Here is an up date on my Mexico trip through November 13,'04.
A couple weeks ago last Saturday (Nov. 6th), while still reeling from the outcome of the presidential election, I left for Mexico. An AA friend of mine named Brook picked me up at 3:30 AM and gave me and my gear a ride to the airport for my 6:20 flight on Sun Country to Cancun airport (about 15 miles SW of Cancun). They use a rolling staircase to get us off the plane, there, and direct us to a huge air-conditioned room in the terminal that is divided into a serpentine waiting line arrangement to check in with Immigration. There are forms handed out on the plane during the flight to fill out. Visas are issued for 90 and 180 days; you need to ask for what you want.
From Immigration you are directed to another huge air-conditioned room, next door, to pick up your luggage and line up for customs. You push a button on the base of a stop and go light that determines if you just pass through or have to be inspected.
Sun Country flights arrive at terminal one and I take the free shuttle bus over to terminal two to catch the "Riviera" bus to Playa Del Carmen (50 minutes, 65 Pesos {$1=11.20 Paso's today}).
When I got here to Playa I
hauled my gear 8 blocks to my favorite hotel, Hotel 2 Hermanos. Boy was
that a long hot trudge.
Low and behold they were closed
for repairs. They 'promised' they could take me in on Wed (Nov. 17).
In the meantime Im staying
at Marinally's Hotel, 1 block from the bus depot, for $12.75 per day. My
only complaints are around the all night Karoke bar next door and all the
preschoolers that play in the hotel courtyard during the day. =)
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The first thing I did after
moving into my room was go shopping for a Tricyclo (Tree-sick-lo). I ended
up with a very heavy duty model (500 lb load, $200) that had a large rear
(driven) gear. That smile didn't last long as I started getting used to
a conventional bike seat again. One of the front tires on my NEW tri had
a slow leak. When they took the tire apart they found the tube had two
patches on it from the factory (!!). They laughed and put in a new one
from stock. There are other, less humorous, aspects of this whole
deal but all is well now.
There is an English language
AA group that now meets at 5:30 each evening, 7 days a week at 4th and
25th. It's great to be amongst like-minded people in a strange land. I
was the only tourist in the group of almost 20 locals for a couple days.
I had met many of the group last year.
Speaking of AA. . . . .
Several years ago an AA pal
of mine, who I origionally met at the Minnapolis
Apple Computer Users Group, started inviting me to come down
to Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific side of Mexico. (Great town and
a huge English language AA group) One winter I went down for a month and
met a lot of great AA's, several from Minneapolis, including a former bar
owner named Richard. I liked the town, but I didn't like the gravely beach
and cold, rough ocean part so I just never went back. Also the streets
are kind of bumpy in PV for bicycling.
I liked the Mexican people
and culture so much I started thinking about maybe visiting the Caribbean
side. I was a Navy diver in my younger days and wanted to try diving again
in more hospitable waters, so. . . . .
After a years on-line research
and talking to a lot of Mexico travelers I decided to try Playa Del Carmen
and the island of Cozumel last winter. Richard and I had stayed in contact
and despite how much he liked the AA's and the town of PV, he was interested
in looking at the Caribbean side too. I spent the winter down here last
year and Richard came down for a couple months too. Here is a typical
diving day on Cozumel from last year. All of that is leading up to
saying that Richard gave up on the snow watch this year and came down to
PDC a few days after I started sending back pictures of the beach scene
here. We split the room at the Marinelly Hotel for a couple days and yesterday
he found, and moved into an $8.86 usd/day room at the Elephante Hotel.
Here is Richard's 'moving
day'.
This is a view of the Elephante's
courtyard
If the Hotel 2 Hermanos is
not ready by Wed, I may try the Elephante too.