Trip #4 (Meeting Scott) Jan.2005, Part 2 of 2

The next person we were to meet was Scott Wilson. On the Wednesday we arranged to meet it had been raining on and off all day. We caught the local bus in a torrential rainstorm. Our destination was Wal-Mart, in El Centro. Once we got that far we planned to take a taxi to La Taberna on Av Yaxchilan. As we bounced along, the bus became more and more packed with locals going home after a hard days work. It was that shift change time of day at all the hotels. We couldn’t believe how many people were jammed into that bus. The driver just kept stopping and picking up more people. It became so crowded that we couldn’t see out of the windows, and thought we might miss our stop. When we got to Wal-Mart we hailed a taxi. We were overcharged by about 4 times. This is when we learned to negotiate the fare BEFORE getting in a cab. We were dropped off in front of La Taberna. We walked in and sat down at a table and started looking around to see if Scott was there. We saw a couple sitting in the booth back in the corner. There was Scott was sitting with his back to the wall like Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota surveying all who entered. We walked over and introduced ourselves to Scott and his friend Bonnie. We spent the next few hours talking with them about life in Cancun. Bonnie had just moved to Cancun from Florida in September. Scott had been here about 7 years. It was an interesting night because it was the first time I was able to spend time with “locals” in the “real” Cancun, “El Centro”. This was also our first visit to this popular hangout in El Centro.

Bonnie told us an interesting story about a recent experience. One night she had a taste for a pizza, so she called in a late night order for one, but had to walk some distance to pick it up. She explained that she lived on the outskirts of El Centro. She picked up her pizza and started to walk home when a large scruffy dog started to follow her. Needless to say she began to wonder if she would get home with her PIZZA intact? Then another dog joined her procession and she began to wonder if SHE would get home intact? Well it ended well and Bonnie and her pizza arrived home safe. Funny story because it had a good ending.

One of the interesting stories that Scott told us was about the time he was busy working and his power suddenly went off. He went outside to investigate and found an electric company worker disconnecting his meter. The man explained to Scott that his bill was past due, so he was being shut off. Scott said that he had not received a bill. He was promptly told that it didn’t matter that he didn’t get his bill, as it was still his responsibility to pay it on time. He had to tell Scott how much he owed. Scott pleaded with him to give a him an hour so he could go pay the bill. The worker finally agreed after Scott showed him that he had enough cash to pay for it. A quick trip to the payment center ensued and Scott came home, met the guy, showed him the bill and all was well again in Paradise. This is how I learned that the mail system in Cancun isn’t all that reliable.

It proved to be a very entertaining night. We caught a cab back to the VCI Club, but this time negotiated the fare in advance. From the VCI we caught the shuttle back the rest of the way to the Royal Sands, had a couple of night caps and turned in for the night.

I have a hobby making homemade digital films of my vacations. I brought my laptop computer with me this trip and used it to dump the pictures from my digital camera every evening. That way I could take a lot of background footage for the film. I was able to get a start on movie that would become my record of this trip. Susan and Scott both have copies of the finished film if anyone is interested in seeing it.

The next night we took the bus to La Isla, one of my favorite places to visit at night in Cancun. I took a really neat picture of Donna with an armed guard in front of the UltraFemme store. He was wearing full black SWAT team gear including the bulletproof vest, and combat boots. He was holding a loaded UZI sub-machine gun! As we walked by I held up my camera and he nodded, so I sent Donna over to have her picture taken standing next to him. We emailed it to her boss back in Chicago the next day. At that time Donna was the personal assistant to the president of a security company back home. He got a kick out of that picture. He said “they take their security seriously in Mexico”. Later I had my picture taken with 3 parrots by a street vendor in La Isla, which has become one of my favorite memories of Cancun trip #4.

I wanted to spend a day with a realtor to begin to further investigate what the cost of living in Cancun might be, but just couldn’t find the time to do so on this trip. So I filed that idea away as something to try next time. The rest of our time was just spent going to restaurants, sunning poolside and jumping waves in the ocean. Staying for two full weeks was really so much better than my previous one week trips.

When it was time to return we watched the weather channel and on January 22, 2005 Chicago was in the midst of a heavy snowstorm. We thought our flight might be cancelled, but our luck ran out and we had to leave. We checked in at the airport and while we were waiting. I walked over to the window to see our aircraft being prepared for our return flight. It was kind of funny to see them walking on the wings with push brooms sweeping all the snow off…………..LOL :–)

Trip 5 coming soon……………..!

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