A 6am start for these chaps loading our bikes into one taxi and us into the other taxi.Although Chetumal is a town of 250,000 people the airport is not too far out from the centre.Of all the airports in all the world that we have travelled through this is the first time either of us have arrived at one that is closed at 6.30am.The lights are on and no one is in – we eventually see the staff arrive that will serve us in due course – and not a trolley to be found.It is also the first airport we have used that did not have baggage trolleys or Porters to assist with carrying luggage. Do not be too impressed with our position at the head of the queue; it took them as long to check us in as it did the remainder of the passengers. They had clearly not seen bike boxes before let alone knew what or how to charge for them and having two separate boxes for ‘suitcases’ completely confused them. Little did we realise that this was going to be the first of several challenges over the next 37 hours as we travelled back to Europe. Security was our next hurdle; we always carry parcel tape in case they damage the bike boxes in transit or require them to be opened and we have to reseal them. Today we encountered the most awkward security man who insisted that we would not be able to take the tape as hand luggage because it could be used to mask someone’s face/mouth or bind them at the wrist -the first time either of us had heard this one. What made this hilarious was that whilst he focused on this roll of tape from David’s bag he completely missed half a packet of unused cable ties – much more effective at tying people up by their wrists – in the same bag. It didn’t end there; when boarding they decided that David’s understanding of Spanish was not good enough for him to occupy the Emergency Exit seats (extra legroom) in case of an emergency landing and they moved us into ordinary seats. This provincial airport only has three flights a day and now we understand why! The flight approaching Mexico City proved very scenic…….. ………….one of the local volcanoes decided to put on a display for us.Mexico City – we are allowed to take the luggage on the trolleys as far as the exit from Customs then the Porters are the only ones allowed to transport excess baggage throughout the airport. Naturally we were at the opposite end of the terminal to where we needed to be for the Check In for our international flight and we had an eight hour layover before take off. Agreement was reached that the Porters (at one point we were surrounded by 5 Porters and their head/supervisor who wanted to take one box each to maximise their income until we insisted that only two would be paid and that they had to carry one bike box and one ‘suitcase’ box each). They took us from Arrivals to Departures, however, we were left at a restaurant for our layover as shown above. This was fine except we had to push or drag these boxes (there were no Porters on the upper level where Departures is located) for over 100 metres to the Check In. Check In was straightforward although the Security staff insisted on opening one of the bike boxes This they did and resealed the box with their own security tape.Barcelona Airport – this was the state of the boxes with one flight to go and is the reason we carry parcel tape in our hand baggage. Fortunately the chap in Chetumal didn’t discover the extra roll of parcel tape that Olivia was carrying and we were able to patch up these damaged boxes. The way our airport experiences had gone we were concerned that Security would open at least one box, however, they had another surprise in store for us. The Customs man pulled us over at ‘Nothing To Declare’ and we were charged 200 euros each because the bikes had been bought outside the EU and we were importing them, therefore, we had to pay the Customs Tax. The fact that we were able to show them the Police documentation from when the previous bikes were stolen which necessitated the purchase of these bikes did not make a difference.
Ibiza Airport Car Park – no issues on our arrival here and it was a simple loading of the bike boxes as shown with our pre-arranged family pickup transport. What a trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mexico and Belize 