Mexicaaaaahhhhh....

As promised, a post on my Mexican adventure:


Miraculously, Erica and I managed to meet up with relatively little trouble in Cancun. After finding my way to the mysterious shuttle to Terminal 3--I managed to navigate my way to the "meeting place" fairly easily and lo and behold there was Erica! After negotiating my way through the gate separating domestic travelers from international travelers Erica and I hugged in glorious reunion and moved on to meet our driver.

Our driver's name was Arturo and what a fantastic introduction to Cancun he was. As we zipped through the highway from Cancun to Playa del Carmen and beyond we fell into easy if somewhat personal conversation with Arturo. He asked if either of us were married and we replied no, of course. He then asked me if I had a boyfriend and I hemmed and hawed a little bit not sure how to explain my current limbo status with my limited Spanish and/or in uncomplicated English without admitting too much to Erica and piquing her curiosity. But no problem, Arturo said he understood, he'd had lots of girlfriends that weren't girlfriends. I guess some things translate cultures. We laughed and explained that we'd left the boys at home for some much needed girl time. Arturo said this also was not a problem as we were bound to find plenty of available latin lovers which was promptly followed by an utterance of what happens in Mexico...you get the idea. Our personal lives out of the way, Arturo launched into a detailed account of his own--we learned that he had been dating a women for approximately 6 years and that he liked her a lot. But that was not the love of his life, the love of his life is Maria, but she is married and has children and lives in Mexico City--tragic really. The account of Maria was preceded by another tragic tale of a woman for whom Arturo had moved all over Mexico and even forgone an opportunity to work on a cruise ship, but ultimately left him in Puerto Vallarta. She showed up later to mess things up with Maria. Anyway, as a co-worker of mine put it--you know the Mexicans do love their soaps, but who needs TV when your life is as complicated as Arturo's?

We finally arrived at the hotel (which is seen here from the air). Checked in, were given a tour of the grounds, or at least how to get to our rooms, and made our way to the pool to relax.
And Erica dipped her toes in the Caribbean Sea for the first time.


More tales to come!