(Post 255 of 263)

After six years away, it was time to return to Canada this year to attend to a few things in Saskatchewan, check in on my property, and then visit my family in Quebec. This was a weird trip to organise. A lot of it was contingent on being able to get a rental car, which was contingent on being able to renew my expired driver’s license. I was also so busy with work in the weeks leading up to it that I just didn’t have time to plan. There was also a bit of existential dread around the whole affair, considering how I always get interrogated when I return to Canada — was this the entry where I’d end up arrested?! So I won’t pretend I was excited about it, but I had to go since I’d lined up sitters from France way back in January!

I had no choice but to use Canadian airlines to get myself to Regina then on to Montreal, so I packed very light to do carry on, with the plan being to have checked bags when returning home on Aeroméxico, the only part of the trip I was super excited about, which you’ll understand why when I relate that adventure. 🤭

Wednesday, June 19th, a prescheduled Uber driver showed up at 6AM to take me to the Altabrisa ADO station for a 6:45 bus ride directly to Cancún’s terminal 4, where I would catch a flight to Calgary. I was then to transfer to Regina, where I’d arrive at 2AM. Ha ha ha ha ha. SURPRISE. In anticipation of a strike, Westjet rerouted me to Edmonton with a flight to Regina Thursday morning! They gave me no notice to explore other options and too late to cancel my room in Regina.

At any rate, the first part of my trip to Canada was great. The bus ride felt really quick and we got to the airport nearly 5 hours before my flight. This was my first time at the Cancún airport and I was not impressed as everything was a cash grab. It is apparently one of the most expensive airports in the world to be stuck in. After wandering a bit, I found a restaurant tucked into a far corner where I could sit with a burger and beer for a couple of hours and not be rushed out the door like at the Puck and Fieri restaurants in the main food court area.

I had a middle seat for the flight to Calgary, but it was surprisingly not as miserable as I’d expected. I chose to buy food on the plane rather than get a sad sandwich from the airport. To my surprise, there were no sandwiches on the menu, just hot dishes. I picked a curry with rice and it was surprisingly good and felt like exceptional value for the 11CAD price point.

I met a lovely young man from Veracruz on the plane who was on his way to far northern Alberta to work as a camp counselor. I was amazed by the start he was giving himself in life – he’d learned English, taken classes, and successfully applied for a Canadian work visa. This was his first time leaving Mexico, and I knew he had nothing but great things ahead of him. He was stressed about the immigration process and spent the entire flight reviewing his documents over and over again. I tried to talk him off that ledge and have him focus on all the amazing things he was about to experience.

We got to Calgary on schedule, past 9PM and it was still daylight. I have missed the long northern summer days! Arrival was just like at pretty much any airport in Canada nowadays — no service, no signage, total chaos. We now have to do the declaration on a touch screen upon arrival rather than handwriting one on the plane. It was then time to go speak to a CSBA agent. This is where everything changed for me and will greatly affect how I feel about future returns to Canada. Of all my anticipated scenarios for my encounter with CBSA, this one didn’t even make the list, it was so improbable. There was a precheck of documents before being sent to a booth with an agent. For the first time since 2011, a CBSA officer barely scanned my documents and told me I was clear to go. 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲

In a daze, I headed out to find a Westjet agent when the boy from Veracruz waved me down. “Rae, Rae, they let me in! It was so easy! I’m spending my summer in Canada!!!!!!!!!” I still feel emotional thinking about it. I’m so pleased his arrival was so painless.

WestJet had no one available to help all the hapless Regina-bound customers. It would have cost them so much less to have a minibus waiting for us in Edmonton to take us to a hotel than to get all the negative publicity from dumping people at a completely shutdown freezing airport in the middle of the night.

Edmonton did have a ton of comfy-ish couches to sleep on, but ran pointless announcements all night long that I think are purposely played to discourage folks from sleeping at the airport. I settled down to try to sleep at 1:30 and gave up at 5:00 when the airport started to get busy.

I had breakfast at the Chili’s and the server got a huge tip for bringing peanut butter with my pancakes, correctly asserting I’d need the extra protein since I’d not eaten since my curry on the plane.

We arrived in Regina late morning and I headed to the hotel, a short distance away. Check-in was at 5PM, but I hadn’t been able to cancel the room, so it had been held for me. I had a quick shower then looked for a nearby place to renew my driver’s license. In Saskatchewan, you do that at insurance agents, so I knew I’d find something close by. Sure enough, there was a place a 15-minute walk away.

The neighbourhood around the hotel was so neat and clean, with streets and sidewalks in perfect condition and lots of green spaces. I hadn’t realised until that moment how much I’d been suffocating in Mérida despite being aware that I desperately needed to get back out in nature.

Regina has a large population from India and all the people I saw that first morning back were from that part of the world. I remember the lack of diversity in Saskatchewan when I first arrived in 2008. It’s incredible how quickly things change. It was humbling to go from being a minority in a foreign country to a minority in my own country.

The license renewal process was mostly painless, but there was a bit of it that reminded me that I while I might enjoy trips back to Canada, there is no way I’ll ever live there again. I’m not going to go into that rant; the travel part of my holiday was positive and I want to focus on that.

I was then going to get a few things at the nearby Walmart before renting a car, then realised that I was too exhausted to think straight enough to buy shoes, never mind drive a car for the first time in three years. So I headed back to the hotel, but stopped at the Co-Op grocery store to get a quick lunch and some snacks. I don’t miss Canadian food prices, but I do miss the supermarkets with the huge variety and freshness of products. Back at the hotel, I had some “sushi” with fabulous veggie and fruit trays, and then passed out for a nearly four-hour nap!

Feeling much better, I got online and reserved a car, going with the only company I’ll rent from if they are a choice, Enterprise. I got a taxi back to the airport and picked up the car there, an absolutely effortless process. The price was only $107 to have the car until my departure on Saturday morning, which felt like a steal.

It was dinnertime when I got back and the nearest restaurant was Indian. I decided to order a ton of food to have leftovers for Friday since the room had a fridge and microwave. All of this with a generous tip cost me $70, and I could have had four meals out of it.

Friday morning, I had breakfast at the hotel buffet and then headed on the road to visit Haven! It felt so good and comfortable to be back behind the wheel after so long. The kilometres passed quickly and effortlessly as I sailed across my beloved Prairies. Saskatchewan really is my home in Canada. I stopped at the post office in Assiniboia to get a prepaid box, with the plan being to ship a few things to my mother’s house rather than risk checking them with Air Canada.

My property looks pretty good! There was a lot of mouse poop in the buildings, though. The RM (rural municipality) put the dumpsters on my lot in exchange for the grass being cut, a very good deal! I couldn’t believe I’d made it back and was thrilled that my two neighbours were there so we could catch up. I really hope to eventually put a house on this lot so I can come back for a month or two every year. It’d be good for the soul. The trick is to fly into Calgary and then drive from there (eight hours) since flying to Regina is consistently a hassle.

I packed up my box and after a few hours it was time to head back to Regina as I had a 2.5-hour drive ahead of me. Unfortunately, the box was a bit heavy, so I had to take out some items that, thankfully, I knew would fit in my carry-on suitcase.

The return drive was equally painless, but I was fatigued by the time I came in. I was so pleased I didn’t have to go back out as I had a feast awaiting me in the hotel fridge!

Saturday morning, I wasn’t flying out until 11AM, so I had a bit of a lie-in before enjoying the complimentary breakfast again. Pretty basic, but the coffee was exceptionally good.

I dropped the car off at 10AM and the return process was as painless as the pickup. I only had to put $40 of fuel in. Fuel is the same price as in Mexico, so no sticker shock there, about $1.70 per litre in both SK and, spoiler, Quebec. And that is where we are headed next!