A Tale of Yucatan
Viewing comments for Chapter 3 "A Tale of Yucatan - Part 3"Meanderings
15 total reviews
Comment from closetpoetjester
Talk about a f**king scam Tony! So let me get this straight...Air Caribe made you buy tickets as opposed to flashing your Australian bound return ticket so you organise tickets and then find when you talk to the officials, that you didn't have to do that at all?!
Sounds like the officials and Air Caribe have a deal going or something haha...whatever the case I'm sure they have the tourists number and see them coming a mile off and lets face it, you're at their damn mercy to a degree when you're in a foreign country and don't they know it?! In spite of getting the complete run around, not to mention the extra expense, you managed to keep a cool head...oh that's right, you left it to Wendy! Bravo girl! She sounds like the type who makes things happen haha...nice to know you have a woman with tenacity!
A delightful read and are you SURE I can't pay you??
I feel like I'm getting the ins and outs and do's and don'ts long before I'm booking my ticket so THANK YOU. I enjoyed this Yuctastic read LOL
Px
reply by the author on 14-Jan-2017
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Talk about a f**king scam Tony! So let me get this straight...Air Caribe made you buy tickets as opposed to flashing your Australian bound return ticket so you organise tickets and then find when you talk to the officials, that you didn't have to do that at all?!
Sounds like the officials and Air Caribe have a deal going or something haha...whatever the case I'm sure they have the tourists number and see them coming a mile off and lets face it, you're at their damn mercy to a degree when you're in a foreign country and don't they know it?! In spite of getting the complete run around, not to mention the extra expense, you managed to keep a cool head...oh that's right, you left it to Wendy! Bravo girl! She sounds like the type who makes things happen haha...nice to know you have a woman with tenacity!
A delightful read and are you SURE I can't pay you??
I feel like I'm getting the ins and outs and do's and don'ts long before I'm booking my ticket so THANK YOU. I enjoyed this Yuctastic read LOL
Px
Comment Written 12-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 14-Jan-2017
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Thanks, P! I hang out for your reviews! Without Wendy we would have been sunk on many occasions during this trip. Her knowledge of the local lingo, interspersed with extravagant sign language, was a godsend.
Comment from IndianaIrish
I love reading about international adventures, Tony, and your story is interesting, humorous, and I sure want to keep reading. If anyone tells me their trip is perfect without any setbacks or problems, I tend not to believe them. LOL There's always dilemmas when traveling.
Smiles,
Karyn :-)
reply by the author on 08-Jan-2017
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I love reading about international adventures, Tony, and your story is interesting, humorous, and I sure want to keep reading. If anyone tells me their trip is perfect without any setbacks or problems, I tend not to believe them. LOL There's always dilemmas when traveling.
Smiles,
Karyn :-)
Comment Written 08-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 08-Jan-2017
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Thank you once again, Karyn. Your words give me confidence to continue. Best wishes, Tony
Comment from krys123
Hi Tony;
-I got the feeling that you are somewhat a slave to your tickets but I may be wrong. I'll get to the humerus point is that the man on the stool was quite funny: "A large gentleman overlaps a high wooden stool under a slow moving ceiling fan. He shrugs his shoulders. Try our office downtown, he suggests. Clearly, he is not to be moved. We climb into a taxi and do as he recommends."
-I like your very descriptive viewpoint, politically and musically with his dirty cassette and drives a somewhat held together taxi: "Our taxi driver wears a Bob Marley hat, plays Bob Marley tapes on his dusty cassette and gives us, gratis, a Bob Marley view of the political and economic state of the nation. "Yeah, man - cool. You don't have to tip me but it helps and, hey, I'm a nice guy - so think about it."
- You have music blaring in the background for the most part in the construction of most of the area you visited was whitewashed and hand mahogany as floors.
Victorian architecture for churches was another site.
-You listed so many I could go on and on but I'll go straight to the part where I felt that your accommodations were somewhat okay and you travel situations where a little bit less than to be desired when it came to refunding your money. As it were, they were charming but not refunding.
-Thanks for sharing this Tony and take care have a good one.
Alex
reply by the author on 07-Jan-2017
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Hi Tony;
-I got the feeling that you are somewhat a slave to your tickets but I may be wrong. I'll get to the humerus point is that the man on the stool was quite funny: "A large gentleman overlaps a high wooden stool under a slow moving ceiling fan. He shrugs his shoulders. Try our office downtown, he suggests. Clearly, he is not to be moved. We climb into a taxi and do as he recommends."
-I like your very descriptive viewpoint, politically and musically with his dirty cassette and drives a somewhat held together taxi: "Our taxi driver wears a Bob Marley hat, plays Bob Marley tapes on his dusty cassette and gives us, gratis, a Bob Marley view of the political and economic state of the nation. "Yeah, man - cool. You don't have to tip me but it helps and, hey, I'm a nice guy - so think about it."
- You have music blaring in the background for the most part in the construction of most of the area you visited was whitewashed and hand mahogany as floors.
Victorian architecture for churches was another site.
-You listed so many I could go on and on but I'll go straight to the part where I felt that your accommodations were somewhat okay and you travel situations where a little bit less than to be desired when it came to refunding your money. As it were, they were charming but not refunding.
-Thanks for sharing this Tony and take care have a good one.
Alex
Comment Written 06-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 07-Jan-2017
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Many thanks, Alex, for reading and for your detailed comments. Very much appreciated. You have a good one, too! Best wishes, Tony.
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You're very welcome Tony.
Alex
Comment from Just2Write
Sounds like many a trip I"ve taken with a mind-set of logic that just doesn't work in the slow-paced world of Mexico and other cetral American countries.
Still it sounds like an adventure. Is this an actual trip to the Yucata , or is the story fictitious?
reply by the author on 07-Jan-2017
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Sounds like many a trip I"ve taken with a mind-set of logic that just doesn't work in the slow-paced world of Mexico and other cetral American countries.
Still it sounds like an adventure. Is this an actual trip to the Yucata , or is the story fictitious?
Comment Written 06-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 07-Jan-2017
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There certainly is a change of pace in that part of the world! Yes, this is based on a trip I made with friends in 1999. I kept a detailed journal and it is proving to be entertaining trying to flesh it out into something more.
Comment from rama devi
Ah yes, I've run into the brick wall of rules about return tickets before too. You describe the scene well. And your story effectively conveys the irony of it not having been required after all, too.
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"No, sir, it is not necessary to show your outbound tickets.
"NO, Sir,
Good line:
The first impression is that we have walked straight onto a film set at Universal Studios.
I found this list wonderful but it is QUITE a long sentence:
There is a bustle of pedestrian activity on the busy street - roadside stalls selling fresh spices - nutmeg, allspice, pepper - woodcarvings everywhere - baskets of coarse, green-skinned oranges, limes, bananas - handcarts selling soft drinks and an exotic range of coloured ice confections - Caribbean music blaring from speakers in some nearby street café - and everywhere down side streets the façades of old wooden buildings once painted with bright colours now sun-faded to pastel hues.
I recommend breaking it up a bit. Example:
There is a bustle of pedestrian activity on the busy street - roadside stalls selling fresh spices - nutmeg, allspice, pepper - woodcarvings everywhere - baskets of coarse, green-skinned oranges, limes, bananas, etc. Handcarts sell soft drinks and an exotic range of coloured ice confections. Caribbean music blares from speakers in some nearby street café - and everywhere down side streets the façades of old wooden buildings once painted with bright colours now sun-faded to pastel hues.
Reading aloud, this would work better, in my opinion, and not so many gerunds too. :)
Just a thought.
Fine work. Interesting details.
Warmly, rd
reply by the author on 05-Jan-2017
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Ah yes, I've run into the brick wall of rules about return tickets before too. You describe the scene well. And your story effectively conveys the irony of it not having been required after all, too.
*
"No, sir, it is not necessary to show your outbound tickets.
"NO, Sir,
Good line:
The first impression is that we have walked straight onto a film set at Universal Studios.
I found this list wonderful but it is QUITE a long sentence:
There is a bustle of pedestrian activity on the busy street - roadside stalls selling fresh spices - nutmeg, allspice, pepper - woodcarvings everywhere - baskets of coarse, green-skinned oranges, limes, bananas - handcarts selling soft drinks and an exotic range of coloured ice confections - Caribbean music blaring from speakers in some nearby street café - and everywhere down side streets the façades of old wooden buildings once painted with bright colours now sun-faded to pastel hues.
I recommend breaking it up a bit. Example:
There is a bustle of pedestrian activity on the busy street - roadside stalls selling fresh spices - nutmeg, allspice, pepper - woodcarvings everywhere - baskets of coarse, green-skinned oranges, limes, bananas, etc. Handcarts sell soft drinks and an exotic range of coloured ice confections. Caribbean music blares from speakers in some nearby street café - and everywhere down side streets the façades of old wooden buildings once painted with bright colours now sun-faded to pastel hues.
Reading aloud, this would work better, in my opinion, and not so many gerunds too. :)
Just a thought.
Fine work. Interesting details.
Warmly, rd
Comment Written 05-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 05-Jan-2017
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Again, thank you!
Comment from Pearl Edwards
Good thing Wendy could thump the table and wave her arms well by the sounds of it.
Very visual descriptions of the city of Belize, it sounds quite colourful.
cheers,
valda
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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Good thing Wendy could thump the table and wave her arms well by the sounds of it.
Very visual descriptions of the city of Belize, it sounds quite colourful.
cheers,
valda
Comment Written 05-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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We'd have been lost many times on this trip without Wendy's command of Spanish - not to mention her tenacity!
Comment from giraffmang
Another good addition to this travelogue.
Ah, the beauty of international travel and 'red tape', the bastion of all that is unholy!
And then the kicker - getting fleeced! Gotta love it.
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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Another good addition to this travelogue.
Ah, the beauty of international travel and 'red tape', the bastion of all that is unholy!
And then the kicker - getting fleeced! Gotta love it.
Comment Written 04-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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Many thanks for your review of Part 3. Fortunately, apart from this irritation with flight bookings, we had a relatively smooth trip. It certainly helps to speak the language when you are abroad. Tony
Comment from Heidi M
How annoying about your tickets! That would have really frustrated me. Bureaucracy and red tape. Your description of the town center and wooden buildings was interesting.
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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How annoying about your tickets! That would have really frustrated me. Bureaucracy and red tape. Your description of the town center and wooden buildings was interesting.
Comment Written 03-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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Many thanks for your review of Part 3, Heidi. Fortunately, apart from this irritation with flight bookings, we had a relatively smooth trip. It certainly helps to speak the language when you are abroad. Tony
Comment from lyenochka
Oh my! What frustration!! Bravo to Wendy for her perseverance. By the way, I'm not sure why you use "signora" when in Belize they speak either Spanish or English. In Spanish, it would be "senora." But you're much more of a traveler than I so you must have your reasons. I think all your poetry writing gives this prose some wonderful descriptions that make the sights come alive!
reply by the author on 03-Jan-2017
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Oh my! What frustration!! Bravo to Wendy for her perseverance. By the way, I'm not sure why you use "signora" when in Belize they speak either Spanish or English. In Spanish, it would be "senora." But you're much more of a traveler than I so you must have your reasons. I think all your poetry writing gives this prose some wonderful descriptions that make the sights come alive!
Comment Written 03-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 03-Jan-2017
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Thank you for pointing out the glaring 'senora/signora' error! That's why we used to leave it to Wendy when Spanish was needed! I've gone through and corrected it now. Best wishes, Tony
Comment from Pantygynt
REmind me not to go. I wouldn't have the patience and in all probability would end up committing murder -- and that would be with my bare hands too. Anyone who didn't succumb to that temptation would be awarded the Job award for patience.
Great dialogue all the way. One feels part of the come-day-go-day-God-send-Sunday attitude.
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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REmind me not to go. I wouldn't have the patience and in all probability would end up committing murder -- and that would be with my bare hands too. Anyone who didn't succumb to that temptation would be awarded the Job award for patience.
Great dialogue all the way. One feels part of the come-day-go-day-God-send-Sunday attitude.
Comment Written 03-Jan-2017
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2017
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Thanks for your review of Part 3, Jim. Travel in this part of the world has its high points but certainly stretches the patience a bit thin at times!
