The day after the day after

We had a very uneventful drive the 75km to Cancun. It was really gusty though and we had a direct headwind the whole way. I’d never seen such wind but again, we’re used to earthmovers and not windmovers. It had been such a difficult back and forth couple of days and I was really really REALLY hoping we’d made the right decision. It is so different when you’ve got four kids that are dependant on your decisions and I second guessed each and every one from where to go to when we should have gone to where to park in Cancun. Once the roads were closed, however, I felt some relief; I no longer had any choices and we’d have to ride out what came. We found a long spot at Costco and parked and headed into the store. Backing up a bit, the night before we’d pulled out of our palapa and parked for the night in the middle of the park. This last move destroyed the fragile connection one one of our coax cables and we now had to keep the internet modem and router outside, right next to the dish, for internet. We kept it up for the PaaMul residents until the very last and I took many pictures of our “internet cafe” both in the palapa and outside. The very last was of someone sitting on the ground, crosslegged, right next to the dish and equipment, using their computer.

We got lunch/breakfast and did some cursory shopping, really just killing time in the A/C before we’d have to deal with the heat of the trailer. We’d just stored our goodies in the trailer when a representative of Costco came to the (open) trailer door and told us we couldn’t park there unless we were heading in to shop. I told him we’d just finished shopping and that I was waiting for traffic to die down to head out. I’d scoped out a better spot for the trailer that was on the other side of Costco, where 2 trucks seemed to be waiting on the storm. I couldn’t find my camera anywhere, the one I’d taken all the pictures with, but figured I’d left it somewhere in the trailer. Jamie and all the kids except Jesse headed over to Mega (more A/C) while I moved the trailer and van. We managed to drop a bit more into the local economy at Mega and when we returned to the trailer/van I noticed that the lock on the driver’s side door was damaged. I also remembered that the door was unlocked when I went to move the trailer but at the time I’d thought that I’d forgotten unlocking it. Jamie looked at the lock and is certain that someone broke the lock and stole the camera. LUCKILY it was NOT the S2! But there were a lot of nice photos that are gone.

So now we’re feeling a bit uneasy and wondering about possible looting but actually feeling better that we’re away from the Costco side. The roads were closed while we were in Mega and Jamie and I headed over to the camioneros (truck drivers) to talk. They were from DF (Mexico City) and assured us that ALL roads were closed; even heading to Merida. They were sitting out the storm and checked out our location and said it looked good and protected. (more to come – I need to find my S2!!!)

I was listening to the radio and reports from Chetumal and the offical Quintana Roo reports (curfew, road closures, etc.) in the car as the kids wanted to watch a movie; we got them “Happy Hurricane Dean” presents at Mega due to enormous parent guilt. One of hte presents was a movie. We hadn’t wanted to start the generator or take the slide out until dark as we were now worried that Mega might kick us out too. But the presence of MANY Mega security guards and management walking back and forth around our trailer without the slightest inclination that they were upset was comforting. We certainly didn’t want to ask permission however, as we were certain to be told “no”. It is culturally much better to ask forgiveness than permission. The radio told us the first winds would start around 9pm and that the eye would hit at 4am (instead of 2am). We had a GOOD rain at 9pm and the spot we were in began to flood. We couldn’t run the generator and that meant no fans at night either, so I scouted a better, higher spot that was protected on both sides; one by an enormous (American sized) restaurant, and the other by a semi truck.

Jamie and I were staying outside, taking advantage of the breeze and watching a black pickup truck which had parked just across from us. There were definitely people IN the truck and we couldn’t figure out what they were doing. We had dark suspicions though.

(to be continued)