The most important thing to pack when going on holiday is a sense of humor. Yesterday we began our road trip from Cancun to Coba which should have been a 2-hour 10-minute drive. We opted for the scenic route meant to be shorter than the bumper-to-bumper highway down the coast past Tulum. Soon out of the city, we were on two lane rural roads with hardly another car in sight. 1.9 kilometers from the turn-off to Coba, traffic came to a halt. Stopping a few motorcycles who passed by in the other direction, we got the news that an eight-wheeler truck had jack-knifed across both lanes up ahead, with thick jungle on either side of the shoulder-less road. Estimated time for opening even one lane was 4 hours. I asked several cars who were turning around if there was another route to Coba and the only answer was returning to where we started. A very kind Cancun local in the car behind us advised that we wait because we were actually quite close to our destination.
Coba is an off the beaten path Mayan archeological site, where we had pre-paid our charming rustic hotel. So, we waited. The temperature was 92+f (32c) with the sun blazing down on us. We would inch forward every time a car ahead of us would decide to turn around, staying in the shade of a giant truck in front of us about a city block long. Every so often we would check in with Alex in the car behind us to see if he had any news. Did I mention we had no cell service and our phones were low on battery? We met his wife, his mom and dad, and Suzie their pet chihuahua, who was wearing 4 little high-top Converse sneakers with red socks on her tiny little feet. We shared snacks, smiling at the kindness of strangers.
Two and a half hours after we came to our stand-still, the traffic began to move. Forty-five minutes later we arrived at our jungle destination, with our senses of humor still intact. This morning, a new day in a new month, with the roosters crowing in the distance and the jungle noises to meditate with, I feel confident our next adventures will keep us looking on the bright side of whatever we encounter.