In the mean time, here's the story of our getting ready to go. You'll either shake your head in dismay, or laugh at all our misfortunes that turned out all right in the end. Special thanks to A Round Unvarnish'd Tale for prodding me to post this draft!The week before the trip was incredible stressful! In January we bought and paid for our first ever all-inclusive trip. We were going to Cancun. Rick has wanted to windsurf for about a decade, and we realized we'd better do it sooner than later.
Of course, the week before our departure was the week of the world-wide H1N1 scare, as well as the time my children chose to each come down with a 48 hour bug, alternating with each other, for a total of about six days sick. All the while, we were communicating with an acquaintance who lives and works an hour south of Cancun who tells us there are no suspected cases of the pandemic flu within 300 linear miles of Cancun. That is also what the CDC's Google maps were showing.
I called our doctor to see if he would recommend or prescribe Tamiflu for us to take on our trip. Yes, but the office only called in one adult prescription. Next day, I ask the doctor if I can get prescriptions for the rest of the family. The office calls them in, but Walgreens cannot order the children's strength doses. Are they kidding? No. A couple of days later they find out they can fill the script, but not with capsules. I'll have to take powder to mix with sterile water. Imagine the custom's fun....
Also in the week before the trip we had some acquaintances show their alarm that we were still planning this vacation. Grrr... butt-in-ski's! We were not making the decision in a vacuum. We had reports direct from Riviera Maya (close to Cancun) and web cams from various Cancun resorts showed people having fun around the pools and beaches, all without wearing masks.
About three days from our departure, I'm making emergency Dr. appointments for one sick child or another, (fever, vomiting, did they catch sympathy swine flu?), scouring drug stores for surgical masks, mini shampoo and SPF 75+ sunscreen. Stress, stress, stress. The news was changing every few hours, so we would decide at noon on Friday whether we go to Mexico or not. We were to leave on Sunday morning.
By Thursday night we were hearing of countries discontinuing their air service to Mexico. We decide to check with the travel agent and Funjet about changing our destination. Bonaire, won't work for us; Aruba, won't work for us; Punta Cana, same story. Last-minute air fare is outrageous! The original airfare to Cancun was going to be impossible to find again. Finally, Grand Bahama was a possibility. One day less of vacation, many, many dollars more. But certain knowledge we would be allowed back into the USA carried a lot of weight with us, as you can imagine.
Next came the news that the Mexican government closed all restaurants that hold over 80 people, such as those at our all-inclusive resort, for the week we were to be there. The snack bar would still be open, but a week of snack bar after two kids with the flu...no. We pulled the trigger on the change. Now we just needed the email from Funjet and we'd be good to go. Departing Tuesday the 5th of May at six am rather than the 3rd of May at a reasonable hour was inconvenient, as we had eaten all the leftovers and emptied the refrigerator of perishables. Would you believe that tardy email arrived shortly after noon on May 4th!!! Exhausted, we set the alarms for 3 am, picturing this:
1 comment:
Wow!! What a mess. Looks like you need a vacation from your vacation. I hope that you had a fabulous time to make up for all the drama. Maybe Cancun next year. Can't wait to see more pictures.
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