2/3-2/17 TRIP REPORT (of sorts): Part 1 of 2

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<b>: Take 12:30am flight from L.A.-Mexico City-Merida, arriving at 9am.</b>
<b>: AVIS CAR RENTAL AT MERIDA AIRPORT: Car not ready, despite reserving weeks ahead and re-confirming 5 days prior to</b>
<b>: departure. Different car with bashed in front end delivered to our hotel 4 hours later. Wife pissed. Me, with more experience</b>
<b>: traveling in so-called Third World countries, taking an “Okay, we’re here and we have a car” attitude. </b>
<b>: LESSON #1- never take a red-eye flight thinking you’re gonna sleep on the plane and be ready to rumble when you arrive at</b>
<b>: your destination. </b>
<b>: LESSON #2- Never arrive at your hotel before 3pm ‘cause without a car you’ll be trapped sitting on a sofa for 4 hours</b>
<b>: waiting for your room to be vacated and cleaned. And you’ll be too tired to hire a taxi and go anywhere. And you’ll have to</b>
<b>: listen to your wife of 33 years bitch the entire time.</b>
<b>: MERIDA (2 DAYS): Great city. We wished we had 2-3 more days to spend there. Stayed at Casa Mexilio, highly</b>
<b>: recommended. Tried the first of many new food delights.</b>
<b>: UXMAL (2): Easy drive. Stayed at Club Med’s Villas Arch. Nice facility. Decent food, but overpriced. Great gin & tonics. Had</b>
<b>: the ruins practically to ourselves. </b>
<b>: PUUC ROUTE: Took a day trip. Alone at some sites, perhaps 2-4 other people at others. Weird. Donde estan las turistas?</b>
<b>: This is the High Season? Got lost on the way back to Uxmal, wife a little upset, me liking the adventure and enjoying</b>
<b>: practicing the little Spanish I know, like, “Donde estan las senoritas con melones grande”?</b>
<b>: CHICHEN ITZA (3): Club Med again. Exact same layout as their Uxmal hotel. Felt like we were in the movie “Groundhog</b>
<b>: Day.” Again, by going early we avoided the tour groups on those big buses. Did half one day, half the next. Great. Liked</b>
<b>: Valladolid and had a nice lunch there.</b>
<b>: COBA (2): Didn’t realize when planning we could have done this in one day, or just a couple of hours, which would have</b>
<b>: given us 1-2 more days on the Mayan Riviera (MR). Stayed at Club Med again (easy booking) and- guess what?- the exact</b>
<b>: same layout as the other two hotels, only reversed. Definitely either a “Groundhog Day” or “X Files” experience.</b>
<b>: LESSON #3- Plan more carefully so you don’t have to spend 2 nights in a hotel when you could have spent only 1 night, or</b>
<b>: none. Coba could have easily been a day trip from Akumal, but we didn’t realize that when we planned things back in</b>
<b>: November. Another factor was none of the 5 maps I had showed a road from Chemax to Coba. Luckily, I learned of it while</b>
<b>: we were at CI.</b>



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