I will attempt to begin to try to recall a trip 4 of us made, leaving from Milwaukee, Ground hogs day, except the Milwaukee zoo woodchuck died, so we have no clue about when spring will come......thus, off on Funjet to CUN, to our own special trip......
The women of the group work with a lovely seasoned citizen that invested in timeshares some years back, and in Jan of 2007, as was the case this year, she could not use them due to health problems.....enter our group. We took a week off her hands, as she had to pay the $500 maintainence fee anyway, and headed south.....Funjet got us tix, and off to the airport we went....I am Rodney, my bh is Marie, we traveled with Janet and Mark. At the airport, Janet, with her doctors note, got the "hand massage" at the TSA check in, this due to a pacemaker(cannot go through the scanners), that was pretty funny to watch......we have all been stopped on trips, but to see that unnecessary action, well, it was priceless. Poor Janet failed to heed any warnings about checking in "liquids" as she lost her shampoo, conditioner, and some other stuff she had in the carry on! Our flight was on Ryan Air, pretty uneventful, although we were told to get back in our seats as the seatbelt sign was on, just as 2 of us reached the head! Stormtrooper flight attendants! No Toilet for YOU!
It being a Saturday, the first of Feb, arrivals and departures were piling up all over the airport, we just shuffled along, did what we had to do, found the luggage after immigration right away, and then off to customs, seems they have updated the Red light/green light. It used to be on a familiar yellow pole, like we see on the street corners, but not any more! Tech has caught up, you will see! Off past the Timeshare Bandits, but I got the local map/coupon/sightseeing books off to the right, just before the door to freedom! I arranged transit with Entertainment Plus, for $65, to our hotel and back, on the top of the 7 that is the hotel Zone of Cancun. We stayed at the Casa Maya Cancun, 25 year old property.....across the street from the extra large Mexican flag that flies so proudly over the city, except for the week that we were there....not to be seen!
This is the front of the hotel, from the east/southbound lanes of traffic
I will post beach pics later...
Of course, since we arrived in the morning, few rooms were available.....so I did the check in, and we went down to look around a while, we were there about an hour and a half, and after checking at the desk, and not getting any satisfaction about getting into a room, we made sure our bags were secure, and hopped on a bus to go east! We headed out to the Punta Cancun area, as we wanted lunch, and I wanted to check in my scuba referral dives for the week, so, using the ever handy, totally wonderful Cancunmap.com maps, got out to where we wanted to be, had lunch, and it being "election day", we were not served a cervasia at all....had some later, along with other cocktails....seems some of the restaurants got the ok to serve, and some just did it to make a buck, as I had hoped they would! On Perry/Lauras Cancun Map, we had lunch across the street from the La Fiesta store, on the outside of the curve southbound, maybe the Tequila Factory? Not sure, but we were filled up and happy, I ambled over to the Clipper Club, on the lagoon, another timeshare/hotel Best Western, the where I was to complete my Open Water Diver's certification....met with Clemente, he let me know how to contact Octavio, my instructor, and firmed up the details for Monday and Tuesday.....I was good with that, we headed back to the west bound busses and headed back to the Casa Maya, where room assignments got screwy......as they always do on busy check in days....suffice it to say, we got a room that was not satisfactory, and due to 2 pit bull women, who both work in the hospitality business here at home, we got moved to where we thought we would be after sleeping it off the first night....
View looking east, towards the RIU's from our first room, at sunrise.....
View south, at the bare flag pole, before sunrise
I think I have one more to submit here, wait, 2.....once we got to where the women would be happy, (Mark and I just wanted a fridge for the beer, and a blender for the Margies/Daquiris) go the following views of the beach, first a great one, the second, well, he was called Thong Guy by our party.
Cover your eyes if you are scared....
All this, and some excellent eats along the way...more about them later....and this is what I was looking forward to for Monday!
Out on a boat with these 2 guys, Ocatavio, and Jorge....very nice afternoon just north of Punta Cancun with them....doing my first 2 open water dives....
Jorge saw the camera, gave the thumbs up!
Octavio was great, if you are staying in Cancun, and want to dive, go to Nautilus Dive center, at the Clipper Club, Best Western.....very patient, helpful, calm...everything you would hope a divemaster, instructor would be....well, more later.....got some snow to shovel this evening, enough reminiscing.......
Is this what kind of trip report you guys are looking for? I have more, still have a couple hundred more pics to down load to photobucket, they might disconnect me....but oh well, it was Mexico.....Salute!
Sorry to have done this on this thread, will continue at a later date, elsewhere within the "trip report" thread, unless the weasels rip my flesh.....just got off work, and am very tired of the snow in sunny southern Wisconsin this time of year....you could play hockey on my driveway tonight.....Game On!