Thursday March 3, 2016

The vacation is over - and it was quite the adventure from beginning to the end!

Our last few days were bitter sweet - 

Monday evening our Manitowaning group met at El Campanaio for one final dinner before we started heading back home one group at at time.

Howard and Theresa  left on Monday, Allan and I on Tuesday, Ann, Bev., Louise and John are leaving on Friday and Louise and Gaston are going home in April.

It was a dinner to remember - the evening was quite cool again and we sat outside for dinner - brrrr - silly us!  Not Canadian cold but the breeze coming off the ocean was cool. 

Bev being dressed in layers (including a hat)  was the only one in the group prepared for the chill. He wasn't about to share any of those layers either.

It seemed the bathroom door locked from the outside - Yes Really! Ann was the first one of us on  that side of the restaurant to find that out. It was quite a laugh as the door was held closed for those of us who needed to use it. Patrons took photos as you can see and passed paper sheets under the door for writing notes back and forth.  What a hoot!

A musician stopped by the restaurant to play his guitar and sing for us so Gaston took it upon himself to go table to table with Bev's hat to collect donations. 

The next day after Howard and Theresa left for the airport, Allan and I went to say farewell to some of our old friends - This is Juan at his restaurant Tuch Tlan - we had a lovely lunch - mine had cactus leaves in it. Delicious!

After lunch we took a walk on the dock to 

have one last view of our favourite vacation spot before heading back to Casa Pura Vida.

Back at Casa Pura Vida we had our last dip in the pool and a nice cold drink.

For dinner we went back into the Port and 

had a heavenly  dinner at Punta Corcho.

What a view to have while eating dinner!

The bread truck still makes its rounds in the evening - on port side it is around 7 - 7:30 ish, on our side - in the Colonia it is later in the evening - sometimes as late at 10 pm or later.

Finally Tuesday morning came along with the taxi driver. Our good friend Abraham stopped by to say farewell, then we were on our way to the airport by 9:20 am. The weather for Toronto and Southern Ontario did not sound good so we hoped that if there was a cancellation it would be at Cancun end. We weren't that lucky. Our flight from Cancun left on time and arrived in Toronto with out incident. Upon arriving at Toronto we found that our flight to Sudbury along with others leaving Toronto were all cancelled due to the severe storm coming in later that afternoon. And it did arrive, just as they said it would.



For those of you who have been following my blog you will be thinking "Didn't this happen last year?" Well, yes it did - yep - a re-run. Only this time Air Canada did not provide the same level of TLC as they did last year due to a policy change. They did though give us a brochure with 2 important phone numbers on it - one to find yourself a hotel to stay at and  the other to rebook your cancelled flight.

The hotel booking service had the names and phone numbers of hotels that were available - you had to call the hotel to find out where they were located because the booking agency had not idea, then call the booking agency back to confirm with them that you wanted that hotel or ask for another. Not a reasonable plan, but I don't work for Air Canada so who am I to say  anything. Just play their game and all goes well.

We booked a room at a Holiday Inn in Oakville, spent the night, rebooked our flight for the next day and slept much better this year than last. The next morning we were off again - the taxi's are much more expensive here in Canada than we were accustomed to in Mexico - but play their game and all goes well.

Our friend Abraham for Puerto Morelos says "Everything happens for a reason, it is all part of God's plan and who are we to question." We love you like one of our own Abraham, so I have to say, "Whatever God's plan was - I hope it worked out for Him".

All went well with check in at the airport the next moring - our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:05 am. Just before we were called to board the plane they announced there would be a temporary delay due to mechanical problems - so we waited 20 minutes or so, then we were allowed to board. Everyone was on the plane, seat belts buckled, the engines reved up ...  then silence. The pilot came across  the intercom and announced, "We will have a further delay due to electrical problems, one of the 6 generators didn't cut in".  Hmmmm - this is part of God's plan isn't it?

Take off was behind schedule by about one hour and we arrived in Sudbury at 12:05. The day is cold but nice and sunny and I am thinking, in just 2 1/2 hours we will be home - this is great!

Allan headed to the parking lot to get the truck so he could  come back and meet me with the luggage, all is well. "Thank you God, this is a beautiful day". Then I saw Allan walking back to the arrivals door of the airport dressed in his winter coat - when he came inside he said,  "The truck won't start!" The airport staff provided him with a power box to boost the battery, that didn't work. An airport fire department staffer came to our aid, between he and Allan,  they decided there had to be something wrong with the starter. 

Allan, at this point, is wishing he had have taken Bev's advise and wore long johns! 

Security and staff at the airport were awesome help to us. They allowed us to use their phone to make calls to our Ford Dealer and Ford Assist. They even let us put our luggage in their office so we could have food and drink at the restaurant upstairs while we waited for the wrecker. They put on a prickly pear exterior but inside they are sweet mush.

It was a tricky job for the wrecker driver 

to  move the truck out of its parking space while not hitting other vehicles parked so close, but he did it!

We left our truck parked at Howard and Theresa's in Espanola while we were gone, then they brought the truck to the airport the day before our scheduled arrival so we would have it to drive back home. It worked without a glitch for him.

The tow truck driver took us and the truck to

 Belanger Ford in Chelmsford, they took it in right away to assess the problem and let us know if it could be repaired the same day.  That determination would mean having to or having not to spend the night in Sudbury.

It was a frozen starter which we had them replace, 

after spending $360.00 for the part and labour we were on our way home! With no more delays or incidents - we were home by 7:30 in the evening.

God's plan you say...  I hope it worked out for Him because it cost us about $800.00 which included the unexpected expenses in Toronto and Sudbury. I am not going to complain though - if someone or we benefitted from our unplanned delays and slight inconveniences in any way then it was definitely worth it... and it is only money - we can't take it with us.

Will we do it again next year? Yes definitely! We feel we have been blessed to have the health and enough money in our retirement to be able to do the things we do and enjoy them.

God bless each of you. If He is willing, we will be blogging from Mexico again next year. Hosta Luego!

Note Added Friday March 4th 2016:

 

Good did come of the events that transpired after landing in Toronto - we met an elderly couple (in their late 70's) in the line up waiting for direction from Air Canada telling us what to do following the notification of flight cancellations. We took them under our wing and helped them with hotel accommodations and transportation to the same hotel we were staying at and then had dinner with them later that evening. Turned out the gentleman had had a stroke last year and is now not able to handle stressful situations like he used to. The God send to us was that we didn't get to Sudbury at 8:00 p.m. as originally planned - by coming in during the day (even though it was the next day) we were dealing with the truck situation during daylight hours and everything we needed was available to us. It wouldn't have been so the night before. Yes, there is a God and isn't He wonderful!

and

a vacation is not a vacation unless there is some adventure that leaves a story to tell.