The Scenic Route to Valladolid

I was grateful for the mask on the plane because then no one could see me crying. There was this cute family sitting near me, kids looked about 12 and 9, everyone just had a backpack. It was like looking back in time on a slice of my life when we started summer backpack travels in 2010. That was me then with two kids, reading books and looking out the window.  Now I'm just me-ok I am with a dear friend, Vicky-but I'm on the bridge to a different way. I'm still sad to see those times as past events, I want to do it all again but you can't stop time so he we are.

With all the construction going outside terminal 3 at the Cancun Airport it's hard to see where the ADO bus area is, but it's to the right when you exit the terminal. The crowd of touts and drivers is so thick and they bock the signage. We bought tickets to Cancun Central Bus Station at the little kiosk for 105 pesos. We waited in the throngs of tourists arriving, very few looking for a bus, most looking for their private drivers and prearranged airport transfers with a beer in hand.

At the central bus station we had a choice to wait an hour and take the Oriente bus or wait two and a half hours for the ADO bus. We wanted to get out of Cancun ASAP so we booked seats on Oriente. In the back of my mind I knew the Oriente bus would be the local bus and therefore take longer and make more stops. It was either sit in the bus station and wait for the ADO or go ahead and get on the local bus, either way we'd arrive at the same time, around 730.  We did have to wait an hour or so in the bus station and were entertained by the earnest young man in an adorable uniform dutifully using his megaphone to announce each departure.

The Oriente doesn't take the faster toll road, it takes the older road through every town and stops at will for whoever flags it down or at any passenger's request. It ended up being better than just sitting in the Cancun bus station.

We we're pretty starved by 7:30 pm having been traveling since 5:00 am so we huffed our packs to Loncheria Canul and ordered paunuchos and salbutes and big glasses of Jamaica.  

Vicki suggested we call the hotel and tell them we would be checking in around 9:00.  I'm really intimidated to use the phone in Spanish because I can't rely on hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate but did it anyway.  I was surprised to learn that reception closed in 15 minutes and that we needed to get there right now! We quickly told the cook we needed the food to go and ran out to get a taxi to Casa Quetzal where we made it just in time to get a key before they closed the desk for the night. The look on my face like please don’t lock me out of the hotel!

Now here we are at the lovely and tranquil Casa Quetzal feasting on our first meal poolside and planning our activities for the next day.