Wednesday morning, I had to hit the road fairly early to be able to do some work when I got in. I got a coffee and tucked into some pan dulce from a panedería by the Thai restaurant. What I thought was a plain croissant was actually stuff with chocolate!
I did try to use Waze and Google Maps to get out of Playa, but gave up in disgust. I got this hilarious pop-up when I cancelled my Google Maps route!
Screenshot
It wasn’t until I was about to get onto the carretera that I remembered to check the gas gauge. I definitely needed fuel and what was conveniently ahead of me? That cost me about $600, and the topup to return the car ended up being about $500, so not too bad at all for a week of having a car! I did lose track of how much I was paying for tolls, though. I just don’t fret about that sort of thing anymore.
It was a super easy drive into Mérida. The Chevy Aveo I’d rented is the first car I’ve driven that has a six-speed transmission, so it was fun to get into that gear when I was passing folks! What a treat it was to get a manual transmission. It used to be the standard (pun kind of intended) in Mexico, but it’d been a long time since I’d found a rental place that offered one.
Traffic coming into Mérida was, of course, terrible. I got stuck next to this beast for the longest time.
I landed at about 1:15 CST. My girls were happy to see me!
Here is my little bowl from Chichén Itzá next to a larger bowl that was a gift from Contessa (no, my walls are not neon green — my iPhone camera is a menace!).
It was a bit brutal to have to go right back to work, and you know it’s been BUSY that it’s Saturday afternoon and I still haven’t fully unpacked, but I’m glad I got to spend a day with friends and discovered Playa del Carmen. I’ll likely be back in February or March next year!
I kept the car to today, a full week, to be able to run errands with it, primarily Costco and Walmart. I find renting a car stressful, but the freedom of having wheels… A car is going to happen soon-ish. I just have a lot of moving parts!