0
0
23/7 – Make it day 9 of no car… mostly.
About 1pm we heard the joyous sounds of the Mexican ring tone. Diego, our taxi guy that is now on speed dial, dropped us off in la colonia and we were presented with the new and improved Chacha. Later we scooted down to Playa del Carmen, picked up Cecillio along with Thurston, Arriana’s 3-year-old. I kind of forgot about him in my earlier writings so, either she had a baby in the last 5 days and got pregnant again or…We left the house of the Pregnant One and headed to a little beach bar that Sharon and friends have been to many times. There we had a few buckets of beer and I introduced Thurston to the fine arts of “Ice Cube “Hockey” and “Spit-in-the-sand”. Not exactly the X Games but…
24/7 – So here are a few details I didn’t tell you about. For pretty much the first half of this trip, Sharon’s been a bit sick. Nothing grave, just… Pthttt. Mostly sinus crap. So we did visit the local doctor; not a curandero. She said “Too much dust. Take these and get into some air conditioning.” Why do you need to know this detail? Because. After all these days without Chacha, we visited an air conditioning mechanic in Cancun today. Yeah, it hasn’t worked since we left on this trip. One of our new/old friends, an old radio guy named Louis who now takes care of the house next-door, (like Bruno except he actually shows up), suggested a place he uses in Cancun. We were instructed to drop it off first thing tomorrow.
25/7 – It’s “first thing” Thursday. We made it to the A.C.repair place by 7:30 a.m. Pretty damn gregarious for being on vacation. Based upon our previous collectivo experiences, we found our way back to the house with no problem or “don’t tell mom” type experiences.
Nap time.
Before we knew it Giancarlo, Rachel, Cecillio and the kids were at our door and it’s fiesta time. Throw the kids in the pool, crack open some mescal and instantly things were buzzing right along at “Casa de Los Meals”. Sharon contacted Mario the boat guy, who picked up most of us for an afternoon snorkel of the reef. Sharon and Rachel also jetted (Rachel drove) into P. Mo and picked up many pounds of fresh catch from the sea. Seriously. This fish was caught within the hour. Eventually everyone was in the pool. Then Giancarlo commandeered the grill. Poof! Steaks, grilled fish, ceviche, veggies and fruit. It was a feast. Even Mario the boat guy and his wife showed up. Party. Around 8pm things wound down. For me it was more like 7pm. Everyone exited, either to home or to bed or to my own personal coma.
26/7 – The morning was a bit foggy. No, not in theYucatan; in my head. Eventually I made breakfast. While the bacon was sizzling away, I called the A.C. guy in Cancun and the mobile environment stabilization unit was ready. We speed dialed Diego and headed towards… a long misdirected conversation. Diego picks us up. I explain what we needed to do. Then Diego asks me, “Can I take you into Cancun because myA.C. needs work and I’d like to meet your mechanic?” He didn’t really say that but I thought he did. Actually I was pretty impressed with how I translated what he didn’t say. Diego swerved into old P. Mo, “La Colonia”, picked up one of his sons deep into the barrio, and the 4 of us set course for Cancun. I showed him where to turn and he proceeded to correct me. We went his way. Once at the A.C. repair place, we exited the taxi and had no less than 3 offers to buy Chacha. No, really. Armando, the chief repair dude and 2 of his clients were forming a line to buy Chacha. Since I have not gotten over my original arousal of owning such a sweet van, I declined all offers. We departed the shop and tried to get Diego’s (taxi guy) attention. He came up to the passenger side window and appeared to want something. Something in the form of money. No big deal but pretty confusing due to my horrible translation. I still needed to pay for the original cab ride but (I guess) did not need to pay for the long ride to Cancun. That’s my interpretation and I stuck too it. He took 20 American dollars and he and his son disappeared into the brown Cancun dust.
Oh, and the A.C. in the van? My wife is very happy.
