Evening Kayak in the Jungle during our Honeymoon
To the family from Belize who gave a helping hand to these honeymooners, thank you. I truly hope this message gets back to you, because I could not thank you enough during the brief moment our paths crossed.
Mike and I decided we wanted to be in a remote location where distractions such as cellphones and TVs would not be an issue, after researching and searching many places we decided to stay at the Explorean Kohunlich near Chetumal, Mexico. This remote location was in the Jungle of the Yucatan Peninsula about 5 hours south of Cancun, not too far from the border of Belize.
After landing in Cancun and being on cloud 9 from the weekend’s festivities, we were ready to get our honeymoon started! Cancun airport was your typical tourist attraction, similar to getting off a cruise ship – drinks and people where there to welcome you to Mexico, with the natives ushering you along the way to get you to where you were going. Caught up in all the commotion and eager to get on the road to our resort, we bypassed many things and went straight to our rental car – missing out on the opportunity to exchange American dollars for pesos.
Still not realizing our mistake, we hit the road to start our adventure. Not too far south of Cancun we stopped for a bite to eat, we used our credit card, enjoyed our food and off we went. We knew our credit card would be okay outside of the US and so far so good, within the first couple of hours we used it twice without any issues, so we continued on our adventure, excited to be on this journey as husband and wife.
4 hours later, right outside the city of Chetumal, we were getting eager to see the resort and make it to our final destination, but before heading too far into the jungle and off the main path, we decided to stop for gas. Not thinking twice about where we were and our lack of pesos we simply told the gas attendant to fill up our tank. As we attempted to pay, fear set in – our credit card was not going through and we didn’t have enough cash to pay for the full tank – we were $15 US dollars short. Staying relatively calm in the beginning we started to barter (the best we could with the little Spanish I know) as a way to get out of our situation.
After much back and forth, and offering up Mike’s expensive watch for just the difference, we were at a lost of what to do next. The gas attendant told Mike to leave me at the gas station and drive to the next city to use the ATM at the bank… as you can imagine, no way were we going to split up in a foreign country – especially without a car or a phone! Urging us to talk to the manager as there was nothing the gas attendant could do, we started our plea all over again trying to reason with the manager. After being in this situation for about 45 minutes, Mike and I were both wearing thin. As we were trying to let the manager know about our situation, a lady from Belize appears out of nowhere. Literally nowhere – I have no idea where she came from, how much of the conversation she heard, but it was like she all of sudden just appeared, right there at the very moment we needed her the most.
Overhearing our conversation, she interrupts and says “Excuse me, am I understanding you correctly? Are you short money to pay for gas?” Completely shocked by someone who could speak fluent English, I said “yes, we are $15 short and our cards are not working here.” Without even hesitating or missing a beat, she simply said, “do you mind if I pay the difference?” I was and still am floored by this comment, at that very moment I was overwhelmed by Gods answer to my prayer that I started to cry. This woman came out of nowhere, just like an angel and answered my prayers.
As if that wasn’t enough she then walked over to Mike and I to talk to us a bit more, after realizing we were on our honeymoon and not wanting us to be in this situation again, she offered to give us 500 pesos. This was beyond generous and I didn’t want to accept the money. She insisted we take it and then gave us “extra” US cash they had from their vacation that they were heading back from. Not knowing at the time how much she handed me, I took the money sobbing because of her unbelievable generosity. I just couldn’t believe someone could be so kind to complete and utter strangers. Little did we know, she handed us $50o US dollars on top of the $500 pesos and the $15 US dollars for gas. Before this kind lady was able to explain our situation to her husband I was hugging this man tears running down my face thanking him and his family for their generosity.
If by some miracle this post makes it to the family in Belize, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness. I still cry today, 4 months later when I share this story, because you truly where an angel and God’s presence was so strong in that moment.
At the time, this was such a scary situation to be in, but I am happy God gave me the opportunity to truly see him at work by sending an angel our way to save our honeymoon. And to that angel – thank you.
