JUST A HIPPIE GYPSY

SIX DAYS IN CANCUN - DAY THREE -

There was less tension in the room the second night. Now we knew each other. During the past 24 hours we had really gotten to know each other very intimately! Situations of tremendous stress bring out the good, the bad and the ugly in every person.

We were a very diverse group. Twenty-four personalities randomly thrown together. An Armenian family from California traveling together for the first time and probably the last! The Mama and Papa, son and daughter, daughter-in-law (Sema) and the daughters boyfriend. Two couples from Holland who did not know each other before the disaster. A honeymooning couple from England. Two college students from Switzerland. A mother from England traveling with three teenage children. Jeannie, from Colorado who was separated from her friend at the gym during the evacuation. Her friend was the purported victim of the cigarette smoke! And the remaining Americans, which are Dave, Tom and Loretta, Joe and myself.

A microcosm in group dynamics.

Papa remained in a chair the entire second night keeping on eye on the rising water, ready to alert us if the contaminated water would begin to flood the room. One of the Holland young men was stationed by the door most the night. Our meager pallets of just several blankets served as our beds.

It was dark by 730pm with the rain and wind beginning to howl again. We lit one candle and everyone got quiet and began the long ordeal of making it through the night.

At 1030 there was a loud knocking at the door. Everyone bolted upright and gasped!
"Who is it?" the Armenian son demanded!

"Tido, the Entertainer! I bring you coffee."

We threw open the door and shouted at him, "You scared the hell out of us!" We were now in the grip of a Category 3 hurricane! One thing for certain, the Mexican tourism industry takes their jobs seriously!

It was the longest night I have ever lived through.

Yet, I lived through it.