Week 1a, Fall '05
This departure was the most stressful yet. During the month prior, I moved from my Minneapolis Studio apartment on the 3rd floor to a One Bedroom apartment on the ground floor and only finished up in time to pack and leave for Playa Del Carnem (PDC) via Cancun. The new place is filled with unopened (and unlabled) boxes. On the night before I was scheduled to leave a pal called and left a message that I should, for sure, call Sun Country and check on my flight. I first went to their web site and read that all flights to Cancun had been canceled and to call about rescheduling. When I called there was some confusion about when they were to resume taking passengers. They had been flying down empty to pick up passengers stranded by hurricane Wilma, from the week before. There were not enough Mexican Customs and Immigration people to staff the check-in booths. After a lot of fooling around they decided that my flight was to be the first to go with people in it and that it's departure was moved from 06:15 to 08:15 that next morning.
Saturday morning, Oct 29th, my pals Mark and Chris drove me and my pile of gear to the airport at 4 AM and the odyssey began. Here is a picture from last summer ('05) of Mark and Chris at 'Bare Ass Beach' on Ceder Lake in Minneapolis, just off the Kennelworth bike trail. (Mark is showing how big the Croppies feel when they nibble on you) ( . . . . . .and yes, those are the 'Sky Blue Waters' of Minnesota you hear so much about)
Scroll Right To View >>--> >>-->
OK, back to the MSP departure: I took my Triciclo back down with me and there was a lot of this and that before they tagged it as a piece of baggage, and there was just no way I could talk them out of charging me $40 each for it and my dive bag as excess baggage. I actually may have ticked them off in the process, but I'll get into that in a minute.
When we got on the plane it was a brand new 737 with all leather upholstery, even in coach. And there were a total of six of us headed down-!! I was the only one not going to check on their property down there. I'm sure glad I rent !
It was a non-stop flight and we went right over New Orleans. It was still flooded from hurricane Emily a few weeks before.
There was no grand swing out over Cancun's hotel strip this trip, just straight in and park ! I found out later that the damage in Cancun was catastrophic and quite obvious from the air. Once we got through Immigration to the baggage carrousels I discovered that another passenger and I were missing some bags. There was another flight behind us that stopped in Dallas that morning so we hung around to see if our stuff just got miss loaded, and . . . . . . Eureka-!! Aggravating but worth the wait. I'm going to be much nicer during 'check in' next time.
The taxi guys were hawking $60 dollar rides to PDC, down from $72 because business was slow. The Rivera bus usually goes from the airport to PDC for $6.50 but with so few incoming passengers they were only running from the downtown Cancun bus terminal at present. I bought a bus ticket to downtown and started waiting it out. . . . . . . Me and my stuff.
With that pile of gear I was delighted when one of the taxi/van dispatchers came over and said there was another passenger to PDC and I could join him for $25, gear and all. Our driver was skilled and familiar with the road so we just flew down the Hi-Way. PDC is about 45 miles south of the airport on a 4 lane concrete Hi-Way. There is one section of road that passes near the sea but you can't see it for the jungle. During hurricane Wilma, the Saturday before, there were some storm swells that rolled in over the jungle, swamped the Hi-Way and washed away a lot of fill on either side of the shoulders and scoured out the median. No interruption to traffic flow a week later. There was one spot where we had to slow down to one lane each way because of some standing water they were still pumping into the jungle but cruised at over 70 MPH the rest of the time.
They dropped me off at the Elephante Hotel and sure as hell Orlando, the manager, was off for two days until Monday. No one else was authorized to set a price under the posted $30/day. He had offered me a room for 3500 Pesos a month (3500/10.50= $333.33 USD). I dug out my tool kit, reassembled the triciclo and pedaled off to an AA pals place to regroup. He's in the midst of an expansion project on his rental property and offered me a temporary spot until I got situated.
Before I took off for Mexico this year a friend of a friend was very confrontive around the possibility of my taking the bread out of the hands of someone's family down here and I had to admit I'd wondered about that myself. Then I got a great eMail from another AA here in PDC describing local conditions just a few days after the storm. Here is an excerpt:
>>>>>>>>>>
Hey Guy:
The (AA) club is missing a part of the roof again! Some stuff got wet but not to bad!! The electricity just came on during the meeting tonight! San Francisco (big grocery store) is devastated but they are already working on it! Chedraui Is in better shape but they were stolen blind! Looters were running down the street with washers and dryers and stoves on their backs. One friend in program was walking around and noticed that everybody around him had brand new shoes on!! San Francisco had put most stuff in Storage so they didn't get hit too hard!!
Everything is Getting cleared and in working order already! These people are amazing! I'm so impressed with the way they deal with Disaster Down here! If this was in U.S. everybody would be shooting each other and Whining with there heads up their ass! The Looting is the only negative shit I've seen! Everybody has gotten together and dealt with reality rather than bitching and waiting for someone else to do it! The Electricity crews are awesome! Everywhere you look there's someone up in the air stringing and fixing wire! Theirs no unions and bullshit down here to keep people from doing what they are paid to do! They work around the clock and don't whine about a thing! It might be just because we're in the biggest tourist area in Mexico which fuels the whole economy which makes it such a high priority to get back to business as usual! Whatever it is, has impressed the shit out of me!! What a Spiritual and eye-opening experience this has been for me!!
Your Grateful and Amazed Friend
Then another AA friend and property manager wrote to say:
October 27, 2005
Dear all,
Phew! That was a blow! Wilma came and left us wet, a little ruffled but OK. The electricity is back, we are waiting for the water today or tomorrow. Fifth avenue is up and running, mariachis and all. The government has worked their fingers to the bone cleaning up the debris and their efficiency and organization skills in reestablishing services deserve a big applause. Now that all the properties are open, dry and clean we are ready for business.
Fifth Ave. got their electricity back yesterday (Wednesday), shops are open, restaurants are serving, and all the bars have ice! They, too, are backin business.
Some of the private homes south of us suffered damages but the work crews are in town and working hard to rebuild.
I will send pictures of Playa del Carmen as it stands today (only 5 days post Wilma) as soon as I download them from my camera. We even have a beautiful, white and peaceful beach! The pool area is somewhat battered, but it should be ready for fun in the sun and sunbathing in no time. The trees and nature in general received a major pruning, but will be budding with new life within a week or two. Obviously, the palm trees need a new hairdo, but nature is amazing and will take care of that promptly.
You need not worry, everything you are hoping for and you reserved and payed, is here and in perfect conditions.
Warm hello from our little, ruffled paradise,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It sounded to me like PDC was open for business and in petty good spirits so I decided to 'come on down'. My first night of sightseeing landed me at one of my favorite stops.
These Churros are deep fried confections made of a doughnut dough. Mmmm! That evening's tour followed a visit to the AA club for their 5:30 meeting and it was great. So many familiar faces and warm welcomes. I was asked to take the Friday Noon meeting for a couple months which was a great honor for me, having been away for so long.
There is a Men's AA meeting on Sunday mornings I attend and it was a chance to see more familiar faces. After the meeting we went to 'Hot's' for breakfast and to meet up with the gals from the 'Women's meeting'. Great food and conversation. All the World's problems we didn't get solved, we at least explored, and there were tons of hurricane stories.
Afterwards I ran into a couple from CZ AA I am friends with, who were visiting PDC to escape the deprivation for a couple days. They just wanted to get a room with electricity, take hot showers, and shop. They said a great 'T' shirt would have a headline "I survived Hurricane Wilma on Cozumel" above a picture of a hand offering an open can of Tuna. There was an abundance of canned tuna on the island for some reason. None of the CZ cruise ship piers are serviceable now and there is a lot of effort going into repairing the car/truck ferry landing so fresh supplies can start rolling in. The Mexican Military are airlifting in emergency quantities of food, fuel and medical supplies but there is a limit to that resource's capacity. The island's Mayor/Governer asked everyone who had friends and relatives on the mainland to go visit them for a few weeks to reduce the demand on the islands limited infrastructure. The ferries were free for a few days for those departing the island. There were also body and luggage inspections for looted materials and contraband. There is an evening curfew in effect now. A terrific web site named 'Cozumel, my Cozumel' may be of interest. There is a Discussion Forum you'll enjoy reading for a more broad view of island activities. You may be reading this very much later than it was written and you'll find that site's information more current.
Later that Sunday I was strolling around and looked in on a little place I like because of it's authenticity and simplicity. There has been quite a bit of tidying up in 7 days so it's back looking pretty neat.
In years past I've frequented a restaurant who's Spanish name translates to 'House of bricks'. The food was good, the service fun and friendly, plus they had a yellow salsa that was to die for. I'd heard that they'd closed months ago and was hoping it was temporary, but now, after seeing this, I'm afraid. . . . . . they are no more.
Scroll right to View >>--> >>-->
Best to just remember it from days gone by.
Richard and I celebrating dive class graduation with our French instructor Julietta,
This is Heimie, the daytime server and goalie for that year's soccer champs.
"Sit down Hermie and tell us about all the death and distruction in this mornings Cancun newspaper"
"It's bad, very bad Seniors"
=)
-Continued-
-Home-