Getting Here - Part 2

Detroit to Cancun: i was lucky to have a decent seat assigned to me; but when i checked in, i was able to get an 'even better seat' :) this 'better' seat, however, happened to be in front of a woman with 2 small children. she tried her best to explain to them that kicking the seat in front of them, and slamming the tray up and down and pounding on it while playing their video game, would disturb the person in front of them. i'm sure you've all had this experience. since i had been up all night, it was important to me to be able to sleep. i had a long journey ahead of me. i asked the flight attendant if there was vacant seat i might switch to. ah yes, a exit row, window seat ... perfect. even tho we boarded early, we were delayed by a burned out light bulb. but eventually left, and pretty much made up the time with a favorable jet stream. i did sleep about an hour, but i was contemplating my still yet undetermined journey from the Cancun airport to Playa del Carmen in Mexico and to Belize through the maze of bus systems available. Landing in Cancun at 2:30pm, walking through the jet way, into a shiny new A/C terminal, i couldn't help but recall the many other times i landed at the Cancun airport with Jamers and friends. Years ago, in the olden days, when they smashed as many passengers as possible into a little hot sticky bus, to take you out to the plane, where you walked in the heat up the stairs of the plane to board. ah yes, time had changed for the better. well, that was what i thought, until we rounded the corner to view a sea of people, hundreds of them, all smashed together, with no lines or order, waiting to clear immigration. ok, this is the Cancun i remembered! (where is my Fine Young Canibals tape?) but, quite quickly and impressively, they did install cattle dividers/mergers and we all got into lines. Over an hour later, i was through immigration and customs, in the bathroom changing clothes and at the ATM machine getting pesos. the departure area was very organized, easy to locate an info desk to find out where i should go to get the bus to Playa del Carmen. Lots of uniformed/official help outside to direct me to Platform 1, where i could buy my US$8 ticket for an hour long A/C plush bus ride to Playa. about the time i was settling back to catch a few more zzzzzz's, i felt this trickle of liquid run down the inside of my nose, ending in 2 spats of bright red blood on my leg. i had a bloody nose! Great, remember the drill; head back, sqweezing the bridge of my nose .... now, do i have a tissue or something? where? ...and how was i going to get to it with my head tilted back? well, i wasn't. so just keep the position and kept swallowing ... Edward would have been proud! it would eventually stop. i'd had a similar experience from the dry air in the plane before. i was very cool, i don't think the guy next to me knew what had happened. it stopped by the time we arrived in Playa, but so much for my nap. Photo of Playa del Carmen