Sistas Together in Mexico...When All Else Fails Revert to Sign Language - Part 3

If you're reading this, you probably realize I am writing this all after the fact and I don't have a very good memory but this is the way I remember it.

Joanne and I arrived in Merida on a Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning we got up and decided later on to head to the grocery store. Yes, we actually cooked for the two of us. On Thursday, we ended up at the Bierhaus when we missed the turibus. It was nice to have a couple of cold beers and plan our adventure. We flirted with our waiter young enough to be our son for awhile. We had some browsing/shopping out of the way. Joanne bought an awesome beaded collar necklace for Zach's wedding. Sorry, no pictures to share! We received a call from Gary and Sandra and they were headed back to the casa after the end of their international conference at the Hyatt. So we paid our tab and hot-footed to the casa. When we arrived back at the house, Gary and Sandra had beat us home. We had happy hour and ate around the dining table. They would be leaving early the next morning for the airport so we scheduled a taxi. When Friday morning arrived, the taxi driver showed up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed a few minutes early. We said our good-byes and they were off for a day of flying to Mexico City then to DFW and finally into Easterwood. They would have a long day.

Joanne and I decided to catch a bus to Celestun for a night or so of relaxing and eating by the beach. 

Hotel Maria del Carmen, Celestun - $500 pesos/night

We headed to the second-class station and bought our tickets but we had time to spare so we walked downtown and decided to catch the turibus. But, we missed it again by a nanosecond so we just hung around the plaza for awhile. 

Walking back to the station we stepped into a beautiful colonial hotel along the way. We got to peak into a room and even though I don't remember the name I know it is just across the street from Paque San Juan. Somewhere along the way we ran into a gentleman we talked to yesterday that remembered us. Then, we ran into him again when we exited the hotel. We are quite sure there are several people around town looking out for us!
Back at the bus station, we waited for the bus. And, Joanne had her second dose of Dramamine. After inquiring, I found out the departure time printed on our ticket was the departure time from the Noreste station and we were leaving from TAME. I guess the other people waiting for buses could sense my confusion because by the time we boarded the bus there were a number of people looking out for us and making sure we were boarding the correct bus. Yep, I love Mexico and the Mexicans!
Joanne was ready for this outing away from Merida. We took the route through Uman...I call it the back way. Each little town was hopping, filled with moto-taxis and crowded streets. We had a lot of "it must be a fruit stand" moments. Lots of colorful town squares, street vendors, school children, churches, and Mayan ladies passed by our bus window. Sorry, Joanne took all the pictures. I have none to post. 
We arrived in Celestun around 1pm. We were greeted at the station by Philipe trying to book us on a boat flamingo tour. Obviously, neither he nor the other boat tour operators realized Joanne had a serious motion sickness problem! I told them repeatedly Mi Hermana es inferma..no barco para nosotros. But, what worked best was to do sign language for throwing up and make some retching sounds. I guess they pictured some of that landing in the bottom of their boats because they understood, thanked us and walked on. 
We found a nice little hotel on the beach for $500 pesos/night. Cheap enough, huh? After taking a peak at the room we took it. We put down our stuff and headed to the palapa bar. Remember my sister has motion sickness? It didn't keep us from downing cold beer, eating appetizers and finishing it all off with a few tequila shots! 
We had a nice time being the only white tourists...really!...amongst a sea of brown faces. There were more tourists in Celestun than I expected. Yes, Joanne fell in love with Celestun immediately. It's so easy to do. 

Our balcony view

We went back to the room later on and ended up having an early seafood dinner downtown. Upon arriving back at our room, we had a few A/C issues, but the owner came and got it going again quickly. We went out on our little second-story balcony overlooking the water for a short time, had a few laughs, and our lights were out early.