Wednesday, April 3, 2013

OMG My Cancun Cab Driver is High!

Mexico is a beautiful country.  I've spent about six weeks exploring the Pacific and Atlantic shores of this great country.  Hands down the best food I've had in my life has been in Mexico:  quesadillas in Oaxaca with pumpkin flowers embedded in the cheese, chuiquilines (nachos on steroids), and ceviche in the Yucatan!
Isla de Mujeres

I visited the Yucatan with my little sister, and we started our journey in Cancun.  We were staying with a friend in the suburbs of Cancun.  We used shared taxis and buses to get around the area.  We spent our first day lounging around the resort for La Joya, we didn't pay, we just walked in like we owned the place...more or less...probably less.

The Joya resort at Sunset
After a leisurely dinner on the Cancun strip, reminiscent of the lights of Vegas, we took a bus to get us back to our suburb.  One of my favorite things to do when I travel is use the local transit.  Whether it's a shared taxi with 5 people sitting in the back of Corolla or bullet train headed to Beijing - I love it all.

It was time to catch a taxi back to our friend's home.  We hailed a cab down, and he steadily came our way.  The inside was decorated with tacky neon lighting.  I speak Spanish, but just in case, I had a slip of paper with our address on it.  He looked at it briefly and started driving.  My sister noted to me in Urdu that something was off about the way he was driving.  Then she pointed out that he had gone in a circle.  So in an effort to assist him, because my Spanish just wasn't the best in terms of directions, we called our friend.
Ferry from Cancun to Isla de Mujeres

They spoke for at least five minutes.  The cab went this way and that.  Finally, the driver handed the phone to me.

"Ummm you should get out of that cab, the driver is stoned.  You're in the right neighborhood."

So we respectfully departed.  The driver didn't take payment and sheepishly drove away.  We stumbled through the sleep Cancun suburbs and finally found the house.
Amazing Street Address on the Cancun Strip
Lesson learned:  Pay meticulous attention to your landmarks.  It may come in handy around midnight when you're stumbling around in a foreign land.

Lesson learned:  Pay very careful attention to where your driver is going...