The abrupt change from the air-conditioned bus my wife and I had been cradled in for the past 14 hours overnight from Oaxaca to the dripping heat of late morning Cancun was murder. Ceiling fans roaring mercilessly in the compact main bus terminal provided some relief. We set to work straddling our bags in front of a pay phone and started dropping coins in a greedy slot. No answer to the first number. The second was no longer in service. The third was now a residential number. The fourth hotel we called from our recommended list no longer existed. It had closed nearly a year earlier.

How could that be? I