Another wonderful week, but a bit frustrating and annoying for one brief moment

Hola and greetings from the Mexican Caribbean coast once again.

My wife and I are having a wonderful time here. Coming to this beautiful part of the world is a real privilege. It is truly a place that needs to be nurtured, and from its sounds, the government, local governments, and the tourist industry have the place in good hands.

My paternal Grandparents made their last working home for a couple of years in Mexico, in a place that escapes me, much further north towards the US border. My Grandfather was an engineer, and his company, now called The Ashmore Group, built a blast furnace in the mid-1970s.

 

One of the many reasons we chose to come to Mexico was to visit Chichen Itza, the World Heritage Site. That led to a major disappointment on Thursday morning, but more of that later.

Our first trio of the week was to Coba and Mayan Shaman and home. We also visited and swam in a magical underground cenote.

Our trip picked us up at 0630, about half an hour later than planned (we'll hear about a similar problem later). Our guide for the day, Raul, was very apologetic but a knowledgeable host.

To put this in the context of the history of Coba and the Mayans, the Mayan Culture stems from BC times, or whatever we call those times today. The Mexican Government developed the Cancun area, where our hotel was situated in the early 1970s, and this area and beyond was jungle. There were reports of the site in 1842, but it was in the 1930s and 40s before it would be thoroughly investigated. Coba was a major city with 50 thousand inhabitants at its height. It had strong links to major cities in Guatemala and military collaborations.

Walking or rather riding around on a tuk-tuk (poor chap), the site as a whole extends to 80 square miles. We certainly needed more time to go that far. We visited the main pyramid. It is interesting to note that all the pyramids around the globe appear at about the same time. We also visited one of the two ball courts. Historians considered these courts used for religious ceremonies rather than as a sport.

Last Friday was our tenth wedding anniversary. Before the group swam in the cenote, we visited a Mayan Shamen for a blessing. He blessed our wedding anniversary as a special gift, making our visit memorable.

Afterwards, we visited a Mayan family home in Coba village. The lady taught us how to make tortillas, and in exchange, we offered apples. They love apples, but they are not often available to them, and us being able to get them from the hotels makes them very happy.

On Sunday, we made a trip to Playa Del Carmen. A local jewellery company had put on the transport, so we had to spend the first 45 minutes there- a bit like some of the trips we had when in the RMs. We then spent two hours on the tourist street in Playa Del Carmen. We needed the ATM and a visit to a pharmacist, and then we had a couple of rather lovely cocktails. We tried to buy a couple of small bottles of Tequila, the ones with the grub in the bottle, but it was past 5 O'clock on a Sunday, and they were not permitted to sell alcohol after that time.

Then we come to the thorny subject of our trip to Chichen Itza. We had booked this trip on the first morning we arrived. It was why we chose this trip, and we were excited to be going. Our rep noted all our trips on a piece of paper for us, and 0600 was the time for this particular trip. We also had the ticket with 0600 on it as well. We got ourselves out of bed at 0450 and ready for the day. We went down to the reception at 0550 and waited. Buses came and went, but we were still waiting for our bus. At 0630, one of the Bell Boys approached us with a piece of paper. It then became apparent that the trip was due to leave at 0500. The bus arrived at 0520 and left at 0530. We were devastated and angry; we were both tearful. This memorable trip had been cruelly pulled from under us.

Kathy contacted the UK end of the company, but we had to wait three hours for the rep to work in the hotel. She said we sent you a message on the app, but they didn't; it was in a chat room that we didn't use. She then phoned to see if we could be re-booked, and we said we were not paying any extra. It ended with, 'This should be okay for Sunday, but you must realise this is a big organisation'. I had not spoken to this point, but I left the rep with no illusion that we were happy. They needed to sort their communications out correctly, and what she had come up with was an excuse and not a reason for the problem. An hour later, we received a text saying we were re-booked for Chichen Itza on Sunday and needed to be at the reception at 0450.

So there we are. We will be going to Chechen Itza on Sunday. We can have a lazy day by the pool on Monday before leaving here at lunchtime on Tuesday.

It's time for PT in the pool, and then we're on holiday, aren't we?

Have a great writing week, everybody, and I'll catch up with you all next week.