The mornings were beautiful as our balconies faced out to green tree canopies and mayan style thatched roofs of various buildings in the resort. The best part though was the good number of bird species that were easily visible and were chirping away happily. 
Also, typically I would have my laptop and the Fodors guide to decide on what is the best place to go to on any particular day.
Grand Mayan promotion
The marketeer’s predictions turned accurate and we got a ‘welcome call’ from Mayan Palace reception and I was invited over to get the information brochure and asked specifically as to whether someone had tried to sell me trip brochures at the airport. As we had committed for a few trips to the marketeer, I decided to stick to his story. The mayan palace hostess played her next card which was to invite us to a promotion at the ‘Grand Mayan’ which was in the same compound in return for a ‘Tulum’ trip. As we had no plans for the day as we had just arrived the previous night and as this would give us an opportunity to see the resort, we took it.
So we took a golf cart to the nicely maintained canopied area for our promoter to pick us up.
10-10 : Hameed, basically from Syria, was the promoter and I liked him for the easy way he had about his as someone who has everything he needs stashed away nicely. Somewhere that I want to get to pretty soon.
So I told him that I will go back to India to live at one tenth the earnings I have and you don’t stand much of a chance to sell me anything, just meaning to be honest and helping him with his work.
Breakfast - then we had the one of a kind spectacular breakfast at the Del Lago restaurant which is a 25 USD Buffet for free as part of the promotion , starting with a mixed fruit juice with herbs that felt very healthy and continuing with many mexican dishes on my plate , where as Niya and Divya chose more sweeter options. A late breakfast that served as a perfect brunch.
Iguana - Have you seen an Iguana? I had not but during the course of the breakfast, Iguanas appeared next to our table - two of them fighting. One of them came right under my chair.
Hameed’s boss - Hameed tried his skills but I was focussed on where the money would go from and so he quickly gave up and passed me to the boss who was pretty condescending and I just sealed his fate with an ‘ I have made my decision thing’
Next , we were passed over to a female who was austensibly supposed to close the deal but was trying to sell cheaper stuff. I just told her we are poor people and all we needed was the offered ‘Tulum tour’ tickets.
So we went down and got the tickets and we were done.
Then we just walked around the resort trying to find our building in vain and gave up.
However, it was a nice walk as the resort was nicely green with many good botanical sights.
However, it was a nice walk as the resort was nicely green with many good botanical sights.
Golf cart ride - We got ourselves two golf carts home and Kitta had a nice breezy ride.
Getting The Rental Car
I was still leaning towards having our own rental car even though two of the seven days were ear marked for planned tours, potentially three days with the additional ‘Tulum’ trip. I had wanted to check the rental car rates at the hotel as well and they were at 50$ plus per day where as ‘Hertz’ had offered < 25$. So I booked a shuttle from the hotel and went alone to the airport at around 3 PM, looking to get the same lady I had pissed off yesterday and get the car at a slightly higher rate to pay for her emotions and the increased demand scenario. I hit my first hurdle when security would not let me walk through to the Departure section of the airport. But Mexico is like India where people try to find work arounds for others. So, the security person, oh how I would like to put a name there, pulled Hertz over to me and today’s rate and today’s lady were both different but still was better than any option available at the hotel. I chose a matiz as I was still not sure whether I would really use the car much. Hertz shuttle took me over to the main Hertz office where the cars were present.
Here, when I saw the matiz picture, I just could not take it and wanted to upgrade to the next level but since the ‘prescription’ I had with me was for the matiz, each employeee at the Hertz had a different opinion on what rate should be given to me. During the haggling at the airport, the lady had offered me better insurance coverage for the rates that the Hertz office was offering. This led to a lot of confusion and phone calls and walkie talkies and I just wanted to get the car with no collision coverage if need be.
Credit card hold at the hotel had hit the limit and Hertz could not hold the money they needed to on my credit card. The girl who was attending to me had offered the GPS at a flat rate of 13$ for the week. When the immediate supervisor came in, GPS rate changed to 13$ a day and then when the next level supervisor came in, it was 50$ a week. Even with all this, it was better than the hotel rates. But then credit card is mandatory for the hold. So I went into the customer service isle, used their computer and moved money from my debit card to my credit card but this did not help as the transaction is not reflected immediately.
I did not want to give up and lose a day of my vacation on ‘trying to get a rental car’.Next, we tried to use the debit card to get the required amount and BOFA with perfect timing blocked by debit card as BOFA did not understand how an Atlanta debit card can get used in the Cancun airport.
The employees were mostly polite but I could see that they were at the limits of their patience as well with so much of failed attempts. I could also see that they share a very loving and cordial relation with each other much like I have seen in small towns in India. So I did walk out but then felt energized as I found myself walking to Avis and not to get a shuttle back to the hotel. Meanwhile, time was sliding and I was worried about how Divya would be feeling back in her hotel in a new country with a new language and with darkness settling in and with not enough water to drink for the kids. Mexico does not come with free clean drinking water, water needs to be purchased.
Avis was totally awesome in it’s rates. It’s rates were exactly the double of what Hertz had offered. But then Avis had a wifi and I luckily had my iPad with me that I thought will bide my time learning some spanish while in the shuttle. So, I sent an email to my wife that I was at Avis now trying to get a car. Avis, unlike Hertz had very few customers when I walked in and a fair handsome lean kid relented when I asked him permission to use the phone to move the money from the debit card to the credit card so that I would get the Avis Matiz at 50$ a day as opposed to the Hertz matiz at 25$ a day. Again, he was kind and nice enough to let me have the call.
So I called the BOFA(Bank of America) credit card customer service , the card reactivation customer service , the debit card customer service and got the debit card reactivated and the debit card to credit card transfer cannot be done information , both to my satisfaction. I gave 20 pesos for the phone call and left avis as I could not get money into my credit card and Avis insists on credit card for the initial hold amount.
As I walked out of Avis, I was again pleased to find myself move further to the next car rental - Budget and the debit card worked there and I got myself a Chevy at 25$ a day and felt accomplished. There was no GPS though and the mexican GPS is the map as per a senior employee there.
This right here is the humble old chevy that meant the world to us. It took us to the mayan spots of Coba, Chichen Itza, to the restaurants, to the super market, to Puerto Moreles, to the Cenote along nice , straight green minimal traffic roads.
So I took the map and the chevy and drove out, gingerly navigating the roads along the advised route. By now, it was already fully dark. It is one straight road from Cancun to Playa De Carmen and you just need to know where to put your breakpoint to get into the hotel. Since I had to turn left, I tried to take the left lane but it was the speed lane and I was forced into the right lane by fast cars that come right behind you and flash headlights menacingly. Unaware to the car dynamics and with sufficient warning content from Fodors, I heeded multiple times. The next potential mishap was that I would miss the ‘Mayan Palace’ and go on straight which I actually did as I found out on talking to a guy sitting on the road, a sight more potential in India than in the US. I can only think that I must have missed the sign board while I was being forced into the right lane or that I might have missed the sign as it said ‘ Grand Mayan’ that starts with a ‘G’ and not an ‘M’. Well I took a u-turn and stopped a couple of times to check with people on the way and finally arrived in one piece to the hotel.
Divya was worried but had not lost it yet luckily. Neither had Niya. I had purchased some water on the way. So we were pretty good with all that and a day had gone by on a ‘promotion’ and on ‘getting the rent car’.
Dinner
We were still just getting our feet wet with the trip and we were now looking for a dinner at a restaurant within the resort - ‘Green Break’ or so was the name from what I recall. It was reasonably priced, good food but while we were having dinner, the mosquitoes were having dinner too. The highlight was the dessert which was caramel kheer and caramel pudding.
http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/09/september-14-royal-haciendas-promotion.html
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