The Carlson Blog Files: Sabbatical Blog: 10/11 Cancun, Mexico Day 4

10/11 Cancun Day 4 (Thursday)

Today started out okay. We had a rough nights sleep with Kylie waking up in the middle of the night crying, and not being her easiest to put back down. Either she was too cold, having teething pain, or who knows what? I had a bit of a coughing fit last night after she woke up. I had a wheezing in my lungs, that would lead me to cough. Poor Traci, having to deal with a whiny baby, and my sporadic coughing which must jostle the Heavenly Bed. I woke up feeling no better than yesterday, maybe a bit worse.

We woke up before 10:30 AM, but had a bit of a startle when the alarm clock read 11:07 AM. Kylie must have hit the buttons when we weren’t looking. We continued with our plans to have breakfast downstairs again. It was good. After breakfast, we suited up for the pool. And spent the next few hours in the pool and ocean. This was by far the most beautiful and warm day we’ve had so far in Cancun. The sun was hot! But the pool and ocean were perfect for keeping us cool.

We came back to the room and couldn’t get in. The batteries in the door lock had died, and they were having trouble re-programming the door lock. We had planned on heading down to the ruins in Tulum this afternoon, so they could replace the door lock while we are gone, as well as fix the thermostat so we don’t have to have it that cold in the room. Not too bad of an inconvenience.

Traveling with the Griswolds

I will start this part of my story, with “I always seem to learn things the hard way!” We left for Tulum, without much trouble and things were moving smoothly. Along their Interstate 307 have the equivalent of a safety corridor with a reduced speed of 80Km/h (about 50mph). The normal interstate speed is 100Km/h. The whole drive, I had cautiously maintained the speed limit because I didn’t want a speeding ticket, but the beauty of our day came grinding to a halt with the blatant corruption of the Mexican police. They had a speed trap set up and waved me and what I thought was another car over to stop. They claimed I had been going 97Km/h. In an 80Km/h zone, which was impossible, the most I would have exceeded the speed limit by was +5Km/h (or 85Km/h). Plus they claimed to have caught me 300m away. That’s nearly 3 football fields, and the visibility from their vantage point was bad, because they were at the base of a small hill (part of the speed trap). None-the-less, they were going to give me a ticket. This is a dangerous area, with lots of accidents I was told. The guy, said, Let me talk to my supervisor. For a 1st offense, the fine is $120. You can pay that in cash to me (there were 3 police officers at this speed trap; one in the car, and two on the road). Lucky for us, Traci had suggested that I only bring 60-70 dollars with us. Enough for entrance to the Archeology park and then some spending cash.

Since we had limited cash, and we are foreigners, they said that we can pay half, $60, in cash on the spot and that I could have my drivers license back and be on our way. The guy seemed somewhat sympathetic in that we were a family of three on our way to a popular tourist location, but somehow we needed to hand over some dinero. After that experience, it kind of soured the rest of our drive. For it being 115 – 120 Km to Tulum, it sure was a long drive, especially observing the 80Km for the whole drive. It was also quite irritating to see so many cars come flying past us, including buses, trucks and such. How crooked can the cops be here?

If this part of the story was it, it might night have been so bad… but in true Wally World fashion, the Ruins at Tulum were closed. They close to new visitors at 4:30PM. How I wish I would’ve known that before I left. I should’ve consulted the Concierge before we left. We arrived at about 4:45PM. It was such a shame to have driven so far, to have received a speeding ticket, and to not be able see what we set out for. Never again!
Both Traci and I just felt sick to our stomachs. And poor Kylie who had to endure nearly 4 hours of driving.

It was quite a relief when we made it back to the hotel. To add insult to our misery, Traci went up to the room first while I unloaded the car with Kylie and found that our door latch was still not working. I tried after she came back down and still no luck. We talked to the front desk, they checked our keys, and said they’d send someone up. We waited for 10 minutes, then called the operator, and waited for another 10 minutes. Just before we gave up to talk to the front desk again, I re-tried our keys and this time it worked! Not sure what is going on with our door lock, hopefully this is the end of our problems.

We ordered our dinner in-room, but while we waited Traci saw our German friends sitting out near the pool soaking up the quiet evening. She took Kylie down to visit, and I ended up wheeling our dinner down by the pool. They had bought some Tequila earlier in the day, and were enjoying a few drinks and asked us to join them. Traci had a 2 drink head start on me. We ended up having a great evening with good conversation and ended our crappy day on high-note. While we were out there, a rainstorm came in and brought the handful of people under cover. The rain and wind was intense, but it was so much fun. Kylie and Johanna were having fun chasing each other. And we kept the night going until about 10:30PM when the kids tired out.

Traci was the only casualty of the evening. She held her act together very well, but the Tequila bottle got the best of her and gave her pipes a workout. She has requested a 2 drink limit from now on. The other highlight; Kylie slept for nearly 12 hours straight!

Some family fun by the pool.