Eclectic Parent

After getting sick all yesterday and most of the night C really wanted to go see the big pyramids. We rarely travel with a stroller – I think a trip to Manhattan was about the only time – but we had brought one on this trip since D was so sick when we left. So we put C in the umbrella stroller and took off for the Mayan ruins. The problem being that it is stony, bumpy, uneven ground; a little jostlely for someone with an upset stomach but he managed. Our kitty cat obsessed guy loved all the jaguars: as one of the sacred animals of the Mayans, they were everywhere. Almost every corner of every building had a large jaguar head and they were carved into the sides of many of the buildings. We did an even quicker pass through today since we had to check out of the hotel at noon. Still I think C and daddy were glad they got to see it.

We had three hours between checkout and our bus to Cancun. As D was trying to drag one of the bags up the stairs toward the lobby boy jumped up to help. Seeing us drag bags toward the lobby, the asked if we were checking out. Their three kids and our three kids would have passed like ships in the night but we did have time to occupy. So instead of the original plan of walking across the street to see a large cenote, we left the luggage stacked in the lobby, changed the kids into swimsuits and let them play with the children that had just arrived. It turns out the family was French but currently living in New Mexico. The kids swam, swung in hammocks and bounced on the trampoline. By the end I asked them to tell our children how to say their ages in French. If we’d managed to learn just one phrase in the language of everyone we’d run into down here, it would be very impressive. The best part was, as the children were sadly saying goodbye to their very newfound companions, we discovered they were going to be staying at the same hotel as us later in the week.

After saying goodbye, we took a taxi into Piste. We arrived over an hour early for our bus but better early than missing the last bus of the day. We walked up the street and picked up some drinks and candy for the bus ride then we grabbed un pollo asado. The billowing smoke from the grill smelled amazing. We got one entire chicken, quartered, a very sweet grilled onion, a large stack of tortillas, about two cups of rice and some quartered limes to squeeze over the whole thing. Nothing like liking juice off your fingers standing in front of a bus station about to head off on another adventure.

The bus ride was definitely not the best we’ve had, bumpy, swaying, stinking bathroom and playing some horrible Jean Claude Can Damme movie. Otherwise 1st classes buses in Mexico are definitely first class: air conditioned, soft seats, bathrooms and movies. We arrived about an hour late, but B slept and the boys played and honestly, two out of three bus trips being great isn’t bad. We arrived in Cancun with the huge pile of luggage and had a porter luckily appeared. He whisked us to the front of the very, very long taxi que however, and I didn’t need to speak Spanish to understand the grumbling. All I could think was that I wished I spoke enough Spanish to say “He did it. We aren’t pushy Americans. I’ll go to the back of the line.” Admittedly though, when he flagged a station wagon taxi and started stacking our luggage into it, I didn’t argue.

In Cancun it appears everything is pretty far. It is a circle with a lagoon in the middle so you have to go the long way around everything. Maybe we got spoiled by walking, public buses and short taxi rides or maybe it’s that I don’t take $20 taxi’s in the states, but what an appropriate intro to Cancun. We finally arrived at our hotel. It was late, the kids were hungry, and we asked what delivered or had take-out. The handed us a flyer for Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut, are you kidding? One pizza and ten dollars more than the ad said later, we finally got the kids to bed. So far I preferred being in cultural Merida or jungle surrounded ruins, Cancun is definitely not impressing me.