I'm back from Mexico and thinking to myself how, each time that I go
away, I come home saying..."I gotta visit there again !!"  This trip
was a bit nuts. The short version is summed up quite nicely by my
friend and I quote him :

"I too am very glad to have been with my friends in Mexico. If you
can't share hard beds, clogged heads, contaminated air and climbs down
30' deep, 4' wide holes with your friends, who can you share them
with!!"

We flew PHL to Cancun direct without problems. I was stopped and
"wanded" because, for some reason, my heeled sandals and something on
my body set off the alarm. They didn't determine what it was but I was
free to go anyway. I don't understand how that works, esp when we're
"Code Red".

Getting thru Cancun airport was a snap and the van driver from Maya Ha
was waiting for us just as planned. As we loaded the van, the police
stopped us. They had a lengthy discussion with our driver to the tune
of 30 or 45 mins. After pulling out of the airport, we got stopped
again by a different police officer. Another 30 mins. Finally, we took
off and cruised down the highway. We found out that with this
particular van, the A/C didn't work unless the driver was going faster
than 40 mph, and even then it was a little 'poof' of cold air as
opposed to a nice, steady blast. We told our driver upfront that our
priorities were beer, food and bathroom breaks during our 4 hour drive
to the resort. He grinned and said,  "No problemo."  Then he assured
us that the resort would have dinner for us as promised, even though
we weren't due until 10:30 pm or so. Our destination, Maya Ha Resort,
was a mere 30 miles or so from the border between Mexico and Belize.

We pulled into several small towns along the way in order to
accomodate our priorities and to refuel the van.  The first town we
pulled into; we decided to buy a cooler, beer, tequilla, vodka and
some snacks. I didn't write down the names of the towns we stopped in,
but IIRC, the name "Limones" seems to be one of them. The driver told
us that a couple of towns actually had 3 or 4 thousand ppl. The towns
were interesting.  Little shops that advertised beer, tacos and
chicken. Lots of ppl outside taking advantage of the cooler night
air... even though it was still about 90 F. Dogs running around.
Children trying to sell us snacks. Goats here and there. It cost me 2
pesos to use the ladies room at one of the stops we made. That's the
equivalent of about 20 cents USD. My 2 pesos bought me a handful of
toilet paper...literally, since a little boy handed me a clump of TP
as he collected my pesos... but inside the ladies' room were signs
asking that you don't flush any of it. How very odd.

Eventually, we left anything that looked like civilization and headed
down a highway that ran straight forever. We were doing about 80 mph
the whole way. The A/C was working nicely. Once we hit a bat... or it
hit our windshield. It had reddish brown fur and was a fairly good
size. On another stretch of road, horses appeared. They were
unattended and our van had to stop completely as they took their time
to move off the road.  Absolutely beautiful manes and coats shining in
the night.

The main road that led to a side road that led to a dirt road to Maya
Ha was a scream. The road got smaller. The vegetation got closer. The
ride got bumpier. We all realized we had too many beers at that point.
There was not another town for a bathroom break and in fact, the
"break" we had was meeting the Army... yet again... at another
check-point.  We were aware of the military many times during our
stay... young Mexican men in uniform with machine guns. We were told
we were in the drug corridor and just the week before our arrival,
many kilos of cocaine 'appeared' on the beach. We didn't give a hoot
about the drugs. Our bladders were bursting from beer. However, this
was not the time or place to pee along the highway.

So finally, almost 7 hrs after landing in Cancun, and after what
seemed like an endless trek on a dirt road hacked out of the jungle,
we arrived at Maya Ha. We could hear the ocean but not see it because
the surroundings were very dark. Stone pathways from the other
buildings : the lobby, the dining area, bar, swimming pool, wooden
porch area, dive shop;  all led round the beach to the cottages that
were our rooms.  Each cottage housed two rooms.  Their porch was split
by a wall of plants in most cases but one of the couples in our group
had a porch that was shared, spread across both rooms.  The interior
was spacious : 2 double beds, (some had a king size bed) counter space
across the entire front that had planters, a table on each side of the
beds and one in the middle, a dressing area with a closet and more
shelves, sink, and bathroom with shower and toilet.  There was a
sliding glass door with a screen to enter, 2 big windows along the
side of the room, and 2 smaller windows for the dressing area and the
bathroom.  The windows were crucial because the generator didn't run
24 hrs a day.  Anyhow... off to the rooms to drop our luggage and then
back to the dining room !!  Maya Ha served us dinner with a smile at a
11 pm. The dining room personnel, I learned thru out the week, were
truly hardworking ppl who aimed to please.

We told the manager that we hoped the dives were not early the next
day.  He told us the dive shop planned to go out on the local reef
around 10 am and so we could sleep in until 8 am or so. We went to bed
that night seeing some big crabs that flicked over the stone walkways
and hearing some strange sounds from the jungle around us.

Re: my friend's statement in the earlier quote of  "hard beds"... the
beds at Maya Ha were rather firm mattresses that were set upon a
cement frame.  The beds in our next hotel in Playa Del Carmen were
identical. In fact, the tables and shelves in the rooms were
cement/tile too.  The entire trip seemed to have guest rooms, hotel
areas, ruins, and caverns that echoed. Hmm.

Part 2 = our dives on Chinchorro and local reefs, the ruins of
Chacchoben.

Part 3 = our stay in PDC and our cenote dives with Hidden Worlds.
(including the dive guide who actually said to me..."I've met George
Irvine."  LOL !!)