You know the scene in Blow when Johnny Depp is walking through the airport with all the drugs? Yeah, we were pretty much just like that when we landed in Cancun. Except instead of kilos of cocaine we were smuggling 12 sweet cans of Bumblebee solid white albacore and 15 fluid ounces of lovely lady Hellmans. Let me tell you what a relief it was when we pressed the button on the “traffic signal” at customs and we hit green.

An outfit that made total sense at 5 am in chilly NYC - stretch pants, a weird shirt with too tight sleeves and a pashima shawl - was a little unbearable when we re-entered Mexico on a 90 degree afternoon. No problem, I’m cool. I get us two tickets on the airport shuttle to the downtown bus station. I hear there’s a beach here…? Anyway the bus station rocks even though I forgot to take my toilet paper through the revolving door (think subway station) which I paid 3 pesos for and I’m itchy and sweating and have forgotten Spanish and we can’t get on a bus for 2 and a half hours.

Because I am practically a superhero I manage to change my shirt and tie a gold scarf around my waist so my ass isn’t completely out, we check our bags and head out into the splendor of downtown Cancun. Lucky for us there is a Sanborns across the street, which is both a store and a restaurant. It reminds me of eating at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s when I was a kid. (I’m 64 years old). Two British burgers (bacon=) and beers later we were right as rain. If rain is hot, tired, disoriented and has to poop.

On the bus, a spiffy ADO GL which was worth the wait, we watched a screwball comedy starring the gorgeous Spanish actress Paz Vega and tried to nap. I doubt we will ever make this trip in quite the same way again - Merida to Cancun by bus to the airport in order to fly Jet Blue for $99 - but it isn’t terrible. The bus gives one space to think, looking out the window into the blank dark green of the inland peninsula. It feels like a field trip coming home late. And isn’t it? Merida is welcoming, rainy, Christmas lit with more color than in the States and busy in its fashion.