Our trip to Mexico
Joseph and I were invited by my boss to attend his wedding in Mexico. We decided we had to go, not because it was my boss, he rocks and there’s no pressure like that there. We decided to go because neither of us had been to Mexico before, Joseph’s never been out of the country, and Joseph shooting a destination wedding would be huge for his business. This was all decided after Joseph lost his job too, which I’m sure many people were shaking their heads, but whatever.
So I bought our tix, hotel, and transportation to and from the airport online with our refund in Feb. I love that their resorts are all inclusive. That’s such a huge bonus. We were both so excited to go on this adventure together. And that’s what it turned out to be, an adventure, not unlike the out of towners movie.
Let me preface the rest of this story by saying we loved our trip and had a good time. The business possibilities it’s going to provide for Joseph are huge. We really do believe that we just got lucky, er unlucky with the shenanigans that happened. After all that, you’re expecting this amazing story, well I promise nothing.
Between my buying our trip and our leaving, Mexico became the absolute last place anyone should go between the gang/drug violence along the borders and the damn h1n1 virus… we were even banned from going to Mexico by our company. This led to my boss and I working from home for a week each, as a precautionary measure.
Two of our flights were cancelled before our departure. One time the flight was just rescheduled, leaving us in Mexico City overnight. So after getting those squared away, we were on our way. I actually felt bad for my boss and his now wife as some of their guests ended up not coming due to the health scare. And I know there was at least a glimmer of concern in general. It all worked out and was a beautiful wedding.
On our way from NC to Mexico, there was an hour flight delay to move us to a smaller plane. I would definitely do direct flight next time.
Then when we get down there the room they put us in wasn’t supposed to be avail as it was missing a shower head and had no cable. As my friend Stephen said, “you were drunk anyway”. So not the case the first day!
The next room they wanted to move us to, the bed wasn’t made, so room number three was fine.
The next day Joseph and I made the conscious effort to get drunk. We’re from the mountains so getting drunk at sea level proves to be a challenge.
I was told that we needed bug spray, so I grabbed what I could find last minute at Target, which ended up being this bug spray spf 30 combo. Perfect!
Until I realized it wasn’t water proof…
SO BURNED.
Then the wedding, which after viewing all the pics, I realized I was so burned a drunk, I don’t remember most of it. Well done!
I know it was fun though. So hey.
The next day we received a piece of paper informing us that the building we were in was low occupancy and they would upgrade us if we changed buildings. This was an awesome upgrade as we got a two room suite with a private swim up pool.
The next day, the day before we left, I thought I’d better get our transport back to the airport all squared away, which was easier said than done.
It seems everything is by appointment and no less than one day in advance for things. If you want to go on some all inclusive tour, eat at the restaurant at the resort rather than the buffet, and even transport to the airport. Rather annoying.
I missed our appointment with the company to get us back to the airport. In fact, the day before we needed to leave we wander around and ask one dude who does transportation for another company, and he said oh, you missed your appointment? And you’re leaving tomorrow? oooh. I was like, are you kidding?
We FINALLY get that straightened out and took a cab out to Tulum to look at the ruins in the middle of the day, over 90degrees and 100 percent humidity. GMFT. I was visibly sweating. NOT CUTE. The ruins and the accompanying beach were awesome though. Our experience, not so much, but that was more my fault for making us go at that time.
Then the day we needed to leave, our transport doesn’t show up, that we wasted hours the day before squaring away. So then we took a cab to the airport, go to the wrong terminal, have orbitz pick up the tab, and wait for more transport to the right terminal.
Not to mention I totally didn’t trust the ticket agent dude. I was even more surprised that our luggage arrived in Denver.
Anyway, lots of travel issues, being burnt, and drunk. However, so happy we went. Will we be in a rush to get down there again anytime soon, probably not. Nevertheless, we owe them another try. Everyone was REALLY nice down there, I mean really. So that was a bonus when dealing with things going awry.
Good trip.
There’s nothing like being drunk in a foreign country.
It’s even crazier when you don’t speak a lick of the language.
A couple of years ago, a coworker and I traveled to Germany to plan an office migration. We stayed at the Arabella Sheraton in Dusseldorf, which has direct access to the train under the hotel. No train maps around (everyone apparently already knows where to go), we set off on our trek towards downtown Dusseldorf.
We end up at this huge train station (it seemed like like Grand Central would fit in a corner) and start wandering around. We happen upon a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant with a French waiter and an Arabic cook. Much fish and wine later, we stumble back to the train station, get what appears to be a map, and get on the last train of the night.
We count the number of exits on the map to our hotel and get off at what we think is the appropriate one. As we step on to a pitch-black platform at midnight, we have the sudden realization in our drunken stupor that we’re nowhere near where we need to be. To boot, we don’t even know where there is, except a mighty rough looking part of the city.
We eventually make our way safely to a phone booth (to find the phone book stolen), but see a cab number etched into the booth. We call it and get a $40EUR ride back to our hotel.
Good times, indeed.