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My turn
By mcdog | March 25, 2007
Well, we’re flying out in the morning and he’s throwing up. That’s what she threatened to write but I wrote it for her. My turn to make friends with the big white telephone. I manage to get out of bed and into the back of the car. Drop an Imodium and off we go to LA airport. We get split up going through security, I have my laptop swabbed, round the keyboard and on the underside, and inside most of the pockets of my briefcase. Just as well I bought a new bag, though I presume he’s checking for traces of explosives, this being Amerika he could also be looking for traces of Arab genes. Herself is delayed by security and we miss our flight to Phoenix but catch the next one anyway. A mad dash through Phoenix terminal gets the hearts pounding but our flight to Cancun is delayed cos lots of people haven’t checked-in properly.
Eventually we’re airborne and I try to sleep. Big mission for the day, get to Cancun without serious embarrassment.
Cancun. Mission accomplished and catch a shuttle bus to downtown Cancun. The bus passes through the Zona Hoteletera, a bit like the Costa del Sol but the architects had imagination and they haven’t filled in the spaces between hotels with other hotels yet. The hotel we arrive at is just off the main drag but the room is really grotty, we take it anyway – it’s got a bathroom. Out onto the main drag, Herself needs sustenance. I manage a few beers, my excuse is that I need to replace fluids and Herself eats a plate of unexciting burritos and the odd margarita, it’s happy hour.
Next day it’s breakfast in the hotel, which is good and I manage to eat most of it and then onto the street to find new accommodation. Second time lucky, and we’ve moved to Hotel y Spa Rey del Caribe. This place is beautiful, the courtyard is like a jungle, with banana trees, a pool and geckoes running all over. I do like geckoes, they’re a definite sign that you’ve left the British climate far behind.
We catch a bus to the south end of the Zona Hotelera to have a look at the Mayan ruins there, Ruinas El Rey. A guide gives us the usual slightly rambling ‘conversation’ in not quite correct English on the history of the Mayans, and the guys that came before them. Though we do leave the ruins with a far better idea of what they’re all about than if we’d just wandered about on our own. There are lots of iguanas running about, he claims they were brought here by the Mayans as a source of food, but we’re not hungry so we leave them alone.
Another bus takes us up the road a few miles to the middle of the hotel zone for a non-iguana sandwich and the odd drink. Catching buses here is easy, ours are coloured red and there’s one every few minutes and it’s a standard charge of 50 cents.
We’ve walked the main drag many times, visited a Mayan ruin and eaten a few Mexican meals – time to move further south for quieter beaches.
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