So as of last week we have made the move to Mexico. In front of us was what seemed liked the impossible task of picking up our lives and moving to a foreign country, Mexico, while leaving our business, our home, family and friends behind. On a more tactical level there were many things that needed to get done before we could up and leave. And once we arrived, there were several hurdles we needed to tackle right away to put our lives back in place such as:
1. Step two in completing the immigration Visa process in customs to become permanent residences of Mexico.
2. Next catch the buses from the Cancun airport to Cancun and then on to Merida.
3. Once here complete the immigration Visa process with the local immigration office with the help of an immigration's specialist.
Finally, interview and find the baby a school so that she can start her socialization and learning about the new culture.
For this entry, I will focus on how the steps above went for us, as many of you have been following the journey leading up to this week.
First, we arrived in Cancun on time with little to no drama. At the Atlanta airport we checked 5 bags and each carried on 2 pieces of luggage on the plane. Our first miracle was that the largest of our two suit cases weighed in at 50lbs each which meant that all of our bags that we checked flew for free. Praise the Lord and Thank you Southwest.
Secondly, we arrive in Cancun on time and the line for customs on a Tuesday was super fast. The customs agent was super cool and efficient and processed our CANJE, the stamp in your passport, with no issues. If you remember, the last two times we entered Mexico we had to tell them not to stamp our Visa pages. This time there was no issue. She stamped the visa page and told us we had 30 days to complete the process. From the time we exited plane and made it through to the luggage pickup, and then on to the counter to purchase the ADO bus ticket to the Cancun terminal, it took less than 1 hour. This also included potty breaks.
Next was the challenge of getting all of our luggage from the airport to the bus which a was super easy as we were able to take the luggage cart from the airport all the way you to the spot were the bus picked up. We only had a 15 minute wait or so once we arrived at the bus departure point, which is at Stop D on Terminal 4 at the Cancun Airport. So the timing was great with minimal waiting time.
Once we arrived to the Cancun main bus terminal, we had the challenge of collecting all of our bags and getting them to the Platino Lounge. As Murphy’s law dictates, if I had 2 bags and didn’t need any help I would have had to tell 10 people “I’m good, I got this.” As it turns out, I had 10 bags and a sleeping toddler and there was not a soul around that offered to help. No worries team Monte and Tnita made it do what it do. I took the luggage to the lounge and came back and got the ladies and the rest of the bags. We had just enough time to take another potty break and then hand off the luggage to the ticket counter and board the bus on to Merida.
Finally, after 4 hours and 15 minutes we arrived in Merida with all our stuff. The ubers here are so small that we had to take two cars. Not a problem! Two cars later and about $3.00 dollars for both, we arrived at our Airbnb. In all it was about a 12 hour day door to door. But to see a dream begin to be realized made it all worth it.
In the next update, I’ll fill you in on the rest of the week and finding the baby a school.
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Until Next Time.
-Mexitplans Monte
PS: I just reread this article after almost a year. One of the craziest things that happened to us when we arrived at our Airbnb is that we left the bag with our passports in it inside one of the two Ubers. Luckily, we were in Merida and we called the driver and minutes later he showed up with our stuff untouched. This would not happen all over Mexico and definitely not in Atlanta. This could have been a rough start to our adventure.