Wake-up call

When we got back from the party, I stopped at the front desk to ask about a taxi, since I would need to get to the shuttle station, ride the shuttle, and be at the Toluca airport by 5:30 am latest.  I was advised to get my taxi for 4 am so I could be to the shuttle station by 4:45 and to the airport by 5:30.  Ugh.  It was already approaching one.  Actually, I had stayed so long at the front desk working out details, printing my boarding pass and looking up the address of the shuttle, that Warren came looking for me!  Shawna had gotten worried.

I packed everything up and slept for less than two hours.  I woke up without an alarm, I guess for fear of oversleeping.  

I was downstairs ready to be picked up by 3:45.  The taxis was there five minutes later.  I had given the hotel man the address and name of the shuttle station when he had called the taxi company the night before, so I assumed all would be well.

Ha.  Always know where you're going in DF.

We get into the taxi and the man asks where I'm going.  I tell him, read him the directions from the printed pages, and tell him the reference points it gave.

We drive for 20 minutes.  We get to the correct area of town and then he asks me where.  As if I know...!  We circle around about ten times and finally stumble upon another taxi and he gets out to ask.  I was fit to be tied at this point.  We still are lost and I'm contemplating not paying my whole fare, but of course I don't have the right change to not pay the extra twenty minutes he cost us.  Plus, I just wanted to be out of there, so when I saw the shuttle station, I told him to turn, gave him my money and basically went running.

In this same drive through shuttle station, you check your luggage for the flight.  I didn't see any scanners and no one so much as opened my suitcase (I think I've mentioned before that in Culiacán they do a thorough search before you even get to the counter).  They weighed it, asked me if I had packed my own suitcase, and asked me to take a seat.  Within 20 minutes, the shuttle came and we were off.

Getting up that early, just to ride in a taxi, just to sit in a bus terminal and then in a shuttle, only to arrive at the airport and wait another hour and a half is NOT FUN.