Once again it was a very short night but who can be upset when the reason to get up so early is to catch a plane to Mexico.
I packed the last bits and pieces and went out, so that Matias could get back to sleep in order to be fit for his interview in the morning.
As the bus was early I also was too early at the airport, too early to check in. So I had a coffee (thank god for 24 hour coffee places) and wrote a little on my blog (catching up on Panama - I haven't quite managed to come into the same country as I am currently staying).
A little later the airport started to come alive and my counter for the flight opened as well.
Check in was straight forward and while walking through the Duty free section I thought I might buy some nice Headphones, but couldn't find any normal in earh headphones... only these stupid earbuds that keep falling out of my ears. The only option was iPhone headphones for 45 $. The thing with them is they are headsets, including mic and remote control but the mic won't work with a generic headphone/mic jack as on my Galaxy S3, so I don't want to spend the money of I can only use part of the assembly (and at the same time give apple more money).
So I sat near the boarding gate and continued my writing without new headphones.
The flights today were the cheapest option I could find and for a good reason. First of all the time it left was 6:30 but then I would stop in Lima and Bogota before getting to Cancun.
I really didn't mind stopping in those places, the layover in Lima and Bogotá was going to be only 90 min each and I thought it was cool to go to Peru and Colombia - even if it's only at the airport.
I got window seats on each flight (maybe because I was at the airport so early) and was able to see Aconcagua (6960m) last time with the sun rising behind it. I could also see the Pacific coast and the suburbs of Lima. When we touched down I was treated with a little patriotic present.
In front of the hangars a A340 with the callsing Luftwaffe 1 - 16+01 was parked. The Konrad Adenauer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Adenauer_(aircraft)
Really cool to see this out here so far away from home. I tried to find out who was visiting Lima today but couldn't find any information about it.
Even on the taxi out on our way to Bogotá we got a chance to look at it.
Bogotá (or at least the area where the airport is located) looked like a green fields and I imagined how many tons of cocaine must have been shipped out of here by Pablo Escobar. - Sorry this may be a bit stereotypical but it was the first thought when we were approaching Bogotá.
So what do you do in Bogota if you are not quite up for cocaine? You have a nice coffee. And that's what I did. Very nice coffee in a nice new terminal.
And soon after that we were off again.
It was one hour later than it should have been when we arrived in Cancun. This was due to Mexico changed the time in the state of Quintana Roo the first time in history. Apparently to not cause too much of a time change to US tourists... (not sure about this myth but well lets go with it).
Anyway... US and Canadian Tourists were plentiful and very much how I imagine German tourists that are going to Mallorca.
The customs search for the luggage for our flight (coming from Columbia) took a little longer, so we had to wait 45 minutes until our bags started appearing on the belt.
So it got later and later... I had to find an ATM to get some Mexican Pesos... The first one I could find was broken, so a guy (obviously a taxi tout) wanted to 'help' me to find another one. I tried to ignore him as best as I could and found another ATM at the other end of the terminal, the tout very following me all the way.
Time was getting tighter and tighter. We had accumulated nearly a two hour delay and I still had to get to the other side of Cancun to take the ferry from Puerto Juarez in order to get to my Hotel on Isla Mujeres. The last ferry was at 10:30 pm and my flight should have arrived at 7:30pm, so I thought it should be enough time to even try with public transport... but this was out of the question now.
So my first option was a collectivo, which would have costed me 210 MXN (about 14 € at the time) but the problem was there was no one else who wanted to go there so no collectivo would just take me. In the mean time the time was 9:30 and the price for the collectivo suddenly went up to 270 MXN for some reason that I couldn't understand as of course the touts were speaking speaking spanish. I was still hesitating to take a taxi on my own as this should cost 700 MXN (more than 45 €)... While I was standing there, I saw the package deal tourists in their flip flops with their wheely bags, being guided by their tourist guides into the air-conditioned bus to be driven straight to their stupid party hotel where they would stay for two weeks, just to get drunk and go to the beach and return to the hotel.
Standing there seeing this I was thinking, it's a lot harder to travel on your own and almost all the time it is worth the extra effort and the difficulty is the reason it is so much fun and so exciting. But sometimes I would also like a nice bus that would take me straight to my hotel.
And I started to thing where do I stay if I don't make that ferry... I paid for the hotel in advance... and then I said "Feck it, what is 45 € in the big picture? I am ahead on my budget ... I'll just take a taxi."
So I took the next Cab for 700 MXN and we drove off towards downtown Cancun.
At this point I didn't like Mexico... It was all too cheeky, everyone so far wanted to rip me off... of course the Taxi would not have costed 700 MXN for a Mexican... I was tired and the stupid package tourists were annoying.
So finally the taxi tout got his way and waved down a taxi to drive me off to Puerto Juarez about 25 km away, but just made it out of the airport and down the ramp when the Taxi (a Ford Econovan) ran out of petrol. We literally rolled into the petrol station and the driver shouted to one of his mates with a little chevrolet cavalier taxi... when he stopped on the parking lot of the petrol station he jumped out, still shouting, and ran around to grab my big backpack from the boot and threw it quickly into the other taxi... I was quite confused about the situation as you can imagine and followed my bag... I didn't have to pay the first driver anything and we immediately set off in the new cab. This driver spoke some english and confirmed that it was indeed the case that the first taxi ran out of petrol.
Anyway we were on our way now and we should easily make the 10:30 ferry (if nothing else happens).
Downtown Cancun does actually just look like a US City, with Burger kings, 7elevens, Texacos and Hooters everywhere, but we swooshed through all of this and out the north easter side of the city towards the port of Juarez.
The taxi arrived and all in all the driver was friendly and helpful. The price was still the same, and I was a bit upset to get ripped off in like a stupid tourist but I didn't see any other option in the end.
I got a return ticket for the ferry and was able to be the last customer at the little bar for the day before it closed. In the end I still had a bit of time before the ferry arrived, but was nearly the only passenger, so I could relax, put my feet up on the bench sip on my beer and enjoy the fresh but warm breeze that swept in from the Caribbean sea. It was all good again and I nearly didn't even care about the 45 € any more.
My Mexican adventure shall begin now, lets ignore the first three hours.
Sitting on the open top deck while the ferry took me across to the little Island off the coast of Cancun, listening to Franky boy's "My Way" I really felt on top of the world.
It wasn't quite that easy to find the Hotel now, but with the help of the owner of a little shop I did in the end and was happy to finally drop my bag. This was a luxury place compared to most places I have been over the last couple of months.
No hostel beds were available for the time I booked, so I opted up to a Hotel, not cheap but I thought I would treat myself to some luxury two nights while here.
I had a room all to myself, with a bathroom, a tv and even a fridge and an AC.
After this exciting oddessy to the Island it was now time to relax a little and get some food.
it was now close to midnight but finding a food place around Isla Mujeres at this time was no problem and I chose a little Taco place.
It was cheapish and good. Two tacos with chicken and a bottle of beer... and after that the same again but with beef tacos this time.
It didn't cost me 6 € - I was happy to be in Mexico now and have made it to this nice island.
Back to the room to watch some Mexican TV and relax on the bed with the AC on... this is what luxury feels like :-)
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