Viva Mexico

Logic and me and two peas in a pod, that’s how I work, if it makes sense then great. I am not much of a dreamer and I get accused of being pessimistic by “those” optimists that don’t really understand that logical and pessimistic are two different things. I don’t get on a plane thinking it will crash, but I do get on a plane knowing that the odds are low but the plane could crash. There is a big difference. Hear that hunny? There is a difference.
So when I find myself out in the ocean on a small ski boat going in circles looking for a shark to jump in the water with my logic is saying, hey we don’t do stuff like that. You see a shark; you stay in that boat and go to the shore. But no that is not how it went on Friday, August 15th 2008 in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.
We got to Cancun on Thursday, safe and sound. We stood in line for what seemed forever in customs and then walked thru the chaos of people selling time shares and found our shuttle. Took a deep breath of that fresh ocean air and got on our shuttle and rode the hour ride to our resort in Playa Del Carmen. We get there and immediately there are issues. They have no record of my mom’s reservation. Oh let me go back. I have been friends with the bride since I was in the 2nd grade. We went to the same church and our mom’s were friends. So my family was all invited to the wedding but since not everyone wanted to fork over the money to go it ended up just being Andrew and me, and my mom and my niece, Ariel (17). Ariel knew the brides younger sister so that is why my mom brought Ariel. Ok so back to the story. They had no record of my mom’s reservation and we were in line I am pretty sure for 30-45 min getting situated. We ran into the groom who said that their wedding planner skipped town and the resort had no record of there even being a wedding on Saturday. That was a huge mess and I just felt so bad for them. I guess it was a fighting match up until the minute she walked down the gorgeous beach aisle. But that is their story to tell. I was not involved in the wedding at all and the details I don’t know. I just felt really really bad for them and pray to God they were able to relax after the wedding. They did get a great room though out of the deal, not that they shouldn’t have had one for bringing 30 guest to their hotel, but again, their story to tell. Not mine.
So only having Friday to do something we all had to decide on an excursion and for some reason my hell no vote really made no influence on the tour that picked us up at 5:50AM (on VACATION) and to take us on a two hour drive to Cancun (had to pick up strangers along the way) to get on a boat and get off the boat and voluntarily hop in the water with a freaking shark. Whale shark to be exact and they aren’t exactly meat eaters with those big scary teeth, but c’mon I don’t like to hang around pit bulls, even if the owner says they are sweet, it is still a pit bull that will eat my face off. His name is shark, ok.
But that is where I found myself on Friday, in the middle of the ocean looking for a shark. I asked Andrew, “How are we going to see a shark out here?” he says “their dorsal fins are 6 feet tall; you think you will miss that? Yikes! So Andrew to the rescue he sees the sharks first and there isn’t just one, but 4 sharks out there. You can see their dorsal fin and their tails sticking out. It really was awesome to see, from the boat. My stomach dropped and I started silently panicking. Andrew being a gentlemen and myself being scared to freaking death we were the last to go. They sent us in pairs with a guide and everyone managed to do it safely. Then it was our turn. We jump off the boat and swim as fast as we can to catch up with the big fella. I was right behind Andrew and got smoked in the face and stopped swimming. Then I went to the side of him and when I caught up with the big guy he dove down deep beyond our field of depth. But I saw him. I swam near him and I was totally satisfied. Andrew, well not so much.
We got back on the boat and everyone got to go again, well only two couples wanted to do it again and since my mom and I didn’t, Andrew and Ariel went back out two more times. For some reason after most of us got out of the water we were all of a sudden really sick. There were 5 of us out of 10 who were really sick. I saw two people puke overboard. I didn’t, but wanted too. They didn’t feed us like we were promised by the sales dude until lunch, but we were told we would get breakfast and lunch. I don’t know if it was lack of food, or sitting there rocking while others swam, whatever it was it was not fun and we just wanted out of there. I am glad Andrew and Ariel had fun and Andrew although was told not to, he touched the big guy… don’t tell.
They finally fed us sandwiches and took us to a reef where we snorkeled. That was fun and more my pace. Little fish and rocks. While we snorkeled they made ceviche and let me tell you, that was worth the whole day! It was awesome. We all sat, us 10 strangers, and ate ceviche and talked. We got to meet some very interesting people and all in all it was a pretty cool day. I can guarantee it is something I will never do again so although I am not sure I can say I am glad I did it. I can say it was an interesting experience. I did tell my mom though, next time she wants to spend $200 on me, let’s make it some shoes.
We didn’t get back to our hotel until 4:30 pm and we were ravished! It was an all inclusive resort so we sat and ate at a buffet and when we got back to our room my mom realized she didn’t have her wallet. Sigh. Thank God Eric Estrada look alike tour guide was trying to track her down while we were sitting and eating and finally got a hold of us in our room (my mom’s key was in her wallet so they couldn’t get in her room) and he returned it. In Mexico you loose your wallet what are the odds of getting it back? So we went back to our rooms, napped and met up with the wedding party and friends for a 9pm dinner.
Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and went shopping in down town Playa Del Carmen. It was really cool down there. A little expensive since they knew we were all tourist, but for someone who hates to bargain I did ok. I got a guy down of two dresses for the girls and when I went to get a necklace I asked a guy how much he said 120 pecos, then another guy working there told me he’d give me a deal and sell it to me for 250 pecos since Andrew bought two Cubans from him (Andrew SUCKS at bargaining!), I looked at him and said “Your amigo just told me 120!” He said “Ok he’s the boss”. What a scammer! 120 pecos is about $12 and the necklace was worth it. I probably could have gotten it for $10, but I just paid the 120. After that we sat at the fun bar with the swings that I mentioned in the previous post that my mom was acting silly and told the foreigners that she was from “here” meaning Mexico, although that was not what she meant. That was really funny. Then we ate some lunch and went to Walmart and got a cab back. We rested at the beach for an hour or so. Andrew hopped in the ocean with what in his pocket? His cell phone! The only person with a phone with service there and blub, blub, blub went that. Well it was a little more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, ccccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkk….. And Andrew was like this &@#*&@!^#&!^@#&!^#^!@&$#$*@#@^$&#$@%#!!!!
Good times.
Then we went back to shower and went to the wedding. You’d never know there were problems with the whole thing if you weren’t told about them. It was beautiful and romantic and the guy who was on his honeymoon with his wife from Boston who officiated, well he was great! He really should get into that business. Still more of that crazy wedding tale that is not really my story to tell, I think my friend, the bride, needs her own blog just to tell the whole story! Hint, hint!
So after that we pretty much went to bed and woke up on Sunday and ate breakfast and spent a couple hours on the beach. I really could have had one more day that was just spent on the beach, but oh well… what can you do? Are beach vacations ever long enough?
Went home and was thrilled to see the girls.
I’ve got pictures on Flickr.
I spared my whole vent on the resort. There are many, but not worth my complaining. It was Mexico, going on Mexico time and it was all inclusive with gratuity included, I think had gratuity not been included we would have had a much more eager wait staff and well just staff period to help out. Money talks and if you want good service unfortunately you really have to pay for it.
So there you go. I think I am on page 3 on word…. I’m sure most of you will skim over this and that’s ok, I can’t even read it back to proof read, too ADD, it took me too long to write! I hope spell check did her job well.