Cancun 2010: Surviving Hurricane Paula

Our Cancun vacation had a little bit of everything, nearly all of it outstanding. This was a vacation nearly 9 months in the making after my sister Pam and brother-in-law Jeff invited us to join them at their Royal Mayan time share earlier this year.

We booked our flight in March and what seemed so far away then was suddenly upon us last week. Neither Joan nor I had ever been to Cancun and were very much looking forward to seeing this new destination together.

We were not disappointed.

On Friday, October 8, we celebrated the first birthday of our grandson Griffen in Lake Orion. On Saturday, I worked a volunteer shift at “Fantasy Forest” for the Family Literacy Council and then planned on watching the first half of the Michigan State University and Michigan football game before heading down to our Detroit hotel.

When we fly out of Detroit, especially when we have an early morning flight, we like to book a “sleep, park and fly” room so that we can get at least a little sleep before we leave. It’s also a good deal because you get the hotel room, parking and shuttle for the same price as a hotel room.

The football game was so good we decided not to head down to the hotel until it was over, which was about 7 p.m. We got tucked in about 9:30 p.m. and got up at 3:45 a.m. to catch an early Spirit Airlines flight to Ft. Lauderdale and then a connection to Cancun.

Both flights were on time (actually early) and we arrived in Cancun at 11:15 a.m. (local time). We had been warned by my sister and brother-in-law to not be delayed by the many merchants waiting at the airport. We found our Thomas More travel agent outside the airport and we were soon on our way to the Royal Mayan.

When we pulled up to the entrance Jeff and Pam were both there waiting for us and hustled us to our room so we could change out of our flight outfits and into resort wear (shorts and t-shirts). There was a welcome party going on and Jeff won a resort hat, which he kindly gave to me.

About 1:30 p.m. we went for lunch at La Palapa, an open air resort restaurant. Then we headed back to the room to unpack and unwind from the day’s travels. Then we wormed our way onto a paddleboat commissioned by the resort for a leisurely ride on the Cancun lagoon. It was a great way to spend our first afternoon there. Later, we sat on the patio and caught up before we went to a resort restaurant for dinner.

That night we ate a fine dinner at the Tradewinds, a restaurant at the neighboring Royal Caribbean. After dinner we went back to the beach to take part in the release of about 300 tortugitas (baby turtles) that were hatched and raised on the hotel property.

The turtles return each year to the beaches along Cancun and lay eggs. They are kept protected and raised to a healthy size before they are released back into the gulf. By carrying them to the surf they are kept from an ugly fate from the sea birds, but probably a lot of them are still fated to be food for larger fish.

No one seems to worry about the birds not getting the usual diet of small turtles they once got before man started helping them into the water. But it was fun to be part of the turtle release.

Up early on Monday (time changes always do that to me) I headed out for a very long barefoot walk on a very long beach.

Unfortunately I forgot how tender my feet were and the crushed coral on the beach wore a hole in two of my toes, which was very painful by the time I got back from my walk. I did find a conch shell in the surf and a beautiful chunk of brain coral that had washed up. Both are now sitting on a shelf in our dining room.

For the rest of that day, we chilled by the ocean and I began reading my friend Kim Crawford’s new book “The 4th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War” from Michigan State University press. It is a great book for those who love studying the Civil War or who just want to learn more about how it was to be a soldier in that war.

Sitting under a palapa (thack umbrella) we spent a wonderful day enjoying the warm breeze and sunny skies. I waded into the warm gulf waters several times that day and royally burned my unprotected white ankles. I spent the rest of the trip wearing socks so as not to further damage my feet.

Monday night we went back to La Palapa for the Mexican buffet and Mexican show. Native entertainers provided a glimpse into Mayan, Mexican, Aztec and Inca culture in dance and music during the show after dinner. A perfect ending to a great day in paradise.

Free Margaritas had my sister eventually up and dancing with the performers, which she would likely have done without the free Margaritas.

TULUM

On Tuesday, at the recommendation of my sister and brother-in-law, we scheduled a tour of Tulum with guide “Jaime,” who described himself as a half Mayan and half Polish Jewish man. His father, a federal Mexican judge had married a Polish Jewish woman and he was the darkest of his parents’ children.

During his career he was a college professor and still travels throughout the world educating and consulting with folks about Mayan culture.

As the first of 11 people picked up at two resorts for the tour Jaime was quiet at first intently listening to a Mexican news radio station in the tour van. We assumed he didn’t want to start the tour until others were aboard, but we soon learned that he and the driver were listening to news of approaching Hurricane Paula.

Jaime translated the weather report and told Joan and I that while we might get some heavy rain and winds, the hurricane would not be a direct hit on Cancun like the 2005 storm named Wilma. He did tell us we had picked the right day for the tour as Wednesday was expected to be wet, which it was.

Touring the ancient port of Tulum was fascinating and the information Jaime gave us was top notch. Jaime said many tour guides in the search of great tips inflate the importance and activities at Tulum, but he wanted us to have the real story. That story involved the use of Tulum as a commerce center and not one of a major religious site with human sacrifices.

He explained which buildings were homes and which were used as commerce centers on the site.
Too many guides make up stories of gory human sacrifices to impress the tourists and garner bigger tips, Jaime said.

After about an hour at the site, Jaime turned us loose for 90 minutes of touring on our own. It was awe inspiring to visit a site that was such a hub of commerce some 1,200 years ago, even if our visions of human sacrifices in complex religious ceremonies were dashed.

After satisfying our curiosity at the ruins site we headed back on the tram and were immediately set upon by souvenir merchants trying to separate us from the 1,200 pesos we had in our wallets. (About $100) They only got a few, about 40 pesos ($3.25) for some photos I took of some Mayan musicians playing at the top of a long pole.

Joan was hungry so she bought a salad at, of all places, a Subway hope in the Tulum marketplace.

HURRICANE PAULA

By the time we returned to the Royal Mayan about 3:30 p.m. the resort employees were working at a feverish pace securing every loose piece of furniture on the site in preparation for the advancing hurricane. Jeff and Pam went to the store to stock up on a little food in case the resort wasn’t able to serve us the next day.

A housekeeper stopped by and put towels under all the windows and doors in the time-share in the event that water was forced into the unit. A short time later the resort urged us to take a room higher up and further from the water, but we said we would ride it out as all indications were that the hurricane was not going to directly hit Cancun.

Management insisted we keep a key for another, safer, unit with us in the event we needed to get out of the unit because of high water or damage.

In the end, the precautions were not needed, the hurricane passed nearly 100 miles east of Cancun and all we saw was a lot of rain and moderate winds on Wednesday morning. The towels were not needed under the windows as it turned out.

But the red flags were up on the beach and without lounge chairs to sit on we caught a city bus and made our way to a beautiful mall a few miles north of the resort. We bought some souvenirs and then headed to a prime rib dinner at Captain’s Cove Restaurant across from the resort. The food was terrific and the company was even better.

A friend of Jeff and Pam’s at the resort, Tom (or Senor Rojo as he likes to be called) joined us for dinner. We went back to the time share and watched the American League playoffs.

Instead of further touring, we decided we would simply like to soak up the sun and relax at the resort for the final two days of our trip. So on Thursday we camped under a beach palapa and enjoyed the improving weather.

In the afternoon, the souvenir vendors began their work in earnest on the beach and my sister and Joan stocked up on hand crafted Mexican goods from the comfort of their lounge chairs. Some of the goods were very beautiful handcrafted and carved wooden items.

Thursday night we took the bus (Senor Rojo joined us again) and we went to an upscale mall on the hotel strip and enjoyed a fine dining experience at Cenacolo, an Italian restaurant located inside the mall. It was great.

On Friday Joan and I split up for part of the day as I wanted to lay by the pool while she was still enjoying the beach. It was another wonderful day. Joan eventually found her way into the warm gulf waters where she floated and waded for a long time. We watched the sun set (again) over the lagoon and headed to the Shrimp Fiesta dinner at the Cayo Largo, another fine resort restaurant.

Back at the room, we began the sad task of packing for our early departure on the next day (Saturday, October 16).

Up at 7 a.m. on Saturday we got cleaned up and into our airline clothes and visited on the patio with Pam and Jeff for our last minutes in the resort. The van picked us up promptly at 9 a.m. for the short trip to the airport.

Once there the language barrier caused me to lead us on a short, but annoying walk trying to find the Spirit Airline counter, which we finally found, but not until I followed a security guard who I thought told me to follow her around half the airport. Joan found the airline counter and waited for me there while I made my silly walk around the airport lugging my suitcase.

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale with an hour and 15 minutes to make our connection to Detroit, which is every minute we would need to clear customs and go through airport security again.

Joan’s titanium knee immediately marks her as a would be terrorist and special handling which in this case caused nearly a 15-minute delay at the security check point and a near miss for our connecting flight to Detroit.

Once on the airplane, a woman sitting in our row told me that Michigan State had won its game, which quieted my nerves from the security slow up. We arrived home on time and were back in our house by 9 p.m.