Day Three - Lining up to leave

We woke up at 4:45 AM this day. And can you believe it? The staff had already started on breakfast. There were 4 stations already set up. The worst of the hurricane had hit directly into our original hotel the night before.


Of the Palace resorts, Aventura Spa Palace and Xpu Ha were the worst hit. I'd never heard of Xpu Ha, but the people I met in the 'bunker' told me about it. It was an Eco-reserve with crocodiles swimming under the suites, flamingos running around, an aviary, and more. They'd corralled the animals all day long and for the most part, they're uninjured. The suites were on stilts with thatched roofs. They didn't make it as well. When we got home, I looked it up and they were actual buildings but the roofs were pretty flimsy. People at Xpu Ha were awoken with no warning and told that they had 5 minutes to take what they needed and evacuate. No packing, no putting belongings in the bathroom. Things don't sound good for them. And the worst part is that most of their visitors were from Europe, who tend to go on 2+ weeks vacation, so they had LOTS of belongings and a lot of them had MUCH more time to be in Mexico.

Anyway, back to me. :)

By mid-day, they told us that they would take families, the elderly and the infirmed (people in casts, etc.) out first and send them to hotels. There would be rooms for everyone. I had my neck brace with me and was very tempted to put it on. (OK, I did put it on, but to support my neck, I didn't go into the 'injury begging line'). In the photo below, you can see the 'couples' line we were in - they asked for all the couples to wait and they'd call for us later. Around 2 pm, A bunch of people decided to make a line anyway. This line goes from the left side of the photo, out the door, loops around out there and back in the right door. We were in the middle- out between the doors.



When we finally got through the line at around 5pm, we found out that we were going to be staying at the Moon Palace... across the street. Whew! We had all envisioned the Cockroach Palace with a few tarantulas thrown in. But, it wasn't over yet... more lines. Here is the mass at the upstairs check-in. This is generally reserved for weddings and events. I guess a few thousand people checking in all at once is an event of some sort. In this photo, you can see Jenny on the far left. She and her husband were honeymooning from the UK. They're both Drs starting out their new lives together. They'll definitely have stories to tell their kids.



As we were waiting in line to get to the line to check in, waiters were coming by with trays full of beer. It was pretty cool.



We checked in at 8 pm. It was a long day. All I wanted to do was shower and put on clean clothes. Well, I got to shower, anyway.

Its late and I'm getting tired, so I will post more tomorow with the Aftermath photos (which is probably more what y'all want to see). Nite!