| Limey Diver |
Mexico Mayhem in Multiple parts. Part II: Day zeroThe trip got off to an irritating start when the alarm went off somewhere close to the horrors of 4am.Also, due to some "cultural issues" (despite living in the US for 10+ years), I had mis-timed Thanksgiving, and arrived at the airport only to find every single lot jam-packed full of parked cars. 40 mins of driving and cursing later (and my refusal to pay the $17+ per day "valet" parking costs) and I finally found some dodgy-looking hotel parking lost that claimed to be airport parking, if only I'd leave my keys with them, which I reluctantly did, wondering if I'd ever see my car again. Then, as I was unloading my bags from the car, the handle on my luggage snapped off, and I was beginning to wonder if the entire trip was doomed. I felt a little better once I had finally struggled to the checkin desk (carring my 40+ pound carryon bags!) it's lucky I already got a full refund from American Express when the other piece in the set did the exact same thing on my last trip to Mexico! However, it then turned out that due to "holiday hours", the airport lounge wouldn't open until we had already taken off (who makes up these policies?) so we were forced to pay for our own bloody mary's at the bar downstairs. On arrival in Cancun, the 1st thing to occur was the traditional change into flip-flops -- our standard footwear for the rest of the trip (excepting drysuit boots of course), and proceed to the rental car. In true Cancun style, the car we had rented was "not available" but "here's a minivan you can have for the same price" We inspected the car (for once not finding an assortment of rusted cutlery resting on the roof, or 1/2 of Akuma beach in the trunk), and tried to gauge whether it would make it over the gigantic speed-bumps and dirt roads (answer: not really!) The rental car guy did offer to drive to Akumal the next day to exchange the minivan for the SUV we had rented, but I assessed the actual chances of that happening smoothly as minimal so we took the soccer-mom option. Then it was time for our 3+ hour wait in CUN as "lame-arse buddy #3" had delayed getting his flights for so long that he had to connect via Miami, and arrived much (much later). Thankfully, we found a very nice argentinian restaurant serving infinite amounts of meat, and tucked in, adding to the alcohol consumed in the bar and the endless bloody mary's on the plane. Arriving in Akumal was extremely pleasant -- the wind was warm, the temperature extremely pleasant and the rooms at Vista Del Mar exceptionally clean and well-prepared (until we arrived and unloaded a metric tonne of dive gear). Of course, our lovely buddy #3 had also meant that we needed a bigger hotel room, which wasn't available for the 1st night, so we were all forced to get cosy in a room designed for 2 (which necessitated getting extremely drunk at the bar next door to make the sound of snoring even slightly tolerable) Is it "DIR" to get slaughtered on bloody mary's and margs the night before you go cave diving (and repeat for 9 days) ? 12:18 PM - 12/5/2007 - post comment
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