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Trip Reviews, Ratings and Comments - Trip Review - Club Oasis Akumal 13
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OUR AKUMAL ADVENTURE, PART 13
Sunday, 7/2/00, Day “15”
Here it is, the day we leave. I was up at 5:15 a.m., not wanting to miss a minute of the few precious hours we had left. Sitting on the balcony was sad, although in a way we are ready to go home. We’ve had a wonderful time, but I’m really starting to miss our animals, too.
We went to breakfast at Arrecifes early. As with last Sunday, there was less staff than usual. It was Ricardo himself who cooked our eggs. We also got him to throw some of that barely cooked bacon on the grill. Why didn’t we think of that earlier?
After breakfast, we packed. It took about 2 hours, with several breaks to rethink our strategy. Got to get all those shells home safely! They ended up in Steve’s butt bag, which he had packed for the trip down. That left a little extra space in his suitcase for the extra T-shirts.
We kept looking out for Jorge, since we had the plastic pitcher from our fiesta to pass on to him, and we knew he was taking a couple of oceanographers out diving this morning. Finally saw him and went down to give him the pitcher and the T-shirt I had been snorkeling in. I apologized for it needing to be washed, but I figured he could use it. I also wished him a happy birthday again. A little while later, Steve took down the two nice dress shirts he had brought and hadn’t worn (partly due to their not fitting quite so well anymore). Jorge thanked him profusely and said his father would wear them.
We finished packing and sat in the room relaxing for a bit. Then we schlepped our stuff down to the front desk. After receiving another reassurance from Gabriel that we had unlimited use of the facilities until our pickup, we allowed our bracelets to be snipped off (sniff). The fellow who checked us out called up our account on the computer. We had no extra charges, but they do have a totally voluntary contribution of 19 pesos (or $2) to the children’s fund. I thought that was an excellent idea, and rummaged in my pocket for my loose pesos to donate. We were given a departure slip, which we were to show if anybody questioned us about not having our bracelets. At this point, duh, I don’t think so Tim! We had obviously been a hit with the entire staff, and they knew us well. They locked our bags up in a storage room, and we went to the Turtle Bar. (I might point out that the hotel does provide a courtesy room that can be used to shower and change.)
We ate hotdogs and hamburgers and spent our remaining hours at the bar. We got into an animated conversation with a fellow, Curt, who had a similar background to mine—archaeology and technical writing. We had fun exchanging “war stories” about our professions. At one point, I went off to the bathroom. As I was returning, I heard hollering from the water, saw someone assisting a woman out, and saw Steve and a security man simultaneously leaping from the ledge to go to the woman’s aid.
Steve has been a volunteer firefighter and was a first responder for years. He obviously sensed this was a more serious case and sprang immediately to help. It turned out that the woman was Curt’s wife, and he rushed to her side as well. She had stepped on a sea urchin and fallen over, then getting spines in her legs and arms. Steve said afterward he thought they were going to lose her at one point, pulse racing and the woman near to passing out.
In case you are not aware, sea urchin spines are hooked and very difficult to remove. Once imbedded, they will dissolve after 2 or 3 months, but they can lead to serious infections. The treatment for their quick removal turned out to be whacking just to the side of the puncture with the edge of a ping-pong paddle, to get the wound to open up and bleed out well, thus facilitating removal of any remaining spine. The gal kept sobbing and saying it hurt. Curt told her that it would continue to hurt, but that everyone was just trying to help.
As this was going on, I’m looking at my watch. Finally, at a quarter to 4, I go tell Steve that we have to go to the lobby. By this time, the gal was stabilized, a doctor had been called, and we left the field of battle. I hope Kathy ended up being all right. Curt hasn’t e-mailed me yet, although I gave him our address.
Final cerveza in hand, we retrieved our luggage, thanked the desk staff profusely for a wonderful time, and waited for our transfer, which came promptly at 4 p.m. This time it was a bus. It had a bathroom, which was a trip in itself. We stopped at several resorts to pick up people, having to wait at least twice for the driver to round people up. This made our trip to the airport a full 2-1/2 hours. I went back to use the bathroom one time, found one goofy older guy standing in the doorway with his belt unbuckled. He didn’t seem to quite know what to do, and I thought he was going to pee in the sink! He finally gave up and lurched back to his seat. Using the toilet was a trick, since the seat didn’t want to stay up. I managed in one smooth movement to get my shorts and panties down, lift the seat, and sit, with the lid banging soundly on my back. No matter, it was a baño!
Our flight was supposed to be at 8 p.m. I was getting increasingly worried, since one is supposed to check in at least 90 minutes before an international flight. Well, we arrived at the airport precisely at 6:30. Once again, the Adventure Tours reps were competent, one near the parking lot directing us to the door, one at the door taking us personally to the line we needed to be in. There was only one couple in front of us, and check-in was prompt and efficient.
We went up the escalator to the departure area, checked out a couple of shops, and found some seats. At one point a gal came up to me and asked, “Do you speak English?” in a Texan accent. I said, “Yes, ma’am. I also speak Texan.” I thought she was going to hug me. “Thank God,” she said. Apparently, she was getting nowhere with Spanish speakers and trying to find out if she was at the right gate. I assured her she was and went back to sit with Steve. Then he decided he’d get some of his cologne at the duty-free, since it was, after all, $10 less than at home and no tax. No problem, I still had room in my carry-on for it.
A guy with a megaphone was meanwhile walking around and making some totally incoherent announcements. We found out from a fellow traveler, whom we had talked to on the beach during the past week, that they had changed our gate. Since it was the one right next to the original one, no problem. We started boarding about 7:30, and it looked like we might depart early. But...
Submitted by: D. Stevens -- dragon5@fullnet.net
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