A sun kissed paradise island in the Caribbean Sea. All we had to do was hop onto a flight from Bogota, 4 hours to Cancun, breeze through customs and immigration, transfer to Cancun then whizz across town to the port in time for the last ferry at 11.30pm. 2pm flight should get us there no dramas, right? Wrong! It can never be a good look whilst sat in the departure gate to see a front wheel being changed on your intended aircraft! No worries, wheel change complete, only a short delay, we should be boarding soon. Wrong again! New wheel, good. Open nose cone now on aircraft, probably not good. Luggage trailers with passengers bags being driven away, probably bad! Meal vouchers being handed out by staff, definitely bad! Only a 4 hour delay, may just make it!
Disembark around 10pm and the last ferry to paradise tonight is a fading dream. Round the corner into immigration to join the back of the largest anaconda queue we have ever seen, not a good look. Only 1 immigration desk open staffed by Mexican Mr Grumpy, game over!
Never lose hope! As we resign ourselves to finding some cardboard boxes in Cancun for the night, the barrier where we are standing is opened and we lead the way into an empty section of immigration past several hundred somewhat miffed looking people!
Before you could say welcome to Mexico, we were jogging through baggage collection towards customs. Nothing to declare, gracias! Not so fast! At the exit of the ‘green’ channel is a button that randomly lights one of the red or green signs above it! Red says do not pass go, proceed directly over there for a bag search. Green says last ferry still a glimmer of hope! F it, bear presses ….. Green! Through the doors to the taxi desk, no queue, 5 minutes later, Speedy Gonzales is at warp speed direct to the port. 10 mins to spare, ferry ticket and ice cold Dos Equis in hand, we will not be needing those cardboard boxes tonight.
Arrive well after midnight, apparently the perfect time to smash out a few beverages. When in Mexico!…Didn’t achieve much on our first day here!
Golf buggy is the transport of choice here! Ideal for exploring, misbehavior and photo opportunities.
Ice bar? OK! Water slide? If we have to!
A few photo opportunities too good to miss…
Good night xxx
And farewell paradise…
