The morning weather was threatening. Strong winds bent trees, gray skies bent spirits. We were intent on getting a last bit of beach play in before heading to the airport. Thirty minutes after it looked as though Mitch had changed his mind again and was ready to sack the coast, it sunnied up. The winds died and the sky became Carolina blue. We walked out a small, nearby pier and saw a lot of fish in the clear water. Though we wouldn't make it out to the reef, we could still snorkel in the waters off the beach. We swam with the fish and collected shells from the seabed some 8 to 10 feet below the surface.

Leaving town and heading towards the airport we passed a dozen taxis and their drivers whiling away the day, waiting to chauffeur non-existing tourists, and dozens of tractor trailers with hammocks slung between them, the drivers resting or snoozing. Perhaps many southern roads were closed due to Mitch and these truckers could not reach their destinations. Hungry, we picked up a bag of chips (about the only vegan choice in the small convenience store). When we returned our car the shyster at the rental agency charged us $11 pesos per $1USD, netting himself an extra $40 profit–or so he thinks. VISA indicated they will only give him in pesos what the official exchange rate for that day demands $10.120 NP per US dollar.

As when we left for our vacation, we arrived at the airport three hours early. We had allowed time for lunch but were unable to find any open restaurants between Puerto Moreles and the airport. We hoped to eat in the airport but the only food we found was french fries (gggrrrrr).

It was interesting that when we changed our flight, they told us the departure time was one hour earlier than originally scheduled, but the arrival time in Raleigh/Durham was the same. It turned out that when our itinerary was created in August, the expectation was that the Yucatan would not be changing their clocks for daylight savings time. But they did. An American couple sitting behind us on the plane nearly missed the flight because of this. (Moral: Check departure times with the airline before going to the airport.)

There were a couple of young boys from Columbia, SC on the plane in the row in front of us. They also had a Gameboy and they and Eric took turns trying out each others' game cartridges. We had a brief layover in Dallas (the Cancún to Raleigh/Durham flight through Dallas takes nearly two hours longer than the flight through Miami). Some of the airline workers there were dressed in Halloween costumes. (As we would not be home until late this night, we didn't get to give out any apples with embedded razor blades this Halloween). We touched down about 10:00 PM. Our neighbor Keldon Everett was waiting at the airport for us. We arrived home about 10:30 with very mixed feelings. Delighted and basking in the glow of a marvelous vacation, sad it was over, happy to be home, and challenged by the daunting home repair tasks ahead of us.
 

© 1999 [email protected]