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30/6 – I just noticed a few of my dates are off. Lauren & Josh didn’t leave till the 28th and … oh, whatever. The facts are still there. After all the trouble we’ve had with the house and our mysterious house keeper, Paul and Joan, the house owners, will be coming into town sometime this week to personally check on the situation.
On the 30th we picked up our long time friends Bill & Gladys, a certifiable insane couple. Pick up at the airport was a breeze. The next day we went to pick up Ann. That didn’t go so well.
A few hours of waiting at various terminals and… no Ann. We decided to go back to the house (30 min. from Cancun) and see if she left a message or a sign of some sort. Nope. Nothing. Sharon & I decided to head back to the airport and try again, leaving Bill and Gladys to man the fort. We get out to the car and there’s a taxi outside. Could it be Ann? Nope. It’s Paul & Joan. We explained the situation, introduced them to the insane couple inside, then hurried off a few hundred feet when a black suburban passed us in a cloud of dust with his horn honking. This time it was Ann. She had commandeered a private vehicle to take her to the house. Long story short is she was moved to awaiting point that we had no access to. Thank you very much… So everyone got to meet Paul & Joan. We gave them the long list of problems, patted them on the head and sent them along so we could get started on some serious adult beverages.
2/7 – The five of us spent the day back down at Yal Ku, the cool snorkel place in Akumal. I did manage to get up close and personal with a rather shy eel. On the way back in we stopped in Playa del Carmen for supplies of all kinds and generally walked 5th ave., people watching.
3/7 – Off to Villadolid by way of Ek Balam. It’s best to go climbing ruins early in the day. Ek Balam is one you never hear about yet is basically Chichen Itza’s next door neighbor. The big difference? The entire thing is accessible, ie: no roped-off crowd control. Fantastic site, too! Even the ants were cool.
After a couple of hours we scooted down to Villadolid to introduce the group to that yummy Mayan sampler plate Sharon & I had a couple of weeks earlier. Unfortunately it was not to be had. They don’t sell that at 2 in the afternoon. Argh!
“But could we interest you in our buffet for only $22 American?”
“No… gracias Wey.”
Down the street and across the plaza we ate at another nice, charming restaurant/hotel. Not the same but a good alternative. After re-booting my natural GPS, we headed out of the correct side of town on our second attempt. Back to the house and an evening dip in the freshly clean pool that awaited us.
4/7 – We celebrated the 4th of July by hiring a boat to take us out the snorkel the reef. Sharon, Gladys and I worked the deal just down the beach. With “no money down” we had to promise to return immediately upon grabbing our gear and cash back at the house. Once at the house, the sky opened up. The rain was so heavy that we lost sight of the ever-present horizon out our door. However, just as suddenly, the shower blew past and we headed down the beach like NAVY SEALs, just not as dramatic, organized or buff. The reef here stretches from Cancun on down to Honduras and is protected from casual swimmers. That means, even though you can easily swim to it, you can’t without a permit and a guide. Oh, and a required life jacket. Ann wasn’t too happy about that little detail but we all complied like nice little citizens of goodwill and plopped into the sea for a spectacular array of flora, fauna and fish. After an hour or so, we convinced the boat captain to motor down the coast a bit and got him to drop us off right outside the house. The girls out did themselves on dinner that evening with a splendid fish tacos and a yummy sauce that contained numerous things I don’t like. So they didn’t tell me and I ate till…
5/7 – 15/7 Let’s just group this multi-day chunk together. Yep, another trip to the airport. Kasey, KC, Kandy or “The woman child” (Ann’s daughter) flew down today and was successfully picked up by us. That makes us 2 for 4 in successful airport pick-up service. We made it back to Yal Ku for the woman child to experience as well as played a bit in Playa del Carmen.
July 6th and 7th held a surprise. No alcohol sales. Not in the store, at restaurants or in bars. What? No beer on the beach?? The 7th was election day and in an attempt to get hombres out to the polls, there’s no liquor sales the day of or the day before. Good thing we were stocked up at the casa so we left Playa del Carmen in our rearview mirror.
We also took another boat reef snorkel tour but with a different crew. Mario was the boat captain and lived a while in Dallas; good English and a great sense of humor. He also hooked me up with a good mechanic (hopefully) because Chacha is starting to act a bit funky, (more on that as the situation unfolds). We topped off this chunk of days with an evening in town, starting with the Uruguayan restaurant. Great steaks with chimichuri and Bill’s selections of red wines. A few of us had a night cap across the street at Barre Barre bar where I was introduced to a yummy Mezcal. I had several and still managed to get us home. At least, that’s what they tell me.
On the morning of the 10th… I had promised Paul and Joan that I would give them a ride to the airport today so this was the news I got to greet them with, “all the water in the house went on strike.” Not a drop was coming out the pipes. Paul contacted Jerry, the surrogate house guy, and they discovered the well pump system went ka-poot in the night. In short time the front yard looked like a South Texas fracking site.
Off to the airport with Paul & Joan. Back home without stopping the motor then back to the airport to drop off Bill and Gladys. It’s just us, Ann and the woman child.
Ann, Sharon & I managed to get a scuba trip in, a very cool, 90 foot dive of a sunken U.S. mine sweeper. Very nice and kind of creepy. No, the Mexican armada did not attack and sink a U.S.ship. We did it for them just for kicks, possibly a result of the BRAC realignment. Don’t know, ask George W.
We contacted Mario for our 3rd reef snorkel. The four of us hung out at a beach restaurant that his wife works at, had a couple of early tequilas then took off for the not-so-high seas. Later that afternoon Sharon & I met up with Mario and he took us to his “shade tree”mechanic, Roberto. After discussing the problems we were told to bring it back Monday.
July 14th was pure laziness. Packing for Ann and the woman child was their job for the day since they would leave the next day. Ann sheepishly informed us that their flight was at 7am which meant we needed to get them there by 5. A.M.?
Oh joy…
