Jan.2006, Part 1

I was very fortunate to meet a very special person since my last trip. Her
name is Suz. Suz had vacationed several times in the last few years in
Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands. She likes the water,
snorkeling, and the tropical climate, but was interested going to a place
with more to do. As we got to know one another and the various things that
we both loved to do it seemed that another trip to Cancun was in order. So
when I asked Suz if she would like to go to Cancun this time, I was pleased
to hear her say yes. She would be my Cancun Virgin! So we started planning
our trip. Suz decided to take scuba diving lessons at the local YMCA to
become a certified diver in the time for our vacation. We finished making
our plans, rented the villas, and bought our airline tickets by the end of
July.

So we were set………..or so we thought………….but WILMA had
different ideas. We watched as Wilma parked for over 60 hours on top of
Cancun. After she moved on, we started watching the web sites based in
Cancun for the daily pictures of the damage that occurred in the Cancun
area. The first big change to our plans came when American Airlines
cancelled our direct flight and tried to reschedule us through their hub in
Dallas. Many of the airlines underestimated the will of the Mexican people
to rebuild Cancun quickly. This would have changed our 3-1/2 hour trip to
over 8 hours going, and 10 hours returning. I started looking for another
airline. I found that if we flew out on Friday instead of Saturday and
returned on Sunday instead of Saturday that we could get a direct ATA flight
from Chicago-Midway. This worked, as the cost was the same and we would gain
2 extra days in paradise, which was not a bad thing! Now we had to book 2
extra nights somewhere as our reservations at the Royals ran from Saturday
thru Saturday. We looked around and choose Karl and Dee’s Cancun B&B in the
SM30 district in El Centro. This location was near the La Taberna bar and
grill on Av. Yaxchilan, where we wanted to spend our first evening meeting
with some friends that live in Cancun.

So now it was a waiting and watching game to see how badly Wilma had damaged
Cancun, and how much recovery would occur before we would arrive in January.
We were glued to Cancunandrivieramaya.com, Cancuncare.com, Cancunassist.com,
Afterwilma.com, to see the pictures and watch Brant’s helicopter videos of
the beaches. The info and pictures these web site owners provided to all of
us that love Cancun was much appreciated. The days flew by and the next
thing we knew it was time to pack and get our butts to the airport and onto
our flight. In 3-1/2 hours we arrived, flew through immigration,
green-lighted customs and then walked outside where Karl and Dee were
waiting for us.

We got comfortable at the B&B and then headed over to LaTaberna for dinner
and to meet with some of our friends. We called Susan and hoped that she
could join us. Unfortunately she was ill and couldn’t make it. She told us
some of her girl friends were supposed to be there, and we started looking
for them. We introduced ourselves to a couple of ladies at a nearby table,
and they did know Susan so we joined them, and started the night out with,
Kimberley and Joyce. Later on when Scott and the gang arrived we all moved
over to a longer table and had a great evening. We also met Mike, Jason,
Jill, Dale and others. I was also introduced to Don Julio, (the Tequila),
had a few, and life was good! After a couple of hours we all went to a place
down the street to listen to some live music, then to a 2nd floor bar across
the street. The music, food, booze, and time spent with all our friends a
great start to the best time I ever had in Cancun! We finally bailed about
2am and made our way back to the B&B, the end of a very long day.

The next afternoon (Sat.) Karl took us over to the Royal Sands where we were
to stay the first week. We unpacked and then caught a shuttle over to the
Royal Mayan so we could have lunch outdoors at their Palapa restaurant.
Later that night Suz and I had a Moon & Stars massage at the Royal Resorts
Spa. We were now completely relaxed and in full vacation mode. After our
massages we played some billiards and enjoyed a sandwich out on the veranda
at the sports bar overlooking the swimming pool. Then we took a romantic
walk on the beach in the warm evening breeze. Is this a great life or
what???

Since I had been thinking more and more about the possibility of someday
living in Cancun, I really wanted to look into the real estate offerings in
the area. Once again Susan came to the rescue and via the Internet
introduced me to a realtor friend of hers. Her name is Carmen Bianca Pino.
We called Carmen and made an appointment with her to see some properties a
few days later. On Thursday Carmen picked us up and we began a daylong
odyssey viewing various real estate offerings. We started at a place in the
hotel zone and worked our way towards El Centro and looked at a wide variety
of condos, and town homes of various sizes and pricing. (We even learned
what a “Myan Chandelier” is!) Then we all had a late lunch at a place that
Carmen recommended in El Centro. It was called La Troje, on Av. Acanceh,
near Sport City. We ate outside after waiting for about 10 mins. for a
table. It was that crowded for lunch! The food was very good and plentiful.
We really enjoyed this new adventure and we really appreciate Carmen’s
kindness in giving a day to us. She was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed
her company and expertise. We now had some idea of the cost of property in
this area. That is very important, when you plan to live somewhere you are
unfamiliar with whether it is full time, or part time. If we do make a
choice to live in Cancun in the future, Carmen will be our realtor.

More to come on Trip#5………….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 at 12:51 pm and is filed under General Blog Entries. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. We reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.