Day 3 (Tuesday Aug. 4th)
Day 3 was to be the "Day -O- Shopping" and not the normal shopping that most of you are used to but Traci Vega style. That means you go into every shop, turn over every item, and you don't leave until all the shopping money has been spent. :-)
Shopping of course means we need shopping money. Unfortunately, I had been unsuccessful at withdrawing any money from the local ATMs and received a message on each machine that indicated that there was an error and I should try again later. Rather than make any more attempts at the same ATM, we went to the resort next to ours and tried their machine. Everyone who approached the machine was able to pull out some dough except for us... I spoke with the concierge and asked if he had ever seen this problem before. He mentioned that sometimes a bank would put a card on hold if they saw charges from a foreign country. He asked for the international number on the back of the card and made a collect call to BofA for us.
I spent the next 1.5 hours on the phone waiting for someone to pick up. I was afraid that I might have ended up on a line that would never be picked up and asked Traci to call the number on another line. Within 10 minutes we had a live person on the other phone discussing my problem. I learned that there were two levels of "Mass Compromise" that morning and that my card was at the level where it needed to be inactivated. The person on the phone explained that someone had made several attempts to take out money. I told her that every one of the attempts was me trying to get cash. She said she understood but that my card still needed to be inactivated. At this point I was yelling into the phone "DO NOT INACTIVATE MY CARD" and asking for a manager. She put me on hold while she searched for her manager and came back about a minute later to let me know that she could not find her manager and that she was going to inactivate my card and get a new one out to me. Again, I started with the yelling and told her to get her manager's manager and if she couldn't find them to keep looking until she found one. I finally got a manager on the phone and with a click of a mouse we were able to take out some money. YESSS!!!
On hold with BofA
We rode the shuttle into town and had lunch while Traci strategized her afternoon attack on the stores. We had 5 different cups of chili to choose from that ranged from tomato sauce to fire in your mouth. I tried the whole range and paid for it in sweat. After finishing up our meal, we were ready to hit the shops.
A tasty lunch
yummy cow
We spent the next 4+ hours going in and out of every shop looking for that ever elusive "perfect item". For those of you who have been to Tijuana and know how aggressive the shop people are, this was no different. I was accosted by every shop keeper wanting to know if the happy honeymooners wanted a necklace, t-shirt or wooden mask. The only thing I wanted from our day of shopping were postcards and a picture of me with a parrot. We never found the parrot; however, were able to find a monkey named Lola who was willing to take a photo with me.
I settled for a picture with the monkey
Lola liked Traci more than she liked me
Traci, Lola, and Bill
We then spent some time at the beach watching the locals and enjoying the ocean breeze.
The shops near the beach in Playa Del Carmen
The terminal to Cozumel
We walked back to meet our shuttle and headed back to the resort. Once at the resort, we went to the pool and swam until our fingers shrivelled up.
The plan was to turn in early as Day 4 was going to be a long day and would start at 5:30am. As we were getting ready to head to bed, there was a knock at the door. It was the maid with four Hershey's kisses in her hands. I took them from her and we enjoyed the chocolate before turning in.
On day 4, we explore the Mayan ruins.
Bill and Traci
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