We’re happy to say that we made it safely to Montevide! It was a long journey down, but we’re excited to start exploring our new home of Uruguay.
Our journey started Sunday, May 10 at 5:00 pm when our shuttle picked us up at our home in San Diego to drive us to LAX (Los Angeles Airport) for our 2:12 am flight on Copa Airlines.
It took us 45 minutes to load the shuttle… we had 13 large suitcases, 2 small suitcases, 2 guitar cases, 2 backpacks, a stroller, car seat and the 3 of us! Luckily we hired a private 15-passenger van so everything fit neatly.
My Dad (Rick) made a surprise last minute visit to see us off and helped us get everything out the door and packed onto the shuttle van.
Our driver wasn’t informed that we had so much luggage (even though we let them know when we booked the shuttle and again when we confirmed it). Our driver was a little (5’3” 120lb) Filipino woman. She was great, but thank goodness Brian had Dad there to help him get the van packed.
The drive up to LAX was pleasant; our driver was very friendly and we chatted with her a quite a bit. We had to be there by 8:30 pm when the Copa Airlines counter opens, because we had so much luggage with us.
We got there with about 30 minutes to spare, so after Brian and our driver got everything off of the shuttle, we got in line and waited (see picture below).
We experienced a slight glitch when checking in for our flight to Uruguay…
The conveyor belt behind Copa’s check-in counter was out of service… So after Brian carted the luggage to be weighed, he then had to haul each suitcase (average weight of 68lbs each) to the TSA security checkpoint about 30 meters away.
When we had only four bags left for Brian to haul down, the conveyor belt behind Copa started working. So the bright side is, at least he didn’t have to cart down the last 250lbs+ of luggage ☺
Although the line was quite short, going through the security gate was a bit of a fiasco since we carried most of our electronics on board with us. But, the TSA agents were very accommodating once their Sergeant came over. They wanted us to open up and look through and x-ray everything.
Their Sergeant began asking what things were. Brian started piping out, “This is the router for this… the adapter for that… this wireless gizmo for this… these are our personal papers… blah blah blah…”
The Sergeant smiled and asked, “You guys are moving, aren’t you?” When we looked up and said yes, he smiled and just waived us on through. For a minute, we thought we were going to have to get a TSA cavity search.
Once we were through security, we headed over to our gate to camp out for the next 4 hours until our plane boarded. We found a little corner we could section off so Zoë had room to play.
The 4 hours passed relatively quickly and we boarded our plane, the first of two flights to get to Uruguay. There was no family boarding so it was a bit of a struggle lugging Zoë, her car seat, 2 roller bags and 2 backpacks on board.
We gate checked her stroller so we could use it in Panama City since we had an 8 ½ hour layover there.
The flight went smoothly. It was about 6 ½ hours long and Zoë slept most of the time. We were able to use her car seat so I think that may have helped. However, next time we’ll be leaving the car seat behind… it was a pain to lug around, even with the Traveling Toddler
We had also bought the CARES Child Aviation Restraint System to use on this trip, but decided at the last minute to go with the car seat onboard. We will definitely be using it instead of the car seat next time.
Zoë spent the little time she was awake charming the other passengers, as usual. We brought some new toys along with us so that we could give her a new one whenever she got restless.
Luckily that didn’t happen on this flight. We got many complements on what a good traveler she is. Of course we already knew that ☺
We arrived in Panama City on time. After waiting for all of the other passengers to deplane and a huge struggle to get the car seat unstrapped, we got off the plane and went to look for Zoë’s stroller… it was no where to be found! Neither was my other Ugg Boot. I wore both on the plane and took a pair of flips in my carry-on… Somehow I left one onboard.
So, Brian asked one of the attendants to take him back to the plane just as the cleaning crew was deboarding… The attendant asked if anyone had seen the boot. One of the cleaning ladies piped up and started digging through the trash and produced it in perfect condition. That was almost an expensive mistake…
Next we had to find the stroller. The woman at the information desk directed us to baggage claim, which is outside of security and the customs checkpoint.
Brian and Zoë waited upstairs while I went through what we thought would be a crazy long ordeal. But, apparently security is much less stringent there than in the US, so I was able to walk right through, check with the airline’s baggage claim counter (the stroller was nowhere to be found) and walk right back up the stairs to the terminal without someone so much as checking my passport. I was told that we couldn’t file a claim until we reached our final destination.
The funny thing is I was fully prepared to practice my Spanish (Necesito saber dónde está mi trolley (I had heard the airline staff use “trolley” when referring to the stroller).
However, the man that approached me to help spoke English. At least I know that he understood what I needed. I’d have plenty of time to practice my Español later.
So, back up the stairs I went and we were off to find the gate our next flight would depart out of. Thankfully we had also invested in the Kelty Carrier (a backpack/child carrier). Otherwise I’m not quite sure how we would have gotten all of our baggage and Zoë across the airport.
We found the gate and again sectioned off a little area for Zoë to play safely since we would be there for another 7 hours before boarding for our final flight to Uruguay. Brian got us some food (some very interesting sandwiches) and we sat down to wait.
We talked about how it was actually kind of nice that we had such a long layover because we were forced to just sit and relax (there was no way we were going to walk around with how much baggage we had to carry around).
It seemed like months since we had just been able to relax (with all of the preparation to move), and it would probably be about a month after we got to Uruguay before we would be able to relax again. So, as usual, everything happens for a reason.
Finally the time came to board our flight. This flight went relatively smoothly as well, and Zoë slept most of the flight again (thank goodness for night flights!). I got to sleep quite a bit, but a few people snoring behind us kept up Brian most of the flight.
Although we arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled, the landing was one of the roughest either of us has ever experienced (the plane bounced 2 times before grabbing traction to slow down). But, we made it safely to the gate.
Again, we were the last ones off the plane, but the staff was very courteous and helped us get our luggage off the plane. We hopped on the shuttle (after maneuvering our luggage down a very tricky staircase… well that was mostly Brian) and headed to customs.
We were the last ones off the plane, so we were the last ones in line… or so we thought. We were quickly ushered into the “priority” clearance lane (for families and flight staff).
After less than 10 minutes, we were through customs. Uruguay customs is the easiest we have ever had to clear.
So, we headed over to baggage claim where we were informed that only 8 of our bags made it on that flight. Luckily, one of them was our stroller! We were so happy as we had gotten that stroller especially with this move in mind.
The staff from Copa at the airport was amazing with how nice, polite and professional they were with our luggage. Our flight had been to capacity, so because we had so much excess luggage, we were told the rest of our bags were still in Panama City and that they would be on the next flight arriving in Uruguay in about 24 hours.
(Quick side note: When our luggage arrived, everything was there. Brian tucked the laptop with the 17” screen in a suitcase, plus a lot of small electronics… Nothing missing, nothing disturbed. The ONLY thing that happened to our luggage was a moron at TSA at LAX couldn’t figure out to open Brian’s unlocked guitar case and broke the lock on it… Yes, the TSA is an equal opportunity employer, they will equally employ anyone who couldn’t quite pass the entrance exam to Mickey D’s…)
We headed outside to meet the relocation specialist we were working with***, and he had a van ready to pick up our bags and transport them to Punta Trouville Apart Hotel, where we will be staying for the first three weeks while we searched for an apartment.
We had initially planned on renting a van and driving ourselves to the hotel. We are sure glad we didn’t. After getting the van loaded (and realizing that both the relocation specialist and Brian tipped the porters, which made the porters’ night), we hopped in the car and got our first experience of Uruguayan driving. There will be more on the topic of driving in Uruguay to come…
It was around 5:30 am (1:30 am San Diego time) on Tuesday, May 12 when we got to the hotel, checked in and headed upstairs to get a little sleep before the consultant picked us back up for lunch that afternoon.
Overall, the trip to Uruguay went very well. I hope that’s a sign we’ll enjoy living in Uruguay as much as we anticipate.