Apparently, Cancun can be really cheap during the off season (although we were like walking ATMS once we got there). I was looking on Google Flights for somewhere cheap to go over a weekend and found that I could do Cancun for about $300 RT. Upon further research, I realized that Cancun is not just for chilling on the beach, and there are some really cool Mayan ruins just a few hours drive away. Hotel and car rental were also ridiculously cheap, so it was definitely a go.

A’s friend decided to join us, which turned out to be really useful because he speaks Spanish 🙂

I got really nervous the day before leaving b/c there was a storm heading into the Northeast on the morning of our flight. If we were delayed enough, we would lose an entire day. Luckily, it was just an hour for deicing and the next connecting plane at IAD turned out to be the same plane that we were already on from Boston!

We still ended up losing most of the day b/c Hertz took a really long time giving us a car and then we thought that there was something wrong with the car so we stopped for a bit to check it out (there was something dripping out, but turns out to be water from the a/c). We just missed entry into the ruins at Tulum by a few minutes, but we made the most out of it by walking a little further to a public beach.

Afterwards, we stopped by the pizza place that generously allowed us to park for free and had the most amazing pina coladas. Their seats were all swings! We did, however, get scammed by one of the guys working there who said that he could give us a coupon for entry into Chichen Itza, guide, and lunch. Oh well… lesson learned.

After dinner, we headed to Chichen Itza for the night (we booked a hotel nearby). There was a highway that could have gotten us there in 2 hours, which we did find and pay the toll for, but then we accidentally got off and ended up taking another road through small villages along the way. Every time we hit a village, we also hit speed bumps which were not very visible at night. I apparently screamed every time (I was otherwise asleep).

We got a guide at Chichen Itza who gave us a really thorough tour of the ruins. I definitely appreciated having one versus walking around ourselves. Of course, thorough also means that it took a lot longer and we were left with very little time left to check out a cenote. We went to one nearby (although we spent quite a bit of time just finding the entrance – thanks to Google Maps) that was unfortunately very touristy. A’s friend still really liked it though, as he was able to jump in and swim around. A and I would have preferred something that wasn’t located within hotel grounds, but we didn’t have the time to drive anywhere further.

Thank goodness the guys listened to my advice and we left a little early to go to the airport, because we ended up running out of gas without a gas station nearby. Luckily, someone else was in the same situation and we were able to get help. We made back to Cancun early, so we went to dinner before heading to the airport.

Unfortunately for us, the adventure doesn’t end here. Our flight from Cancun to Toronto was quite pleasant, as A & I had a row to ourselves and his friend had a row to himself. We arrived in Toronto around 1am and looked around for the quiet lounge, where there are seats without anti-homeless arm rests. Considering how we slept at the airport, you would think that we would have no trouble making our morning flight back to Boston, but unfortunately, we had a few hiccups at customs and security that resulted in us missing our flight.

It’s really too bad we didn’t get stuck back in Mexico. We could have spent a few more days there, considering how all of MA was under house arrest during winter storm Juno, which started shortly after we arrived back in Boston.