It would be a very inexpensive three-month holiday, I told my other half. We belong to two dog sitting sites: Trusted Home Sitters International, and Housesit Mexico. Many members of these two sites, no longer have their own home, they just travel from sit-to-sit. “We could do that too,” I explained to my dubious husband. So, long ago, on my birthday last July, I booked return tickets to Mexico with Air Transat.
They were a great price, and I like Air Transat. We flew Jan 16th., with a return ticket leaving April 16th.
Three months to wander a country we both love, and save money by taking care of other people’s beloved animals in return for free accommodation.
It turned out not to be as easy as others describe it. There were some sits, but they were often in the summer, or over Christmas, or long distances apart. Any that did come up, had about 100 or more applicants. “Well, I said after months of trying to fill huge gaps, guess we’ll have to use some Airbnb’s. The skies were sunny when we flew into Puerto Vallarta, to begin our adventure. First stop an Airbnb for four nights. I loved it, Tom didn’t, could have been because it was on the 3rd. floor. He didn’t notice the great views.
So, in total during the nine weeks, we stayed in four Airbnb’s, five hotels, had two dog sits, and stayed in a house. I unpacked a total of 12 times. And as Tom pointed out he lugged suitcases up and down a total of eight flights of stairs.
Our first sit was in February, in Teacapan with Lily, a two-year old Standard Poodle. We were new to Standard poodles, but Lily was a good teacher. She had the exquisite manners, you would expect from such an elegant looking dog. She was in her own home, and went for a walk twice a day with two dog friends, and a human she knew well. She was just fine, having us as butlers. She didn’t seem to grieve for her people, although she was thrilled when they returned. One morning I didn’t quite understand what she wanted, so she padded over, took my wrist gently in her mouth and led me to the dog cookie jar. She was a pleasure.
Our next sit was the reason we had decided to winter in Mexico. A colleague of mine from long ago, had been asking us to sit for her for four years… in fact back when she had had two border collies, and several cats. The dogs and one of the cats went over the rainbow bridge, but soon she had rescued a Chihuahua still had a cat, also a rescue and needed pet care so she could go for a tour of Ireland in March. She flew out on March 10th.
Oh, there was the odd story about a scary virus, but our biggest problem was settling down the animals not how a virus would affect us?
In the meantime, Canela, the mighty 6 -pound Chihuahua, and Minou or Little Kitty as she’s called, were getting used to us. “Canela is usually allowed leash free” said a helpful neighbor. “I know, “I responded but she can get out the gate, I’ll give her a day or two on the leash so she doesn’t decide to chase the long-gone car. In two days, Sandra’s tour had been cancelled, and the news in Europe wasn’t good. She started looking for a flight home. In the meantime, our Prime Minister told all of us who were out of the country to come home immediately.
Here’s the thing, we were responsible for those two animals till their person got home from Ireland.
She finally had flights and was due home in Ajijic on the 22nd of March. But what if she couldn’t get in. She flew to Toronto, and then changed planes to fly to Mexico City, then on to Guadalajara.
What if, what if?
Minou and Canela are nervous of change. They both adjusted well to us but of course they miss their Mama. Canela is in love with Tom and panics if he goes anywhere without her. I was nice and all that, and walked her and fed her, but Tom was her idol. The four of us in a double bed made things a bit tight, but we managed.
So, we needed a bed on the 22nd if Sandra made it and until we could get a flight home. We had a flight on April 16th., but who knew, there may not have been be any flights by then, so we needed a place where we could stay for a while if necessary.
Suddenly we heard from a trusted airline industry person on FB that our flight had been cancelled. Not a word from the airline, or Cheapo Air who we booked with. Like everyone else, we both spent hours and hours on the phone and texting. It brought new meaning to the phrase “Your call is important.”
I could only imagine what it was like for the staff to try and answer all these calls.
A couple of days later, we had a text from Cheapo Air, to tell us our flight had be rescheduled, and we should call them. We tried for days, finally we got “Your flight is not within 72 hours, so call then.”
And then five days later, Air Transat texted us, the flights had been changed to two different dates. “just show up, on one of the dates.”
In the meantime, we had booked another flight out of Guadalajara, to connect in Dallas /Fort Worth, to our final destination Toronto. And just in case nothing worked, we looked for a house rental for a long stay.
We had backup, thanks to my cousins Claudine and Al. They offered their house in a quiet small community close by, and if necessary we could stay till October.
Sandra made it safe and sound, and of course quarantined. As we left, Canela followed Tom like a shadow, Little Kitty reacted like all cats, distant, as we continued our journey.
Our choice was Air Transat from Puerto Vallarta, even though the airport in Guadalajara was just 40 minutes away but the flight on AA was 8 hours with a change in the US. PVR was direct non stop and just 5 hours. So, we gulped and paid the CAD $450 for the five and a half hour drive to PVR to avoid the confusion of travelling on three different bus companies, each with three different terminals.
We were at the airport at 7am the next morning, and there were already 100 people at least in unidentified lines ahead of us. By the time the desk opened at 8:30, the airport was packed. We were told we had tickets, but we didn’t and the stand-by lines were added later, so because we were in the wrong line, we went to the back. The guy behind me fainted twice, and three women including me did our best to keep him from hurting himself.
It was to put it simply chaos … the ground staff didn’t have information to give us as things were changing so fast. But they did their very best.
We looked at the lines, and said, “We won’t get on, they said there were only 40 seats”. We were discussing plan B and C, when suddenly the line moved quickly, and we were next. We were dumbfounded, and the last on. Transat had sent a bigger plane, not only that but there was an empty seat between us. Thank you, Transat.