Day 1:
We left home at 3am after a couple of pictures of me in my clothes and rucksack on my back. The ferry at 4 arrived and I said goodbye to my family. The journey across the Solent went rather slowly but as soon as we landed in Portsmouth, we walked around and waited for the bus. 5.20 am the National Express coach arrived. Rucksacks went in the hold and I found a seat by the window. Southampton seemed huge. Felt like we were driving through it for ages but at least the seats were comfy. At Southampton University a guy got on and sat next to me. He was on the way to Heathrow Terminal 1. (I was being nosy) We got off at Heathrow terminal 3 after leaving half the group at terminal 5 since they were getting a different flight. The machine to get boarding passes wasn't working so we had to queue for check-in. A lady asked what electronics were in my hand luggage and for some reason stuck a sticker on the back of my passport. (Still to this day, 7th October 2017, I have no idea what that was for). The check-in guy gave us our boarding passes and name tags to put onto the rucksacks and sent them away on the escalator. Mine weighed 10.4kgs.
We made our way through the airport via WHSmith's for snacks. I had a prawn sandwich, a twirl, wine gums and a Ribena. We then went to our gate, ready to board the plane. I collected some free reading material and we took of on our flight around 11am. The plane ride was really good and for the 7 hour flight, the entertainment was great. I took interest in 'The Amazing Spiderman', 'Admission' and I did start 'The Impossible' but remembered I had seen it before and knew I cried. I did not want to be a sobbing mess on a plane. I put on some music and the first song that came on was 'Home' by Philip Philips which didn't help when I was travelling 5000 miles away for the next 17 days.
We landed in JFK airport with plenty of time for our next flight to Cancun. At the security gate, a 100% American was giving me a lecture on how to enter someone's office politely whilst he took my photograph and fingerprints. Didn't have to collect and check our bags again since we were on a connecting flight the bags automatically made their way to my next plane. We had to pass through some more security where I had to stand in a cylindrical machine with my arm up, feet apart.
Once on our flight, my seat happened to be in between two of our chaperones who also happened to be married to each other so I switched with one and got myself a window seat. No personal entertainment on this flight but a TV situated every 10 rows or so had some Matt Damon film playing.
It was dark by the time we landed in Cancun. Since being in London we were used to the air conditioning systems the airports had so the moment the automatic doors opened to Cancun, we were hit with 100% humidity. We arrived at our hotel for the next 2 nights around 11pm. It had been a long day but it will be worth it.
Manuel a member of Operation Wallacea met us at our hotel to get us sorted. We were give room keys and bracelets so we get breakfast!
Operation Wallacea - Named after the Wallacea region in Indonesia where a guy named Wallace discovered evolution around the same time as Darwin. Wallacea was where the first expedition began.
----------------That is day 1 of my Mexican expedition. I promise not every day is as long as this one but stick around for more about the trip.
Toodles for now.
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