South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)

Back from Mexico and I am both greatly relaxed and greatly perplexed at the same time. I spent my week at a 5 star resort in the Riviera Maya, visited the ruins in Chitchin Itza, and had a wonderful time snorkeling with fish in Xel-Ha. Although I wish, they would let you know beforehand that the lake contains Barracudas. The reply I got when I asked, aren’t they dangerous? Was “only if you try to touch them”. Yet here we are swimming in this lake trying to touch all the fish. That was the first thing that had me perplexed. The next was that I was paying a hefty amount of money to stay at this resort in Riviera Maya and I could not find wireless internet anywhere. Ok I understand I am a spoiled American businessman who is used to the fact that most upscale hotels offer wireless internet in the rooms (or the lobby areas at the very least). However, wireless internet was the least of my problems how about no internet? No wireless internet, no in-room internet, and an Internet café that you cannot seem to purchase any time at the computers. Do not get me wrong I was not intending on spending my week at my laptop. In fact, I looked forward to a week away from writing. But I had confirmations and reservations that I needed to check. Since I bought a new laptop before going to Vegas, it doesn’t contain all my Outlook email. I reasoned on the fact that I have the Sonic Wall device with the global VPN to connect to my home network so it didn’t matter. Well it matters when you cannot be connected to your network. It amazes me that in this global economy in a world that has been made remarkably smaller thanks to technology. Having little or no connectivity in a place that was not remote by any stretch of the imagination is perplexing. Riviera Maya is only 25 minutes south of Cancun; the room had cable and telephone (so I’m thinking DSL, Cable modem, something). Well I survived the week and had to rely on some old-fashioned methodology (telephone) to get the confirmations and reservations straight. All and all though I would imagine if we are going to continue to expand in areas of technology, we had better start getting everyone on board. Hoover promised a chicken in every pot, Gates envisioned a computer on every desktop and in every home. I call for Internet (particularly wireless) connectivity everywhere. I would take comfort in knowing I can be connected whenever I want. Glad to be back and I have some great new tools to talk about, once the jetlag wars off. I know it’s been three days perhaps it’s not jetlag, perhaps it is the Hurricanes (not the weather system , the drink) by the pool all week.