Long story short: Laura's brother Mauricio arrived last night here in Playa to spend two weeks with us. He had been staying in the US on a student visa and this September was approved for an H1B working visa. He has an appointment tomorrow at the US consulate agency at 8:30 am to submit the documents etc. We *thought* this appointment was for Cancun and we had tomorrow's schedule lined out for buses etc. Problem: After paying the fee today at banamex for the consular agency, we discovered his appointment is in MERIDA, not Cancun. Ok, crapola. Checked the bus schedule and ADO has a bus leaving from Playa in a little over an hour to Merida. However, none of us are familiar with Merida, bus routes there, where the consulate is, nada. What we could use: Advice on a cheap hotel where Mauricio can stay tonight, preferably near the bus station or on the main bus line, and information on buses to get to the Consulate. We are totally at a loss and scrambling last minute to make sure everything goes smoothly as there is basically no time between now and 8:30 in the morning and the bus is taking off soon. I'm researching on the net as fast as I can right now, but if you, or someone you know, is familiar with Merida we would be eternally grateful for some advice/help on where to go/stay/travel. Thanks so much! Edit: And unfortunately I can't go with him, as I leave for the US at 10 in the morning :/
I wouldn't stress about it. There are plenty of taxis in Merida and plenty of inexpensive hotels or hostels.. if he is Mexican, I assume he will have no problem getting around. FYI there are buses every few hours from Cancun to Merida (used to be anyway), so a short ride to Cancun and he will be able to get a bus at almost any hour.
Try the Holiday Inn. It is near everything, including the Hyatt and Fiesta Americana and the Consulate. I have stayed there on my last two trips and it was quite reasonable. Check multiple websites if you have time to shop rates as we found mulitple rates for the same hotel. Can't remember which one got the win though. Good luck Coby.
Merida is seriously easy to get around in. There are lots of hotels all over downtown. It's not a big deal to show up there and then find where you want to stay. He's going to be fine. Just arm him with a map so he has a clue which way to go.
Thanks for all the advice! @Life: Yep, born and raised in Guadalajara. @TJ: We booked him a room at the Holiday Inn after looking up the location and finding it ideal. It also gave us the idea of which bus station to get off at (apparently there are 4 in Merida?) @RG & Life: Normally I wouldn't have been so anxious -- it's pretty hard for me to get stressed traveling. Last night was all kinds of a nightmare though -- he's arrival at Cancun was pushed from 8 pm to 10 pm because the plane in Miami had to be changed due to a mechanical issue. That meant the ADO buses to Playa had already stopped running so he had to take a private taxi. No big deal, except the taxi couldn't find our address (which is not uncommon since our little street is exactly one block long.) Couple that with him having our Mex cell phone num wrong by one digit and us not having internet (i.e. no US phone) and it was total communication black out. I ended up finding him about 4 blocks from our house, where the taxi dropped him off after he'd been walking around for like a half hour and I had been back and forth to the most obvious drop off locations I could think of and our house. So instead of arriving around 10 pm or so, the night ended around 1 a.m. and a very tired me The mis-step with the consulate was just the nail in the coffin for me But he's on his way now, I'm packed for my flight tomorrow, and I have to buy a new NIC for my comp as it was fried last night. Blue sparks and all. Scary actually. Thanks again!
Jeez Coby, you've had way too much unfun stuff going on in the last 24 hours. Hope it gets easier starting now.
Now I just have to hope that my flight isn't canceled when I come back Monday. That would pretty much ruin this month Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad though, ya know? The fried NIC card and electrical discharge in the room last night is something I could do without in the future, however
Yesterday it was pretty rainy in Cancun and lots of pax were reporting really bumpy landings and lots of turbulence. It was not fun for them. Flight cancellations are rare here, but if they happen then there's a good reason.
