Arrival In Ixtapa

Our January 14th departure narrowly followed weeks of general confusion and delay at the Montreal airport due to extreme weather. As the photo below illustrates, we left, only slightly late, in piddling rain.

That slight lateness did lead to adventure at the Mexico City airport where time to board our connecting flight to Ixtapa was short. First, the immigration department needed to review all passenger's papers. Then we had to retrieve our luggage and bring it for X-rays, then go to the area where we ourselves were screened. By then we had ten minutes to get aboard our connecting flight.

We speed-walked. On the way a flight attendant approached and asked if we were going to Ixtapa. We said yes. She asked for our boarding passes and told us to follow her. She ran through the populated concourse dodging the slow and the stationary. We ran and dodged to keep up. The public address system rang out with anxious Spanish words. The only ones we understood were "Edwin and Carol Sheppard." We knew we were wanted, which is normally a good feeling, but our running power was ebbing and the attendant, far ahead waved for us to keep running. We pressed on at full speed, which by now was seriously affected by the law of diminishing returns.

The intense voice on the P.A. system filled the concourse again, and again we recognized the names "Edwin and Carol Sheppard!" Our fore-runner whipped out a walky-talky apparently to reassure the voice. We huffed and puffed our way down rampways, somewhat pushed by the luggage on wheels we towed, and arrived at the exit where shuttle buses take passengers to the plane. The attendant had us wait while they figured out which bus would transport us. Since, at the time, buses were no longer taking passengers anywhere, we were assigned a bus just for the two of us that shuttled us for twenty seconds to the plane. If they hadn't stopped us running down the ramps with rolling luggage our momentum would have carried us to the plane sooner.

We made it to the plane and the forty minute flight brought us to Ixtapa. A fifteen minute taxi ride later we were in our lodgings.

This morning, after connecting to the Internet, an email indicated a little remote business to care for, so I set up an office-away-from-home. The photo below shows me in my office, this evening, preparing this blog.

Today we took a bus to the Commerciale (supermarket) in Zihuatanejo for groceries. On the way we passed a number of police cars and some army vehicles carrying out an operation of some kind. No one seemed curious, no crowd gathered, and we rode on by. Walking from the bus stop to the supermarket we noticed an older couple who had stopped by a low wall in the shade with the woman sitting on the wall. She had a NWT Bible open in her lap so I asked, "Testigo de Jehova?" They brightened at the question and starting speaking to us in Spanish. When I gestured to indicate we were JWs too the woman got up and gave us both a big hug and kiss on the cheek. The brother happily shook our hand. From total strangers to instant family in five seconds flat, language barrier no problem. But, oh my, would it be nice to speak Spanish. Maybe we can accomplish a bit of that.

The way to our condo on the 11th floor takes us by a open area offering an impressive panoramic view shown below ...

All things considered, we are off to a very agreeable start.