Honeymoon story part two: 24 hours of terror

Other than the rain we experienced the first few days, everything went well on our honeymoon until I talked Bill into playing pool volleyball so we could meet some people at the resort. It seemed like there was quite an international crowd there (about 1/3 Mexican and a large amount of Canadians but also several people from European countries) and I was eager to mingle. About 10 minutes into the game (Bill was the only one scoring points--the guy can't help but excel in sports) Bill looks over at me all panicky and says, "My wedding ring is gone!" So everyone stops and starts searching the pool for his ring. We looked everywhere and it was not to be found so Bill got the hotel staff to look in the pool filter but they didn't find anything. His ring was gone.

Bill was disappointed and ticked off so I didn't get on his case about it at all, I just told him it would probably turn up eventually and if not then we would just get another one. No big deal. Still he was bummed, so I encouraged him to plan a scuba diving trip for the next day to cheer him up. I recalled that he was short on cash and the last time I tried to use the ATM it was broken so I told him he better find a dive shop that took credit cards or go get some money. All of our cards were locked in the safe in our room so Bill went to go get his card while I sat at the pool and tried not to be sad about the turn of events.

Bill comes back a few minutes later and says the safe won't open and it's just beeping. I had armed the safe and he must have entered the wrong code and now the safe wouldn't open. OK, no big deal, we'll just call the front desk and see what to do. Meanwhile, Bill makes arrangements to dive the next day at 9am. Finally we get the safe open but by then it's time to go to dinner and see the nightly show and we never made it to the ATM.

The next morning we get up early for breakfast but still don't have time to spare to hit the ATM so we scramble out to the rental car but it won't start. No juice. Ooops! Bill left the lights on and the battery is dead. We head back to the lobby to see about a jump start but the hotel won't do it until we get permission from the rental car company. Bill gets resourceful and asks a taxi to jump us and fortunately one of the taxis had jumper cables. He tipped the driver with our last $5 after he got the car started and ran inside to find me (I was waiting in the lobby like a good little woman).

He quickly called the dive shop to see if they would wait (yes they would) and we ran out to the car together but guess what? The car won't start again. And the taxi driver is gone. And we have no cash. So we go back to the lobby and he cancels his morning dive and tells me to wait while he goes to get some cash. Off he runs to the ATM where the US to peso conversion throws him for a loop. Bill has a bachelor's degree in finance and he's getting an MBA but that morning he could not figure out the 11 to 1 conversion rate so after getting 1,500 pesos out he tried to withdraw 10,000 pesos and the machine says "over daily limit" so he entered 5,000 pesos and the machine got sick of him and ate his card. The same card we used to pay for the hotel and rental car. Or planned to use to pay for everything.

Now why my new husband went to Mexico with $30 in his pocket and only one card I cannot tell you. I did ask him to leave his wallet at home but that doesn't mean just leave everything else. So we lived on 1,500 pesos for the rest of the week (no shopping for me) and I got to run back to the room for my credit cards to pay for his afternoon dive. We are husband and wife after all ;) Meanwhile, Bill got the car jumped again (that taxi driver made $10 fast) and off we went to Akumal for Bill to dive.

So to recap, in less than 24 hours Bill managed to:
1. lose his wedding ring on his honeymoon
2. jam the safe with all of our money in it
3. kill the rental car battery (twice)
4. have his only card eaten by an ATM machine

I kept it together pretty well through all this but I started to wonder... The drama had to be over, right? Apparently Bill thought I looked a little too relaxed so the next day he took off with a Canadian guy we just met and went cave diving and was two 1/2 hours late getting back to the hotel where his wife was getting increasingly panicky. You can lose your ring, your credit card, and kill the rental car but YOU BETTER NOT BE LATE FOR DINNER!

I don't know friends, I might need a do-over on this honeymoon thing. I wonder if there are any vacancies at Xcaret next week, it's pretty cold here in Oregon! Up next: Bill makes me laugh, therefore, he is allowed to come home with me from our honeymoon.