And now, to México
After our move to Colorado via U-Haul we had one more stop in Austin to wrap everything up before flying to México for a number of months. We’d planned our flight for the afternoon of April 10th, but of course with life being an adventure things didn’t workout exactly as planned (where would the fun be otherwise, amirite?). The day before, weather forecasters predicted Colorado’s second bomb cyclone blizzard to hit that very afternoon. Necessitating a change to our flight out. Luckily we were flying Southwest and they were offering free flight changes due to the weather. Unluckily or fortunately, they only had availability on a 5:00 AM flight, but we took what we could get.
That morning we woke up extremely early and said a very tearful good bye to Tez and our relatives. Nary a cloud was in the sky and the weather was perfect for driving. You might be asking what car were we driving. It was not the U-Haul as we’d dropped that off earlier in the week, nor a Lyft or Uber as they would have been crazy expensive to take, but instead was one of my relative’s cars that could be locked via cell phone app (technology!). We parked the car, texted them, they locked the car from an entirely different state, and then picked it up after they returned from a business trip. Extremely convenient for both parties given that we would have utilized the same airport parking anyway.
We later read that, while the severity of the weather might have been over estimated, Denver International Airport canceled a number of afternoon flights, so we were very appreciative that we made it out. Definitely better safe with an earlier alarm than sorry and stuck at an airport in a blizzard. We can’t emphasize more the importance of lowering the chances of hazards as much as possible when planning any sort of travel.
Once back in Austin we had a few more items to accomplish before our international travel. We had three last items of furniture to either sell, donate, or throw away: One bed, one corner desk, and two chairs. Plus our beloved (possibly for the stories it’s persistent breakdowns generated) 18 year old Volvo to donate to the local public radio station. Craigslist and friends helped to take care of those last items of furniture. For the bed we had a number of people interested in the frame, so we were able to set up a transaction where the interested party made an initial deposit in return for the headboard. They then picked up the rest of the frame a day or two before we left Austin for México City. Getting that transaction set up was intense. We didn’t want to be struggling to find someone a day or two before leaving, but also wanted to make sure who ever bought it showed up on the right day. Time management and negotiation skills were necessary for this transaction to succeed as smoothly as it did.
Smartly, they didn’t want the mattress we had (used mattress = not the first thing I’d buy), so we had to figure out how to dispose of it. Of course the apartment complex didn’t dispose of mattresses, but luckily there are plenty of companies you can pay to pick up and recycle the mattress. We set up a date online, put the mattress outside, and didn’t have to worry about it again, except for when the apartment complex maintenance brought it back inside to their trash area even though we had forewarned them about the mattress being left out for pickup. Good karma points were cashed out a bit after the unfortunate mixup, when we realized it had been moved in but were able to place it back outside a final time.
We didn’t have much interest in our corner desk and two chairs. We lowered the price on both items until we finally had interest in the desk (we ended up giving the chairs away to a friend to either be kept or donated). We got the desk separated into two pieces and helped to pack them into the SUV of the purchaser. At that point we only had the remnants of what we were taking to México and an air mattress.
Everything that could be packed was packed, but of course we had a few items (five small boxes worth) that we just couldn’t get to fit. Which meant we had one last strategy session to iron out details. We were donating our hard working yet careworn Volvo on Saturday, picking up a rental car on Sunday, driving to San Antonio to spend the night there, and flying to México City Monday morning. We checked Fedex office times and found a few locations open on Sunday, thus we could pick up the rental car, package up everything left over, and send one last shipment out that day. Then proceed to San Antonio to spend the night. Good planning and good execution, the pros of a strong couple surfacing again.
Easy peasy… and it actually was for the most part. The only complication being a crazy downpour the day we donated the car to the local NPR station via their car donation program. It had to be parked outside so that the tow truck could get to the car, but we’d already packed all our umbrellas and rain coats (they were literally already in México). We had to doge a number of rain drops, but we got the car donated and the transfer notice done. This was a useful thing to not: when you sell or donate a car yourself in Texas, you have to submit a notice to the state that you’ve taken that action. Luckily it was super simple and took maybe 5 minutes online, plus they email you a confirmation letter.
Now that we donated the car, we needed a method of transportation to get us to San Antonio and the airport, so we planned to rent a car. We took public transit to the pick up location at the Austin airport and drove away in a pretty much brand new VW Beetle Turbo. It had a little over 1000 miles on it and could decidedly accelerate, Hanz had a ton of fun driving the little beast. Our only concerns were if all of the bags would fit. Luckily, the seats in the back folded down so we didn’t end up needing to ask for a different car.
Nearing the end of our preparations we dropped our last packages off at FedEx resulting in only remaining with our packed bags and the items needed to travel with a cat.
Which brings us to possibly the most nerve wracking and stressful part of our travel to México: bringing our cat Xochi. She is super quiet for car rides so we had no issues getting to San Antonio, unlike our drive with Tez (more context in our previous post “Moving from Texas to Colorado”). The stressful part occurred instead at the airport. For a bit more context, we had investigated months prior to our trip what was needed to travel internationally with a pet. México requires that the pet have a veterinary health certificate, proof that the animal (or animals) have been internally and externally dewormed within the previous six months and are free of ectoparasites, and proof of vaccines against rabies and distemper, administered at least 15 days before the arrival of the pet in the country. We had all the paperwork plus proof of vaccines going back years.
The one thing we didn’t know was that the airline, Interjet, required that the veterinary health certificate had to be issued within the 10 days prior to the departure. Ours was issued around 30 days before. This timing is not a requirement of customs in México, just of Interjet and of course wasn’t clearly printed anywhere on their website, not even in their page related to brining pets into México. So we spent probably around an hour attempting to call vets in San Antonio to see if we could get a certificate that day. After that hour, the gate attendant helping us was able to make an exception and we somehow made the flight. The gate agent accepted that the information available to the public about timeframes on the Interjet website was poor or non-existent, and that there weren’t any other limitations established by the Mexican government preventing us from actually taking Xochi with us. If time management and good planning are important, also necessary is making sure that you have your facts and arguments right and defendable, which resulted in a positive outcome for a situation that could have been otherwise very difficult to overcome.
Xochi did great on the plane under the seat in front of Marla, but flying was definitely not her favorite experience, the poor lady threw up a couple of times, but with her sweet disposition she almost made no noise for the duration of the trip. Once we arrived in México it was very easy to work with Mexican customs to get Xochi’s permit into the country. We showed the same paper work, they made copies, Marla signed three different copies plus original, they kept the original, and finally they gave us one to give the exit officer and one to keep. We then picked up our bags, handed over the necessary items, and departed for our apartment in la Ciudad de México (CDMX).
On a side note, we know we haven’t been writing very often, but we really do it whenever we can and we make an effort to write interesting, useful and cool stuff for y’all, but also for us to remember this forever so…
Thanks for reading so far and stay tuned for more stories to come!
