rechelle's lifelyrics

Well, to put it lightly, I took “learning the hard way” to a whole new level.

You may have seen my article, “Celebrating Milestones,” at the beginning of the year. Ray and I went to Cancun, Mexico for a few days of warmth and relaxation in January. When I shared the video I made about it with my friend Michele, she said, “I want to do a trip like that!” We decided to do a girlfriend getaway to celebrate both of us turning 60 this year, and I started making all the travel arrangements in April for our December vacation.

Last week, we flew to Atlanta, spent the night, and got on the plane to Cancun the next day. I reserved a shuttle from the Kempinski Grand Hotel to pick us up at the airport, and we were looking forward to having dinner at the Kempinski’s lovely outdoor restaurant situated on the perfect white-sand shore of the Caribbean Sea.

Things began to go sideways when we got off the plane and the official demanding to see everyone’s passport before entering the line for entry stopped me dead in my tracks. I showed him my passport, but he shouted, “No! I need the book!” I told him I only brought my passport card, and we were going back and forth about what type of international travel accepts the card when I saw Michele in the line.

I quickly told her, “You go ahead, because I don’t know how long this will take.”

I am so thankful I told her to go, because I later realized the Mexico officials would have sent both of us back to Atlanta since I made our flight reservations on the same ticket! Fortunately, she went through customs, found our shuttle, and got checked in at our hotel.

I was passed from one official to another, answering a ton of questions, and then ended up in the migration office at the airport. In between answering questions, I was trying to communicate with Ray to see if he could overnight my passport book from Eugene, Oregon to Atlanta, Georgia so that I could hopefully join Michele the next day if they really weren’t going to let me enter the country without it. They took my phone away from me when I was placed in the office, and another official came in and talked to the lady at the front desk. He then came over to me, and demanded, “Where is the person you were traveling with?” I didn’t have my phone, so I wasn’t able to find out where she was (or complete my conversation with my husband). He went back over to the front desk, and they were saying things I couldn’t follow.

Then they had me fill out and sign several Spanish-only forms. My Spanish isn’t very good, so I was asking, “What am I signing?” They wouldn’t answer me. I was shaking. The man was rushing me, because he said the plane was waiting for me. I asked if I could just stay there and wait for my passport, but he told me I had to get back on the same plane that brought me here.

I finally got to the 4th form, and filled out the top part: all my identity information, my spouse’s information, and then I saw questions about the names of all of my children, and at least 20 more blank lines, for me to fill out. I said, “You said I need to hurry because the plane is waiting. Do you really want me to finish filling out this form?”

He said something to one of the ladies in the office, and she pointed to the bottom of the form, and said, “Just sign there.”

Once I signed the form, they handed me my passport card and phone, and he said, “Let’s go.” He walked in front of me, and another female agent walked behind me, all the way to the door of the plane. I looked at him when we got to the door, and he said, “GO!”

When I got on the plane, the flight attendants were so empathetic, but I still didn’t have time to process everything that just happened. I called the Kempinski to make sure they would allow Michele to check in without me, and then I had to put my phone in airplane mode. I still had to worry about getting a room at the same hotel I just checked out of in Atlanta, and verify that my passport would be able to be sent to the hotel. Ray and I were able to start texting and get things worked out once I got signed in to wi-fi, but I would still have to work on making flight arrangements to return to Mexico with my passport book the next day. Even though I was paying for a resort hotel in Cancun that evening, I checked in to the Atlanta Airport Embassy Suites and had dinner by myself while on hold with Delta Airlines.

I was on the phone with Delta for 2 hours that night, and learned that I’m not the only one who has had this kind of conundrum. Apparently, mine wasn’t the worst situation either. Stephanie said it is called a “Trip In Vain,” and she was able to get me on, basically, the same flight the next day. Ray paid an extra $50 for my passport to arrive by 9:30 AM ($170 total).

My passport arrived at the hotel by 8 AM! I finished my breakfast, got packed up, and headed back to the airport for a real-life déjà vu experience. Only this time, I had the proper documentation, and going through customs was no problem. Fortunately, Kempinski gave me a discount on my shuttle, since I had to pay for half of the shuttle cost the day before without being able to use the service.

At some point, after the whole experience was behind me, I remembered a scene from my trip to Mexico with Ray. He told me we needed our passport books, and I argued with him because we had used our cards for travel to Canada a couple of years ago. I remember saying, “It says it’s ok for travel to Mexico and Canada!” Well, he did some research, and proved that we would need our books for international travel by air. We brought our passport books for that trip. He doesn’t even remember that we had that conversation, and, obviously, I had completely forgotten about it until learning a difficult, very expensive, lesson. I can tell you, assuredly, that this experience gave me knowledge I don’t have to worry about forgetting in the years to come! I don’t think either of us will ever forget the necessity of having the passport book with us for any international travel (just to be safe).