Mexico 2016 Day 6 – Tuesday 09 February

As Anne's and my flight would not be departing until 15:00, and Roberto told us our shuttle to the airport would not depart the hotel until noon, we slept in, sort of. We were up about 07:00 and went down for our last breakfast in the Galleria Plaza. Then we went back to our room and got to the arduous task of packing to go home. It’s always “fun” trying to put more into our suitcases than we arrived with, because of the various souvenirs and other items we purchased, including a fine small statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Anne was concerned would not survive in the checked baggage and thus took care of in her carry-on. But we did manage it – one trick is to bring at least some items, including in my case some very-comfortable-but-really-on-their-last-legs shoes, that you are willing to leave behind to free up some space! We decided to go ahead and check out early (I think it was about 09:30), then take some time wandering around the nearby streets. Anne still had a few souvenirs and sacramentals – including some more medals and rosaries – that she wanted to obtain.

Mexico 2016 Day 5 – Monday 08 February

We were up for breakfast at 07:00 and to leave in the bus at 08:30, headed for our second visit to the Shrine at Guadalupe. On previous mornings Anne had spied a nice white lacey scarf with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Juan Diego, and Pope St. John Paul the Great on it being sold by one of the street vendors who would swarm around the bus as we were boarding. It was always the same ones, and to my surprise, Pablo said these vendors were legit, but on Sunday morning the particular vendor did not happen to have the one Anne was looking for. He promised he would have it “mañana” – and he did, so she bought it. I ended up purchasing a 2’x3” banner of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from him as well.

Mexico 2016 Day 1 – Thursday 04 February

Anne and I were up shortly after 03:00 and left Natchitoches about 04:30, arriving at the Shreveport airport at about 06:00 for our 08:04 flight to Dallas. We had an unpleasant surprise of a $40 checked-baggage fee for each of us.[1]  We had breakfast and passed through security. I finished transcribing various friends’ prayer intentions into my pilgrimage notebook as suggested by Taylor Marshall in an email a week or so ago, for presentation to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

We had an uneventful flight to Dallas where we first exchanged $600 US for Mexican pesos … which I would later learn also uses the “$” sign. I’m not sure what the exact exchange rate was there (it’s notoriously not that great, but we were paying for the convenience since neither our bank, nor any other that I know of in Natchitoches, does currency exchanges), but in general the exchange rate was $18 pesos per $1 US; I just used 20 as a rough on-the-fly estimate. We also grabbed a bite to eat, then boarded the plane for Mexico City a bit after they began boarding but well before wheels-up. We had another uneventful flight, except for some kind of immigration form that they only had in Spanish. Luckily, a young lady seated next to Anne was able to talk us through it. The pilot announced early in the flight that there was some turbulence at normal cruising altitude (36,000 ft.?) so he kept us low at about 28,000 ft. for the duration of the flight, which made the views of the landscape quite striking as we crossed into the rugged mountainous area around Mexico City.