We are back in paradise again, just arrived on Wednesday October 2nd., so have been here for 4 short beautiful days.
We were on the road early on Monday morning for our 2 pm flight from Sudbury to Toronto, the first leg of our journey. Fog was laying on the land in places and in others it was above us.
Construction just over the bridge - nothing to hold us up though.
All in all we had a good trip to Sudbury, we picked up Clinton so he could bring our car back to his house while we are away.
There is a saying that Air Canada is not happy until you are unhappy. We dislike Air Canada along with many other passengers, but we are a captured audience if we want to fly to and from Toronto Pearson Airport. Weather is not within their control thankfully.
When booking our flights I soon found that only one flight was available from Toronto to Cancun daily and it departs at 6:30 in the morning. There are no flights out of Sudbury at that time of day to connect with that departing flight, which means an overnight stay in Toronto. The overnight in Toronto was no problem because normally we stayed overnight in Sudbury to catch our early flight in the morning connecting in Toronto, so overnight is not different in Toronto than Sudbury - costs are similar. I asked the Air Canada agent who made my booking if we had to pick up our luggage at Toronto. She said "let me check", a short time later she came back on the line and said "No you don't have to pick up your luggage in Toronto because you have a connecting flight". Wonderful!
We arrived at the Sudbury airport in good time and checked in. Following check-in, the procedure is you take your checked on luggage to the X-ray unit. Now since we were aware our luggage was going to be sitting in the Toronto Pearson overnight we wrapped each checked on luggage piece with clear plastic wrap. Upon arriving at the X-ray machine a grumpy male worker says - "The X-ray machine is down, I will have to check your luggage manually. Allan says, "We wrapped our luggage because it will be unattended in the Toronto Airport over night" The grumpy man said "Well that is not my problem is it?" Long story short, he checked all 3 pieces, found nothing illegal but did have a lot of questions about almost every item we had.
After going through the luggage security area we went up stairs to the lounge for a coffee. I attempted to put the handle of my carry-on down - it was not fully cooperating so I gave it another push, this time it went down but would not come back up. Geez! Now what to do? I certainly did not want to carry my carry-on luggage through the airports, it gets heavy after a while. Allan tried to fix it but to no avail. I called Clinton, he was still in the area and had not left yet for his work in Matachawan. He brought me his carry on, I moved my items from mine to his and we were off again. All was well!
Due to the dense fog flights were not landing or taking off from the Sudbury airport so our 2 o'clock flight was delayed until about 3 o'clock. Everyone was happy to finally be on our way, with everyone on board the plane seats were full. We all got comfortable and then an announcement was made telling us we had to disembark and return to the airport terminal because there was a bad storm in Toronto and the Pearson airport was closed to all landing and take-off flights until the storm lessened. Finally at 5:20 ish we were allowed to re-board the plane and took off to Toronto airport without further delays.
We stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel, had a good meal for supper and retired early so we would be at the airport the next morning for our departure to Cancun. Wednesday morning we arrived at the Toronto Pearson again to make the second leg of our journey in good time and all went well until we arrived in Cancun. No luggage for us on the carousel! We went to the Baggage Claim department and spoke with a very nice young Mexican man who spoke English exceptionally well. Cesar was his name, he checked our baggage tickets from our Sudbury flight and found the 3 pieces of checked on luggage were still sitting in Toronto. Damn! So we filled out a Baggage Claim Form, took other information with phone numbers, baggage tag numbers etc. and came to Puerto Morelos with just our carry-ons
One bag did arrive on Thursday morning but to date we still do not have the other 2 bags and wouldn't you know it - they have all of our clothing! We have one set of summer cloths - a dress for me and shirt and shorts for Allan with a change of underwear each which we had packed in our carry-ons. My dress is orange and my underwear is black or navy - I am well dressed for October and Hallowe'en! And, I am the one who brings lots of cloths so I can change often. Four plus days in one outfit is just not me!
Now we sit and wait for our delayed luggage to arrive, it is still showing on line as being in Toronto so we take that as an indication that it is NOT TOTALLY MISSING they just can not find it.
This is the extent of our laundry 😁 The good news is we can change underwear. Things could be a lot worse. We are very thankful for small blessings.
We have competent people looking after our Casa while we are away, Kris our property manager, Juan who tends to our pool and outdoor potted plants and Fatima our house keeper. They had our place in fabulous condition again this year, just waiting for our arrival. Beer was cold in the fridge and there were snacks ready for us too, all to help us take that needed breather after the flight and before going shopping to stock the cupboard and fridge for our full stay.
Coming back after being away for 7 months has its challenges - which is the case with all homeowners living here. There is repair work to be done from damage done by the salt in the air, humidity, etc. such as the water pump seizing, the washing machine drain hose has small holes in it, possibly from an insect or small animal. Allan was able to McGiver the washing machine hose so we can do laundry until we are able to purchase another one but he is not having as good a luck with the water pressure pump. The water system here is normally gravity fed from the roof top through the house so we are able to shower and do dishes etc. There is so much to be thankful for.
So ends our first few days here, the weather has been very hot (33 degrees C) and humid with a bit of electrical activity off in the distance. Beautiful in its entirety!
Until my next post stay safe and keep smiling - it is contagious.
No comments:
Post a Comment