Tyra performed her planning magic
. Only a few minor glitches along the way, although no deal-breakers. My hat’s off to her for all her hard work, although I think she’s probably marked “travel agent” off her what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up list
. You know its
got to be tough to wrangle 13 people off to Playa! Anyway, all the rooms were booked, flight arrangements made 2 months in advance.
Of course, flight times changed
for both airlines that the 4 of us from Austin had reservations on. I quickly learned that airline carriers don’t always play together well, resulting in my purchase of some one-way tickets on yet another carrier to get us to DFW with time to spare for the flight then to Cancun. The events of that morning I would actually rather forget; its a story for another time… oversleeping, scolded by ticket agents, held flights, trying to rush through security (you just can’t hurry those guys!), missed flights, back through security, etc. All said & done, we finally met up with Tyra and the rest of the clan in DFW, only to find out that the flight to Cancun didn’t get off the ground until an hour after it was scheduled, so the disasters of the morning were all for naught
! Oh, well, we were on our way to Playa, no more worries!
The arrival in Cancun was uneventful, until Tyra started off the plane across the tarmac at a very quick pace to the dreaded “red light” area; she was a woman on a mission. I was beginning to think that she had had enough of everyone already and she was leaving us to fend for ourselves,
when it dawned on me that it was all part of her grand plan. Get all 13 of us spread out, and we’d be more likely to make it through without hitting red! Good thinking, Tyra, it worked! All people & luggage were haphazardly thrown in 2 vans for the transport to Playa. Oops, we were one person short! Seems that one of the cousin’s boyfriend was also going to meet us in Cancun… sometime. Nobody seemed to know, though, what time, which airline or flight number, or even if he made it to the airport to catch his flight
. We were able to glean that he didn’t even know the name of the hotels. Great! More vacation time spent with both vans taking scenic tours of the 2 Cancun terminals. Don’t know how, but he was finally located. (I think that Tyra will require him to be equipped with GPS if we do this again!)
We were on our way down the road, stopping at Puerto Morelos for the all-time stress reliever – beer – and made it to our home away from home. Tyra had booked 2 apartments at Chichan Baal Kah for she & I and my daughter & son in law & a friend of theirs, and 2 condos at Villa Sacbe for the rest of the group. Unloading all the people and baggage at the two places kinda reminded me of the Keystone Cops. Everyone somewhat settles in, Tyra takes a few on a field trip to the grocery store, and we all decide we’re hungry.
Walked the few steps down the street from Villa Sacbe to La Siesta. The big mistake of the evening was 11 of us sitting down at one long table! Beer & tequila shots were coming from the bar faster than anyone could count.
Food was ordered, and more beer
while we waited. It wasn’t long before I was wishing we had sat at separate tables – some of the clan were acting like tourists! Getting the bill and everyone throwing out money was pretty much a cluster…
cross words were spoken
... not a pretty site. Everyone stumbled back to their own corners for some sleep. Hopefully some rest, and the next morning we’d all feel like
family again.