Baja Bernie - 12-26-2011 at 11:10 AM
Ah! Well, as in feeling better…A few thoughts about the San Jose del Cabo International Airport…Flying in I looked for the Circus Tent roof line but
could not find it. Felt like a fool and almost proved to myself that I was in fact getting much older. Ah! Well.
Got back to the airport and with my first view I felt, oh!, so much better. Entered the ‘old’ terminal and found the Circus tent skyline. How many of
you know that it was designed this way to reflect the fact that when the International Airport at San Jose de Cabo was first opened it was comprised
of two circus tents, one yellow and one blue. True my friends.
So, anyway, we entered the new building and checked in at Alaska and found that our flight would be two hours late. Sooo!—we had four hours to kill.
Wandered upstairs, via a ramp, and then through Customs. Interesting when we began to board we had to go down another ramp to get to our plane. Makes
no real sense to me.
Watching people in an airport is one of my very favorite pastimes and I surely was not disappointed here. I noticed a little old guy pushing a huge
old lady through the machine at Customs. He tried pushing her through three times without success and finally a little cute Customs lady helped by
successfully pulling the fat lady through.
He rolled her into the sitting area and parked her next to a section of seats just down from us. Then he adjusted his shorts, took a deep breath and
raced back through Customs and returned with three huge carry-on bags and surrounded her wheel chair with then and disappeared for a long while.
Scurrying back he placed two more carry-on bags on top of the others effectively forting her up so that the wheelchair could not move if it wished to.
Scampering rapidly away he again disappeared for what seemed like an hour. The poor lady became very agitated as she constantly rotated her head
looking for her missing husband, son—hell whatever I have no clue. Anyway he did finally weave his way back to her side and they exchanged harsh
words and he moved the baggage so that she could exit her wheelchair. She then, rapidly, walked—almost ran—to the lady’s restroom where she remained
for some time.
Back to my book for a few minutes when I was interrupted when Jaime struck up a conversation with a nice lady from Alaska who had just spent three
weeks in a time share in Cabo—she had no clue what Baja was about because she only left the environs’ of her condo when she and her husband went
fishing. No, they did not charter Cabo Magic so they didn’t have much success.
They were going to Florida—via Los Angles to go through American Customs and then on to an overnight stay in Seattle where they would board a
connecting flight to Florida. What the heck kind of travel agent did they have?
When the husband showed up he and I go into a wonderful discussion of religion when he began to relate how a Native Alaskan member of his church began
telling of his venture into the hereafter and his visit with God.
We went back and forth, in a friendly sort of way, as we discussed all kinds of stuff surrounding the various religions of the world. When I told
him I thought that all major religions were basically the same he became visibly agitated and quietly told me that there was really only one religion
and that was Christianity. The conversation continued until their flight was called and as he got up to leave I said==I am always on the way to
being! He scowled at me as he left—then smiled and said that he wished we had more time to talk…Real nice folks!
By this time I was getting rather hungry and found a place to get a couple of hot dogs—Boy! They were good but after we took off I found my stomach
expand rapidly. It got so bad that Jaime was acting like she didn’t even know me as I continued to gasp from the intestinal pain while making very
loud noises. This on top of the pneumonia left me most uncomfortable for the entire flight.
Feet back on the ground and the swelling deflated like a balloon.
Back home I did some research and found that the cabin pressure of a Jet Liner is purposely kept at a setting that makes your stomach, and other gases
in your body, expand up to 43%. There are many recommendations to mitigate this action and one of them is—don’t eat anything for a couple of hours
before boarding AND surely do not eat Hot Dogs.
My study revealed that the air in a jet is much drier than any desert in the world—to keep the fancy electronics from rusting—don’t you know. It
recommends that you drink 8 oz of fluid for each one hour of flight time to keep from being dehydrated. Ha! Here to the east coast would require that
you drink about 60 oz or seven bottles of water Can you imagine the line waiting for the bathroom in second class.
Okay! Perhaps more than enough!
Doing Baja is much more fun on the ground and much less painful. Here’s to Bouncing Around Baja!
Bajahowodd - 12-27-2011 at 04:44 PM
Great post, Bernie.
"Wandered upstairs, via a ramp, and then through Customs. Interesting when we began to board we had to go down another ramp to get to our plane. Makes
no real sense to me."
That one has always made me wonder. For some reason, despite the ever increasing number of international and domestic flights to this airport, when
they built the second terminal, primarily for Alaska, they did that crazy upstairs/ downstairs thing, seemingly because purchasing and installing
jetways was prohibitive. Thus, unlike the first terminal, they could have double the area for sales, food and whatever, on the same footprint.
On the other hand, despite this being almost 2012, there are many airports all around the world, many that are major international hubs, that require
passengers to walk the tarmac.
Yep!
Baja Bernie - 12-28-2011 at 06:49 PM
Thanks...It is the Jet ways for sure...one day they just may put them in...