We had a bit of a misadventure on our way down to Mexico. First, our flight through Calgary was wonderful. We arrived at noon and had two hours for a leisurely lunch before our flight down to PVR. Perfect. No American customs to go through, no stress about border guards. It was awesome.

On the flight we were sitting with a very nice lady who was a travel agent, so we learned a lot about the industry. Very interesting stuff!

We land in PVR at about 8pm, no problem. So we stand by the baggage carousel and wait. And wait. And there are two dogs in cages who have been sick on the flight and it stinks up the room. And there are no bags for us. There are a few luggage fellows running around, so one fills out a WestJet lost luggage form for us, and says they will call us tomorrow on my cell phone. Cool, that's fine.

So outside in the parking lot our rental car was supposedly waiting for us. A nice, new, white Jetta. Alas, there is no car meeting that description in the lot. In fact, there are only three cars left in the lot as ours was the last flight of the night and now security is locking up.

A taxi driver comes over to offer us a ride (obviously) but we explain our situation, and he takes us to the girl in the parking toll booth. She has a cell phone so she calls the rental car company. They messed up our dates! oops! So taxi driver drives us to Bucerias where we are given a Dodge Caravan for the night. The company pays for the $40 taxi ride.

Here's the thing: my cell phone was on its last bar of battery life, and the charger was in my checked bags. So at this point it's a race against time.

Tonight our very kind neighbours let us use their land line to call the airport, but it just rang and rang. When we did finally get through, we learned that our bags were there! Yay! They had come in at 5pm today! But no, we could not pick them up. The lady would call us back in 10 minutes with a delivery time. Well, by 9pm we had not received a call and they had not answered any more of our many calls, so we headed to PVR. Inside the airport we learned that WestJet had an office across the street. This meant an adventure with the laterals. If you've never been to Mexico, it's a side street that the shops are on and that you must turn left from, to keep the centre lanes flowing smoothly. Anyway, it took us three drive-bys and a talk with some locals to decide there was no WestJet building in the area. :( So on the way home we nearly hit a stray dog. Nearly.

BUT when we pulled up to our security gate, guess what was there! Both of our suitcases! Yay!! They had been dropped off 15 minutes earlier.

So NOW, 24 hours into our Mexico vacation, we have our clothes unpacked and our rental car organized and our cupboards stocked with most of the food we need. We just also have four toothbrushes, six disposable razors, two tubes of toothpaste... well, you get the idea. The condo is well stocked :)

Bring on the vacation!!