Comfort & Chaos in Cancun: Part One

Mexico wasted no time engulfing me in chaos. After a remarkably quick process through Immigration, I found myself waiting at baggage carousel #5 for FIFTY MINUTES for my luggage! Three or four bags at a time would emerge and then for minutes on end, nothing. Around the half hour mark, I began growing a little nervous and couldn’t help but to reminisce about my first nightmarish “visit” to Mexico. I prayed that this wasn’t an indication of how my next four days were to go. After all, I was there for rest and relaxation, NOT calamity and chaos!

I’m going to spare you all the details, but I do want to note that I spent nearly three hours AFTER ARRIVING at the Cancun airport. This is unprecedented for me. Any other airport is always half hour tops! In addition to my eternal baggage claim wait, it took a second eternity for me and Kamber to get together. The phenomenal staff at AmStar, the transportation company, experienced several hiccups getting us both to rendezvous. Despite this, everyone at AmStar was outstanding.

AmStar then put Kamber and I in this sweet van that was playing these even sweeter soft rock jams. They must’ve known we were needing the soothing sounds of Richard Marx and Chicago after all we just endured. Well, after having us sit there forever, they then made us move to a smaller van. We were told the van we were in was too big for just the two of us. Okay, totally fine, we then got in this other van that was basically the same size. Literally only two less seats, BUT horribly enough, it was void of any soft continuous favorites!

It was now rush hour and the streets of Cancun were PACKED! Being the only two in our van made for twelve and noticing the public transit vans so full that people were forced to stand gave some real, “will the lifeboats be seated according to class” vibes. NOT that that was what we were going for, but you know we love a good Titanic plug-in.

In another unforeseen twist, our driver stopped at a gas station where we got filled up and our windows cleaned, but unfortunately not simultaneously. The same attendant who stood there and pumped our gas then walked around the van cleaning its windows. It honestly felt like we were at there forever. I’m sure you can imagine that in that moment I was really wishing we had our sock rock jams back.

Finally, after what felt like eight lifetimes, we arrived at our beautiful resort, Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres. We were instantly greeted with warm face towels and champagne, it was just lovely. Here we met David, who of a staff with nothing but wonderful individuals, he was the most wondrous of them all. He possessed a keep-it-real attitude that truly resonated with me and Kamber. It was a complete and total joy seeing and interacting with him each and everyday as we did. He was as I say, simply the best.

Kamber and I were then escorted to our room where upon entering I immediately burst out in laughter. The poor young man was giving such a detailed tour, but I missed so much because I couldn’t get myself together, I was laughing that hard. Kamber kept looking at me to see why I was laughing, but I knew I had to let her discover this for herself. I certainly didn’t want to say anything to interrupt our tutorial further. After all, everything was exactly as it was supposed to be, but for us, that was part of the problem. Hearing Kamber’s loud gasp precede her endless laughter told me that we were finally on the same page.

You see, there was NO WALL separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. It was all just one big room. The shower mind you, was all glass. So it was impossible to shower without showcasing oneself to anyone else in the room. Now yes, Kamber and I have been friends for twenty years, but neither one of us is about to shower in front of the other!

Now plenty of people have asked me, “didn’t you look at the pictures before booking!?!” Yes, yes I did look at the photos. I looked over every single photo provided by the resort website at least twice when deciding which resort to choose. However, never in my life did I imagine there wouldn’t be a wall behind the photographer when photographing the bathroom! We were shook, but we probably burned 2,000 calories from how hard and often we laughed throughout that first evening at this predicament.

To answer what so many others have already asked: one of us went out on the balcony with the curtains drawn shut while the other showered. Incredibly enough, neither of us could’ve imagined we were risking our lives by relaxing out there. Nonetheless, we learned our third night that we had possibly been knocking on death’s door the whole time!

That UNBELIEVABLE story will come in the second half of this tale as I’m telling this saga chronologically. The next incredible event we experienced was that gentlemen HAD to wear pants in order to be served indoors at any of the fine dining establishments on property. Needless to say, with a high of 90º each day, it never crossed my mind to pack any!

Oddly enough, the gift shop on site strictly sold shorts! NO PANTS! Who was incharge of stocking their inventory!?! This was a seriously missed sales opportunity! They’re in obvious need of a seasoned retail veteran to guide them. Nonetheless, I digress, we could still eat at any of these amazing places, we just had to eat outdoors on their patios. Honestly, this was preferred, the weather each night was like 80º and just beautiful. Plus, who doesn’t want to hear the continuous sound of the ocean?

Our resort was blessed with eighteen restaurants and bars, six of which were fine dining. This was wildly impressive to us and ensured that our options were plentiful. I’ll be honest though, I don’t know that all-inclusive is the best way for me (and Kamber) to go as neither of us really drinks. Yes, the food was all fantastic and delicious. Every single restaurant was top notch, but I hate wasting food. So despite the regular encouragement from the staff to try a variety of things, I never ordered more than I could eat. Since neither of us drinks alcohol, I don’t think all-inclusive is necessarily a way we’ll go again.

We wrapped that first night up with a walk along the white sand beach. For me, there’s few things I love more than hearing the waves crash on the shore over and over. I sat there for a long while on one of their beach chairs with my eyes closed, just taking it all in. I was so happy, so mindful, and ultimately, so thankful I was experiencing this experience. In that moment I knew this was going to be the exact trip I needed… or so I thought.

I’ll return soon with part two of my Cancun craziness! In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment below as I love reading and responding to them! Till then, I wish you all, all the best!

Continue on with Part Two!