Trying to cach a deluge in a paper cup

Travelling during a pandemic is weird. There is a lot of information from a lot of sources and a lot of those sources are very reliable but the information is outdated, incomplete, or irrelevant. It's hard to sort through things like vaccine and quarantine requirements, mask mandates, COVID testing, pre-entry requirements, visa requirements, and so forth. Some of the information is very easy to find for Americans but I'm not American. 

It took a lot of searching but I found out that all travellers to Mexico needed to fill in a pre-entry questionnaire no more than 12 hours before departure. I have no issue doing this. I have issue with the fact it is a requirement and it is nowhere to be found on the Mexican government's site, nor Air Canada Vacations' site. Ultimately I completed it and got my QR code. This was scanned on arrival at Cancun Airport. I also had to fill in a landing card and keep a portion of it as well under threat of heavy fine. This is why my passport holder has another pocket! 

I also needed a QR code from the Alberta government as proof of vaccination. Easy peasy! What was less easy was the nosy woman at the Air Canada check in desk who looked in my passport holder while I searched for the QR code on my phone and tried to accuse me of faking my vaccine record because I have a yellow Health Canada Record of Prophylaxis. Apparently there is "no such thing as a Health Canada Record for COVID-19 and you will face serious jail time and a huge fine for faking such a document." I was too busy making sure I found the right QR code on my phone to understand what she was saying so I asked her to please repeat herself. She did, in a very testy manner. I showed her the code on my phone for COVID-19 and asked if I needed to show my yellow fever for Mexico as well. She looked at me very cross and said that no, but fake vaccine passports aren't accepted and I clearly had a fake vaccine passport. Minor panic! I asked her if there was a problem with the scan and she said no but there was with the yellow paper in my passport. I took it out and showed her it was a yellow fever vaccine record from seven years ago and she didn't have a lot more to say. 

Travelling during a pandemic is weird. 

After all of this, I get to Mexico!

 

 

Cancun airport is chaos. More than any airport I've been to, people are trying to sell you things. It is loud and confusing and growing ever muggier the closer I get to outside. (That? That's called foreshadowing.)  When I was a travel agent and we booked people for transfers we told them to look for people in bright orange shirts. I saw those people! They were not the people I needed.

Nowhere on my information from Air Canada Vacations does it mention my transfer to the resort. I eventually find what I thought was the transport, given that it said AMResorts but was informed it was not. Thankfully the man I spoke with walked me over to where I needed to be.  

I get to the resort and get checked in. I'm greeted warmly with a glass of prosseco. It is lovely. I get to my room and change into shorts. It's dark now but that's alright. I check out my options for dinner and one of the restaurants has barbecue. That sounds like a great plan! I go down to the restaurant and wait in line for the barbecue. And then there is thunder.

The skies unleashed a walloping of rain. Sheets and sheets poured down for about an hour. Thankfully we were under a glass canopy! Less thankful that every walking surface of the resort (except near the pools) was made of marble or tile of some sort and I was in my Havianas. The barbecue was great!

Next: Adventures with James!