We're Finally Back to Playa Chelan

January 21, 2012

The snow in Seattle and a part needing to be replaced on the American Airlines plane from Seattle to Chicago caused a change of plans. We had to spend the night in Chicago and then fly to Cancun arriving at noon January 17th. That meant going through customs, getting Mexican money, renting a car, buying groceries at Costco and Mega and then finally gasoline before even STARTING our 4-5 hours drive to Mahahual and then to Playa Chelan.

Jim and I had separate grocery lists and literally began dropping food into the shopping cart without really analyzing very well what we were buying. When the quantity or size seemed too large, we'd circle it and then attempted to buy a smaller amount at Mega. Somehow we managed to get it all done in three 1/2 hours and started south. At Jose Felipe Carrillo (town) it was getting dark. Here it gets dark FAST. So Jim drove 1/3 of the way in the dark.

We had been told never to drive at night in Mexico, but our part of the Yucatan is so safe that we didn't worry. On the last 56 KM stretch we encountered 31 vehicles....so we certainly weren't "alone."

We passed the night in Mahahual at Pachamana Inn, enjoying a Paella con Mariscos before going to bed. The hotel keeper, Jorge, also found room in his refrigerator to put some of our items really needing to be kept cold. Jorge watched our car all during the night as he usually sleeps out in front, and all items were fine.

In the morning, we hurriedly drove to Casa Maria (our rental house for the next 6 nights) and left the food there on the counter, in the refrigerator, etc. with Carlos' (the caretaker) help and raced back to Limones (65 km away) to pick up our friends, Randy and Anne Brooks, coming by bus from Playa del Carmen.

Well, the bus arrived 15 minutes early; they jumped into a cab (not knowing about the combis) and were driven at high speed to Mahahual. We probably passed them on the road. A friendly Mexican had seen them and told us they had left so (we all have no phones) we left back for Mahahual to find them....

We had planned ahead and anticipated problems... The plan was first they would go to El Paraiso Restaurant (they did and had limonadas for quite awhile). Then they walked on to Pachamama and ordered a Paella.

Meanwhile we stopped at El Paraiso and Moises laughed and told us we had missed them by only 10 minutes. They were heading for Pachamama. Jim took the car and approached from the south; I walked from the north so we weren't miss them....and there they were....