First Passport Stamp

We usually load up the car with beach gear and drive the 11 hours to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina every summer. We always stay at the Beach Cove Resort and always eat one night at Preston’s. We are on the beach all day and spend an evening at Barefoot Landing. But, not this summer. My daughter talked me into flying to Cancun…like in Mexico.

At first I didn’t think Mexico was a safe place to visit. Afterall, people are being found headless or they aren’t found at all. So, I read up on Cancun and decided that if we stayed on the resort property, we would be absolutely fine. So, I read hotel reviews on trip advisor and decided to book a room at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Cancun for 6 nights. I booked through Orbitz and our US Airways flight would take us from Pittsburgh to Charlotte and then on to Cancun. I was ready. My passport was excited to get its first stamp.

We left on June 23 and arrived in Cancun, only to find very long lines at Customs. I don’t know why I felt nervous, like they were going to find a stash of heroin in that package some man asked me to carry to his sick grandmother, who would pick it up at the airport. Ok, kidding, but I felt like they weren’t going to let me in the country or something. Well, once we got up to the desk, and he stamped my passport, I felt relieved. I looked at my first passport stamp and was mad it was quite light. Bummer.

I booked a shuttle ahead of time, thank goodness, because we were attacked by guys in light blue shirts wanting to “help.” We walked right through them like we were told and met our Best Day shuttle guy who loaded us up in the next van and took off for the 15 minute drive to the Fiesta. Quite efficient.

I smiled as soon as we entered the property. The lobby area has the largest palapa in all Me hi co.

We were greeted with a glass of champagne or a drink of choice. Did I mention that the Fiesta was an all-inclusive resort? Oh my. All drinks and food were included in the price. That means I could keep my credit card and money in the room safe and get what I wanted when I wanted it. This was a great arrangement.

I loved the resort. The place was immaculate and the employees went out of their way to make sure we were happy. Now, I realize that not everyone has the same experience at the same place. But, I guess this was my year to have a vacation that went without a hitch . A perfect 10. My daughter (24) was able to practice her spanish for grad school in the fall. She laughed at me at one point when a waiter asked her in spanish, “Does your mother speak any spanish?” And I answered “No.” I guess I was picking up on a thing or two.

  The only thing that was bad was the surf condition. We had a red flag alert every day. I guess it just stays out there.So, I just ventured out to about hip-length. The lifeguard blew his whistle often, as we were supposed to stay between the ropes.  The under toe was pretty strong. I guess that is why it looked like the beach was empty. Most people stayed up by the pool. We found a palapa and enjoyed the beach.

The resort had many restaurants and if you didn’t like one place, you could go to another. That’s the beauty of an all-inclusive. It rained for about two days straight, but the activity directors had things for us to do inside. There was Bingo and Trivia contests and the lobby had a tapas bar and a DJ with music. My daughter took a merengue lesson. The electricity went out for a few hours, so that brought more people down into the lobby. Luckily, it is set up with many couches and tables so everyone seemed to have places to sit. When we got back up to our room, we found a note of apology about the weather and there was a bag of M&M’s on the bed. Pretty sweet. Literally.

The resort has a feature that my daughter enjoyed. Each night around 10:30, for $40, the activity people loaded up the vans and would take you to a nightclub. The entrance fee was included, as were drinks for the whole evening. They had tables reserved for everyone. She was able to meet people her age and so it wasn’t like she was going by herself. She had a fun time. She knows fluent Spanish and some Portuguese and there are many Brazilians who come to Cancun in their winter, so she did fine when it came to conversation.

 Of course she dragged me off of the resort grounds to take a city bus into Cancun centre to go to a marketplace. We walked to the bus stop and along the walk saw a bunch of iguanas. They were all over the place. So, of course, we stepped over the bushes and tried to get up close and personal with our squirrel counterparts.

We got off at El Negro marketplace and I guess my blond hair was a clue that we were not locals. We were inundated by shop keepers. I felt quite uncomfortable, especially when a guy grabbed my arm and said, “You need to be sociable and come into my shop. I saw you first.” We looked around for a few minutes and noticed that their prices were quite high. But, then again, we were still in the “Hotel Zone” and some people would pay the price just to get people off of their backs. Alex wanted to go to a marketplace IN Cancun. I just wanted to get back on the bus.

 After we took the wrong bus and the driver told us how to walk the 5 blocks to the marketplace, I wasn’t feeling too good about this. We walked down a couple of alleys and my daughter kept telling me that it was morning and we would be fine. I was thinking that in the whole scheme of things, noone ever said that kidnappings had to take place after 6pm. I was uneasy and told her I wanted to go back to the resort. So, we did. I think she was happy that I at least took a Mexican bus off of the resort property.

Happy I didn’t get burned by the hot Cancun sun

Oh, I forgot the most important experience I had in Mexico.  I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say that I wished I had some Cipro. I drank water somewhere. I was diligent about not drinking the water, but the little bug was hiding out in this particular restaurant, as I was attacked twice and had to be like 6 feet from a bathroom for  more than 24 hours.  My motto was, Run, Don’t walk! No wait! Sprint, don’t run! It was horrible. I missed the big Caribbean show (they have live shows) and ordered a pizza from room service one night. Room service is included also.

The six days in Cancun flew by. Our flight home was delayed by two hours, so we missed our connecting flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh. The airlines shuttled us off to the Marriott and we stayed there, courtesy of an airline that could have held the Pittsburgh flight as we missed it by only 10 minutes.

 My passport has been stamped and I have wonderful memories of my time in Cancun, Mexico. I want to go back in November. I probably won’t, but I will be back. An all-inclusive vacation has now spoiled me.