Online flight reservation

Booked myself a flight from Munich to Cancun with airberlin (902€ return). Not as easy & stress-free an online formality as it should be, requiring an additional 15' phone call to clear an unexpected 40€ seat-reservation surcharge in my bill, despite this being a free service for "topbonus Service Card" members (79€/year) - which I applied for so as to be allowed an extra 32kg of dive luggage free of charge, besides 30kg of check-in and up to 8kg of carry-on, including laptop.

Flight details:

06.03.2012	AB7414	13:05	München	Cancun	18:05
02.04.2012	AB7417	19:40	Cancun	Düsseldorf	12:25+1
03.04.2012	AB6031	14:50	Düsseldorf	München	16:05

PS: A month ago I could have booked direct flights both ways for 965€ return, but today those same flights would have cost me 1435€!

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UPDATE: Having received my "topbonus Service Card" by mail, I dutifully registered my dive bag & lights online as required, only to once again get an extra bill of 150€ despite this being a free service.

UPDATE: Finally got an email from airberlin apologizing for any inconveniences possibly caused and blaming a faulty registration. Supposedly the erroneously charged 40+150€ will be reimbursed.

UPDATE: Looks like both surcharges have been booked back.

Price quotes

It took a month to get all the info I requested via email, but now I have all the quotes needed to organize my next trip to Mexico.

Xibalba Dive Center replied quickly to my enquiry with an acceptable offer: 20 cave dives at 85 USD/dive when doing two a day or 110 USD when only doing one (including guide, transport & doubles filled with nitrox, but excluding cenote entrance fees).

→ Xibalba Dive Center

Xibalba now also has its own hotel, but it being priced over my budget as solo traveler, I tried, tried and tried again to contact Villa Matisse in order to check room availability & prices. Not getting any response whatsoever, I reluctantly googled my way through virtual space to some other decent looking guesthouses, the more affordable and well rated of which would cost me 70 USD/night when staying for at least 3 weeks... a bit too rich for my wallet.

→ Posada Luna del Sur

After several attempts getting connected to Villa Matisse, I finally managed to talk to Señora Lourdes, who promised to write me back, which she did several days later, with a pretty good deal: 2500 Pesos per week incl. breakfast, when staying for nearly a month. Currently, that's only about 140 EUR or 180 USD/week. Thereby bringing me back on track to realize my fifth trip to Tulum. That is, if I can still book an affordable flight from Munich to Cancun.

→ Villa Matisse

Medical checkup

Being over 40 and prone to ear troubles, I decided to have a full medical checkup (75€) before booking my next cave diving trip.

Luckily the doctor gave me the OK sign and associated paperwork after checking my hearing, blood pressure, lung function, heartbeat (electrocardiogram), throat, nose & sinuses (scan).

His advice being to put a drop or two of oil in my ears, half an hour or so before each dive, as preventive action against infections.