Sun. 16th September 2012
It was an early start today to catch the 8:30am Oriente second class bus to Cancun. Our taxi driver dropped us close to Piste bus station, just as the local police closed the main road for the Independence Day Parade. This did not bode well for the bus showing up as the bus station was closed too.
We finally established that our bus, which we had a ticket for, was cancelled. There was nothing for it but to wait for the next one (an hour later) to watch the parade of school children marching past, which took over 30 minutes – and then watch them march back again!
Over an hour later the road opened again and fortunately one of the first vehicles was the 9:30am bus, only running 10 minutes late. Again we stopped at every village, which also meant slowing down for the enormous speed bumps in the road which precede each village. Luckily all other parades in other towns had finished by the time we arrived so there were no more delays. Four hours of bus journey was improved by two BBC Friday Night Comedy podcasts for me (Dave also listened to 3 hours of Economist podcast but still moaned he was behind!). We arrived in Cancun – in fairly urgent need of the loo!
For our last night in Mexico we have opted for a night on Isla Mujeres, a 30 minute ferry ride from Cancun. The sea is a fantastic turquoise colour and very warm – the only downside was the sea was full of locals, as it is Sunday, and day tripping yachts moored close to the beach with music blaring. Once they left it was quite peaceful watching the rain pouring over Cancun in the distance!
Our hotel is clean and right on the beach but at this end of the market you are handed the remotes for the TV and air conditioning (set so you cannot have the air con at less than 24 degrees) when you arrive and there is a fee if you do not return them! Still a swim in the Carribbean and a walk along the beach at sunset were a pretty good end to our time in Mexico,
Goodbye Mexico, we enjoyed visiting – thank you for the sights, the hospitality and the Internet access. Tomorrow, we head to Quito in Ecuador (via Miami) for the next leg of our adventure.