Mexico, Here We Come!

 Saturday, October 25, 2025

A seven a.m. flight sounds so civilized, until you realize that means getting up at 2:30!!  It all goes along swimmingly until I go downstairs to set the thermostat - there's no display!  Oh, well.  I'll deal with it when I get home. I pick Jan up and head for Betsy's house.  As always, she's ready at the ungodly hour that we need, even though we're early,  and she whisks us to Tampa International.  Baggage drop, security, and at the gate by 5:25!

We're flying up to Atlanta - because when you fly Delta I think you always go through Atlanta - to meet up with Ginger and the rest of the Atlanta contingent.  Then it's down to Cancun and out into the real country as soon as possible!!  

When we deplane in Atlanta we discover that we are in the correct terminal for our next. flight!  I thought for sure we'd need to take the plane train, so that was a treat!  And as we walking toward our new gate we see Lynette!  This must be the place!!  Sure enough, after a potty stop we find Ginger and the rest of the troops, except for Karen and Alex, and they come along soon after!  Turns out we didn't need to worry about having enough time for the transfer.  Our plane has something wrong with its left wing and they are getting us a new one!  Thank goodness!

Interesting things in the Atlanta airport!

Here's another!

Eventually we board and are on our way. We're only an hour or so off schedule;  but that's enough to mess up the plans for meeting the rest of the adventurers in Cancun.  We'll work it out!

We sail through passport control and move on to baggage claim, which is a scrum.  I can't even see the carousel, but there's a lovely, tall man who is on the lookout for our bags and even snatches them off the beastie and passes them back over people's heads!!

Searching the The Man!

There he is!

With nothing to declare we head out into the real world to look for Juan. One of the guides is concerned for us since we don't have a company name and just say we're looking for a friend.  You can tell he thinks we've been hoodwinked!  When Juan appears and we all give him huge hugs, the guide is reassured and gives us a round of applause!

We've got a twenty-seater van so there's lots of room for bodies and luggage and after ditching all that stuff we go back to get some lunch at Berryhill, which is the restaurant part of Margaritaville.  There are lots of margaritas and delicious guac made right in front of us and then enormous servings of tacos and quesadillas.  We're still missing four people.  One came in a couple of days ago and is at her hotel.  She takes an Uber and meets us.  The other three are coming from California and two of them arrive right on schedule.  It turns out, though, that the last lady's passport had expired and she couldn't get on her plane!  And Ginger even sent out an email reminding people to check for that!!

                                                           

We're finally on our way and we settle in for the drive to our first hotel, Meson Marques.  It's lovely, as are all the hotels ginger selects, and the bell hop brings our bags up to our third floor room.  We've got a little over an hour before dinner, which is just enough time for me to panic myself twice!!  First I think I've left my computer cord at home - I didn't!  Then I bury the room key and Jan finds it under the bedspread! 

view from our balcony

On to dinner, which I'm too full to even think about. But I go and order the sopa de lima which is a Yucatan specialty and is delicious, even if I can't finish it!  And I only get water to drink!  You've got to know I'm exhausted to pass up a local beer or wine!  Speaking of which, when Jan's wine is served, the waiter uses the coolest aerator!  See the photo!

I've never seen one like this!

my sopa de lima with chicken 

so many kinds of vegetables, including cactus

Back to our room to get ready for bed and the new day!