At 4 a.m. we were given a wake up call so that we had plently of time to get to Alaska Air and fly home. We had stayed last night in a luxurious hotel called Camino Real.The beautiful lobby is furnished with modern styled leather couches set on onyx blocks and various onyx large coffee tables and lamps throughout. There are 5 very nice restaurants inside. It is connected to the airport by a walkway over the highway!
So we were at the Alaska Air check-in at 5 a.m. There's where we ran into a glitch. I did not have an immigration card. Like most countries, foreigners must carry their immigration card with them to show entry date and departure date. Jim and I don't ever remember me receiving one. I assumed that because Jim had one that was all we needed for 'the family'. Wrong. The airline guy told me I had to go to Immigration to get a new card.... and the office opened at 7 a.m. The plane also left at 7 a.m. so we were hooped.
We did go find the immigration office but realizing it was only 5:30 a.m. we decided to go back to the hotel, rebook our room for another night, and wait until 7 a.m. It gave us a chance to go back to the very well appointed bed and sleep for another couple of hours. Lovely! At least we could now leave our luggage in the room and not drag it all over the airport again.
We went back to the immigration office and found someone who could talk to us in English. He heard my story and then said I'd have to go to the Federal Police office and have a form filled out before he could process me. So down the hall, out the end door and 30 metres down the sidewalk, across 2 roads of waiting taxis we found the correct office. Again we were happy to find one gal who could speak English and she helped process my information. They looked at my history and found no outstanding warrants, etc. ha ha. I got 2 pages of info with their official stamp of approval on it and then we went back to the immigration office. There I talked again to the young man who knew my story and he asked for our new airline ticket which would allow us to fly out tomorrow. Well, we didn't have anything new. The Alaska Airline man had told us to come back same time, same flight number, and we would be able to fly out with the same destinations. Oh boy, now he asked us to go to Alaska Air and get a corrected flight ticket.
We wandered back down the hall and found Alaska Air was closed. Back to the immigration office and we were told to go upstairs as Alaska Air has an office up there. Off we went again, wearing down by this time... we saw offices for most airlines but not the one we were looking for. Another man helped us by telling us that the office wouldn't be opened until sometime in the afternoon as they didn't have another flight until 5 pm.
Back at the immigration desk we told our friend the sad tale - and then I remember what the flight guy had said about same flight number, same time, etc. I guess it was time to take mercy on me because he pulled out the immigration form, 2 pages of info for me to fill out and a page where I was to write my reason for needing a new card. That done, I saw him stamp my immigration form so it looked all legal and we were on our way. It only took an hour. The up side was that we certainly got our daily walk done and we know the airport well!
Once back to the hotel we really needed some coffee and food. It had been a very long morning. One restaurant was offering a breakfast buffet and we decided to go for it. It will add a considerable amount onto our already doubled hotel costs. Damn the torpedoes is what we decided. The buffet was nice and the coffee was great so we were well satisfied by the time we left there.
So March 3, we will fly homeward, stopping in L.A. for a few hours and then we'll be in Vancouver by 6 p.m. The view to the ground was amazing again. Miles of agriculture fields in Mexico, giving way to sand dunes near the top of the Sea of Cortez, more intense fields of agriculture in California and then a surprising patch of snow on the mountains that surround Palm Springs.
L.A. airport was frustrating. The lack of organization in processing at least 5 massive plane loads of people, almost all of them being fingerprinted and photo taken. We, fine Canadians that we are, were quickly put through when our turn finally arrived. We had time there to look around, have a nice lunch and then wait for our final leg of the flight to Vancouver. The whole LA airport is without computer access so I wasn't able to contact anyone during our wait.
It was great to get to Vancouver and have a fun dinner with Dee, Wyatt, Natasha and Nathan. One night later we were home and in our own bed, and that was good!!!
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