Chillin' Out ... Or Trying Hard At It!

The "Chill Out Bar" ... where we did just that.

After two days of exploring Tulum and Playa del Carmen, we were ready for some beach time.  However, Mother Nature wasn't cooperating and once again the forecast called for a rainy day.  We'd been pretty good so far at dodging the rain, but when we woke up and saw a forecast of 90-100% chance of strong thunderstorms every day until we left ... we were starting to have doubts.

The night before we had made it back to the resort from Playa del Carmen just before the skies opened up.  Luckily our hotel room had a big umbrella, which we used to walk across the resort for dinner.  The entire time we ate, the rain was pounding and we had to hold the umbrella tight to prevent the winds from blowing it out of our hands on the way back to our room.

The rain was a bit lighter when we walked to the breakfast buffet, but it wasn't long before the wind and the rain intensified once again.  Ken and I were determined to keep our spirits high, and our thoughts positive.  Once we were back in our room, I decided to check my email and the weather forecast once again ... big mistake!  

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, we had left home with a signed agreement to sell our rental to our tenant.  We'd gone through the inspection and appraisal period with no problems, and the closing would take place a few days after we got back from Mexico.  But then I had a nice little email waiting for me from our tenants that rainy morning ... they wanted their deposit back because they'd changed their mind about buying the house.  There weren't any problems ... they just wanted the house to appraise for a whole lot more than they were buying it for.  Are they kidding me?!  I guess they wanted to "steal" the house from us, so now they weren't happy.  Ken and I decided that we'd take a deep breath, not let these jerks ruin our vacation, and we'd respond later in the day.

After calming down, I checked the weather forecast and came to a conclusion ... we had to pack a bag and grab a "collectivo" as far away as we could get.  I needed sunshine and beach time, I mean ... really needed it at this point!  I found that Valladolid was about 3 hours away with a sunny forecast.  We could grab a "collectivo" to the ADO bus station, which would take us there.  I had a plan and I was ready ... but Ken wasn't.  He said that we were surrounded by rain and 3 hours away wasn't enough.  I was hard-headed and insisted it would be sunny there, and it sounded like a really cool town.  He'd never heard of it, and Mexico has that bad reputation ... he wasn't going for it.  Good thing I pulled up Valladolid's weather forecast again to prove to him it would be beautiful ... because it wasn't going to be.  Just that quick the forecast had changed to the same crappy weather we were already dealing with.  I swear it said it was going to be sunny just 15 minutes earlier ... ugh!  Well, at least we didn't have to find out who was gonna get their way.  We were stuck in the rain.

 When the rain and wind subsided a bit, we grabbed the chance (and our umbrella) to head to the "Chill Out Bar".  We had to get out of our room and the bar was right on the beach with a roof and pull-down shades to keep out of the weather ... the perfect place to escape.  We grabbed a chair and a drink and enjoyed the view ... for a few minutes.  The wind started picking up and the rain was coming down in buckets.  I'm not exaggerating when I say we were in tropical storm conditions!   Everyone in the bar had to move their chairs and do their best to keep dry.  I smiled ... and hoped this wasn't going to go on for the rest of our trip.  Thoughts of a tropical storm and a buyer who couldn't keep his word ran through my head.  Damn it!  This can't be happening.  I had a house to sell and plans of lounging on the beach, playing in the waves, and sailing a Hobie cat sailboat!

This pic was taken before the bar filled up ... and before the tropical storm weather arrived.

We hung around at the bar and the restaurants while it poured off and on all day.  There was a break of just drizzle in the afternoon, so we grabbed the umbrella and walked down the road to check out the marina again ... I love looking at boats.  We also wrote an email back to our tenants and kindly told them that nothing that we'd agreed to had changed, so we planned on moving forward.  We did, however, offer to install some hand rails around the deck and pool since his insurance company was requiring it.  Before we went to bed, we received an email that they'd move forward ... Hallelujah!  Now if we could just get Mother Nature to cooperate ... perhaps tomorrow would be better?

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!