As per usual this certainly wasn't without drama and change of plans due to the quirks of airlines and flight plans. My original plan was to fly to Merida and make Merida my home base for this return trip. Cancun is on the eastern side of the Yucatan while Merida is on the western side, and most of the remaining Mayan sites I be visiting are on the Merida side.
So I went online to book my air tickets to Merida for March..... only to find.... Sheeze they are expensive!!!! Indeed some $600 more than what I paid for on my October trip. OK let's try April.... May.... June... even September..... and it was much the same!! Air tickets it seems had gone up by $600 to $800 compared to October 2017!! OK inflation could not have been THAT bad!!!! It just didn't make sense. Merida is only a 4 hours bus trip from Cancun, probably less than an hour by air. The $600 price difference just didn't make sense!!!
OK I will need more time to save my pennies and postpone my trip until October next year.......
However as I sat there looking at the proposed flight plans to Merida feeling rather let down, suddenly it jumped right out at me!!!!! There are FOUR flights to Merida as opposed to just the THREE flights that I took to Cancun. All flights to Mexico from Australia is via the USA, and from here in this most isolated city on Earth, it is one flight to the east coast, then another flight to the USA, then finally one flight down to Cancun. However for Merida there are TWO flights from the USA, with the stopover usually in Mexico City.
In other words there are no direct flights to Merida from the USA!!!
Now let's try flights to Cancun in March using the same app or the same website. Suddenly prices dropped by at least $600, and it was back down to what I paid for my October 2017 trip!!! It still seems crazy that this extra flight would cost an extra $600 but it certainly seems that way. It seems even more crazy when you consider a bus trip on a First Class luxury coach from Cancun to Merida, a four hour trip, is only about $70 Australian. So a round trip by First Class bus amounts to only $140 - still $440 cheaper than taking flights to Merida from Perth!!!
Consequently I've booked my flights to Cancun, so be spending some days in Cancun before taking the bus and spending a few days in Merida, getting the bus back to Cancun in time to catch my flights back home.
Back in October it was Virgin's turn to offer cheap air tickets. Now in March 2018 it is now Qantus' turn to offer cheap air tickets. I am certain there seems to be some system where each airline takes turn in offering cheap air tickets.
So going with Qantus, my flight plans are different, and stopovers at airports are shorter, only about 2 to 3 hours each, making for slightly shorter transit times. In going to Cancun there is still the infamous "red eye" flight, overnight from Perth on March 11, but this time landing in Melbourne. Then that long long loooooooong flight across the Pacific to Los Angeles. Then finally a short hop down to Cancun, arriving a couple of hours earlier while it is still light. On my previous trip it was dark when I got to Cancun.
The return trip is different again. From Cancun the flight is to Dallas, then from Dallas it is back to Sydney, making this flight that much longer, all 17 hours of it. But being in those huge double decker aircrafts it will be more bearable. Virgin uses those smaller "airbus" for across the Pacific, but Qantus has those huge double decker aircrafts. Then finally back to Perth on March 28, arriving mid-morning, giving me the rest of the day to recover.
The other news of note...... the landlord offered to extend my lease by TWO years!! Sheeze he must really like me. It helps to be a Virgo, we tend to keep our living spaces more tidy and more organised, what landlords likes. Of course the sting in the tail is the rent increase, though still less than the upcoming wage rise. The two year lease gives me the security I need to help me concentrate on my world travels and to clear out my storage unit which necessitates keeping items in my abode temporarily until I recycle them or give them away.
So next in my plans is booking my lodgings in Cancun and Merida, and working out how long I will spend in Cancun and Merida, working out logistics in bus schedules, the tours, etc. My wage rise hasn't kicked in yet. My air tickets were paid for from funds I had left over from my October trip thanks to Cancun being not Perth, that is, living in Cancun is way cheaper than living in Perth!!! I spent very little on food in Cancun, transportation is relatively cheap, and even the tours are relatively cheap. So didn't spend as much money as I thought. Yes there are benefits of planning for Perth prices in budgeting and saving for my trips, it always means I have money left over.
However I will have to wait until I get the backpay from my wage rise, currently at five months, before booking my hotels. The agreement has been ratified, so just a matter of time before the wage rise kicks in. Typical of government, they jump on you if you're a day late in paying the bills and taxes, but they take their own sweet time when it comes to giving money back to you!!! Nevertheless, it shouldn't be long before my wage rise kicks in, it be before Xmas. And even so, I always get my end-of-year holiday bonus on the first pay period in December. Between these two payments this should give me more than enough for my hotel bookings.
Next my passport. It will need to be renewed otherwise I won't be going anywhere, I be left very high and dry!!!! My passport expires in April next year, and you must have at least six months remaining on the passport to travel. So will need to renew my passport pretty well as soon as possible.
Then the fridge........ if I have enough left over after paying for the hotel bookings and passport renewal then I should be able to get a fridge. Otherwise it will depend on the success or otherwise of my savings plan, given there is only four months before I leave for my 2nd sojourn to Mexico.
Nah.... more like the Saturn Chiron squares throughout 2017!!!!
The truth.........
In Perth.... not enough even to pay the bills and our very high taxes !!!!!!
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