For a while we thought we would have to drive back. How long would that have taken? It all started when a rumor spread that the Isla Holbox ferry was shutting down. It was only a rumor. When we are on vacation, we do not turn on the TV or read the news. My phone stays in my truck in Massachusetts. The last of the ten hotels we were staying at was on Isla Mujeres. Sandy said, “If they shut down the Puerto Juarez ferry, how will we get to the aeropuerto in Cancun?”
One of the books I devoured while on vacation was Paul Theroux's “On the Plain of Snakes” (October 2019). He drove from Cape Cod to Mexico. He toured only the western part of Mexico, and it was scary. Maybe even scary enough for us not to visit Mexico City or Cuernavaca next year, or ever. 30,000 cartel people were killed in one year.
One of the girls on Marnie's Belize Yoga Retreat told of her recent escapade. She and her sister were traveling in Barcelona and Lisbon. Her sister had a serious fall in Portugal. After the hospital stay, she could not fly. They managed to get on a cruise ship to Great Britain, even though they were told that it was impossible to do so. Then they managed to get on a second cruise ship that was heading for St. Marten, full of drunken Englishmen. They got off in Florida. It took 40 days and it cost $30,000 for them to get home.
I broke a tooth in Mexico. I went to the dentist on Isla Mujeres. She said, “You need a crown.” I think that is what she said.
My dentist from the Navy told me the same thing for years. I never got one. He retired after being my dentist for 40 years. My new Duxbury dentist has been trying to get me to do one for only $1600. I am old. I am in no pain. But now, in Mexico, I have to get it done.
I ask, "How much?" ("Cuanto cuesta?")
She says 6,800 pesos.
It is still early in the vacation. Tom and Sandy are figuring out all the meal bills. A margarita -- rockes y sal with Don Julio -- is $4.00. I get that. But when it comes to big things like motor scooters or refrigerators or a house, I don’t know where to put the decimal point. You have to divide everything by 20. Twenty pesos to the dollar. Right now it is 24.2 pesos per dollar. In 1988 it was only 10 pesos to the U.S.dollar.
Anyway, after three separate trips to Dra. Victoria Arteaga, up in the Colonias, I have a brand new Mexican crown. Alfredo, our private taxi driver, drove me. His grandson is attending West Point. ycmthissup
I paid her in cash. It cost $211 US.
Stop by our casa some time if you want to admire it.
All-inclusives are not this much fun.
Keep traveling!
Tocino
