Pirate Girls Trip to Mexico - Vintage Blog Entry

This is a condensed blog entry from February 2008, which if you followed my now defunct previous blog, you've already read. If you didn't follow it, shame on you and enjoy. Girl Trip 2009 is coming up next month, so I thought I'd get you going with this entry. Every February for the last 11 years, I have been on a Girl Trip for my friend Pam’s birthday. Pam is not only one of my best friends, she used to be my sister in law. My first husband is Pam’s husband’s brother. I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have her. Pam is the kind of friend who is always there to listen to me rant, to cheer me up when I’m sad or to make me laugh until tears stream down my cheeks. She is as silly and goofy as I am and that, my friends, is a tall order. Our Girly Travels over the years have taken us to Las Vegas (where Pam once won ten thousand dollars on a slot machine!!), San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. This year was our first International Girl Trip. There were five of us. Me, Pam, Deb, Angela and Laura. Our theme this year was Pirate Girls. And yes, our themes are always cheesy. The Players: Pirate Pam of Odessa (pronounced 'Pay-um' there) Lovely Laura of Tulsa Adventurous Angela of Tulsa Deb - Pirate from the Frozen North And Me, who you already know and love Angela had gone down the day before and after enduring some flight delays and an unexpected stop in San Antonio, but she made it. As our ferry pulled into the dock, we spied Angela...with beer! She handed us each an ice cold Sol with a lime slice as she slipped Mardi Gras beads over our heads. What a special welcome. I felt like I was on Fantasy Island. Where the hell is that Tattoo guy? We walked the easy couple of blocks to Casa Sirena and were so glad to get there and see Steve’s smiling face. We settled in our rooms - Pam, Deb and I in the suite and Laura and Ang next door. As we unpacked, Pam noticed that her beach bag was missing. It’s contents? A book....her cell phone (yikes) and uh....her passport!!! Holy Crap! She knew she had it prior to boarding the transfer van in Cancun, so we figured it was either on the ferry or in the van. We told Steve about it and he called Kathryn (our travel agent extraordinaire) and we vowed to worry about it tomorrow. After all...tomorrow is another day and this one is already going too fast! Pam was a Pirate Girl without a country, but she was too tired to worry about it now. We strolled back to Casa Sirena to clean up for Happy Hour. I rebelled and went to Happy Hour in my swimsuit and coverup. Deb was exhausted and went to bed. She had a rough day and deserved some rest. Happy Hour on the roof was wonderful, as always, and we met some fun people. After Happy Hour Pam decided that it was enough for her. Angela, Laura and I went out in search of dinner and ended up at Miguel’s. Angela and I ordered Pina Coladas (2 X1! YAY!) and Laura ordered water. We split an order of Chicken Nachos and a dinner of Yucatan Shrimp. They were both delicious and enough for three of us. Total bill was $384 pesos. Great deal. Luis, the guitar player was entertaining, so we took his picture. Thursday arrived in glorious Isla fashion. Deb awoke feeling well, Pam was rested and all was right with the world, save for one missing passport. We still felt certain that it would turn up on the van. We sat in the garden of Casa Sirena and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of fruit crepes with yogurt and granola, coffee and fresh squeezed juice and then headed out to the ferry ticket office to check on Pam’s lost bag. The lovely lady who was working there couldn’t have been more kind and helpful. She radioed over to the Cancun side and spoke to a few people, all the while apologizing for us having to wait for a reply. No problem! Thankfully, Deb speaks fluent Spanish and was able to explain to her exactly what had happened and what we were looking for. The bag is an army green beach bag with a big Rolling Stones logo on it. She took down Pam’s name and we gave her a business card from Casa Sirena and left, still believing that it would all work out. That night at Happy Hour we all discussed the lost passport ordeal. I told Pam that I thought the whole thing was a hoax and it was just a ploy to get to stay longer. I imagined us all on the ferry leaving on Sunday, with Pam waving goodbye from the dock. Just as the ferry pulls away, Pam would whip her passport out of her back pocket, holding it up in the air with one hand while giving us the finger with the other hand and yell ‘PIRATE!’. It was thought, at this point, that Pam would have to file a police report and then go over to Cancun to the US Consulate. Later we found out that she would have to stay an extra couple of days, travel to Merida by bus and get a temporary passport there. Steve could not have been more helpful and wonderful, reserving a room for Pam in Merida at a friend's B and B, explaining the entire process (yep, he'd done this before) and calming us all down. I was starting to get jealous that she got to stay and go on an extra adventure. I think that if we hadn’t had Steve at this point, our vacation would have really taken a nosedive. As is was, Pam had a few moments of panic (and I mean a few, like two tears and then she was fine) and then we moved on! THINGS WE DID: Enjoyed the beach! Hunted for Sea Glass on Playa Media Luna and lounged/swam at Playa Norte. Ate, drank and were merry at Steve's Happy Hour and fabulous breakfasts at Casa Sirena, Miguel's, Buho's, French Bistro, Rolandi's, Chili Loco, Alexia y Giovanni and Picus. Yep, we got around. Did some sightseeing on a couple of golf carts at Hacienda Mundaca and the South End of the island. Saw old friends and made new ones! We met some guys on our final night at Picus, who were on a Guy Trip doing some fishing. They were from South Carolina and were very nice. One of the guys commented, “On Guy Trips, we go fishing. What do you do on Girl Trips?” Recalling an old joke that Pam’s husband had once made, I answered, “Pillow fights in our underwear.” He said, “What?!” and we just laughed. Then his friend was trying to smoke a cigar, but had forgotten to cut the end off. “Bite it like a Pirate”, Pam yelled. I think we frightened them. Went to see Hortensia almost every day because the girls couldn't get enough of her clothes! Flitted around the island to see cool things and be randomly fabulous Lost Passport -- The Rest of the Story: As we got ready for Happy Hour Friday night, we decided that since we had to switch rooms the next day (someone else had reserved the suite, so we were moving upstairs) that we would pack up a little. Pam was folding her dirty clothes when all of a sudden her passport fell out of the pocket of her pants that she had worn on Wednesday. She picked it up and held it up to us and said meekly “pirate?”. There was much cheering. Pam ran downstairs and showed it to Steve and everyone else who was down there and the screaming could be heard across El Centro. Deb ran downstairs and snatched the passport out of Pam’s hand and said “This is going in the safe!”. It was definitely a happy Happy Hour that night. It was a great trip. The weather was beautiful, we had many adventures and laughed a lot. That's what Girl Trip is all about.