Way down here you need a reason to move
Feel a fool running your stateside games
Lose your load, leave your mind behind, Baby James
Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
The sun’s so hot I forgot to go home
James Taylor pretty much describes it…our vacation to Mexico was wonderful except he doesn’t mention the part about your family members getting sick and your house getting robbed. I think it is better to think of/remember Mexico without those details.
Let me back up. We left for Mexico on January 20th and we met up in the Cancun airport. Everyone from our immediate families and their significant others were on the trip except for Andy’s parents. We rented three PT Cruisers and drove south down to Soliman Bay (near Tulum) where we would be staying for the next week.
On the drive down we stopped at a supermarket in Playa del Carmen and got food for the next couple of days. Andy, unfortunately had some kind of flu where he had a nasty cough and congestion and just didn’t feel very good. Despite that, everyone immediately fell in love with paradise and started having a great time. We did our best to cook authentic Mexican food and drink authentic Mexican beer. Later in the week, the food got even better when we hired a Mexican lady to come in and make tamales, arrachera and fish/shrimp for us. It was to die for!
Things were going very well (except for Andy’s flu) until the second night when during a game of Phase 10, a fun card game, Anna started puking in the bathroom. We couldn’t figure out what she must have eaten to make her sick because we had all been eating the same things all day long. We thought maybe it could be heat exhaustion or something, but we figured out for sure it was the food when my mom got the same thing (later in the night). Normally, I wouldn’t worry too much about someone puking (I mean I would feel sorry for them but there is not much you can do.) But my sister dehydrates quickly, like to the point where she passes out each time she stands up and cannot remain conscious. In Boise when this happens, she gets taken to the emergency room to get an IV, but what the heck do you do in the middle of Paradise, Mexico. In an emergency, my Spanish came rushing back to me and I quickly started brushing up on the words for vomit and dehydration in Spanish and eventually went down to ask the help (cleaners) of the house where the nearest hospital was. I was freaked to drive on that deadly Cancun highway in the middle of the night and Andy was up in bed, sick, so I was very relieved to learn from the help that there was a doctor who would come to the house. Forty five minutes after I called the doctor, he was there and giving Anna shots in the butt to stop the vomiting. All that for approximately $250. I think our prices for medical care are a bit inflated in the US. As I mentioned, my mom also got sick later that night after I had gone to bed so Anna and Mom spent the next day laying around drinking Gatorade and eating bland food.
While the second day was interrupted with a negative experience, the second to the last day was as well. My mom woke us up with the words, “we’ve been robbed.” Come to find out four Mexican guys had walked into our house and stole two cameras and about $600 (USD) cash. We were stupid to leave the doors unlocked but it is easy to be relaxed about such things when the weather is hot, the beer is cold and the view outside is out of this world. The scariest part of the robbery was that they actually went into my parents room to steal their camera and charger while they were sleeping. We were very lucky that nobody woke up while it was happening. Apparently, it is quite common in that area to get robbed before your last day because they do not think you will do anything about it. Andy did go and file a police report simply for insurance purposes but, of course, it is possible that the police could be in on the whole thing. You never know in Mexico. Luckily the robbers decided not to take Andy’s and my mom’s passports, which had been left out! I guess they only wanted things that were very easy to get rid of.
So that kind of dampened spirits the last day, but we still enjoyed one more day on the beach. Andy, Erin (Andy’s sister), Chris (Erin’s boyfriend) and I flew back to Boise earlier than my parents, Anna and Derik (Anna’s boyfriend) so I did not see my parents until the next day since I stayed at Andy’s parents the night we returned to Boise. When I did see them, they were not very happy with Mexico because my dad had also been jipped $65 by the guys at the gas station pumps. They have this whole routine down were they quickly take your money and then say that you did not give them enough and since foreigners do not know the currency well enough, they assume they made the mistake and give them more money. My dad was pissed when I explained what they do, as he thought that he could trust those guys because they work for the government (Pemex is owned by the government.) I thought I had warned him of this routine, but apparently not.
Luckily everyone is now remembering the good parts of the trip more than the bad and already looking back on the vacation with fond memories.
Andy had to leave to Japan early the next morning after we returned to Boise from Mexico, for work so he was definitely operating under “no rest for the weary” on his way to Japan.
Despite all of what happened in Mexico, this location is still our favorite place on earth. You just have to be smart about things while you are down there. But I will admit that we are more willing to go in search of other potential favorite places such as Costa Rica or Nicaragua after the mishaps on this vacation. We do still love Mexico as it will always have a very special place in our hearts!
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