Mexico in July? Well, we went to see the whale shark migration, which we did, and the weather was great. But, again, the people of Mexico are terrific, and that made a fun getaway. Here’s a list of people from the trip:
- Victor held my driver’s license for the ten days we rented a bumpy golf cart to get around. He promised to exchange it in the end for the cart, and he did.
- Thirty-something school teachers from Zurich, Elias and Selena, used us to practice their English and try to figure Trump. We pretended they were grifters for our amusement.
- Layzsa served us dinner for three nights at Ulan, so we underwrote her whale shark trip on her 25th birthday. She told us she loved it but got seasick and threw up in the ocean on the way home.
- We imagined that Stian, Erika and their three boys were incognito Norwegian nobility seeing the whale sharks before jetting to Phuket on their 6-month Asian tour. We researched them on AI without result.
- Arturo was the REIT businessman who knew the snorkeling waters at Kin Ha. We figured he must own the place. He seemed too nice to be cartel. Rita thought his fiance was darling.
- Carlos the concierge got the water flowing in our toilet again, and turned us on to the cheese enchiladas at El Charco. Whenever he saw us, he called us muchachos or amigos. He would then tell us what that meant. On one occasion, he greeted us in German.
- Fernando drove us hours over bumpy waters to Isla Blanca and guided us to hook a tarpon and four barracudas. A man of few words, he was unimpressed with our fishing skills.
- Ramone showed us fish, stingrays, underwater art, and conchs while snorkeling in the island currents on our first day. If we didn’t stay with him, he was quickly 100 feet away.
- Raul taught us to slide in next to the whale sharks and let them push us along with their forward motion. He said there were over a hundred whale sharks feeding around us, and one might have been 15 meters long.
- Ibida drove the whale shark boat that sprung a leak because a clueless tourist and her mother ate bananas on the boat. He let us off at the beach before the boat sank.
- Angel tried to get us to ask for la cuinta in Spanish at breakfast every morning at Kin Ha. He told us that the music was Jose Jose, which changed to disco at about 930 am.
- We never learned the name of the guy who swam in the pool with hookers he sent off in taxicabs from the hotel lobby. But he said goodbye and smiled at Rita when he checked out
- Roger, the night concierge, was not as nice or as much fun as Carlos.
- Ana let us hold Vacita, the puppy, and let us take the others for a walk. Their names: Negrito, Bella, Daniello, and Daniella.
- I can’t remember the name of the man at the jewelry shop, but he and his associates all had prison tats. Rita bought a ring for me there, and we went home intact.
- Jose guided the food tour and was a self-promoter. In his spare time, he is a clown who can walk on his hands and whistle through his lips.
- Anya made sure we got picked up at the Cancun airport. She pretended she spoke English by saying yes to everything.
- Miguel sold Rita a pair of sandals and a small purse. We saw his associate Juan later, who jokingly told us Miguel was fat and drunk somewhere.
- Sweet Uriel at the turtle protection agency was tolerant of us claiming we wanted to volunteer when we really only wanted to see turtles.
- Rick was the nice guy from San Antonio on the food tour who I later saw at the Cancun airport before we left. We agreed the tour was better than the food.