Cancun 1984

I got in touch with a friend from Applewood Heights awhile ago. He was also in band and I told him I had a picture of him from our Cancun Trip in 1984. I finally scanned in the picture and he posted it on his Facebook page. After getting a request for more, I found some more pictures and scanned them into an photo album on my Facebook.

The band was pretty large in size with well over 100 musicians. Since we did not really have marching bands in Canada, this was the premier instrumental group at our high school. In addition to instrumental class, there was rehearsal every Monday night. The Cancun trip was my first trip outside Canada after immigrating there in 1977. I vividly remember having to sell steaks for our fundraiser and failing miserably. I think I only sold $50 of meat since Chinese people don't eat a lot of steak.

The trip was a lot of fun, enhanced by a lot of under-aged drinking. Most of us were 16-18 years old which was probably too young to drink in Canada. In Mexico, nobody cared. It was also in the middle of winter so it was good to escape the Great White North for a week.


It wasn't all fun and games. We had to play 3 concerts. This was at a local elementary school.


We also had to play in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel. The Mexican government just started to develop Cancun at the time so there were not many hotels. I think our hotel was next to the Sheraton. On the other side of the Sheraton was a Club Med.


One side trip was to the Chitzen Itza ruins. We chartered a few buses and our driver was driving crazy fast down one lane dirt roads in the Yucatan jungle. I thought Cancun taxis were the worst drivers in the world until I went to Chengdu.


Beach next to our hotel