Lost in Transit

As we have mentioned, we were pretty happy to have left Cuba and to spend a day or 2 in London to see what the real world was up to. Due to the swine flu we had to fly Havana, Costa Rica, Mexico and arrive in Mexico City Airport to occupy 19 hours before our flight to London. Not preferred but we had no choice. We were lucky to have flown business class so that look the edge off it a little…tee hee hee.
Arriving in Mexico City airport at 11.30pm we went to the airport hotel which was the Hilton, once again not preferred but little choice (no complaints though). We handed over our cash card to book the accommodation and nothing happened, it was declining. No worries we said, lets try the credit card, also nothing. Not the first time it has happened as our bank has shut us down for security reasons, so we call the english bank Natwest and they say everything is fine their end and we have more than enough money to cover it although the hotel was not seeing the same information. Anyhow after 3 hours of trying we finally went to the business centre in the hotel and booked it online, all worked fine. It was extremely worrying that we were in a city where we had no access to any of our money. I must say I never want that to happen again and can only hope the banks in OZ are better. At 3am we finally had a bed to rest our heads….if nothing else. Few tears from Tish from the long day.
Woke up in the morning and went to the cash machine and it was like nothing happened last night. Cards were working fine….thanks to the banking lord but more dramas when we woke. We couldn’t check in online for our flight which in previous experience has meant something is not right with our booking, so after 4 hours of finding a correct BA phone number (nothing works fast in Mexico airport) we finally got to speak to someone that told us our agent had not linked the booking number with the online check in…phew! Sorted it out and checked in. Some of you might ask why we pursued the online check in when we were at an airport and this was because we were there so early before our flight and a boarding pass from online gave us access to shopping and better facilities in departures.
Finally after some shopping we hopped on our flight at 9.30pm and all went OK, apart from the very drunk Spanish lads behind us drinking till 3am….another sleepless night.
We arrived into London so excited to be in a country that we know so well and the sun was beaming…..unheard of! We were staying at our good friends house Tom and Hannah for the night (originally 2 nights but was changed while we were away) We were so so so so happy to see them and they spoilt us rotten. BBQ in the garden, cold beers, good giggles and Tish was handed the biggest cheese plate she has seen and for Simon a cheese cake.YUM. We were nearly in tears of the thought of having to leave. A few loads of washing, good feed, few hours sleep, restock bits and bobs and we were on the plane again the next day to East Africa – Tanzania, an Arab port city called Dar Es Salaam.
To sum up, our transit goes something like this, Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico, London and Africa in less than 72 hours, throw in 2 sleepless nights, issues with cards and you have one hell of a transit.
At this stage we were feeling a little homesick for the first time but knew once we hit Africa it would be great.


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