Day 2: Cancun to Playa del Carmen

December 14, 2023

Flair airline turned out to be not exactly all that bad, but they did live up to their threat of not providing even water on the flight. That's not exactly accurate, because you could buy water, for $3.59 a bottle. Strangely their were some benefits to the Spartan arrangements. Not being given any snacks, let alone a meal, meant no waiting for staff to come around and pick up the trays afterward. And seats that do not recline mean that your neighbour in the row ahead can not recline into your lap.

Those are silver lining attitude adjustments, but we'll have to work harder to find some good in this one: Shortly before the flight we got an email seemingly from Cancun Airport stating that there is a state tourist tax that must be paid, about $20 each and only online in US $. The message insisted that this was not one of the myriad taxes we had already paid through the airline. The threat was that if we did not pay now, and get a tax number linked to our passports, then at immigration we would be kicked to the back, until we did pay. We checked around the internet and found that this was a real thing, although some sites mentioned that the Mexicans were not exactly enforcing the tax. Not wanting to risk it, we coughed up, even though navigating their website on the phone was not a treat. It all reminded us a bit of trying to deal with ArriveCan, a Canadian government confection that is flaky as hell.

The idea that the Quintana Roo state government would want to join the ranks of bloodsuckers tapping the flow of tourist dollars seemed quite reasonable. I had to admit that were I a state decision maker, I would probably try it as well. The problem, of course, is to avoid killing the goose that is laying the golden eggs. I will say that I was extremely peeved by this blatant ripoff, and that combined with all the other airport improvement, security system cost, and other taxes, I was getting near to chucking Mexico as a destination. Dodie, though, was more sanguine, just saying it's the way it is.

As it appeared to us when we got to Cancun, the state government was trying the equivalent of an internet automatic cash cow business. If you fell for the online threats, they would collect your money, online. But if not, they were not investing any staff or space on the ground for enforcement.

What they were, strangely, investing huge staff resources in was searching in detail each and every bag and suitcase that was passing through the airport. They had large areas of counters where uniformed guys were pawing through every bag, from top to bottom. Given the trouble in just getting all those bags onto and off the planes and then onto the moving belts for the public to pick up, packing and unpacking each and every one was incredible.

When our turn came, I hung back to watch what I knew would be quite a show. Here we had a young uniformed rubber glove wearing guy set to rip apart Dodie's carefully packed cases, including the very tricky bicycle suitcases. I had absolutely no doubt that the guy had little hope. And yes, though he did do some pawing, he had to give up in the face of Dodie's insistence that neither he nor the lineup behind was making another move until she had satisfactorily repacked.

We left the inspection area, with the one consolation that the boy had failed to check our "lunch bag", which had muffins, bagels, and hard boiled eggs because we knew that there is not particularly food at the airport and we still had a fairly long shuttle ride ahead.

Well not so fast, because the next stage was a team with a sniffer dog. We admitted to the lunch bag, and the lady confiscated the eggs, hard boiled or not! The dog remained suspicious of us, and circled quite a bit before we were given the green light.

To me, all this plays out as semi police state harassment and racketeering. I am still not giving up on Mexico, but oh, how nice it is to just stroll into Europe at Paris, Amsterdam, or wherever, and just get a pleasant wave and a stamp from the authorities before waltzing into their playland countries.

The rest of our Cancun airport experience involved appreciating anew the shining marble floors and the glitzy duty free, followed by the lines of authorized and unauthorized taxi services looking for their share of the tourist pie. This however was where I began to sense a certain lack of drama in the whole thing. At first I thought we are just used to the place now, but no, while that could be part of it, there were just fewer people about than what we had seen in the past. I would like to think that the harassment tactics are driving people away, but more likely we are just here in a slightly different slice of the season than previously.

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When we got to Playa del Carmen, the Hotel Maya Turquesa had a variant on the "early check in is 100 pesos per hour" we had been sent on Booking. Now they said we could put our luggage in the room, but still we could not check in, at least not until 2, which had come down from 3. What a strange playing field to be doing Mexican bargaining on!

This all had the effect of bumping us out onto the streets of Playa for about 4 hours, but at least without the luggage, which was enjoying our fully made up room without us, at no extra charge.

As at the airport, we found Playa lacking in the milling crowds and energy we had seen before. Yes, there were lots of people, and yes, the DJ at Senor Frog was still shouting up some action, but it was all on a lower key. This lower, but still high energy, and even a little cooler temperatures stemming from a recent cold front, actually are giving us more of a chance to enjoy the place.

Senor Frogs is still doing its thing, just down the street from hotel.

Enjoyment of the place starts with (Dodie) spotting some of the familiar bird species, down by the beach, where the Caribbean is as colourful and dramatic as ever.

02 Great tailed (Mexican) Grackle (female?)

And we went into some souvenir shops, without being followed around and enticed to buy stuff.

Every day is Dia de Muertos (like in Coco) here.

But I think the best so far has been that we walked calmly into a restaurant on the main drag (Fifth Avenue), chose a nice table in a garden setting, and got great service from a waiter that not only helped us to order in Spanish, but also gave us the Mayan words for some of what we were saying. The man of course was Mayan, and I enjoyed seeing this in his facial features. We also enjoyed seeing his obvious pride in his heritage. He was also backed up by other staff, and together they brought and took away the dishes at exactly the right moments. It was a fabulous display, worthy of the finest of restaurants. But the best part was the food actually came. It was part of why we like coming to Yucatan: Healthful - full of peppers, onions, avocado, spinach, and cheese, with freshly squeezed juices, fresh bread, and a little meat. And at the end, the waiter brought out some "paletas" - ice cream on a stick, that was also great.

Fajitas con tortillas from whole wheat (integrale). That guacamole was fresh and really good.

03 Male Great Tailed Grackle by our table

Christmas poinsettia grows here and is all around

We left the restaurant and walked down 5th a bit, before taking one more turn by the gorgeous beach. So nice to walk in the foam (and so hard to get the sand off the feet!).

We toddled back up to the hotel for 1:45 (cleverly shaving that 2 o'clock a bit), and temporarily collapsed. We had not really slept for 30 hours!

But now, here we are writing this blog, and soon - assembling the bikes!

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