Unpack the luggage

Unpack the luggage, la la la, hi-ho, the glamorous life!

Unpack the luggage

I arrived into Mexico City in the early hours having managed to get a bit of sleep on the plane overnight. When I booked my flights I had allowed myself enough of a buffer to deal with any delays before my flight to Manzanillo. It was a sensible option as the queue at Immigration was rather long and having finally cleared it I still had to wait to collect my suitcase. Having retrieved my luggage I made my way to check in for my next flight. I had lounge access so having cleared security I made my way to the lounge. As I signed in the man behind the desk asked where I was from. I told him. He told me I had a nice accent and nice eyes. I wasn’t sure what to say so smiled politely and went in to the lounge.

Several coffees and a couple of hours later I boarded a small plane for the short hop over to the Pacific coast. I was off to meet Sim, a friend of my Chicago gay who had heard about my travel plans well before I had set off and had contacted me to offer me a place to stay at his. We had exchanged emails before I had left and then sorted out me visiting once I was into my trip. Sim was an ex-pat from London who had recently made the move over to Mexico more permanent having spent quite a bit of time living over there. I knew we would get on well when he sent me a suggested itinerary for my stay in Manzanillo, broken down by day in an Excel spreadsheet. He also told me he had a bottle of gin waiting for me.

The flight was quick, the small plane was only about a third full. The views of the Pacific coast as we came in to land were spectacular. Manzanillo airport was tiny, probably one of the smallest I have ever been through. I got off the plane, walking down the steps and across the runway to the small terminal building. The ground crew already had the side of the plane open and were unloading our cases. I walked right by mine but didn’t think they would be happy with me taking it off the trailer. Once inside the building I headed to answer a quick call of nature. When I got back out the terminal building had emptied out and there were no other passengers in baggage reclaim. There was an information screen informing me that my luggage would be on carousel number 1. There was only 1 carousel. My case was the solitary piece of luggage on the belt. I collected it and headed out to get myself a taxi.

The glamorous life

The pool (without the Mexicans)

I sent Sim a message to let him know that I was on my way to from the airport. The reply I got made me laugh out loud, making my taxi driver look at me in his rear view mirror. The message read “There is gin and tonic in the fridge and I appear to have laid on two Mexican boys for your arrival”. A few messages later he assured me that he wasn’t some sort of playboy. It turned out that a couple of his friends had arrived earlier that morning to visit for the day. Within half an hour of arriving I was in the pool with a gin and tonic and two Mexicans. I was introduced to Sim’s friends, Cristopher & Alejandro. Cristopher explained that Alejandro didn’t speak any English. Suffering from a bit of jetlag and a couple of drinks I couldn’t cope with speaking Spanish so as Cristopher chatted to Sim, Alejandro and I just smiled at each other for a while.

Sim suggested that we should go get a late lunch so the four of us headed into downtown Manzanillo. Sim took us to a place that you probably wouldn’t notice was there despite it being on the main road. From the outside it didn’t look like anything special but we got a warm welcome from the owner who Sim obviously knew. It was a small town and as a tall white Brit I guess Sim stood out a little so people remembered him. I was told I should try the local seafood cocktail. I did and it was great. After lunch we dropped off Cristopher and Alejandro at the bus station so that they could catch a bus back home to Colima and we made our way back to the villa so I could have a siesta.

The view from my room over the bay

A couple of hours later there was a knock on my bedroom door which woke me. I had asked Sim to make sure I didn’t sleep late, knowing that if I did then I would run the risk of sleeping straight through and wake up at some ridiculously early hour in the morning. Sim asked if I wanted a gin. I declined, saying a coffee was probably better for me. We sat out on the back patio overlooking the pool and the bay as we drank our coffee. I had missed the sunset, Sim told me it had been stunning but there would be other nights for me to see for myself. Over coffee we had a really good chat, putting the world to rights. Sim said it was really nice to have another English person to speak to for a change. Despite having only met him that morning I felt really relaxed in his company, as though we had been friends for year. I didn’t say anything as I wasn’t sure if it would sound weird saying it aloud. I didn’t need to worry about it sounding weird as shortly after I had thought it Sim turned to me and said it felt like we had known each other a lot longer.

It got me to thinking that I had been immensely lucky with the people that I had met on my trip being so kind and welcoming. Staying with someone who I didn’t get on with could make for some interesting blog material but so far I had got on really well with all the gays I had stayed with. I figured that the sort of person to open up their home and life to a stranger on the recommendation of a friend would have to be an outgoing and friendly person to start with but there was still a risk that we wouldn’t get along. I wondered whether being gay gave me an advantage on this type of trip. A couple of different friends had said that they were envious of my trip and that they didn’t think they would be able to do a straight version. Long live the gay mafia!

“Unpack the luggage, la la la, hi-ho, the glamorous life!” 
Lyrics from The Glamorous Life from the musical A Little Night Music