Day 2 Mexico: Arrival in Cancun but where is the beach?

We head back to BWI early. Trish nearly strangles the Air Tran Ticket agent that can’t find our reservation. But he eventually sorts it out and we board the plane for an uneventful ride to Cancun. Our girls are great air-travellers, and they do the 4 hour flight with ease. We always get compliments from other passengers at how good they are.

The weather in Cancun is 80F but windy and partly cloudy, so it feels comfortable. We were bracing for Egypt-level heat but of course it’s nothing as severe. We are reminded of Egypt in other ways. The Thrifty car rental agents don’t honor the pre-paid insurance we had bought through Expedia. And they want baksheesh to fetch us our car. But within a few hours and a some extra pesos, we are on the road to the Marriott Casa Magna, one of three Marriot resorts in a row on the southern half of the ‘Zona Hoteleria’.

Our original plan was to decompress at an inexpensive resort for 2 nights, enjoy some beach and an inexpensive resort here before heading inland. Despite loosing a day to overbooked flights,

we decide to stick with that and stay for two nights. But down at the beach, the red flags are up indicating no swimming. We can’t even get knee-deep in the surf without a life-guard blowing us back. Up at the pool, we splash around a bit but it’s kinda chilly and the family ends up with all the other guests in a hot tub.

We meet some folks from New Jersey that say the beach is being rebuilt and it’s off limits for much of southern Cancun. They have decided to head inland and see some ruins instead of staying at the resort. It sounds like a good plan.

Dinner is difficult to find. We settle on a thai place which, somehow, despite the hotel being at less than half occupancy, has no table for a family of four. Lily and Emma eat the expensive food sparingly. Midway through dinner we decide to leave the next day.

The resort isn’t anything special without the beach. We can do better than this.