I went to Isla on April 16th. My original return flight was on April 30th. With all of the hysteria about the H1N1 virus and the reports of all flights leaving Mexico being overbooked and long lines and waits at the airports I decided to extend my stay. American Airlines was one of the USA based airlines that was waiving the change fee for anyone traveling to or from Mexico. Duh! A no brainer for me to stay longer. I asked Nivardo the owner of Maria Leticia if he had a room for me if I stayed longer. He said no problem. By the 29th Nivardo already had some no shows and cancellations freeing up several rooms. I went to my friends Jeri and Steve’s and asked if I could use their Vonyage VoIP phone to call Travelocity to change my flight. An hour later, yes it took that long to change my flight, I was on hold many times and I had changed my return flight from April 30 to May 5th. I sent my boss an email telling her that I didn’t want to hassle with the airport issues so I was staying longer and would be back at work on Wednesday May 6th. I mean I do have 35 days of vacation so no biggie to take a few more days.
Although I had checked my flight on the evening of Monday May 4th when I got to the Cancun airport on Tuesday morning my flight had been canceled due to low occupancy. I was re-booked from a 12:40 flight to a 4:45 flight but was able to get on the 3:00 flight. The Cancun airport at 10:30 AM was eerily empty. Only about four vehicles where in front of the terminal and no lines anywhere to be found in side. Creepy almost. After a short health check I checked in and had 4 hours to waste in the airport. I had an early lunch at Bubba Gumps which actually has pretty good food but it can be expensive for Mexico. After lunch I wandered through some of the shops and looked at Maui Jim sunglasses and thought about buying a new pair since I had been super gluing mine for the last couple of weeks. Then I said to myself “you are in an airport where everything is way more expensive. Don’t even ask the price”. So today I bought a new pair of Maui Jim’s at the local mall. I then went to Margaritaville and ordered a $13.75 margarita but I did get to use their free wifi to check email and waste some more time before my flight. I got to Dallas and then had another 4 hours to kill. I finally got to my house at 1:00AM. A killer travel day! I always say that there is no easy way to get from Portland to Isla. It truly is a full day of travel in both directions.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/571910421RuDJgP?vhost=travel
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Filed under: beaches, Isla Mujeres, Mexico, photos, vacations | Tagged: Isla Mujeres, vacation |
Jackieinpdx's Blog 
Great Pictures. How nice that you got to stay on Isla another 5 days. I bet you came back all rested up.
Bennie,
I could have stayed longer but thought that I proabably should get back to work. I realized today that I have used 22 of my 35 time off with pay days. I have 7 more already planned so that only leaves me with 6 days for unplanned time off. That should not be a problem though since I can work from home if I am not feeling well enough to go into the office and I rarely get sick. Actually most of those 7 days will probably be used to return to Isla in October for a shorter trip.
Great photos, as always! Glad you had a great vacation. I’d like to know how your new netbook worked out?
Ann,
I really liked the netbook. I could not get wifi in my room at Maria Leticia but I could sitting out front on Juarez either on the bench or in my golf cart aka “mobile internet office”. I did purchase unlimited use from DigiCenter for $18 a week. They are just down the street from Maria Leticia so the signal was pretty good. I took the netbook to Jax a few times and a couple of mornings I had breakfast at Cafe Mogagua. Café M hasn’t gotten very good reviews but the Spanish omelet served with prosciutto, melon and two toasted bread things and a side plate of fruit was good. So was the arrachera chiliquilies.
Thanks for the info !