FANS OF JAZZ and Latin music might want to plan a trip to the Riviera Maya to coincide with the fourth annual Latin Jazz Music Festival, scheduled for Nov. 22 to 25 in Playa del Carmen. Performances will be held nightly starting at 8 p.m. at Mamitas Beach Nov. 22 to 24 and at the Royal Porto Real on Nov. 25. Admission will be free from Nov. 22 to 24, and a “minimal” donation will be required on Nov. 25. Among the scheduled performers are Kool & the Gang, the Screaming Headless Torsos, Aguamala, Mint Condition, Wet Paint, Tom Coster, Benny Ibarra and Nacho Mendez. For information about the festival, visit
www.rivieramayajazzfestival.com/en-index.htm

Trip#5, Part 2
January 2006

On Monday, day four of our trip, we went to Xcaret. Although it was raining we made the best of it and had a good time. We signed up for a “Snuba Dive” which turned into quite an experience. This was going to be Suzy’s first open water dive. In this type of diving experience you do not wear air tanks or a buoyancy vest. The divers wear a mask, fins, weight belt, and an air regulator. The regulator is connected via an 18ft. long hose to an air tank on an inflatable raft that floats on the surface. This limits your maximum dive depth to approximately 18 feet. We saw the beautiful coral reef, a giant sea turtle, barracuda, puffer fish, and sting rays. Our dive master took an underwater picture of us together, our first “wet picture”.

It was a lot of fun until………………….we ran out of air. We were both attached to the same air tank and we did not have an air gauge to monitor our air consumption. We were dependant on the dive masters estimate of our air usage and he missed it by about 5 minutes. It started to get verrrry hard to draw a breath. So we signaled him and surfaced. We survived and we learned what to expect when running low on air. We went back to the dock on Xcaret and went to the locker room to change. This is where we spent the next couple of hours waiting for a torrential tropical downpour to subside.

By the time the storm was over we were famished. We started looking for a restaurant. We decided to try a new place the park built next to the lagoon. The food was OK but I just didn’t like my shrimp staring back up at me from the plate. We had to skip the underground river float because it was very cold due to the rainstorm. We stayed for the night show which was an abbreviated version due to the big pavilion having been damaged by Wilma. The performances were all excellent. If you go to Xcaret stay for the night show.

Our next adventure was to go out to Puerto Morales and snorkel the reef, followed by an ATV tour into the jungle to several Cenote’. Cenote’ are deep water filled sinkholes formed by water percolating through the soft limestone above. We were picked up by a private van and whisked out to the beach in Puerto Morales. We changed into our wet suits, jumped into the boat and spent the next couple of hours snorkeling two different areas of the reef. The currents were very strong that day but we had an excellent guide and saw a lot of interesting coral and sea life.

When we got ashore we headed out to the jungle to the ATV depot. It was still raining, so we just kept our wet suits on. When we arrived at the ATV depot we got a 5 minute lesson on how to operate them, then fired those bad boys up and roared further out into the jungle. The ATV’s are a kick to drive. We each had our own ATV as part of the package we purchased. We were to visit 3 different Cenote’. When we got to the first Cenote’ we grabbed our snorkeling gear, climbed down into the cave, and swam in the clearest water you’ve ever seen. The water was cold but the visibility was fantastic. There was no plant life or fish, but plenty of rock formations to look at. When we finished, we went on to two more Canute’, one in another cave and another open-topped but extremely deep. They had a zip line on that one but it was wrecked by Wilma so we couldn’t try it out. After all this riding around and snorkeling we drove back and turned in our ATV’s. We went back the beach in PM, where we had a great lunch and a couple of Margarita’s at a restaurant right on the beach as part of our package. In spite of the rain it was a great experience and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This is an excellent tour and we highly recommend it.

Our next order of business was to finalize our diving activities. Suz wasn’t able to complete her required check out dives in Illinois because of a bad head cold, and then the subsequent busy social schedule we had during the holidays. We had made arrangements via the internet for Suz to complete her certification check-out dives in Cancun. We made a contact via a web site recommendation with a YMCA certified instructor prior to the start of our vacation. His name is Sergio and his wife is Silvia. They are both “YMCA” instructors. So when we arrived in Cancun we called Sergio and made arrangements for our first dives. Sergio and Silvia picked us up at the Sands, and we introduced ourselves, as we drove to Gran Puerto to the Ultramar Ferry Dock. We parked, boarded the ferry, and were whisked out to Isla Mujeres for our dives. This was our first visit to IM. We were immediately impressed by this islands beauty and character. We arrived very early in the morning, and the dive shop wasn’t open yet. We walked around until we found a small restaurant on a side street for a light breakfast.

After breakfast we went to the dive shop to get outfitted with all our gear. We then boarded the dive boat and proceeded out to the reef. We suited up and entered the water. We were down for about 45 minutes to a depth of about 25′-30′. The seas were somewhat heavy but hey……..that was on the surface. Suzie completed the first part of her certification dives and passed her tests without incident. We did 2 dives that day before going back in. We were all hungry and asked Sergio to pick a place for lunch. He choose Mininos, which is a small restaurant south of the ferry terminal that is actually on a pier jutting out into the water. We spent the next 2 hours talking, eating, and drinking. The food, conversations, scenery, and the company were great.

I planned to ask Suz to marry me sometime during this vacation and I brought along the engagement ring to give her, if she said yes. I originally planned on asking her underwater, during one of our dives, but the more I thought about it, I knew it would be unusual, but not too romantic. So I decided to put the big moment off for the next week, and I started planning on another way to ask her the big question.

(See the next episode to see if she said yes !!!!!!)

So, after quitting our jobs in England, and packing up everything we owned, we were finally ready to move to Cancun. Friends would ask where we were going to work and we would tell them, in a confident voice, that we planned to work ”in a beautiful hotel called Las Velas”.

We had called the hotel once after a drunken night of slamming tequilas. I spoke to Gerson, (now, my good friend), who was in charge of the animation staff, at the time. I slurred down the phone about wanting to come to work there and he just told me to contact him when I arrived. To this day, he doesn’t remember that conversation so maybe he was as drunk as I was at the time.

The flight to Cancun was uneventful and we landed in the early afternoon. Our plan was to go directly to the hotel – well lets face it, I don’t think we’d ever been in downtown Cancun before (oh wait a second, yes we went to Walmart one day whilst on vacation – well that’s REAL Mexico isn’t it)? We didn’t really have a plan B. I guess we would have gone to find a cheap hotel if they turned us away but who knew where!

Our taxi arrived at the end of the little road that leads to the hotel. We stopped off there and the driver loaded our suitcases onto the side of the road. There was a bar on that corner called ‘Stonneys’ (great pizza). We thought we’d have a beer and try to work up some courage to go and ask for a job!! We must have looked quite a sight sitting at the bar, beer in one hand and suitcases and bags around our feet!

We were just deciding how we would go about asking for work when Oscar came walking around the corner – he was one of the animation team members. He greeted us, looked at the suitcases and asked if we were back on vacation and staying at Las Velas. We answered him with our master plan and he kind of developed this scared ”these girls are crazy” kind of face. He did however volunteer to take us to the gate and called Gerson to come to talk to the wierd Brit chicks.

Gerson came to the front gate and looked at us as if he knew our faces from somewhere but wasn’t sure where. We greeted him like a long lost friend and he looked even more confused. This is Gerson’s favourite anecdote to this day. He loves to tell this story in his own funny way – of course, exagerrating everything (although, secretly, I think he has a point). We explained that we were here in Cancun to work and we would just lurrrrve to work in his team. He looked us up and down and then down again at the pile of suitcases and asked where we were staying. “Well, here at your hotel, of course. Don’t you provide accommodation for your staff??” I think Gerson didn’t know whether to laugh or hide.

Well, he welcomed us into the hotel and took us to the staff quarters to introduce us to two other animation team girls. He told us to unpack, have dinner and then he would see us at 10am the next morning. Did this mean we had a job or was he just being nice and taking pity on us for the night!?! We weren’t too sure but decided to make the most of it and when to tuck into the Mexican theme dinner.

The next morning we were there at his office bright and early. Gerson asked me if I liked kids (to work in the kids club) – I lied and said yes, anything to get my foot in the door. Not that I don’t like kids but I wanted to play on the beach, not be stuck with the kids all day. This worked out fine in the end, my friend got the kids and I got the beach.

We were issued with uniforms and told to go to rehearsals. Re-what???? Rehearsals for what??? It was at this time that we were faced with a rather humiliating introduction to dance rehearsals. They were learning this incredibly hard routine and I hadn’t danced before in my life ( I don’t think drunk dancing on tables counts). It was actually fine in the end and, after a month or so, I wasn’t bad!

So that’s the end of my arrival to Cancun. Gerson remains the great friend who rescued me and gave me my first job. I now have a great job selling tours by internet and am due to get married next year! Who knew?!!

My arrival is not the recommended way to go about doing things and, knowing what I know now about Cancun, we were pretty dumb, really!!! I mean we didn’t even know how much it would cost to rent an apartment if we needed to… let alone how to go about it.

So, bottomline is I was lucky…incredibly lucky!