From Belize to Cancun (081214)

Beloved --

Another long travel day. . . .Taxi with Jorge and his son, little Jorge, from Corozal through Sta. Elena and across the border into Mexico. From there, on to the bus terminal in Chetumal. Jorge is an entrepeneur--he also has a small restaurant in the market place in Corozal, where breakfast was less than two dollars (US). He brings little Jorge along on all his cross border trips to teach him the business of ferrying people across to Mexico. I got the feeling that it was difficult/illegal for him to bring people back to Belize, since he refused my help in trying to drum up some business for him. His help getting through the Belize exit process and Mexican entry formalities was worth the $25 (US) and shortened the whole border crossing to an hour and a half. Little Jorge will be ready to take over the business in about six years, by his father's proud estimate.

The bus from Chetumal to Cancun departed at noon-thirty and arrived around 7:00pm. The movie on the bus was an action flick about a bunch of mountain explorers in Afghanistan and was in Spanish without subtitles. I had a ball trying to second guess the plot evolution and always got it wrong!

Mayan Palace is forty-five minutes back towards Chetumal from Cancun so the arrival at that plush "timeshare resort" wasn't until 10:00pm or so.



December 15th was spent enduring a "90 minute" high pressure sales pitch which lasted almost 4 hours but came with a 10% discount on all subsequent expenses at the Mayan Palace. The "free" buffet breakfast was also quite good!



December 16th was a relaxing day in the pool and on the beach.



December 17th was a trip to Playa del Carmen (touristy, but nice), a ferry to Cozumel for a three hour snorkelling expedition (where I found some 5 and 10 peso coins in about 15-20 feet of water), a great lunch of ceviche, guacamole, and cerveza and a lumpy ferry boat ride back to Playa.



December 18th was another kicked back day in the spa, the pool, and on the beach.



December 19th -- All day expedition to the World Heritage site at Chichen Itza followed by a swim in the cenote (underground spring) at Vallolidad in the state of Yucatan.



December 20th -- Sun, sand, and surf!



December 21st -- Depart CA/Mexico for the blizzard shrouded Pacific Northwest where we waited for a landing gate for several hours at SeaTac. Shuttle Express had quit running to individual residences, but only to hotels near I5. Got to the LaQuinta (Lynnwood) around 2:30 am and took the local Community Transit bus the next morning to get back home to pick up my car. And to think on the morning of all this travel, I had greeted the dawn with some Qi Gong stretching