We deviated from our proposed itinerary; nixing spending any time or activities in Nichupte Lagoon. If you're going to spend time in the water in Cancún, it's a no-brainer choosing the clear, turquoise waters of the Caribbean over the murky, dark green lagoon. (In the photo, Nichupte Lagoon is the dark water on the left. Note the highrise hotels all along Cancun Island.) We saw at most a couple of small boats plying the waters of the Lagoon the whole time we were in Cancún. We ate breakfast in the mall across the street from our hotel. Stores were opening–on a Sunday–by 10:00.

From mid-morning through the early afternoon, we built sandcastles and played in the water along our hotel's beach. That's a long time to be in the beating, nigh oppressive Cancún sun. Our skin was relatively safe as we had lathered up well with SPF 45 sunblock. We never got badly sunburned during our vacation, but there were times when parts of us got a little red. Along the coast, the sun was usually intense. When there was some cloud cover, or we thought we wouldn't be in the sun for a significant amount of time, we were sometimes negligent and didn't apply sunblock. Those were the times we reddened.

The water along the beach was somewhat cloudier then it had been earlier (visibility with goggles was perhaps four or five feet compared to ten to fifteen feet on the previous day), though the water wasn't noticeably rougher (the "breakers" were at most a few inches high). Perhaps the water was cloudier because more people were stirring up the sand–though there was never more than twenty people in the water at a time and maybe twice that on the beach. The beach was incredibly uncrowded due to a combination of it being offseason in Cancún and people being out on tours.

Even with reduced underwater visibility, we found a way to see plenty of small fish (two to six inches in length). By sitting still in the shallow waters, the fish come to you (presumably thinking you are a reef or are about to provide food for them). Missy became a little unnerved by how many fish would surround and crowd you. In the cloudy shallows, they would appear out of nowhere, almost swim into you, then disappear.

We arranged for the airport shuttle to return us to the airport to pick up our rental car (as we were staying fifteen days in the Yucatan, we had arranged a two week car rental so we didn't pick up the car on our arrival). After lunch at 100% Natural, we found the airport van had arrived early, waited several minutes then left (we were three minutes late). Fortunately, another shuttle arrived within a half hour and took us to the airport. It was there we learned we made a major mistake. Curt had indicated we would pick up the rental car this day (Sunday) in the proposed itinerary before the car reservation was made. When the car was reserved, it was to be picked up on Saturday but the itinerary was not updated. Our car was gone–already rented out. Thrifty car rental offered to arrange a rental from another company at twice the price. We had gotten a great price ($133/week excluding taxes and insurance) that was only available via reservations made over the Internet. We turned Thrifty's offer down and solicited an offer from other rental companies. As we were the only prospective renters in the airport at the time, and it was likely there would be few new Customers anytime soon (it was mid-afternoon on a Sunday), we got a couple of rental car representatives to engage in a bidding war for us. After 30 minutes of bartering, we ended up with a deal that was better than our original one. For the two weeks' rental (actually 13 days), we would pay $364. This included 10% tax and liability and collision insurances (each of which normally cost about $7-10 a day).

Our car was a well-dented, relatively new but old-fashioned VW Beetle (evidently they never stopped making Beetles in Mexico). As it had manual transmission, Missy would have to do all the driving. Missy took us on a jerky, bumpy drive into the town of Cancún where we did some grocery shopping among the locals. Prices are about one third of those in the US (except for American products which were more expensive than in the States). As in Europe, large Mexican grocery stores double as department stores selling clothes, TVs, toys, etc. Yet another difference from US groceries or department stores: security in these stores is tight. You check your bags going in and security personnel roam the aisles and parking lot. That seemed strange to us as this part of Mexico is considered very safe. (Perhaps crimes are mostly committed against the large, faceless stores and not individuals). Baggers are kids (10-14 years old) who are tipped.

When we tried to leave the parking lot, Missy couldn't find reverse. After a few minutes of trying, we inspected another VW Beetle and saw where reverse was supposed to be (it was clearly labeled in that car but not ours), then we drove off into the city. Other than a large number of tourist stores along a couple of its main streets, the old town of Cancún is very Yucatan Mexican (quite unlike the Cancún hotel zone). We filled our gas tank (tipping the attendant $1 instead of the usual 10 cents–that made his day), passed by a Wal-Marts, then got lost a few times among the one way streets and roundabouts as we struggled finding a restaurant we liked. As it was getting late, we gave up on the restaurant and headed back to our hotel to get in a little more beach time. By the time we found our way out of town back to the hotel, it was rather dark. Instead of the beach we opted for the hotel's swimming pool. We all got a kick out of its underwater barstools.

After our dip, we took in entertainment outside the nearby mall. There is a Maya ritual that involves dancing atop, then hanging and swinging from a pole 50' over the ground. We watched an exhibition of this ritual in a drizzling rain (we'd hate to be the guy dancing atop a wet telephone pole). For dinner, we picked up food to go at a Hong Kong Express (frequented by locals working in the hotel zone). We paid $6 for a couple of orders of Chinese vegetables. Each order came in a half-gallon bucket! Far too much food for three people. (We would have been satisfied on one order, meaning we could eat dinner for $3 instead of the $20-30 we'd been spending.) After dinner, we watched Naked Gun 2½ on HBO. Eric cracked up at the slapstick comedy. After the movie we saw the last two innings of the Yankees winning World Series game 2, 9-3.
 

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