We Made It

Figured it was time to post and let friends and family know that we made it. We have wifi here at the condo, but had to pay for it at the resorts so I didn't post while we were there.

I also need to say a belated Happy Birthday to our Middle Daughter and my Youngest Sister. Happy Birthday, girlies!

We took a red-eye Sat night and made it to Cancún around 1:30pm Sunday. We stayed at Grand Coco Bay all-inclusive resort for 2 nights and then went to Blue Bay Esmeralda for one night. Both are in Playa del Carmen.

General review:

Coco Bay is small, about 280 rooms. Food choices were limited and, while edible, wasn't fantastic. I doubt that I could have stayed there for a week. But we do prefer smaller resorts. Everything is close together and you didn't have to walk long to get to anything.

Blue Bay is freaking huge! It has almost 1000 rooms. Unless you're into walking lots, you need to take the shuttle to get around. Since Señor B is on crutches, we took the shuttle. They had a larger selection on the buffet and there wasn't anything we didn't like. Everything was delicious. Even YD, who is a very picky eater, enjoyed the food there. But the sheer size of it would keep me from spending a week there.

The girls went swimming with the dolphins on Tuesday and had a blast. Señor B and I just hung out at the resort since he's not mobile enough to go.

We took the toll road between Cancún and Mérida. The first toll closer to Cancún is 225 pesos and the second one is 130 pesos. We stopped and had lunch at the gas station/rest stop at the halfway point. Food  and service were good but a little pricey, I thought. But it's the same way in Canada...a little price gouging for convenience.

We made it to our condo late Wed afternoon. Picked up some groceries at Aurerra, which is a sister store of Walmart. We picked up a couple blankets for the girls' beds. Well, more like bedspreads, actually. Washed and dried them. Big mistake. I should have read the care labels first. They had some sort of backing that melted in the dryer. The care tag said "Hang to dry." So I had to toss them. Ugh! It honestly never occurred to me that they wouldn't be able to go in the dryer. Luckily it's pretty hot at night and they haven't needed blankets.

We have a one year warranty on our place that is up the end of this month. We arrived to discover that the vanity is pulling away from the wall and there's a big crack in the wall behind it. There's a hole in the back of the vanity, beneath the counter. You have to open the cupboard door to see it. That's where we can see the crack in the wall. So then we checked the cupboards in the kitchen. Same thing. So we have to get in touch with the builder and get it fixed.

We've been surprised by how much a few things have suffered some corrosion since we were here in Jan. The hinges on the screen door, pot handles, the cutlery and the bolts on the director's chairs. When we came in Jan, we had been told to bring down stainless steel cutlery from home but didn't. We bought what was available here but I had noticed some pitting before we left so I made sure we brought down some decent cutlery this time.

I still have so much to say but I'll end with our shopping trip to San Fancisco's, a grocery store here in Progreso. When we entered the store, we were given a numbered ticket but had no idea what to do with it. The guy didn't speak English and he could tell we had no idea what was expected of us. He finally snagged someone who explained in his limited English. We still weren't sure but we did know that it had to be accompanied by the till slip. So we gave it to the clerk who gave it back to us, along with our receipt. We decided that it must be like at Costco, where you have to show your receipt to the person at the door. But there was no one at the door, so we just left. When we went to drive out of the parking lot, we noticed that the exit was gated. That's when we realized that the checker wasn't at the store's door but at the exit of the parking lot. We gave him the ticket and the receipt. He took the ticket, gave us back the receipt and let us out.

While we had been packing the groceries into the car, I saw someone getting their ticket from the same man, as they entered the parking lot. He must have chased us down to make sure we had our ticket. Poor guy. He must get annoyed at us foreigners who don't follow the rules.

Lots of things are done differently here and it's always an adventure and learning experience. Sometimes the adventure is amusing, other times it's frustrating, especially when it seems so inefficient. Today's adventure was in the amusing category.