I was divorced with no kids. I was also bored with work and bored with my life. I needed a major distraction and fortunately I had lots of vacation time I needed to use.
An ad for a Cancun vacation drew my interest; it claimed air and hotel for seven days for less than it would cost me to fly to New York and stay one night. My life was such that I did not have anyone I could ask to accompany me so I would have to pay the single traveler penalty which made me pause. I booked it anyway.
The flight was a lot shorter than expected and my hotel a lot smaller than expected. It was a "boutique" hotel that catered mostly to Europeans and was closer to the city than it was to the hotel zone. As I walked through the lobby the conversations I overheard were in German.
My room was more than good enough for a man by himself so I had no complaints. I arrived on a Sunday afternoon in mid June and spent that day in my hotel's small beach.
On Monday I took a tour to Chichen-Itza. The site was more dramatic than I had even hoped and much bigger than expected with several other structures besides the pyramid including something they called a baseball field. They must have had very short seasons because according to our guide the losing team was sacrificed atop the pyramid.
But the big pyramid was what I had come to see and I soon saw that it was a lot taller and a whole lot steeper than I had envisioned.
The trip up the pyramid was OK but I noted the narrowness of the steps. They were only wide enough to get just half my foot on each of them. The Mayans must have had tiny feet.
After catching my breath at the top I took some pictures as I walked around to check for forgotten catchers mitts. I knew I was stalling. My mind had seen that the trip back down was going to be terrifying. I saw that I would have the front half of my feet dangling in the air with each step down. If I caught my heel on a step the chances of going all the way down on my face were way too high.
I saw some guys inching their way down step by step on their butts. I really did not want to be one of those guys but it was either embarrass myself or wait for a rescue helicopter.
I saw a chain running down the middle of the steps for no apparent reason. In a moment of lucidity I grabbed the chain and made my way down stepping sideways while holding it.
My embarrassment was short lived because as soon as I was down I looked up and saw several people imitating my technique. It occurred to me that it might have been the purpose of the chain.
My Tuesday excursion was to Cozumel. That was a much shorter bus trip than Chichen-Itza although a much longer boat trip than I had expected.
I made friends with my tour bus seatmate Lydia. Unlike me she was with two companions, one of which was a personal trainer and the other ran a club. Both were athletic looking blondes.
I felt that my companion might have considered herself a third wheel. Her friends did not treat her as such but all three were relieved when I took over the responsibility of keeping her company.
Lydia was a lawyer. She moved quietly like a cat and was very cute with decent size tits. She had long black hair with somewhat pale skin and amazing dark green eyes. Although shorter than her companions she was at least five feet, five inches tall, about six inches shorter than me. She appeared to be in her early thirties as I was.
I was more than happy to keep her company even though it crossed my mind she may be gay since I was sure her friends were a lesbian couple. They wore matching rings. She spent a portion of the bus ride writing in a journal in which she wrote my name after I introduced myself.
She laughed when I described my terror as I inched my way down the steps of the Chichen-Itza pyramid but after I showed her my photos from the top that clearly showed its steepness she admitted she would probably still be waiting for the helicopter. She asked my help in spelling Chichen-Itza for her journal. I told her it didn't matter much since I had seen it spelled more than one way.
Our tour bus dropped us off at the corner of a plaza in Playa del Carmen not too far from the ferry landing. Her friends walking speed was much faster than mine and I was pleased to see that Lydia opted to match my pace instead of theirs. It effectively separated us from them for the rest of the day.
By the time we joined the line on the pier there may have been a hundred people between them and us. Lydia and I were already comfortable with each other so we just hung back instead of moving up to find them. We found two seats together on the ferry but we did not make much of an effort to find her friends.
Lydia and her friends were on their way to Cozumel to sightsee and shop. I was going to snorkel the underwater Chankanaab National Park. It is a beautiful park where the coral reef abuts the beach with crystal clear waters. Lydia was intrigued by my destination and asked me about it. After I finished describing what I hoped to see she clearly wanted to join me, so I asked her to do just that.
She pulled out her cell phone and told her friends that she was making a detour on her schedule. However, she did not invite them to join us. I found that curious but did not comment on it.
I led us down the waterfront street until I found the scooter rental place I had previously contacted. Lydia giggled and said she had never ridden a scooter before. I told her not to worry since it had been only fifteen years since the last time I had.
It turned out OK, as I was a competent driver by the time we went three blocks, (except for the running a stop sign thing), and she was a relaxed rider by the time we left town. She had begun the ride with her hands on my hips but as soon as she was comfortable with my driving and the motion of the scooter she had placed her hands on her knees.
Half way to the park I went over a speed bump a bit faster than I should have and her arms wrapped around my waist. Even though there were no more speed bumps on the way she kept her arms around me. I did enjoy that.
After we made it to the park I rented gear for her and fins for me, I had my own snorkel and mask.
Lydia was wearing a bikini under her t-shirt and shorts. I stopped her from taking off her t-shirt explaining that when you snorkel your back is directly exposed to the sun. Sunburns happen quickly and deeply, and painfully.
What she did was a treat for me. She moved us away from the locker room/showers building to near some sea grape trees and took off her shirt then her bikini top and had me hold it for her. She fumbled with her t-shirt long enough to insure I had a good look at her tits then put the shirt back on.
I said, "Thank you."
She said, "My pleasure."
