20 hours late!
Hi all, I made it!
I´m writing this at 6.30 Mexico time, 11.00pm UK time on 8 October. I set off from London at 7am yesterday morning, unbelievable. All was going well until I got to Madrid. After boarding the flight to Miami, a little man with a tool box and a step ladder showed up and started tinkering with one of those big round things under the wing (sorry, I´m a girl). 2 hours of tinkering with his spanner didn´t do the trick and we all had to get off. I won´t bore you with the details but we ended up being bussed to a 4 star hotel in Madrid and getting the next flight this morning. From there everything was actually fine and, unlike the poor sods who were only going away for a week, I wasn´t that fussed about the delay. I´ve got 6 months, and….. 4 STAR HOTEL!!! It almost got to riot status once though, with loads of angry passengers shouting at the staff and loads more holding up video cameras to record the whole thing.
I met some nice people along the way too and ended up sharing dinner and a bottle of wine with a Swedish girl and a Greek/American guy at the hotel. From Miami onwards the amount of American tourists heading for Cancun was overwhelming. Especially when you consider (in my little opinion) that it´s an absolute shit hole. I got a shared taxi from the airport and everyone else was staying in Cancun, there was not one hotel we stopped at which looked in the slightest bit inviting. The setting is just hideous, awful themed bars everywhere which were once brightly painted and now just faded and dusty. I met a sweet retired American couple on the last flight. They were going to Cancun for the first time. The guy turned to me and
said “is Cancun an island?” He´s from Miami….. that´s frightening.
Anyway, after all the delays and changed flights my bags somehow made it to Cancun too and I finally got to Isla about 2 hours ago.
I´m feeling surprisingly calm. I expected to be beside myself by now but I´m actually quite in control. Every time I do anything I surprise myself, like being tough with the taxi drivers outside Cancun and managing to string a few Spanish words together well enough to get a response in Spanish rather than English.
Right, I´m off to get some food and try to stay awake long enough to defeat the jet lag.
I´ll maybe start Spanish lessons tomorrow, or I´ll maybe just explore the island.
Tags: Mexico
October 9th, 2005 at 1:15 am
well done you baby, wow! what a time you had. but you made it, god shar i am now feeling so jealous of your adventure,
good to hear from you.
I love you MUM. xxx
October 9th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
Hey Sugar
So glad you got to Isla without too many hiccups, but hey I guess a cancelled flight and all the pains that go with it quickly disappeared when you’re supping a cold mohito in your swank 4 star luxury with butlers polishing your Tevas and washing your feet in volcanic spring water. That is what happens at those posh hotels isn’t it?
Everyone’s been asking whether you got there ok and if you’re Spanish is holding up against the pushy taxi drivers and I can now gladly tell them that you are on both counts. But keep practising that phrase about you being married and that your bodybuilder husband is in the hotel, those Spanish lotharios are everywhere!
I know how you like to get out and start soaking in the culture as soon as your sandals step off the 747 so I know a little thing like uber-jet lag won’t hold you back, and with a place as beautiful as Isla, I know I’d do the same. But I guess the rest of us pastey English folk will have to make do with photo postcards of white sand beaches, hammocks with cocktails made from strange fruits nobody can name and the sea. And not the kind of sea you get down Weston Super Mare or Dawlish Warren but the kind of sea that’s always on the front of Hawaiin shirts and adverts for Malibu. So make sure you keep us informed of what we’re missing and don’t leave out any details, I want to know everything!
I miss you so much I’m having indulge in a bit of HMV retail therapy, I’ll even get you a double disc director’s cut version of Dirty Dancing for when you get back. But I guess after you’ve danced Argentine Tango with real Argentinians, watching Patrick Swayze do the quick step won’t quite be the same again!
Take care Honey, I know you’re going to have quite literally the time of your life (no Dirty Dancing pun intended) and I know you’re going to engulf the culture like a sponge so make sure you leave no Central and South American stone unturned.
Now repeat after me……My bodybuilder husband is in the hotel and he’s very, very angry……
Love you always
James x
October 10th, 2005 at 1:48 pm
‘Is Cancun an Island?’!!!!!
October 10th, 2005 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for the comments guys. Don´t worry hon, the´”I´m married” sentence has already had an outing and the fake Argos wedding ring is doing it´s job.
New entry coming up now so I won´t write anymore here apart from miss you loads too, I´ve already got out the picture we took at the airport to show to everyone!
October 10th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
Hello my sweet. We have been thinking of you since you left here last wednesday. Its been good to read your update to know you got to your first destination okay. Enjoy it all take care love u lots
Nikki x