After a ridiculously hectic week and nearly 4 days without sleeping I jumped in a cab at 6pm on Friday night and headed off through the wintery night to Heathrow and the sun.
Having taken the last flight into JFK I was somewhat dismayed to discover that it seems to shut down at midnight and the people who have an 8 hour stopover have absolutely nowhere to rest overnight or get something to eat or drink.
This led to an attempt to stay awake for another few hours whilst lugging my bags all over the airport. A few trips on the circular train line later kept me awake for a while, if only due to nervousness caused by the number of (other) homeless and gang types also lying about. I eventually retired to a large ticketing area in one of the terminals and found a bench, which after a blissful 30 minutes I promptly gave up to an old lady and her screaming baby.
Heading over to another terminal I finally found a water fountain, and after watching someone drinking from it by wrapping their lips round the spout gave it a bit of a clean and had my first drink in hours. Within minutes I needed the toilet so another 30 minute trip round the one-way airport train took me back to the original terminal and the relief of an open bathroom.
Eventually I got the plane down to Miami where I would love to have stopped for a while, but was booked straight on to Cancun. I hadn’t realised it was Spring Break at the time, but the place was full of college students and I suddenly felt rather old.
Arriving in Mexico wasn’t quite as relaxed as I’d hoped – the arrivals hall had no lines or queues so everyone just milled toward the 3 immigration points, and tempers rapidly frayed in the 35° heat. Ignoring all that it took 4 hours to get about 50 meters and I finally emerged blinking into the hot sun and found a cab downtown to the hotel where I was due to meet the group the next day.
