Arrived in Akumal

Getting to Cancun was a breeze, but, getting out the door of the airport was another story. Six planes landed at the same time, one from Germany, one from Spain, two from Canada, and two from the US including ours. Everyone dashed to Immigration to avoid being last in line. We managed to get into a short line, or so we thought, but, our line, for some reason was going slowly, the immigration worker was just not interested in how the line was backing up in only his section. Once we were finally through, we found our luggage ok, and chose not to use a cart, as we knew we would be loading it and unloading it at Customs, and then couldn't take it outside the airport doors, so, didn't really see the point. Then, it was time to get in line for Customs. All six plane loads of people crammed into the single line roped off into about six turns. Prior to that was a crowd trying to make four lines, not sure why, but, it was a mad house, and we were nearly at the end of it. An hour and a half later, we made it to the red and green lights, yes they're still there, and all rows have them now, pushed the button, green, yes, off we went to cross the gauntlet of time share sharks.

Tim got stopped a couple times, for a second or two, because he feels the need to be polite and explain that we already have transportation waiting for us, they don't care, or don't listen, and he gets bogged down. Not me, I put on my "don't even think about it" face, and plow right past them and out the door. Tim catches up, and once outside, we easily find our USA Transfers greeter, who has all our info, including the fact that we prepaid so we didn't have to hand him cash. Our driver has to use the banos (bathroom), and then off we go to Akumal in the dark of the Mexico evening. It was about 7:30 pm by then, and we had about an hour drive to Akumal Beach Resort.

We got there just after 8:30, found out we didn't get the room at the top of the stairs on the third floor as we had asked. We were on the second floor room 534, which ended up being bigger than most rooms, with a king size bed and a second full size bed. The room was very clean, and had the usual Gecko greeter waiting on the wall over the bathroom. As soon as he saw us he quickly exited, and we had our room to ourselves. The buffet was still open, and we were starving, tired, and a bit frustrated about not getting the room we had requested. The girl working reception made it clear that it didn't matter what you request, nothing is ever guaranteed. The bell boy was no where to be found, possibly because we were late, so, we lugged all of our bags to our room on our own. After that, we were just done, and after speaking with Jeshua, who is now working the front desk, he assured us we could have the room we wanted as soon as the guests currently in it had left the next day or so. We were good with that, and just went to grab a bite to eat. Somehow after such a long day, we had forgotten that we were on vacation, until we heard that Carribean sea rolling by the buffet.

We saw the familiar faces from the wait staff, and started to slowly uncurl our frazzled nerves. After eating, we strolled out to the beach and sat on a lounge chair all curled up together. The breeze was blowing and the sea was rolling. It was perfect. We had arrived in paradise.