I Went To A Flea Market In Cancun

I Went To A Flea Market In Cancun

I went to Cancun alone. But – It was for a conference. There were fellow agents there. I even knew some of them. BUT – I went alone. I do many things alone. Travel is one of them. I don’t worry but I also don’t let my guard down. My street smarts come in handy. They have to.

In between classes. I needed to see the hotel zone. Mostly because I hadn’t been to that part of Mexico before. In my day to day work, I recommend this place to others.   I felt I needed to know exactly what experience I was sending people into.

So In between classes and other assigned events. I ventured out into town – 2 times. The first day it was 4 of us. One of the ladies was of Mexican heritage and spoke spanish – of course. The rest of us could at a minimum say “no habla espanol”. So she was our interpreter.

We ended up at a flea market. Why? Because she told the cab driver that we wanted to shop. No – we wanted to go to the hotel zone to see the area.  SHE wanted to shop. He put us out at a flea market. There were other American’s there, but me – I like to stay in the tourist zones in different countries. My military background reminds me that this is the smart thing to do.

Because of the military, I had been to other parts of Mexico before. However, this was a shopping hell to me. As we walked, sales people hollered out for us to “come see, come see. Just look in my shop.” Some even made their way into our personal space.  I was getting tired and hungry. I  didn’t want to look in every single shop. Each time you passed a shop. The very next guy would holler out the same few statements . They also yelled out other things when we didn’t stop.

As we got closer to the exit with only a few bags in their hands, our interpreter (the other agent), thought it was funny to tell me the darkest one of the 4 of us, that I was being called a “chocolate chip cookie” and other chocolate things. My question to her was, is that good or bad. I already knew, but I wanted her interpretation.  And – I was in their space. Let’s be honest, I felt it to be a racial slur. It was time to go. We left. Our entire walk was approximately 35 minutes. 35 minutes too long.

The moral of this story is, I went to a flea market in Cancun. Mexico has been given a bad wrap. Thats understandable. There are some really bad things going on there. But – there are some really bad things going on here too. The key is to be aware of your surroundings and don’t stay anywhere longer than you need to if you are uncomfortable.

But be prepared for the ruff ride if you go to a flea market. I won’t ever ever go back to a flea market – in Cancun.  There is a part 2 to this. Coco Bunga! I liked Coco Bunga. You can read about that here.