The Departure

On January 12, 2008, I boarded Mexicana airlines flight #801 bound for Mexico City en route to spending the better part of a year on a to-be-determined travel plan through South America.

Despite the fact that the plane arrived 1 hour before departure (with no inbound passengers) and had been fully stocked, cleaned and fueled, we still managed to leave 35 minutes late.  The boarding process didn’t even begin until 5 minutes before our scheduled 2:10pm departure time. And the flight attendants/gate agents seemed in no rush to get us going. Usually with U.S.-based airlines there is at least an explanation/reason for a late departure; here there was no explanation and no one seemed to care.

I awoke in daylight to my first ever glimpse of this vast continent....

I know this will be a recurrent topic in my blog, but I don’t think my over-developed sense of corporate-style or Americanized punctuality is going to serve me well in South America. Even after 3+ months away from a job I still have an unconscious expectation that everything will start more or less on time, or that there will be a “good” (or at the very least some) reason and explanation otherwise.  I think my travels will probably break me of this expectation fairly quickly.

After a 4.5 hour flight, we arrived into Mexico City only 15 minutes late just a little before 7pm. I spent my 3-hour layover in the airport browsing the duty-free section, which included a global assortment of luxury brands: Burberry, Hugo Boss, Ermenegilda Zegna, Cartier, Omega, etc. For some reason this surprised me; I would have expected this collection in New York City or London or Los Angeles, but not in Mexico City. However, I’m really glad these luxury shops/brands were available for the browsing; it should provide very sharp contrast and relief with many of the other I places I expect to find myself in during my travels.

The available cell network was movistar, so I spent some time exchanging a few text messages with the family (screwing around with my brothers of course, and sending reassuring messages to my parents to calm their nerves and let them know I wasn’t in over my head yet and had at the very least gotten myself to my first destination).

For the next leg of the trip, I boarded another Mexicana Airlines flight (#1691) headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Again, the 10pm departure time seemed like more of a suggestion or guideline, and we left about an hour late; again for no discernible reason (my Spanish is good enough to have figured out if there was a mechanical problem or crew shortage or late arrival or any of the million other excuses that U.S. airlines so frequently employ to calm their irritated passengers). Thankfully I had a window seat with no one next to me, and the aisle beyond that; I stretched out as much as my 6’3” height will allow and slept maybe 3 or 4 fitful hours.

I awoke in daylight to my first ever glimpse of this vast continent, with the Andes range to east, flying over northern argentine farmlands. South America, here I am…..