The alcohol is flowing freely. The resort is all inclusive.. the kind of all-inclusive where the beer taps face outwards and there is a large tray of glasses on the side. The pool water is almost body temperature and it’s a new kind of heaven to get yourself a free beer and relax in the shade.
“Mexico” as a concept, as a stereotype, was realised for me within an hour of landing. 6pm and still 30°, the heat somehow managing to give an air of age or poverty to the clean marble airport. But it was not complete then, not even on boarding our bus, “El Speedy Gonzales”. No, two things made Mexico Mexico for me.
First, Corona. There isn’t anything quite like cracking open a cold Mexican beer in Mexico.. maybe it’s the reduced carbon footprint, if you believe in that sort of thing. Second was almost terrifying.
The road from the airport on which our hotel is situated is long, long and dead straight. It suddenly became apparent that all the traffic on the opposite carriageway had disappeared, and the road was totally empty. Looking out of the front of the coach there was a tall plume of thick, black smoke. Approaching out, at the bottom of the smoke there was the vague outline of a mid-sized car, blackened shell still burning furiously, the bodywork almost entirely gone leaving the framework and done of the cab. Army and police milled around, m16s dangled nonchalantly around their necks as the traffic backed up for a mile behind. Somehow the whole scene did not seem at all out of place.
A word on Akumal. It literally is carved out of the rainforest. Anything that is not civilisation – road or residence – is tree. There are few, if any, natural clearings. Even the entrance to the hotel is just another road, a driveway that winds for another 5 minutes through almost claustrophobic flora before ending at an entrance to a lobby bigger itself than most hotels. Check-in and buffet dinner goes past in a blur, and then it’s time to take the golf cart to or rooms. Yes, with over 2500 apartments, lazy-man’s transport is available all over ths resort. After calling dibs on who sleeps where, I find myself in a comfortable single bed and, having being awake for nearly 23 hours, sleep comes easily. Day 2 awaits.
