I had a little bit too much money in my pocket walking around in Mexico.
The band is playing the Sandy Beaches Music Cruise, stopping in Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico along the way.
In Costa Maya, we did a cool excursion to the Mayan Ruins about an hour away from our port. It was interesting but, most importantly, my first time touching foreign land.
I was excited for the next day in Cozumel. It’s where my parents got married and I hoped to walk on the sand they walked on nearly 27 years ago.
Instead of walking on sand, I ended up face-first on a Mexican road.
Our group mostly split up, so I was off on my own. Scooter rentals were cheap — $35 to go anywhere I wanted on this beautiful Mexican island felt like a good deal.
There were a couple of insurance options I could’ve chosen in case anything happened, but I wasn’t about putting a $400 deposit down with these hustlers trying to make a come-up off Americans.
I risked it, despite having zero experience riding a scooter. I took the same risk with this job and it’s worked out just fine up to this point.
Not long after taking the reigns of this scooter, I forgot where the brake was.
I tried to take a corner and ended up skidding down Mexican asphalt.
My knee, elbow, and shorts were scraped up pretty good — but I got hurt way worse riding my bike as a kid.
I was more concerned about the scratched-up paint on the scooter.
Here I was, less than 10 minutes into my ride, and I knew the $35 wasn’t all I was going to cough up for this thing.
I drove another hour or so around the island, taking in this little piece of Mexico I was getting to see. I tried to forget that my check had yet to come.
I arrived back at the scooter shop looking sorrow, hoping for a little bit of sympathy. They were nice, as they are taught to be.
My way-too-fat wallet quickly became a five-dollar bill and a couple of ones.
I headed back to the ship down another $350 and a mouthful of humble pie.
A few days later, I’ve still got a sore shoulder. But I am happy to have escaped something worse.