January 18, 2022 My Journey Home

I spent my last days in Mexico making the most of my time on the beach. The heat of the sun warmed my body and the sounds of the surf warmed my soul.

It really wasn’t that bad getting stuck in Mexico.

Funny thing was now that I knew I was going home I felt a sense of loss at the realization my extended vacation was about to come to an end.

I haven’t had this much calm in my soul in a very long time.

Sun, surf, sand and cervesas had a very therapeutic effect on me. When I felt too warm lying on the beach I would get up and go into the crashing waves and ride the surf back to shore. I felt like a kid again, playing in the water.

Sometimes things happen for a reason

Staying an extra eleven days in the warm climate of Mexico certainly provided me with a great chance to recharge and relax. I missed my family but being alone and hanging on the beach was just what the doctor ordered.

Good thing I didn’t need to see a doctor for my viral infection.

I sat there in the sand and spotted Tuc my fellow positive traveler. We both knew Ron and we both tested positive on the same day. His girlfriend went back to Canada on the same flight my girls did and she also tested positive upon her return. We agreed to meet up for a beer and compare notes. He’d decided to stay until fourteen days were up but I was taking advantage of the new rules and going home after only ten.

Was I really taking advantage of it?

It was very easy to check in for my flights online and the ArriveCan app was painlessly executed. I took advantage of one last night in San Jose Del Cabo and met my friend Ron for a bevy and to watch the playoff football game.  He told me that yes my daughter would remember this trip but it would be one I could take with me for the rest of my life as well.

Indeed it was a trip of a lifetime.

I awoke on my final day to the call of nature. I took a minute to look out the window and saw the fiery red sky above the swaying palm trees in the front yard of my AirBNB.

Without much of a thought I grabbed my phone and took a picture. Automatically I got dressed and headed to the beach.

I had to go see one last sunrise on the shores of the Sea of Cortez.

I walked briskly toward the beach. I had done this walk so many times in the past week it was automatic. No coffee, no water, no hesitation. I didn’t want to miss the rising of the dawn. The song kept playing in my head.

I’m up before the dawn… and I must be moving on.

Starbucks was on my route to the beach and I hoped it was open. I looked in the window and sure enough there were two baristas standing there getting ready for the day. I grabbed the door.

Locked.

I checked the time, 6:48 another twelve minutes and Starbucks would be open… but those twelve minutes would mean I would miss that much of the sun rise.

Strangely coffee didn’t seem as important as seeing the full effects of my final sunrise. So I kept moving on.

The town was coming alive with the rising of the sun. There were quite a few people on the beach taking in the amazing sight. I said hi to one lady as she walked by. She stopped and her face was aglow with the moment. 

“How can it get any better? The sun is coming up and the full moon is going down. Beautiful!” 

I agreed and took in the sights around me. On one side of the sky the sun was peeking up on the horizon, on the other end the full moon was glowing as it began to descend to the western horizon.

It was a great way to finish my trip.

My flight was leaving at three o’clock that afternoon. I jumped on a bus at noon and headed down the highway. I wanted to be early in case there were any problems.

At 12:30 I walked into the lobby of the San Jose Del Cabo airport and found one of the machines that could print my boarding passes. Afterwards I thought I would go and sit down and have one last beer outside while I waited. I was two and a half hours early and the airport was pretty quiet.

I pulled up a seat and saw these two gentlemen having a beer. After all this time on my own it felt natural to strike up a conversation. They were two gentlemen from Lake Tahoe on holiday to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Andre and Ramon were very friendly and we chatted about life in the caronaverse. The next thing I knew they bought me a beer in celebration of his upcoming birthday. 

It was nice to meet these gentlemen and I wished them a great time. It was time for me to be moving on. 

The airport was quiet and I had the fortune to be seated in row five so I walked on the half empty plane and waited for take off. My plane taxied down the runway and off we went, on my way back to Canada.

It was very easy getting through customs and the agent seemed disappointed that I had already had a positive test. Was I sick? Did I have any symptoms, no I told him never did feel sick at all. He sent me through and I never needed to take another test. Everyone else on the plane got randomly selected. But I can now travel for the next six months without having to test at all.

I walked out of the customs at YVR the last leg of my journey yet to go. Then I saw the screen with my flight to Kelowna – delayed. By two hours! I had three hours to kill until I could fly back to my home. Scheduled arrival was 0:25. I wouldn’t be home until one in the morning… oh well at least I would be home.

For some strange reason I found myself outside of security and I had to go back through security to get on my flight to Kelowna. What the? So many things don’t make sense anymore and there I was being told that my 150 ml bottle of hot sauce was too big. Like I’m going to blow up an airplane with hot sauce. The only thing the sauce might do is blow someone’s ass up. There was no line for security so the agent told me to go and dump some of the sauce out into the garbage. Really? I just flew all the way from Mexico with the hot sauce and now some young girl fresh out of school and her friends tell me to pour out the sauce so I could go home. I wasn’t in a rush and wanted to keep what sauce I could.

So I complied and squeezed a bunch out… not enough I was told. Really? Wow how stupid could you get. There comes a time when common sense get replaced by asinine rules made by some college grad who has never lived in the real world. And here were these young girls making me dump a bunch of the sauce because… I have no fuckin idea why. The world is making less sense every day and the rules being enforced make people frustrated. Just like all the conflicting rules around covid.

Common sense is gone.

As I walked toward the restaurant in the boarding lounge a gentleman struck up a conversation with me. We both agreed the walk from the international terminal would be almost impossible for elderly people. We also agreed that common sense was gone. The next thing I knew he joined me at the table in the bar for a drink.

Cary was only five years older than me and he was from Victoria. He was semi-retired and spent a lot of time in Cabo. He owned a condo there and frequently traveled back and forth. He’d been given the random test, they sent him with a box so he could test when he got home. He was confused and concerned. He told me about a friend of his that had been given one of the test kits and then just threw it away. Never heard anything again.

He was planning on traveling more so he would do the test. What about the elderly people in front of me that had to take the test. Would they be able to? Could they do it by themselves in front of a zoom call? Not likely. What if he just ignored it like his friend? What a strange world we are in.

So many questions and so few common sense answers.

When the bill came he generously picked up the tab, I tried to decline but he just smiled at me and wished me a good trip home. 

It was a great end to a crazy adventure in the sun. Being the beneficiary of not only one but two different strangers buying my dinner and drinks made me feel pretty good. It was the easiest trip I had ever been on if it wasn’t for two hour delay in Vancouver and that wasn’t bad because it allowed me to connect with a very generous stranger..

It was 12:30 when I rolled into the welcoming arms of my wife.

Home at last.