Until Nov 4, we were uncertain whether or not the road to Cancun was open. While sipping our coffees, playing catch-up on our email, and uploading our photos, we finally got confirmation that the road was open — thanks Playa Maya news!
Finally, the day we’d been waiting for had finally arrived. We packed up the car and started the last leg of our journey from Merida to Playa del Carmen. About 75 miles from Cancun, we arrived at the second of two toll booths, and were informed that we did not need to pay the $17 toll because the road was damaged. Shortly thereafter, the impact of hurricane Wilma on the tollroad became apparent. Here are some pictures from the damaged toll road: Detour, Dirt Road crossing flooded area of toll road, Aftermath of a car caught in the hurricane. The flooded area of highway was about 2 miles long, but the remainder of the distance between Merida and Cancun was fine.
Initially, we decided that we did not have time to go through Cancun, but we ended up there because we needed to get some fuel. Most of the pictures in the Cancun album show the damage caused.
As we drove on to Playa del Carmen, we wondered what awaited us. What we entered into was a torrent of rain that prevented us from seeing much of the town, and a series of hotels that didn’t want anything to do with our kitty kats. Not quite the welcome we had hoped for. But we eventually found a hotel, and the rain let up.
After a great dinner and the best mojitos at our favorite Playa restaurant, Babe’s, we headed over to a bar rumoured to be an ex-pat hangout. We soon had the pleasure of meeting Julie, Sharky, Victor, D.J., Morgan and Mercedes. Things were looking up.
The next morning, the sun came out and we headed straight to the beach. After a quick swim and nap, we headed into town. We found both the beach and town to be in great condition. The main difference between now and our last trip to Playa in May is that a number of trees have lost many of their leaves and/or branches. Oh yeah, and there’s much fewer tourists here now. If you’re interested in coming down, we highly recommend it.
Although Playa’s been having great beach weather, we have been spending our last 2 days taking care of practicalities — getting cell phones, looking for apartments, sampling tacos, figuring out what to post to our blog, etc. Once we get settled into an apartment, we’ll be able to focus on the important things — laying on the beach, reading a book, sampling tacos, and wondering if we’ve done anything interesting enough to post to our blog.
Dude, keep posting to your blog even if you have nothing to say! I’m envious that you’re spending your time in sunny Mexico and it’s good to see new blog posts!