of our itinerary with us with dates. If we had that we would have been okay. This was the first time I was lax in printing our flight itinerary & it bit us in the butt!

Gate C – Gate C wasn’t a gate. It was a huge room of passengers waiting for various flights to be called. The Attendant behind the partition was very patient with us. I know I asked him at least twice if “that was our flight” & he would just shake his head. We sat there long enough that I was able to understand other flights being called & it was kind of hilarious when a few passengers for a particular flight came strolling to check in – the first few passengers were lucky – the Attendant yelled at them to run as the door would be closing. The last gentleman wasn’t so lucky – he told the Attendant his flight was 1:20 & the Attendant told him it is 1:25 p.m. & doors shut.

Lesson Learned – Patience is a virtue & it is okay to ask for assistance.

Language Barrier – the more you can speak of the language, the easier it is to get where you are going or get what you need. If you are not ‘there’ yet be sure to have the Google Translate App or whichever works for you on your phone & do not be afraid to try to pronounce words. If you at least try, they will help. I for one have a lot to learn but I know I will get there:) Since we have been here I’ve been told to learn 5-10 new words a day & practice practice practice.

Currency – We did not bring any pesos with us as we knew we could buy at the Mexico City airport. We compared currency values at the various Currency Counters & bought just enough to get us by for a day or so. What we didn’t know was all the paperwork to be filled out/signed with Passport. I was kind of impressed by the exchange transaction.

Lesson Learned #1 – I’ve only bought currency in advance of a trip abroad one time & that was years ago. Since that one time we wait until we land in ‘that’ country & go straight to currency exchange for a few pieces. What we did learn & will not do again is get currency from our hotel ATM. For $100 pesos [$25 USD] it cost us $6 so in the end we received $19 in pesos! Yes! $1 ATM fee & $5 hotel fee. Once we made it to a currency exchange we exchanged $300 US & received $5870 pesos – costing us $14.07 US. So you are at the mercy of currency rate exchanges as they can vary from shop to shop – just keep your eyes open.

Lesson Learned #2 – We have not had any problems using Amex at Sam’s Club, Costco, Sears & most restaurants. Now the smaller street shops & vendors, yes you will need pesos. I would suggest smaller denominations of bills for ease in change.

Lesson Learned #3 – Arturo, our waiter, at Habanero’s Restaurant told us about Elektra for walk in currency exchange. We had one close to our hotel so we checked it out. You can’t miss the huge bright yellow building. It is a store but has a bank on second floor that anyone can get currency exchange & you don’t need an account with them – unlike banks in the states. Easy transaction & great customer service & a pretty good rate.

Last But Not Least: Back to the Airport – Baggage Pickup – We arrived in Merida, exited the plane & followed the other travelers from our flight right out the front of the Airport…Yes….we went right pass the Baggage pick up area but realized it to late. This was my fault…The Big Guy had just got his vaccination the day before…not the best idea before a flight…he had a headache & in general was just not feeling it…so he was following me. Anyway, we were turned away from re-entering, of course, and luckily the Pilot was coming out of security & realized we were in a bit of a pickle & very kindly listened to our problem. After we explained to him what happened, he told us who to go see at the AeroMexico counter & that gentleman was so nice. He called back & they delivered our roller bags to us!

At The End of The Day…

We are thrilled to be here in Merida! We definitely had some bumps but we figured there would be. The nice thing is that at the end of the day all is well! Everyone we have met for the most part has been engaging & happy to help us out with directions or how to change American word into Spanish. We’ve heard the phrase “you teach me English & I teach you Spanish.” Works for us.

Follow us on our trip to Habanero’s for our first taste of some authentic Mayan food! Fingers crossed!

I hope you follow us on our journey. Watch how two senior travelers navigate this thing called international travel on a budget!