JUST A HIPPIE GYPSY

Casa de la Cultura

But we just call it home.

We boarded the bus as one of the last groups of people. That was to become our modus operandi. We took a short bus ride made a lot longer by the amount of people trying to escape the Hotel Zone.

We were driven into the city of Cancun and taken to an auditorium where we joined approximatetly 1,600 other evacuees from the Hotel group RIU. It was in their best interest to keep us all together. I have no idea how many hotels they have in Cancun, but there certainly were a lot of people in both the gym and the LaSalle School across the street.

We arrived too late to be issued a sleeping pallet for the floor! Joe and I did not really mind, thinking that Wilma would blow through and we would resume our vacation. We even thought that maybe we would be offered extra days!

God bless us.

The day was bright and sunny. The wind was still strong, but not enough to stop the couple of thousand tourists from making a beeline to the WalMart on the adjacent street.

We purchased essentials. Sun glasses (ours were sacrificed to the Surf god the day before), bottled water, hair bands, moist towelettes, and a phone card. If I only knew then what I was facing........

On the way out there was a television set turned on CNN in English. We were glued to the screen as the weather came on with news of Wilma. The hurricane was heading towards Cozumel. What he said next is branded into my brain.

"CANCUN IS GOING TO GET HAMMERED"