Mexico Day 1

The moment the kids and I got our passports I was ready to get a stamp in it. I have dreamed of getting a passport and finally saying I’ve been out of the country. I figured Greg would get his shortly after ours so I was safe to start planning a trip. We had talked about going to Mexico this year for a while. We celebrated 10 years of marriage in 2020 but because we were married in the fall and Greg hunts we never celebrate it then. So we’d talked about going to Mexico in the spring to celebrate. When we found out my sister was moving to Italy and we’d need a passport it all just seemed to make more sense to get them.

A few days after the kids and I got our passports we got a letter saying that Greg needed to submit a new photo. He was wearing a green hoodie that had camo lining on the inside of the hood, barely visible but that’s enough to need a new one. Literally the day we got the letter he went and got a new photo taken and I mailed it back the following day. I figured we’d have to wait a few more weeks for his passport, never dreaming how long it would actually take.

Because I was optimistic about when Greg would get his passport I booked our vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was middle of March and I booked it for the last week in April. As the time for us to leave came closer and closer I was getting more and more nervous about Greg’s passport. I was literally checking the website daily. I called them several times but they wouldn’t talk to me about his passport, so I had them call him…they did not give him anymore information then what the website did….passport is in progress.

A few days before we were supposed to leave I realized that even if they sent his passport out we would not get it in time. So we had 2 choices, the kids and I go without him or we reschedule the trip. I honestly would of gone without him if it came down to it. I didn’t want to, I really didn’t want to. Luckily I booked everything through Costco Travel, so I called them and they were sooo easy to work with to reschedule. They gave me options for canceling or rescheduling. The nice lady I spoke with looked at it from all different angles trying to save me as much money as possible – in the end it was better to cancel the vacation and take a credit to use towards rebooking. It ended up costing us $600. We were only able to push it out a bit over 3 weeks. If we went out further prices for the trip went up significantly….making it WAY beyond our budget. So I rebooked hoping Greg would get his passport in time this time. The week we would leave now was over the 12 weeks they say it takes for a passport.

I went to Vegas the week before we were to leave for Mexico and he still didn’t have his passport, I was back to checking it online daily. Luckily, while in Vegas Greg sent me a text with a picture of his passport, he had received it! We could all go to Mexico the following week. I was so so so relieved.

Then the day before we were leaving I was checking us into our flight and putting in our passport information and realized that Jayse’s passport and an error. It said he was a female! I freaked out. Like we are supposed to leave the following day. I didn’t know if this would trip us up somewhere so I got on the phone. I called the passport place – they said the couldn’t do anything in a day I should call the airlines. I called the airlines, they said it didn’t matter to them as long as he had a ticket they don’t care but maybe TSA would since they are the one who check the passports. I called TSA they were super nice and said they didn’t really look at that and honestly they didn’t think anyone really did. Especially traveling to Mexico, he said they need tourists and are pretty lenient on things but said I should probably bring his birth certificate and call Customs and Border. I called the Customs and Border they said it wouldn’t bother them call the US Embassy. I called the US Embassy they said they didn’t check that to call the Mexico Embassy. Again the Mexico Embassy said it wasn’t them I should call Mexico Customs & Border at the airport we land in. I called them and nobody spoke any English. At this point I just figured we’d roll with it, act like we knew nothing about it and hope we made it ok. We didn’t and still haven’t told Jayse about the error. I didn’t want him to be nervous and act weird.

On Saturday morning the day we were leaving we had to get up pretty early. Our flight left at 7:50 and we wanted to be to the airport about 6:30, we took an Uber to the airport with a really nice gentlemen.

The travel to MX was actually pretty easy and nice – we didn’t have any problems with Jayse’s passport – in fact mostly people barely looked at the kids. Our only hiccup was when we got to Mexico we didn’t have a pen. I had decided to not bring my big purse and only took a small wallet with a small purse, therefor no pen. We had to have a pen to fill out the customs information. It was hot and humid and we were sweaty and hungry. Luckily when someone was finished with their forms they left the pen and we were able to fill everything out and get on our way.

Because I booked with Costco Travel they had a private van ready to pick us up. They had said specifically do not talk to anyone until you see the driver outside the airport with a blue shirt on. Well that didn’t last. We were bombarded with people….seemingly nice. Offering us tequila shots and margaritas. We got suckered into one. I was happy to keep saying no no no but Greg the one who I was depending on to get us out of these situations was the one that got suckered in. The guy was offering us free tickets to a water park and a swim with dolphins (which was on our list to do) for free if we went to a hotel to tour it and tell our friends back home about it. I was very specific that I did not want to go to no timeshare thing I didn’t want to waste a minute of my vacation with them and he kept saying no it’s not like that, uh hu. But Greg thought it sounded like a great deal and agreed to it. The guy promised to pick us up at our hotel the next morning. Then things got weird he told us not to tell our driver we talked to anyone and arranged something…said they didn’t like it. Then said he couldn’t come up to our hotel we’d have to walk down the street a bit to a gas station to meet him the next day. Seemed very suspect to me but Greg was still in.

Once we got out of the airport and found our driver sure enough he asked if we stopped and talked to anyone, we lied and said no. We went on. We arrived at our hotel and it was so beautiful. We got into our room with an ocean view. The hotel was so open and airy with a breeze through the lobby and halls. It was great! When we got to our room and saw the pool and the ocean we couldn’t wait to get down there. So that’s what we did. Got our swimming suites on and headed down. We played in the pool and went to the beach until sunset. We went back up to our room changed and got ready for dinner. We weren’t sure where to go yet so we decided the easiest thing would be to eat at the restaurant in our hotel. It was very nice, we ate close to the pool with the palm trees as our background. We learned really quickly we’d need some bug spray. The kids and I got several bites – Greg of course got none. All in all our first day in Mexico was amazing.