Playa del Carmen

WOO HOO!! Mexico here I come!

I haven't traveled outside the country in several years (Canada doesn't count).  So I pestered my friends for advise because, well, it is Mexico.  The country got its bad reputation honestly.  Basically, they all said the same thing--be careful and don't drink the water.  Ok, I can do that.

One precaution I almost took and am glad I didn't was to use only my passport card.  I failed to note (even though it is on bold on the website) that it is not good for air travel.  I got all the way to the gate before finding this out.  Fortunately, I brought my regular passport as "backup."

Also, boarding on time is strongly encouraged on international flights.  I was not the last to board but very close to last.  The poor guy with my Duty Free had to wait by the door for quite awhile.  I got there and the steward said, "You must be Sarah."  Yeah, that's me.

I had a fantastic flight--the row completely to myself.  And the credit card machine had been stollen (WTF) so the flight attendant gave me wine 2 for 1.  I arrived ready for vacation!

I arrived just a 30 minutes before the "big" SF flight.  Karen had generously arranged transportation for all 11 of us from the Cancun airport to Playa del Carmen.  Elder, Shandra, Wonder, AG, Greg, Chrissy, Sean, Andre, Brent, Karen and me in a van with a bottle of tequila.  Esta bien.

Karen and I shared a condo at Villas Sacbe which is associated with Porto Playa where the main group was staying.  Too bad we didn't know that when getting dropped off.  We had to haul our stuff back to Porto to check in, but Jonathan (bell boy) was kind enough to haul it all back to Sacbe for us.

Dinner was a very large group meeting up with Lydia and Dave on 5th St. (the main tourist drag).  We ate at a huge Mexican restaurant, the sort that made you wear a sombrero for a group picture.  The food was meh, but the company fantastic.  I miss all my SF buds.  After dinner drinks were at Deseo, a rooftop bar with canopied beds and a pool.

Karen and retired to Villas Sacbe to listen to pounding music coming up the street from 4-5 clubs on our block.  Karen went straight to sleep and I managed after reading awhile.  The clubs close at 4:30am.  Esta mal.