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Winter 2015

Travel (Outside of Canada)

Summit of the Mayan Pyramid of Kukulkan

It was one of the most memorable journeys of my life. For about 4 years we as a family had not had a vacation by the sea. After seeing the weather forecast, we bought a tour to Cancun. We live in Ottawa, so we were considering a flight from another city as there was no direct flight from Ottawa to Cancun. In our case, it turned out to be Toronto. The flight was non-stop and early in the morning, so we had to leave home at midnight. 

We packed our bags, got in the car and went for rest and adventure. After leaving the city, we got into a snow storm. Since it had just started, the roads had not yet been sprinkled with salt. Visibility was almost zero, the wind was tearing the car off the road, and the ice under the wheels made the car almost uncontrollable. In such terrible conditions we drove more than 7 hours before we got the airport, whereas usually it takes 4 hours. Tired, nervous and exhausted we got to the airport (me, my husband and 3 children) and we were told that we were late for the flight. But we changed our tickets for the next flight. We had breakfast and went to our gate. We got on the plane, but we stayed at the airport for three hours and we were told that the plane was faulty and it would take time to fix it, so we had to get off. After about 2 hours, we got on the plane again. However, the flight got cancelled. We stayed in Toronto for a day, slept well and flew safely on the next day.

 Hooray! We're finally in Cancun! We had warm sun, stunning turquoise sea, beautiful flora and fauna, delicious food and drinks, a large amount of entertainment for any age all in our hotel. For almost 10 days we swam, got tanned, played with children, built sand castles, watched pelicans, and hung at children's attractions. It was paradise for us. The only excursion we had was a tour to the city of Coba, which was amazing. On the way to Coba you could see the real life of the locals. There were lots of old houses, garbage on the roads, but beautiful and smiling eyes of Mexicans. Coba captivated us: it's the mad moss of Mayan history, impressive buildings, and the jungles in which wild animals such as the puma walk. We had a very interesting tour guide, who showed us everything in detail and answered all the questions. 

Finally, 10 days of our paradise ended, we packed our bags and arrived at the airport. What do you think happened next? Yes. We had our flight cancelled. We were laughing hysterically. We stayed for another day in Cancun. We were put in a five-star hotel, which was so horrible that we wanted to escape from there. On the next day we went to the airport again, and on the scoreboard, we saw that our flight was delayed. There were no words to describe our feelings. Half of the passengers were young children, all tired, and the atmosphere was heated. As a result, after 1.5 hours of waiting we flew home. Again, we drove at night from Toronto to Ottawa. It was an unforgettable trip in which despite all the inconveniences we met a very beautiful and amazing country - Mexico.