Today my adventure begins! In order to save money I had booked a flight from Minneapolis ("MSP") to Cancun on Delta Airlines which was scheduled to depart at 6:10 AM. This meant I had to arise at about 3:30 AM! What kind of "vacation" was this? My daughter - bless her heart - dropped me off at the airport at precisely 4:30 AM- which I figured was plenty early- even for an "international" flight - for such an ungodly hour!
My destination was Belize, but I had decided to fly to Cancun and take the bus from there to Belize to avoid the ridiculous $300 - $400 "tax" the Belize City airport was apparently forcing passengers from the U.S. to pay for the privilege of using their airport. Before deciding to begin my exploration in Belize I had checked ticket prices for flying into several other Central American airports (i.e., Managua, Panama City and San Jose) and found that this crazy tax situation was going on throughout the region. Because I had read in one of my books that the bus from Cancun is an inexpensive, safe and pleasant alternative for traveling to Belize, I then checked Orbitz for the best airline ticket prices from MSP to Cancun and was pleased to find that Mexico - or at least the Cancun Airport- only charged a $100 "tax" on top of the airline ticket price.
Check in at the Delta counter and my security screening went like clockwork, and by 5:00 AM I was sipping a latte at McDonaldbucks and trying their new "fruit and maple" oatmeal. Not bad! The plan took off on time - always a worry in January in Minnesota -- and a few short hours later I landed in Mexico! And to think that a couple days earlier I had just finished what I hope to be my LAST 55+ hour week as a full time employee!
My luggage was waiting for me when I finished waiting in a very long line to get my passport stamped and I quickly slid through customs. Almost everyone outside was being sucked into some type of special transport to either Playa del Carmen or downtown Cancun, but I asked one of the locals where you catch the bus to Cancun. I had to wait a bit, but the extremely reasonable price of the bus was worth it. Since I had to pass right by Tulum on the way to Belize, I decided to stay in Tulum for a couple days to relax and check out the famous Maya ruins nearby. Once in downtown Cancun, it was easy to find the bus to Tulum. The bus was clean and comfortable -- and seemed very safe. The view along the way was great as well-- particularly since I had just rscaped from several feet of Minnesota snow (still remaining from our record-setting December avalanche).
The day before departure I had booked a fairly inexpensive room at a smalll hotel in Tulum called the "Hotel Latino". Most of the rooms I had seen during my check Internet check were fairly pricey (for Mexico- I thought), but January is the peak of tourist season and the Cancum/Playa/Tulum coast has become the new Florida anyway. My room was in the neighborhood of US$ 75.00 per night, but at least it had wireless Internet AND air conditioning. As it turned out I didn't even need the A/C and the weather in the evening was perfect and during the day my ceiling fan was plenty good. A pleasant young couple was running the place, and the female member of the team - Liz- gave me a ton of helpful information about good (and reasonable) things to eat and do in the area. Having had only about an hour of sleep the night before, and just completed a flight AND two bus rides, I was a total zombie by 3:00 PM so I tried napping and finally fell asleep about six P.M. When I awoke about 8:30 PM I realized I was famished, so I tried to find the great seafood restaurant Liz had recommended. I DID locate the place a short time later but found that it had closed at eight! I found a mediocre place to eat on the way back to my hotel and tried some chicken tacos and beer. My bill came to 53 pesos (approximately US$5.00-- with each Corona costing about US$1.50).
After my meal, I cruised back to my hotel and crashed. Even with several dozen dogs barking outside (apparently this is common throughout Mexico and Central America), I had a fabulous night's sleep. The first day of my adventure had gone pretty well indeed.
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