The day before we were to return home, we rented a Jeep to drive to Chichen Itza, a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people in 600 A.D. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, reminiscent of those seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc and Chenes styles of the Northern Maya lowlands.
Our road trip to Chichen Itza was leisurely. We stopped at a few small towns along the way and arrived in the late morning. The early start allowed us some time at the site before it became crowded. We hired a local guide who took us on a wonderful tour.
As it approached 4:00 p.m. I suggested to Joan that we start heading back to Cancun so that we could get there before dark. Joan, who often wanted to “do it all,” was trying to convince me to stay for the light show that evening at 8:00 p.m. I did my best to convince her that it was ill-advised to stay in Chichen Itza so late. Driving in Mexico at night was dangerous. First, except when they passed through cities, the roads had no streetlights. Second, Mexican drivers often drove with their headlights turned off, thinking that they could see better at night using the illumination from the moon and stars. Third, it was going to be pretty cold in an open jeep traveling at night and we didn’t have the proper attire. And finally, one was much more likely to encounter bandits on the roads after dark than during the day.
Both of us felt strongly about our positions, but eventually, Joan said that I should go ahead and go back, and she would catch a ride with some of the other tourists back to Cancun. At that point, I felt like I had to give in. There was no public transportation that evening back to Cancun from Chichen Itza and no guarantee that any of the tourists would be headed back to Cancun. After all, it was 125 miles away. Any tourists staying for the light show were likely to be staying in the nearby town of Merida, not in Cancun.
We stayed for the light show, which turned out to be pretty cool, and then bundled up as best we could for the chilly ride back to Cancun. After we had been driving about fifteen minutes, the Jeep suddenly stopped running and I pulled over to the side of the road. The battery was still good, so I turned on the flashers and took a look under the hood. We had plenty of gas and the engine would turn over but the plugs had no spark. I removed the distributor cap and saw that the rotor was spinning freely, which meant that something had sheared off the shaft. We weren’t going anywhere in that Jeep.
We stood at the side of the road for more than two hours trying to wave down help. There was very little traffic and when a car or truck would pass, they were probably too worried about getting robbed to stop. Finally, a man driving a VW bug stopped. He worked in Merida as a mechanic and chauffeur and was driving home to the nearby town of Valladolid. He also checked under the hood of the Jeep and agreed there wasn’t any way to fix the problem without having parts for the distributor. He suggested that we ride to Valladolid with him and call the rental car company in Cancun for instructions. When we got to Valladolid we tried to call the 24-hour number on the sleeve of our rental contract. The call would not go through, so the local operator called the operator in Cancun and was told that due to construction at the airport, the phone number for the rental car company wasn’t working.
We walked over to the bus station and tried to buy tickets for the next bus back to Cancun but even though I saw the bus listed on the schedule, they wouldn’t let me buy a ticket. I couldn’t understand what the woman at the ticket counter was saying. A German couple came to our rescue and explained that all the seats on the 4:00 a.m. bus were sold out. There wasn’t another bus until 8:00 a.m. and our flight home was scheduled for an 8:00 a.m. departure. I walked through several bars and restaurants in town asking if anyone was heading back to Cancun that morning but eventually gave up on that plan.
We went back to the bus station hoping for a miracle but by now even the 4:00 a.m. bus was over an hour late. It eventually pulled in about 5:15. They quickly loaded the bus and then the woman behind the counter yelled something at the German couple. They told us she said we could get on the bus, but we were going to have to stand up. I quickly purchased tickets and we jumped on the bus for the ride back to Cancun. I was so tired that I struggled to stay awake even though I was standing up. I nodded off the whole way back to Cancun. A young woman offered Joan a seat on her lap which Joan graciously accepted.
We arrived in Cancun just after 7:00 a.m. and ran up to our room to pack. I left the Jeep keys at the front desk and the desk clerk agreed to get a message to the car rental company about the broken-down Jeep. The airport shuttle pulled up in front of the hotel a few minutes later and it took us to the Cancun airport just in time to catch our flight home. My credit card was never charged for the Jeep rental!
