Escape to Mexico: Part 1- The Curse to be Lifted

Mexico, as moulded by the culture of the West, is often symbolic of one thing in so many of our minds. Escape. Freedom. The throwaway line or plot point in many an American movie. The protagonists trying to escape their fate hope to cross the border, leave for Mexico. My case was different. I was a whole ocean away, in the UK. The decisions that led us to choose Mexico were actually very specific. Like my previous travel adventures in Rhodes, I was embarking on my first holiday with another dear friend who I shall refer to as L.

Feel free to check out my Greek adventures here if you missed them:

I actually booked Rhodes and Mexico at around the same time. One of those post break-up, I need to get out of here, impulse decisions. Even sillier was the impulse decision to book them both a few weeks apart in September as the prices were considerably cheaper. The purpose of the Mexico trip was meant to be a spiritual reset and relaxation. L and I wanted a sort of spa or yoga style retreat. Initially we’d wanted Bali, but in searching for flights found that Mexico also had similar style resorts on beautiful beaches and was more sensibly within our budget.

Tulum was famed as somewhere in Mexico that attracted people of a more spiritual disposition. A place for relaxation as opposed to partying, which was just what we were looking for. L was quite keen on a place called Zenses retreat, which seemed to have incredible reviews and wasn’t that expensive. We decided to book the flights first and then worry about accommodation a bit later as it did seem relatively cheap. The flight would be the priciest bit to book and we went with the safe, reliable British Airways. It came to about £692 for direct flights including return from London Gatwick to Cancun. We would arrive late and so would need to stay the night in Cancun and both agreed it would be worth exploring there for a day or two before travelling to Tulum for the remainder. We planned to be there for 10 days, including those on which we flew.

With only the flights booked and the trip approaching, I grew nervous about final arrangements. I was concerned that I’d over done it for such a short period of time as money was a bit tight for us both (a lesson for you dear reader). I therefore suggested that maybe we could rearrange the flights, giving us more time to save for the holiday. L however wanted to stick to the plan and I consented. We would make it happen. As we were both super busy and couldn’t meet up, we decided to arrange the accommodation via whatsapp. L would book it, sending me the details to confirm.

We booked an Airbnb for Cancun and then Zenses retreat for Tulum. The Cancun booking went through fine, but as the weeks passed on, no money was taken from L’s account for Zenses. She was starting to panic. Her emails had gone unanswered. As she had just started a new and stressful job with long hours, I had her send me the details to investigate. Well, when I took a look at the website that L had used it looked, to put it nicely, dodgy. And as if it had been set up in ’96. I began chasing the booking.

First was emailing using the details on the dodgy site, expecting no response but knowing all avenues needed to be explored. I searched for the retreat and came across a more official site with an email and whatsapp. I emailed, texted and called the number, even DMed them on their Instagram page. Crickets. Nothing. Next was trying the phone number on the dodgy website. It was picked up by a lovely lady who luckily spoke good English and informed me that I’d reached a completely different and separate hotel to what we thought we’d booked. She kindly gave me the number that should have been the correct one. It was again different to the number on the “official site” and unsurprisingly, I got no response there either.

We took it as a sign. I reckoned that the website L had found was probably expired or no longer monitored and that we in fact had no booking for the majority of our trip. She agreed to postpone the trip. This was a blessing in disguise, it would give us both more time to save and prepare. British Airways don’t offer refunds or vouchers anymore but they do let you rearrange flights for the price difference of whenever you pick within a year of initial booking. It only cost us about £75 each to rearrange the flights for the end of February when we knew it would still be hot but not hitting the Spring break madness and prices. It would also give us the smug opportunity to escape the British Winter. Unfortunately, we did lose the deposit on our Cancun Airbnb, so about £60 each, but it was overall worth that loss to rearrange. The “Zenses retreat” payment was of course never taken.

As Christmas approached, we were determined not to make the same mistakes in booking accommodation. We would make the time to sit down together and do it through booking.com. The bright orange felt somehow more trustworthy. We booked a pleasant and spacious looking double room at Casa Nomis, an Airbnb in Cancun, for 3 nights and only £121 for us both. It was cheap and would give us a chance to explore when we landed. We were also able to buy a transfer to the Airbnb from the airport for about £25 through booking.com as well.

Then as to Tulum. We knew it would be bougie and more expensive. One of the more expensive options available was what appeared to be stunning beach side huts at Diamante K, a resort found inside Tulum National Park. L convinced me it would be worth it and that we deserved to treat ourselves. I agreed and we upgraded to have a hut to ourselves. This came to £943 for us both for 7 nights. For a whole week we had to agree, though perhaps expensive for Mexico, was cheap for a 7-night stay, especially in such a beautiful place. It was a steal no matter how you spun it.

In terms of preparation I took out 3100 Mexican pesos using eurochange, which only comes to about £154. I would definitely recommend this website for getting your travel money, you can have it delivered or go pick it up, which is what I chose to do. In retrospect I would definitely have taken out more as pesos go a long way in Mexico and I would find out later, would turn out to be the far cheaper option on the whole. Most places do take card with a fee, but a lot of taxis do insist on cash.

Cancun is blessed with uber, very cheap, not the case in Tulum, though there were enough taxis that took card to get by. A final note on prep, do be aware that if you’re flying into Cancun, there is a tourist Tax to be paid as you are entering the area of Quantana Roo. It’s inexpensive, 271 pesos which amounted to about £13. No one checked if we paid this tax in the end, but luck favours the prepared. Or so I thought.

The week before our trip finally arrived. I was excited, but had a weird feeling in the back of my mind that after so many issues, something else might go wrong. Then I received a frantic voicenote. It really seemed by this point that our trip was cursed. Poor L was really sick, so ill as to have gone home to her parents up North. Further updates landed her in the hospital. I started panicking, splashing out on the accommodation didn’t seem like such a great idea now. There had been options to book and only pay upon arrival with free cancellation. Even if they weren’t as nice, I was kicking myself now.

We were running out of time to rearrange, but both accommodations would need to coordinate with each other and whenever we could find cheapest to pay for rearranging the flights. We only had until April for the flights and it was looking expensive so last minute. What a mess. I went through waves of panic and hopelessness mixed with deep worry and sadness for L and her suffering. Her health was more important than any of this and I just prayed she would get better, trip or no trip.

And then, the miracle. The hospital put her on a drip and gave her strong antibiotics to fight the infection. She started to feel better and back to herself again. A little flame of hope began to rekindle. She was told that provided she remained stable like this as she took the medication, we would be fine to fly on Sunday as planned! L was determined and the trip was back on. I felt relief that she was feeling better and excitement for the trip that seemed to have passed so many hurdles before it had even begun. Maybe we weren’t so unlucky after all.

I hope, dear reader, you have learned a thing or two from L and I’s foray into further travel thus far. Both how to avoid the problems we faced and how to overcome them. So, strap yourself in and follow along for part 2 when we finally get off the ground!

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Any hearts appreciated if you're enjoying or learning from my journey so far. Don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments as well as anything else you might like to see written about!