LIVEdigitally

Mexico Vacaciones - Saturday - Arrival

Saturday, January 27th, 2007.
Nothing like a 6am alarm to start a vacation (although it still beats the 6am flight!). All went as planned until we boarded the plane and I looked around to notice it was one of United’s dreaded 757s (the non-P.S. configuration). Even with the upgrade it felt (and tasted) only mildly better than Greyhound. But hey, it’s First Class, and we’re en vacaciones!

We left the ground about 30 minutes later, a small detail in the scheme of things which only comes to matter a little later. Overall a fine flight, although it reminded me how much I dislike seeing parents with their young children in 1st class (two reasons: #1 it’s simply not fair to the other passengers, especially the ones who paid their own money for the seat, and #2 I know what it’s like to not get upgraded when you’re really hoping for it, such as on a thirteen hour flight to Hong Kong). I hope I never become one of them. Anyhow, a mere four and a half hours later and we touched down safely in Cancun. The only problem was, our gate/plane combination was just a bit off.

The pilot blamed, well, Mexico, by telling us the ground crew didn’t have the right such-and-such. We looked out the window, vacation beckoning a short leap to the jetway. After about 30 minutes and about $20US (my guess), we were allowed to trade standing in our crowded plane for standing in a long line in the very crowded airport.

I’m not exactly sure what causes it, but it appears that roughly 80% of the air traffic arriving into Cancun occurs within a 15 minute window. By the time our customs line cleared, we were amazed to learn that the contents of our luggage hadn’t been divvied up and sold, but were still not yet on the conveyor belt! I can’t promise, but I don’t think I’ll ever complain about Heathrow quite as much.

We took El Super Shuttle to our resort, and the “20 minute ride” had us checking in a mere hour later. For those counting, our original schedule had us touching down around 3:40pm - we got to our room after 6:30pm. I’m not sure what took so long, but I’m contemplating the distinct possibility that time truly slows down in Mexico.

The hotel, the Iberostar Paraiso Beach (not to be confused with the Iberostar Paraiso Maya, situated about 100 yards away), was beautiful. A modern finish surrounded a very “Mayan look” with decorative, wading, and swimming pools all around (here’s an overhead view on Google maps). Ariella’s parents were waiting for our arrival, pina colada’s in hand. We dumped the luggage, had a brief stroll about the grounds, then headed for our all-important first bite.

Dinner was at the “Mediterranean Restaurant” (there’s one buffet style, and five specialty themed restaurants in the hotel), and the food and service were both quite decent. Not amazing, but not bad either, although you can certainly skip the paella. After dinner we went to see “The Show” - Saturday night was Movie Night at the Paraiso Beach. I was a little unenthusiastic about Movie Night, figuring there had to be better options than watching some movie in a roomful of overly cologned European men. Here’s a tip gents, and it’s free: if you walk into any room absolutely silently yet within three seconds people turn to look your way, you are wearing too much Drakkar!

Movie Night, as it turned out, was quite different than it’d seem. Rather than show a flick, their entertainers (also called “animators,” despite no apparent drawing skills) performed dance routines to the songs of several hit movies! Fun! We missed the opener, Star Wars, which I’m most curious about, but we did catch numbers from such favorites as Men In Black, Saturday Night Fever, and Wild, Wild West (oh yeah, they did make a movie out of that one, now that I think about it… it’s really too bad you can’t unmake a movie, eh?). The standout moment was from Titanic (Jack! Rose? Jack! Rose! Jack? Ah, sweet Titanic), as both parts were played by men. I can’t describe it well enough, but suffice it to say, hilarity ensued.

We were all a little tired from travels, so ended the night with some cards and a cigar. Well, I was the one who had the cigar, but hey, this is my pen, my sword.

Contents: