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Airport Security

Two days ago, Ms. FinN and I flew back to Montreal from Cancun. We had spent two weeks in the sun, away from the cold and the snow. There was some level of trepidation as to the security we would encounter at the airport, so we arrived very early (way too early it turns out).

First thing first, the highway between Merida and Cancun just begs for a Porche Carrera, you could easily hit 250 Kph on that road... its a very straight an quiet highway in the Yucatan. Anyway we arrived at the airport far earlier than I had anticipated, returned the rental car at Hertz, and walked across to the terminal -- there really is something to be said for small airports.

We quickly found the Air Canada check-in counter, we had already printed our boarding passes, so it was rather fast, our entire trip has been that way. On arriving in Cancun in December we cut across the terminal (we've been there a few times already) and skipped a long line (don't know why it was there) to walk down to the customs area. As we arrived int he customs zone, a security agent opened a new lane, result: total time in Cancun airport (including bag retrieval) was 20 minutes. Anyway, we arrive at the Air Canada counter and there is nobody waiting, just a family shifting cloths between bags to get the maximum 25kg per bag allowance. Again, we arrived at the airport at 11:45, and at 12:15 we are already checked in.

We were lucky, first car to arrive at hertz, about a dozen arrived just after we did, and returning cars in Mexico is bit more complicated than just about anywhere else in the world.. and check-in at Air Canada, were promptly after we check-in about 15 passengers were suddenly waiting to check-in after us.

I then got really nervous, because I've got a certain rule on travelling; if too many good things occur something really bad will follow; e.g. the airline will lose our bags, accrued security etc etc. Anyway, we walk to the security counter and there is no appreciable wait time, so we sit down for our last Mexican meal, at an airport restaurant for about 2 hours (they had Wifi so we went to town).

Eventually we made it trough security (about 5 minutes total) and went to wait for our flight. We arrived at the gate, where they announced that our flight would be boarding soon (as was a JetBlue flight a few gates further), this was 45 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave! Anyway giving the first class passengers, parents with kids and anxious travels a chance to get on board, we finally walked to the gate (still about 30 minutes prior to departure) when the gate attendent made its "last Call" announcement, we were just about the last people to board, we sat down (emergency exit row -- how lucky can you get) and the pilot announced that we were leaving early (20 minutes early in fact).

Security at the gate we the usual, show us a picture ID and your boarding pass, now this is the interesting part, the JetBlue flight I mentioned earlier that was off to NY, they had the whole nine yard security screening, with pat down of each passenger and each piece of carry on luggage being completely emptied, and checked for... I don't know what they are looking for! Anyway, sitting smugly in our "non-prison" like flight, we taxied by another terminal where most of the US carriers seem to be located, and I could keep from thinking that these passengers flying to the US in the dedicated terminal probably didn't have as much of a pleasant experience that I did flying back to Canada.

It sure makes me happy not to be a super power

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