Farewell Mexico!

It was sadly the end of our 14 month Latin American adventure and the time had finally come for us to leave Mexico after such an incredible 6 weeks.
We had a direct flight booked from Mexico City to San Diego in the US. Sounds simple yes?! Well, the reality was a journey that began at 4am, involved arguing with airline staff, a missed flight, 5-6 kms of walking around the airport, more arguing with airline staff, a flight to Tijuana, 4 hours in a border queue, arguing with US border officials and an eventual arrival into San Diego 8 hours later than expected. My, were we exhausted. On the plus side though, we had lots of time to practice our argumentative Spanish and finally get what we wanted!
Oh Volaris, what an airline. We were unable to check-in online for our flight to the US, so we lined up in the queue 2 hours before departure only to find that we were still in the line when check-in was closing. I asked a Volaris employee about my concern, only to be told 'tranquilo' - it's all ok, you'll make your flight. Finally 15 mins before the flight was about to leave they checked us in and told us to hurry to the gate. Rushing through security and running through the airport, we arrived at the gate just as our flight was taking off. Ridiculously, this airline, checked our bags in but did not hold the flight until we arrived! So we spent most of the morning trying to locate our luggage so that we could catch the flight to Tijuana - the slightly dangerous Mexican/US border town. It was a real insight crossing the land border into the US, as we got to experience first hand the treatment of Mexicans by US officials. Shocking. We were also treated badly, making it not the nicest welcome into the States. We were hoping that this was not going to be the sign of things to come.
the past 14 months in Latin America. We were faced with 4-lane highways, huge cars containing only 1 person, clean and modern buildings, copious amounts of fast food outlets, a slight feeling of emptiness. We had nothing against San Diego. We liked the city, its relaxed atmosphere, sense of space and clean coastal air. It was just such a huge contrast to Latin America, hustle and bustle, constant blasting music, colour, traffic, pollution, cramped spaces and sense of community spirit.

We stayed with John and Hayley, friends from Australia who have lived in Carlsbad, San Diego for the past few years. They were fabulous hosts and live on the most beautiful of Californian streets in a proper Californian bungalow with the gorgeous and feisty Chester! Thanks guys for showing us a fab time.