Hope all the readers have a great 2013! We just got back from another nice loop through Mexico's great cities, this time Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Colima and Guadalajara, so we're psyched for the new year, in Mexico.
Anybody that can find the time off should take advantage of it. Volaris, Interjet and others offer discounted airfares. Buying four to six months ahead, we've gotten remarkably low fares: that, combined with amazing intercity bus service can make travel in Mexico a bargain; then, Mexican cities, and the differences in the people from place to place, make travel in Mexico as interesting as almost anywhere you could name, and it's a lot closer! We were charmed by the people in Colima, and Jalisco, whose behavior towards foreigners seemed so much more natural than what we experience here, at times. They didn't give us any more, or less, attention than they did others, just because we were foreigners, and they seemed very relaxed with us. [I'm sure it's worth noting, in relation to that observation, that we were practically the only foreign tourists we saw on our journey, as most of the tourists were Mexican; for example, on our flight from Guadalajara to Cancun, we were the only non Mexicans on the flight. The exception to this was on the streets of old Puerto Vallarta, where lots of foreigners have residences.] This is the third year in a row that we've chosen to travel in Mexico at the Christmas holidays, and the weather has been uniformly delightful.
We flew from Cancun to Virginia and back this Christmas and Jorge was the only Mexican on the flight! The flight attendants didn't even know which forms we needed to fill out to come back into Mexico haha Very different from your experience.
I use vivaaerobus.com - Vuela a los mejores precios for my interior flights - the most Ive ever paid for a return to DF was 1098 pesos. Usually lands around 850-900 pesos Mexico is a beautiful country - it should be everyone's plan to someday see more of it than "just" Cancun, DF etc.
Gringation...haha! I always have to speak verryyyyy verryyyy slowwwlllllyyyy to the American flight attendants when I explain to them that husband doesn't need a form for the FMT. It usually goes like this: Me: He's good. He doesn't need one of those. Dumb Woman: yes, he does. Me: No, he doesn't. He is a Mexican citizen. Dumb Woman: It doesn't matter he still needs it.
Happy New Year! Hope to see you soon, Joe. gbchayctca, I have that same conversation a lot. They are just doing their job, and I'm sure they don't have it scripted for that scenario. Last time in, I was rewarded for all of my attempts to save wasted paper being handed to me. They had no FMTs to hand out on the plane, and the passengers were told to remain seated until they could hand them out. Having my return portion already, I was able to debark, walk right up to an empty immigration counter, and my luggage was on the carousel by the time I arrived. Good karma does come back around.
