And then there was Mexico . . .

Many of you have already heard about my time in Mexico nauseam, so deal with it, you get to re-live it with me again :)

Starting at the beginning. . . in super fun news I woke up the day before I left sick with a fever so I already knew I was going to have a great week. The fever broke before I had to get on a 12hr flight to Mexico City but because of the schedule I was keeping, I never got better and was sick all week. I had no voice for the first few days which made the adventure even more fun!

My colleague (and onsite lifesaver!) and I (aka "the team") were the first to depart on Friday, 17 June. We arrived with of course no one to pick us up at the airport but at least with our luggage and box!

This is what others arrived to, well the lucky ones, because transport was hit and miss all week:

Oh and this is the "the team":

The hotel was the nightmare I remembered it to be and our rooms were on the other side of the earth. Task number one, get the rooms moved closer to the venue. Little did we know that task number one would become one of the ongoing tasks of the week - getting hotel rooms changed #nightmare.

Saturday morning, thanks to jetlag, we were up early and ready to take on the world. With breakfast done we went to tackle dinner reservations - start off easy we thought. This is far more detail than you want I am sure but this illustrates what we dealt with for the whole week.

Guest Services: How can I help you?

Us: We would like to book 2 sets of dinner reservations for X date and X people

Guest Services: You can't make dinner reservations, it's all inclusive.

Us: We are here with the Ministerial (points to totem beside person with event logo) so could there be an exception?

Guest Services: *blank stare*

Us: Ok, then how do we book the private rooms in the restaurants?

Guest Services: There are no private rooms.

Us: What about the one in the restaurant to the left that has glass walls and surrounded by wine bottles?

Guest Services: Oh, that is for Ambassador Club Members.

Us: Ok, what about the one in the restaurant behind you - the room at the back behind the buffet, with the curtain, seats about 12?

Guest Services: There is no private room in that restaurant, I have never seen it.

Us: *speechless.*

We then get referred to Public Relations which results in a similar conversation and then move on to the events manager who I had met in February - problem gets solved.

Next up the rooms, yep - no problem - shows us where our new rooms will be and that we come back around 5pm to get them. 

Fast forward to 8pm - they don't have any record of this request but manage to find us rooms that are only mildly closer. We give up, take new rooms. They can't find luggage - including the box!!! Phew, they finally locate said luggage. 

In even worse news - they have moved the Secretary General's room. This launches a 2 (or was it 3) hour long effort to get it changed back before he and his security arrive the next day. Following the SG room switch and locating our new rooms, we headed off the conference centre - the place where we would spend the next week of our lives. . .