By Mike Collins

In 2005, my wife and I went to Morelia, Mexico in the state of Michoacan. We went to visit a friend who had moved there several years ago.  He now had a wife and 5 children.  With a 4:00 am departure time and a one hour travel time to the airport, we had to leave around 1:00 am to get to the airport for customs, international security, etc.  With the inconvenient timing, we did not want our friend to have to drive us the one hour to the airport at that time of the night / morning, so we rented a taxi to pick us up upon arrival (or rather HE did).

The most memorable time in the taxi ride was me trying to explain snow to the driver.  He understood we were from the Chicago, USA area, so I wanted to ask if he had ever seen any snow.  However, he spoke about as much English as I spoke Spanish.  During our two weeks in Mexico, I had keenly sharpened, and brought back from deep within my mind, the two years of high school Spanish I had taken 25 years before.  However, it did not matter.  I knew the word for water and the word for cold, but that is as far as I could go.  Along the ride, I and the driver (seemingly) amused ourselves trying to figure out what I was saying.  My wife was not as amused as the two of us were.

Upon arrival, the driver opened the back of his minivan taxi, and we started unloading our many bags and suitcases.  In this process, the skycap came over to help us unload.  He was an older-looking man with a straw hat.  He was very helpful and kind, as he loaded our belongings on a large wheeled cart.  Finally loaded, I remembered I had several pesos in coins in my pocket, so I reached in to retrieve these and offered them to the man for his help.  He begged off and refused the coins.  I insisted, to the point of reaching for his hand and placing the approximate equivalent of $3 US into his hand, while saying, “Gracias!  Gracias!”

The airport was (to my surprise) quite busy around 2:00 am.  My wife and I went through a variety of checkpoints.  I cannot remember the order, or purpose, of the various lines in which we waited.  However, I do remember one thing … being in one of the lines and turning to look back at the long line behind me only to see the “skycap” waiting to board the same plane as us.  He nodded and smiled as I nodded and gave him a sheepish smile in return.