Travel flashback: Arriving in Cancun

Eight years ago I went on holiday for the very first time with friends, sans adult supervision, because we were (just) adults ourselves. Originally we planned on a fly-drive holiday down the East coast of the US, but only one of us could drive (me) and then another friend who wanted to come away with us didn't have the budget to do that, though she did have a driving license. Typical.

We then decided on a week, somewhere in Europe, which turned into two weeks in Mexico - more specifically, Cancun in the Yucatán Peninsula. Going at the end of May/beginning of June means two things. 1) It's the onset of hurricane season. 2) Summer break for the Americans. Both of these points are very significant, but I'll get to that next time.

It took us thirteen hours to get there, which seems ridiculous as I've flown much further than that in less time. But, we were on a charter flight which basically means you get a tour of the world. Though we needed to head South, we first headed North, past Iceland and up to Greenland, before making our way to the Canadian West coast. We travelled all the way down there and the coast of the US - guess we sort of did get that US coastal experience, albeit by air and the wrong side of the country - before scooting around Cuba (the long way round, obviously) and into Cancun where we came to a halt right in front of lots of jungle.

By the time we had sorted out the airport and got to our hotel it was pitch black, even though it was only 8pm. Ah yes, that old travel confusion. It was also very humid which resulted in us spending $6 each on a bottle of Evian. We were seriously over-charged, but it was bloody worth it (and at least the dollar to pound was $1.9:£1 at the time). We had no clue of our bearings, were getting cranky, and we just wanted to find something to eat. It was at this point we realised we were a long way from home. Our hotel was also not as wonderful as we were led to believe, with two double beds for three of us. We may have teared up a bit at this point, but it was travel exhaustion - honestly - though one of my friends was sorely tempted to use her Dad's credit card to check into a better hotel!

The next day was better - looking out of our patio window to see sand, sunshine and beautiful coloured sea is a great leveller on the human spirit - and we soon got the hang of Cancun life and the rowdy Americans who made us come across all twee and contrary (when we weren't pretending to be from Alabama, that is).

One thing that has been greatly installed in me is that if you do a "beach" holiday you do need to balance it out and see some sights. We visited Chichen Itza, which I'll talk about another time, as well as what else we got up to... Turns out that it may have been many moons ago that I went to Cancun, but I have a lot of memories! {^_^}

Where did you go on your first holiday without parental supervision? x