We finally rolled into Progreso last night at about 7:30pm after being on the go for 36 hours. Senor B worked on Thursday and we left shortly after he got home. It's a 3 hour drive to the airport, overnight flight to our connecting city, layover, flight to Cancun, bus ride to Merida and half hour taxi to Progreso. We were beat when we got to the condo and the general lack of sleep (cuz, really...who can sleep on a plane?) made us a little testy towards each other.
On our first flight, we flew with a crew that we'd flown with in November. It made us remark, "You know you're a frequent flyer when..." *grin*
My Spanish lessons paid off during our taxi ride when I was able to direct the driver to our place. It was pretty cool to be able to do that. I have a long way to go before I can say I'm even close to being proficient but being able to communicate, even in a limited capacity, makes me feel a lot less helpless.
We went uptown this morning to go to the bank and get a few groceries. Banking didn't go so well. The bank we usually go to wouldn't process our transaction. We both tried our debit cards without any luck. So we went across the street to another bank. Same thing. The only thing we can think of is that we forgot to let our bank know we were coming and they were denying the transaction. But we haven't always let them know and haven't had any problems before so we're confused. Senor B sent our bank an email so we'll see if it gets straightened out. Fortunately, we had some cash on us so we were still able to get some groceries.
Since we're not renting a vehicle we can't do a big shop like we did in the past. We picked up enough for the day plus a few other items that won't be needed each trip. Things like mayo, butter, olives. We'll have to make more frequent and smaller trips than we're used to. It's just one of those little adjustments to be made when living in another culture. And, hey, it's not like we have a whole lot of anything else to do...lol.
When we had an air-conditioned car, we would run errands whenever the mood hit. Now that we don't have that luxury, we decided that running errands earlier than 11am would be a smart thing. We were gone 2 hours and were about roasted when we got back. Another cultural adjustment to make.
There are 3 little corner stores near us so we can always go there to pick up a few things, too.
Temp today was 35C so that meant a trip to the pool in the afternoon. It was great seeing old friends and meeting some new ones.
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Not sure what banks you have there; but here the Banamex changed their machines and since they have done that our chip debit cards won't work. they work fine at HSBC though, so that is where I go.
ReplyDeleteAll the Canadians with the chip cards are having trouble at Banamex here since their changed their machines, go figure. Banks grrrr.
Brenda, we went to Banamex first and then to HSBC. Thanks for the info on Banamex. Guess we won't bother going back there. Wonder why HSBC didn't work. Maybe they're planning changes, too, and have already done that at the Progreso branch.
ReplyDeleteBanking is a regular hassle. Even when I call to notify them I'm travelling, there's a good chance they will block transactions and leave me cashless for a day or two. This time I was told I don't need to get a notation on my account about the trip, but they might block transactions anyway. I had to insist. So we'll see.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, we've never had any troubles before so we were completely unprepared. It was fortunate that we had cash from our last trip down. Hopefully things get resolved soon.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a Santander bank there you could try that one. I think some people are having luck with them also. I haven't tried them as they aren't close to where I usually am. HSBC has been working for me so keep going there.
ReplyDeleteI suppose they could have put a stop on the cards from Canada also, who knows what the banks do.
Stay warm.
Brenda, Senor B sent an email to our bank Sat and there was a note saying it could take a couple of days for them to do whatever it is they do with that info. So we'll wait a couple days and try our cards again.
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