The week in Miami just flew by, and it was time to head to Mexico for some real RnR.
Having a car in Miami made everything so much faster and easier, and taking the car back to Fort Lauderdale airport was very straight-forward.
The car rental garage was clearly sign-posted.
It was super fast dropping the car back (thanks Alamo again!) and then it was straight to the bus for the shuttle to the airport.
It was only a few minutes to the terminal for Jet Blue.
There were machines for fast check-in and printing the boarding pass.
Then it was time to queue for airport security! Gotta love TSA. Luckily it was only about 30 minutes and the staff were in good spirits which always helps.
On the other side I had enough time to grab a veggie burger.
Before heading towards the gate.
The queuing for the flight was a little haphazard, but at least it was on time.
Then it was time to get on.
This was such a weird flight in terms of the seating arrangement. So many couples and families were split up all over the plane, for absolutely no reason that I could see. The flight was not even full.
This caused some distress for some passengers, and I like to think it was just a glitch in the seating software for this flight, as I have never flown Jet Blue before.
It wasn’t long before we were taking off!
And we flew back over Miami and South Beach.
It was a smooth 1 hour flight to Cancun, and soon we were on the ground. Immigration only took about 30-40 minutes.
And it was time to get the shuttle ticket to Playa del Carmen.
And get past the strangest looking “Tourist Information” which looked more like a shark tank.
Once outside, it was a short walk to the right to the Ado bus stop.
And they had a booth for tickets.
It was only about a 10 – 15 minute wait.
The bus was comfortable and smooth and took about an hour to get to Playa del Carmen… just in time for sunset.
The bus station was right next to 5th Avenida.
There was a taxi rank next to the bus station, but the drivers looked like vultures and they wanted MX$100 to go 2.5km, so I started walking.
When I told my Airbnb host, Andrea, that I was walking, she offered to pick me up. Easy peasy and welcome to Mexico… country number 41.