Great.  Just flippin’ great. 

So…up and at ‘em at 5 in the morning for a quick shower and into our personalized taxi service (compliments of my Wonderful Aunt and Uncle!) for a no-traffic trip to the airport.  If this is any indication of our imminent cruise vacation, then life is good indeed.

Yeah…whatever.  Arrival at the airport certainly gives us ample time to get checked in, bags offloaded on to the ramp and into the security line up.  Naturally as soon as WE got close to the line, they open up the cattle corral and the line instantly became 3 times as long.  This should have been a bit more of an eye-opener but in our defense, we generally don’t get up this early.

Through the line BUT…my dear wife did NOT put her laptop in a separate container which necessitated a more in-depth scrutiny of her carry-ons.  Ok…we’re through, finally and no harm no foul.  But now we are about a ½ hour before boarding.  Not really enough time for breakfast so we’ll just have some breakie on the plane.  After all, Porter prides itself on its inflight meal offerings.

The bird is airborne with the exits purely decorative.  NOW I remember I had forgotten one of my (somewhat important) meds at home.  Great.  Just flippin’ great.  Ok…I’ll call the pharmacist as soon as we get to our hotel and find out what my options are.  Don’t think there are many but also fairly confident nothing hospital-warranted will happen.  C’est la Vie (cuz that’s where we’re headed now, right?)

OK!!!  Here comes the coffee/other beverage cart (and yes there are people choosing wine and mixed drinks rather than coffee.  Free booze IS free booze I guess).  Food will be right behind, correct?

Well…no…that’s likely on the NEXT flight.  Not ours.  Apparently, Porter is struggling to determine the correct number of breakfasts to include in their flights due to sometimes they all get eaten and sometimes very few get eaten.  What is the happy medium?  Well, it is NOT being determined on the flight We are on.  The first 4 rows get breakfast… (equivalent to business class people) …. the rest of us do not.

Improvement is scheduled… tentatively… sometime between ‘eventually’ and ‘never.’

The flight itself is level and bump-less, landing is done on all wheels with no wingtips touching the ground.  Temp outside is about 21, relatively cloudless and quite comfortable.  Waiting for luggage is…boring as there are 4 other planes offloading at the same time.  Finally, it comes around and we make our way to get a taxi to the hotel.

This proved to be…unique.  Certainly, very quick to get a taxi…hardly any wait at all as there is a LONG line of never-ending taxis anxious to take whomever, wherever.  Locked and loaded and off we go.  Being in a taxi certainly has advantages, not the least of which is the taxi/bus only lane on their Henday-like freeways.  Most interesting is the part where the speed limit (clearly posted numerous times) is 70.  Our taxi driver (and to be fair, maybe this is standard??) feels that 120 is Much more appropriate in the taxi lane.  And I’m not exaggerating.  I checked many times…if there were no other vehicles ahead (and wow…most of the time there were not), his speed never got close to 70.  120 was his number (maybe it’s more fuel efficient for his car??).  More likely was the fact that it was a set rate to our hotel and the more he can do in a day, the better off he is. ($49.45 before tip).  We did check Uber…$50 minimum and they can’t drive in the taxi lane.

There’s our hotel front door and we get out unscathed.  Check in (no issues other than my dear wife can’t remember her PIN number for the credit card – can this day get better?  Ever??). Up to the room (which is nice and what we had requested.  I guess they’re not operated by Porter…)  Washroom break and a quick reconnoiter to reflect on what to do next.

Two things…call pharmacist and food.  The phone call turned into what I had anticipated.  Long story short, can do without for the 2 weeks but expect a reoccurrence of some … side effects. Be careful of sugar intake.  Ok…this is doable and I will NOT let it lessen my resolve to have a good time.  As for the other… departed from our hotel in search of food. Landed at Café Vasco da Gama. Mission: tasty sustenance.  Goal: accomplished.  In fact, it was such a success, tomorrow’s breakfast (and there WILL BE breakfast!) will be here once more.

The feet are tired with a long day before eating (which can wear a person out).  A few interesting tidbits were seen within a 4 block radius of our hotel but the room beckons.  Exploration of old town is on the agenda for tomorrow.  One side note…. there is NO LACK of Money in this city.  Expensive clothing stores, restaurants with prices that are near the top of the skyscrapers around them, cars that cost as much as my house…New York North??

The frame of The snake is covered in cerami tiles from Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico. The translation of the plaque is:

The Coata (from the Nahuatl word Coatl, snake)
2018-2019
Javier Senosiain-organic architect Enrique Cabrera Espinosa de los Monteros in collaboration with the Senosiain Cabinet
CONSULATE GENERAL OF MEXICO CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MEXICO IN MONTREAL
75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Mexico January 29, 2019.

The ‘cheap’ car (maybe…$100K ?) was parked most of the afternoon right outside the front door of our hotel. The other (which in the light of day is the most fabulous blue I’ve ever seen on a car!) was parked around the corner and down the block from us. His license plate says BULLMRKT. Hmmmm…wonder what HE does for a living….