There and Back Again

Disposition: Frustrated
Reading: Sparrow Nights
Pondering: What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood? (Buddha)

What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen while you are on vacation in a tropical island and staying in a rustic, beachside resort? FLOODING when the heavens opens up and throw all the rain it could throw at you in a span of three days, with no hope in sight for it to ever recede.

When we woke up this morning, things looked fine. It almost looked like the sun was finally coming out, as if the worst of the rain has passed. My sister and I walked to 5th Avenue — Playa del Carmen’s “pedestrian only” downtown area — with very little need for an umbrella. The sun was peeking behind dark clouds so it looked pretty hopeful. By 2PM however, just when I changed to my bathing suit, it started to pour again and the rain just kept pouring and thunder and lightning kept doing its back-and-forth showdown. Somewhere in the beach, someone was getting married, we were told. How they managed to complete the celebration, I will never come to know.

My sister and I decided to skip dinner, settling instead on some crackers and canned tuna we managed to purchase earlier in the afternoon. I did go out to purchase some drinks from the bar and noticed the rising flood. At around 8PM, the track-light around the resort went off making it difficult to find your way around the vicinity. A few of the cabanas on the other side of the resort were without power and the flood on our next door neighbor’s porch was up to their ankles.

At round 9AM, my sister decided we should turn more lights on in the room so people would know we were “home” in case they needed our help or they needed us to evacuate. Earlier in the evening we decided to take all our valuables - cameras, dvd player, passports, etc. — from the safe and put them all in one place, just in case. We did so when water started entering our porch and washed up a lost crab on our doorstep and when my sister found out that the toilet would not flush. Later, packing up our valuables would prove to be the best thing we could have done that night.

As I got up to turn more lights on I peeked outside the window to check any changes to the weather which was pretty much nothing. I also checked to see the condition of neighbor’s cabana. On my way back to bed, I thought I’d go to the bathroom and nearly slipped. At first I thought, “my God, that’s some leak from the roof!” but when my sister turned on more lights we realized that our worst fear had materialized — the bathroom has flooded!

The situation was at first scary then frustrating and finally, in hindsight, comical. When we discovered the flood in the bathroom, sister and I waded through the knee high flood outside without any sense of direction to complain to the front desk. We found the reception desk packed with people getting ready to leave. I snapped at the front desk clerk who had the audacity to recommend I put myself in the shoes of the folks who were staying in the Pueblito section where the flood was up to their hips or necks! Not really the answer I needed when my BATHROOM WAS FLOODING AND I NEARLY SLIPPED AND CRACKED MY SKULL! That was to be the first of their front desk/customer service people’s mistake and the biggest reason why I think Shangri-la Caribe needs a major overhaul.

To cut a long story short, they moved us to the Club Bananas Resort where they gave us a dreary and depressing guestroom with walls the color of terracotta and a bathroom that was small and oddly shaped. Best of all, its toilet wouldn’t flush either. By the time my sister and I have showered, scrubbed our feet clean and washed some laundry, it was midnight and we were ready to sleep. I slept saying to myself, tomorrow the sun has to come out. It had to because one more day of torrential rain would definitely wipe out Playa del Carmen — or maybe just Shangri-la Caribe — from the map.