Well, with Cuba having a slight lead to begin with, it turned out to be good timing. I ran into a friend at the climbing gym a couple of days before the New Year who was heading to Cuba for the month of January. With some incentive to get off my butt and replace my 'aspirational targets' with some hard tickets, I was able to find a flight to Cancun for under $200 (though it turns out to be $450 after taxes). A quick request for time off on very short notice, and only a few days later, here I am updating this new blog from a backstreet hostel in Cancun.
Getting from the airport was a bit of a worry for me since I arrived after 11pm. Some internet searching told me I might have to fork out $60 US one way from the airport(which would quickly add up to put a serious dent in my intentions to travel on a budget) As it turns out, the collectivos run until much later than many web sites suggest, and I found one- though I did have to wait for a while for it to fill up since most of the passengers promptly boarded large buses bound for their all-inclusive hotels. In the end they didn't even bother trying to fill a van- there was just two of us so they just put us in a taxi (owned by the same company that runs the collectivos). We took the scenic route into downtown Cancun (where I am staying), by driving through the hotel strip to drop off the other passenger - a woman from Nanaimo on a two week timeshare holiday. The strip itself reminded me of Las Vegas - clean and classy, but a bit sterile, unreal, and totally surreal for 99.9 percent of the Mexican population.
In the end, my driver managed to find my modest hostel even though it was tucked away on a small cul-de-sac which itself ran off a relatively small street. It seems fairly clean and tidy and quiet - hardly anybody seems to be here, but that is ok with me.
A rough start
The morning started out a little rough - and these things seem to happen in 3's:
1 - While attempting to extricate my brand new toothbrush from my toiletry bag, it somehow springs out and into the air. With catlike deftness I snatch it as it passes at shoulder height. Unfortunately, cats do not have opposing thumbs so it simply bounces once off my hand and plops into the toilet.
2 - I am only a 20 minute walk from the bus station, so I decide to head out a bit early to walk and look around on the way with plenty of time to catch the 10am bus from the city to the airport. Unfortunately, when I am almost there, I realize that I still have the keys to the hostel where I am staying. Thinking that I can probably afford to catch the 10:30 bus, I decide to run back to return them. It takes me a little longer than I thought, but I manage to make it back to the bus station with about 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, in the process, and in the humid Mexican heat, I have turned my nice clean shirt into a soaking mass sticking to me like saran wrap.
3 - While I seemed to arrive on time, with the bus casually loading people, whoever was manning the ticket booth decided to go on a break - and they will not let me onto the bus without a ticket. They redirect me to another place where I can buy the ticket, but there is a lineup that takes about 10 minutes. In the end I buy the ticket just as the bus is pulling away and I have to wait for the 11am bus.
In the morning a little over-hyped about my impending adventure into an unknown (at least to me) part of Cuba, I feel a little like Indiana Jones. The day, however, seems determined to cast me instead in the role of Mr. Bean.
Luckily things get much better after this (can they get worse), and I make it intact into Cuba by that afternoon.
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