Arriving in Mexico

At 7:15, on Nov 6th, my cat, Mehnu and I got on a USAir flight from Washington DC to Mexico City. We were heading to a small village, called Teotitlan, in the state of Oaxaca to start the next chapter in our lives. I knew it was not going to be an easy trip for either of us, but I don't think either of us was quite prepared.
My dear cat has traveled with me quite a bit but not on an international flight. He didn't complain too much, even though he did spend 12 hours in his carrier. As you can imagine not a happy cat! Everyone was very nice to him, especially the lady who sat next to us on the flight to Charlotte. She even reached in his carrier to give him a scratch!
The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Mex. City at 12:30pm Mex. time. That's when things bogged down, I stood in the immigration line, with a 15 lbs cat on my shoulder, for a little over an hour. Then to the Mexican Agriculture Dept to get Mehnu's papers checked. The gentleman was very nice,but his computer kept freezing up. We were with him for another 30 minutes. Finally all was said and done and we set off to find our bags and my friend Sarah. One good thing about hanging with the Argo guy, was that my bags were waiting for me and everyone else had already cleared customs. No more lines, Woohoo!!!!!!!!!
Sarah had been waiting at the airport for almost 2 hour, what a friend! Off we went to find a taxi and head to her place in the Polanco district of Mexico City. To my friends in DC, don't ever gripe about the traffic, until you have been to Mexico City. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get to Sarah's, averaging about 15 mph.
Sarah lives in a huge, lovely apartment in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Mex City and she was soon getting me some food and tea as I got Mehnu settled in the guest room. Was he glad to get out of his carrier! He really is a calm old fellow and he made himself right at home.
After some grub and a couple of cups of good strong tea, I curled up with the kitty for a short nap. I had probably been asleep for about 20 minutes when Sarah knocked on my door to tell me we were being evacuated from the building. Seriously!!!!!!!!!! There was a gas leak and all the buildings in a 10 block area were being emptied out. Sarah and I had to leave the cats, hers and mine, and get the ---- out. We again crawled though traffic and found a restaurant a safe distance away to have some wine and wait it out. Talk about adding insult to injury, my poor cat, sitting in a carrier for 12 hours then getting blown up in a gas explosion but it turned out to be nothing A tanker carrying the stuff they put in natural gas, to make it smell had, sprung a leak. So it was the smell of gas not the gas itself. Anyway we made it back to the apartment, hugged the cats and went to bed. Thus ended my first day in Mexico!