When It Rains It Pours
11/12
It all started when the tres amigos decided to spend the day sunbathing in November.
We were playing in the waves when I suddenly started to feel pretty awful. When we got out of the water I realized something was definitely wrong, so we headed back to the condo.
Apparently when you spend all day in the sun for several days in a row and forget to drink enough water, sun poisoning can become a real problem. Four hours later, after some rest, a lot of water, nausea, a headache, a fever, and a few ibuprofen, I finally started feeling better.
Once I felt human again we decided to head out for the evening.
Before leaving, Shane checked his bank account and noticed a big chunk of money was missing. After looking closer we discovered that someone had made three ATM withdrawals of $383.99, one each day for the past three days. That added up to $1,151.97. The strange part was that Shane still had his card the entire time.
We figured we could just cancel his card and move his remaining money into my account for the rest of the trip. When I logged into my account, I discovered that not only was money missing, but my account was actually in the negative.
We had both used an ATM near the downtown club area in the Hotel Zone earlier in the trip. Somehow someone managed to scan our cards and capture our PIN numbers. I had heard stories about this happening, but never thought it would actually happen to us.
There was not much we could do that night, so we went out and ate some ice cream and tried not to stress too much.
A Day of Problem Solving and a Hidden Cenote
11/13
The next day we spent about $40 on calling cards so we could contact our banks, cancel our cards, and start filing fraud claims.
Shane's mom tried to send us some money through MoneyGram, but the process ended up being just as frustrating as everything else.
Since it was Erin’s last day visiting us, we decided to take a break from dealing with banks and go enjoy the day. We headed to a cenote near Puerto Morelos called Kin Ha.
Usually visitors rent ATVs to reach the cenote, which costs around $60 to $70 per person. Since I could not ride one, I talked with the staff and managed to arrange a Jeep ride for $25 per person, which turned out to be a much better deal.
We bounced down a dirt road through the jungle and eventually arrived at a small camp area with a little farm and even some monkeys. It looked a little questionable at first, but we decided to go for it anyway.
To reach the cenote we had to climb down several ladders. Once we reached the bottom, it was absolutely worth it.
The water was cool, refreshing, and incredibly peaceful. For the first time all day we forgot about the bank problems and just enjoyed the moment. We were also the only people there, which was a nice change from the more crowded tourist spots.
Erin and Shane even jumped from the top of the cenote, about 18 feet into the water.
There was another cenote nearby with jumps around 36 and 46 feet, which looked amazing but was definitely too intense for me.
After returning to the condo, we cleaned up and went out for a really nice dinner.
Police Stops and a Very Long MoneyGram Adventure
11/14
The next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at Mexican McDonald's and then took Erin to the airport so she could catch her flight back to Florida.
On the way back from the airport, a police officer pulled us over for “speeding.” The officer was not wearing a name tag and immediately started talking about a ticket.
If you have not heard about this before, sometimes the situation works like this. You are threatened with a ticket, but the officer suggests the problem could go away if you pay cash on the spot.
We knew the routine because earlier in the trip we had already been pulled over near the same area and paid 500 pesos to avoid the hassle.
This time we told the officer we had no money and that he would have to write us a ticket. As soon as he realized we truly had no cash, he waved us along and let us go.
I could go on for quite a while about that experience, but I will leave it at that.
Next we tried to pick up the money Shane's mom sent through MoneyGram at a bank called Bancomer. What should have been a quick errand turned into a five hour adventure.
Here is roughly how it went:
-
Bancomer: "We do not process MoneyGram. Try across the street or Walmart."
-
Bank across the street: "The code you have is not long enough."
-
Call Shane's mom for a new code.
-
Bank across the street: "We cannot help you. Go back to Bancomer."
-
Bancomer: "No, try Walmart."
-
Walmart: "No, you need a longer code from Bancomer."
-
Call Shane's mom again for another code.
-
Different Bancomer across town: "Yes, we can help you."
Five hours later we finally figured out what number we needed and how to request the transfer.
Shane’s mom deserves a medal for answering all of our frantic phone calls while she was at work that day. If the first bank had simply told us the transfer required an 11 digit code, the entire process would have taken about twenty minutes.
Eventually we walked out with the money and felt a lot better about our situation.
At this point it feels like life decided we were having too much fun in Mexico and needed a few challenges thrown our way.
We are thinking about leaving Cancun this weekend and heading to Tulum for a change of scenery and a little peace from this recently cursed city. Maybe when we come back, Cancun will treat us a little better than it has the past few days.
I did not feel like this was a picture heavy kind of post, but I will share some more photos later.
Hopefully the next update will be a little less dramatic.
