Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Cancun at its best

I may have boasted that I was going to stop through Cancun on the way home from Tampa. Silly me, for being so literal.

Let me just say that Cancun is fabulous from the air. Especially when you have a window seat. And you've been drinking. Since before noon.

Which, of course, is a function of having changed planes in Miami, so infamous among travelers that there's a webpage dedicated to Killing Time at Miami International Airport, not to mention a pee-your-pants funny article by Dave Barry, who includes this unbiased review of MIA:
  • MIAMI AIRPORT: Sucks
    Perhaps you think I'm being harsh on MIA. Well, perhaps this is because you do not have to use it a lot. I do. Almost every week, I get on a plane there, and, if all goes according to plan, the plane lands in some other city. I am almost always struck by the fact that the other city's airport, big or small, is a WHOLE lot less hostile to travelers than MIA, the airport that proudly proclaims to visitors from all over the world: ``Welcome! You Are In A Hellhole!'' I have ranted before about the bad design, the confusion and the insanely overcrowded, last-chopper-out-of-Saigon ambience at MIA, so I'm not going to dwell on it here. Nor am I going to mention the Soviet-style monopoly food service, which, in some of the grimmer parts of the airport, offers a bill of fare consisting entirely of hot dogs that I believe were originally placed on the grill by Ponce de Leon. (Dave Barry, Maimi Herald, Sunday, August 2, 1998.)

It therefore makes perfect sense that there was a bar next to my boarding gate, and that it opens at 6 a.m.

Now, I've never been much of a drinker (except when I was in college, and whenever I attend TESOL conferences, as per my previous posting), but Miami International Airport actually inspired me to think the thought (man, I need a drink!) and drink the drink (no mojitos available, so I opted for a rum and ginger ale), all so that I could walk the walk of a now de-stressed traveler and actually enjoy the flight to Cancun.

And I was rewarded. If you've never flown over the Florida Keys, oh... my... god. It's spectacular (and that's not just the liquor talking). If you can't afford to charter a private plane, it may just be worth the chaos of MIA so that you can take in the seascape between Miami and Cancun.

If only we didn't have to land...

Okay, you do the math, since I clearly didn't.

It's mid-March. In Cancun. Where the vernal equinox is observed as it has been for centuries, with loud, newly braided co-eds flip-flopping their way to everlasting sun damage.

With nary a hotel room to be found, my choices consisted of sleeping on the beach (um... no) or catching the next bus home, to Merida.

This is where the act of traveling becomes a destination in and of itself. The taxi becomes the journey, the plane becomes the destination, and the destination becomes... another point of departure. This is where I am, because to wish it were any other way would be to deny reality.

And so I found myself talking to yet another taxi driver, this time en route to the bus terminal.

More and more, I'm convinced that taxi drivers are some of the wisest people on earth, transporting, as they do, over time, thousands of people of every stripe imaginable for the myriad reasons that prompt us to leave our homes for this thing called travel.

This driver, who indulged my request to take photographs "of the beautiful highway" through his windshield, was a real pro, fully protected from mishap by a dashboard St. Christopher, (color-coordinated!*) patron saint of taxi drivers. I can't say that I minded.

* Don't forget that you can click on any photo to see an enlarged version of it. Enjoy.

10 Comments:

At 11:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

almost makes me want to go there (to Miami Airport)...almost. but it certainly makes me want to fly over the Caribbean. any day anywhere near the Caribbean is a good day!

 
At 3:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whenever you find yourself live in a Dave Barry essay it is definitely time for a drink!

True of taxi drivers. And more. My favorite was the one who drove me to Steve's from the Met and sang Puccini as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge!

 
At 4:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

that first view looks alot like a bird, breast to the wind. Or is it just me? (sans mojitos, sadly)

I spent two nights in Cancún, one on the way to, and one on the way from Cuba. But outside of the zona hotelera, it's really just a smallish city with really good papaya (a fruit I loathe). The zona hotelera though, that makes one want to commit springbreakercide, right?

Glad to hear you are home safe. Flights from Santiago to you are hella expensive! In case you were wondering.

talk more. love to hear it.

eileen

 
At 5:53 PM, Blogger Karen Taylor de Caballero said...

wow, eileen, you're right! it's a bird! from a plane!

seems like flights are expensive to everywhere from here... I'm trying to find cheap tix to Oaxaca as we speak and I'm not having much luck... how cool it'd be to visit you all the way down there in Santiago!

wish y'all were here to have a drink with me! It's been positively steamy today, so I'm off to have soup-- the obvious choice when one doesn't want to make a habit of drinking alone ;)

 
At 11:34 AM, Blogger Karamale said...

latin america in general is crap with regard to airfares. barranquilla-caracas is like us$500, and the flight time would only be like an hour and a half (if it were direct). even a flight to bogotá is like us$180 roundtrip.

love the google earth-y pics.

REALLY love the dave barry quote. only a native floridian can grasp the complete hilarity in ponce de león-aged hot dogs.

 
At 11:35 AM, Blogger Karamale said...

ps - also liked your freudian typo, the "maimi" herald. maim-me.

(nerd joke)

 
At 12:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man, Miami has not improved since my South American glory days in the mid-90s. I flew through there a lot 1995 - 1997. I was always afraid of having a kitchen sink fall out of the overhead bin or stepping on a gigantic boombox. Many times, there were almost chickens flapping around.

 
At 5:31 AM, Blogger Karen Taylor de Caballero said...

Well, there's some consolation in suffering with others-- Ake, you'll have to tell me MIA war stories some day.

Ernest, you'll have to educate me about the Ponce de Leon reference-- it was funny even to me as an outsider, but ah, to be on the inside!

Still haven't found a good ticket to Oaxaca... I might end up taking two veeeeeeerrrrrry long bus rides. (I cringe just thinking about it... 18 hrs from here to DF, then 6 from there to Oaxaca. Yikes.)

 
At 6:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Karen, go to the AeroCalifornia office in Fiesta Americana, all their flights hub out of DF (with only one to DF from Merida daily) but it should be better than a bus ride, then again, a bus ride could be fun,get a window seat, and see more of Mexico.
Theresa

 
At 11:39 AM, Blogger Karamale said...

ponce de leon "discovered" and "named" florida in 1513, so he's like the state's columbus. hell, he's almost like george washington. anyway, he was looking for the fountain of youth or some such foolishness (lol, those kooky 16th-century spaniards). basically, dave barry's talkin bout an old-ass hot dog.

lol, with your picture, i can SO hear you saying "but ah, to be on the inside!"

i did the 23-hour bus thing from barranquilla to caracas (saved me $400 bucks), and the bus was actually spacious and comfortable, with seats that lay waaaaaay back and were nice and cushy. much better than coach seats on an airplane. hopefully mexico has something like that. hopefully.

 

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