playa del carmen

its 4:40 am i'm sitting in bed in playa del carmen, there's no power in the hotel, no a/c, no fan, so its sweaty hot, and the dance club next door has not shown any sign of stopping for the nite.  i can't remember being this miserable since i've left.  andy is sleeping peacefully, oblivious to everything, as a good traveler should be doing.

i went downstairs to find out what was going on and found an older woman working the nite crew, unable to answer any questions, such as 'why is it hotter than hell in my room?' and 'where are the free earplugs?'  she went pseudo zen on me and asked me to calm down (i asked all my questions in an amazingly cool voice, and told her how much this hotel sucked with a smile, i'm sure she missed that though since there are no lights), and she further told me that i should look at this as an opportunity to learn about myself.  ok cool so i am fucking miserable when we pay for a nice room and the a/c doesn't work and the bar next door keeps me up all nite.  i knew that.  that's essentially why i'm in a nice room, because i knew these things a long long time ago.  so i learned that i haven't changed.

i need to figure out what the club's schedule is and maybe this is just the saturday nite all-nite-long thing, and they'll fix the power issue and all will be fine in this hotel.  that's my best case scenario, which i'm hoping for, since i don't want to find another hotel and move tomorrow, a waste of an entire day.  and i've been looking forward to doing yoga here, i haven't been to yoga in a week and i can feel it.  i'm beginning to think that yoga is essential for travelling, all the aches and pains need to be worked out.  wouldn't it be just perfect if this crazy bitch from downstairs is the yoga instructor?  i can just imagine that.  great.

but i need to go back to this encounter tonite, it really makes me mad.  i'm wandering around the hotel by the light of my cell phone, in my underwear, whispering so i don't wake up anyone else to share my misery, and i get told to calm down.  this makes me ridiculously fucking mad.  in fact i had to ask 3 times what she was saying because i couldn't grasp the idea that she was telling me to calm down.  but its also a sign that she's had to deal with very angry guests before, which is not good for this hotel.  maybe that's why they chose their zen master for the nite crew, no one else could handle all the 5am complaints.

what i wanted to write about was the awesome time that pam and i had on isla mujeres, that andy stopped by and we saw more whale sharks, that we moved to playa del carmen for scuba diving and got the most awesomely bad beach massages, and everything is super chill.  but i think i have to save that for another time.  i haven't been downstairs in an hour and i'm going to calmly make that woman wish tonite was her nite off.

the calmest picture i could find

isla mujeres

isla mujeres is a pretty nice place.  i could definitely hang out here for a couple weeks, have some beers, work on my spanish.

the ferry from cancun is about 30 minutes and leaves you at the main dock on the north side of isla.  suddenly you are surrounded by bars, restaurants, and hundreds of people hawking the same things that they sell in every part of mexico, just with a different city name.  everyone rides golf carts or mopeds, with a few cars here and there.  

the water is that perfect blue color of the caribbean postcards, and wow is it hot.  

pam and i walked with our luggage about 5 blocks to hotel posada del mar, right across the street from the beach.  its a pretty decent place, wifi and air conditioning, those are the only must-haves lately for places to stay.  there's a pool with greenish cloudy water and a bar with a pool table.  there's a super annoying group of 'young adults' here but the air conditioner in the room is so loud that we can't hear anything else.  all good.

most people take the ferry here for a day visit so its really only crowded from 9am to sunset.  i went running this morning on the beach and it was deserted, just some guys out setting up the rental chairs and umbrellas and some women raking the garbage from the sand.  no stores were open, no one pestering me to buy things that i've seen every day for the past 7 weeks.  it was so nice.  by the time i was done swimming the first ferry was arriving, and by breakfast all the stalls were set up and the island was in full swing.  the main street gets crazy busy for several hours, then as the tourists get too sunburned and drunk it slowly subsides back to the relatively few people staying here.

the main part of the island is the north shore, about 7 streets of stores, restaurants, laundromats and hotels.  its very touristy but is quite charming as well.  i would love it more if i could walk 5 feet without someone trying to get me to go into their store or eat at their cafe.  in sayulita the most bold salespeople were roving the beach, here its the people standing in front of their stores.  please, ladies, pass inside to the air conditioning and look at my jewelry.  ladies, please look at my menu (as it is shoved into my face) and eat here.  you need a golf cart, please come this way.  book your whale shark trip with me, the best boat on the isla.  omg please stop already.  

but i was describing geography.  so north shore is where all the action is.  there's a thin strip of land going south, then a small point at the south shore with a lighthouse and some apparently unimpressive mayan ruins.  pam and i are going to investigate the south shore tomorrow, by way of golf cart.  i think the whole island is about 4 miles long.  if i had been running with any regularity i could run there and back.  

yesterday we went to swim with whale sharks.  i think this fits somewhere in my top 10 things i've ever done.  maybe.  there should be a list of things i've done versus things i've accomplished, so in a future post i'll figure that out.  but whatever, it was amazing.  we were picked up at our hotel by willy, a local guide/salesman/etc, along with a woman who has been coming here for years and her granddaughter.  this woman was pretty funny, she's about 65, smokes constantly, acts how she wants and doesn't care what anyone thinks, and knows everyone that you'd need to know here.  she was a great person to meet.  i've forgotten her name several times now.  

it was just the four of us on the boat, plus willy and 2 boat crew.  one crew has to be in the water with tourists at all times, and only 2 tourists per boat can swim with the sharks at a time.  we had to wear the awful orange life vests from the moment we got on the boat, and had to swim with them as well, which made it hard to get any good underwater pictures.  

we motored about an hour and a half northeast and could see about a dozen other boats converging in the same general area.  the first boat to spot sharks radios the coordinates.  the ride was a little bumpy but pam and i learned all the spanish snorkeling and aquatic life words we needed.  then suddenly in the middle of nowhere there are all these shark fins.  time to swim!  

i don't even know how to describe the day.  i was able to swim at the same speed as the sharks, even with my giant floaty vest, so i just kicked and watched these giant sea monsters swimming in circles, mouths opening and closing as they fed.  i spent by far the most time in the water, probably about an hour, taking pictures and videos and just being amazed.  i got too close a few times and got smacked with the fins, and even that was cool.  

i need to describe this better but a spanish version of napoleon dynamite is on and its very distracting.  

after we swam we came back to isla and snorkeled at a reef, beautiful but not too exciting, then we dropped anchor near a beach and drank beer and ate ceviche that the crew had made while we snorkeled.  yum.  they also had sandwiches with some sort of mystery meat (which i ate, too).  by this time willy was back to life, i didn't realize it until the way home but he was sleeping in the back of the boat, and had been barfing over the side all morning.  tequila.  i barely got out of the water so never noticed.  

otherwise, pam and i have been hanging at the beach and pool, reading, practicing spanish, finding the cheap mexican food (which you have to search for here), and pretty much having a chill few days.  another place on the 'i'd come back' list.

btw, happy national tequila day.

puerto vallarta and cancun

pam is here and we spent 3 days together in sayulita, but it was time to go.  i would recommend sayulita to anyone who wants a nice beach getaway, maybe not in july, but make sure you have air conditioning if that's when you go.  holy crap i have never felt heat like that before, humid, no breeze, full on mexican sun.  hot.  good cheap family food (if you stay away from the restaurants in the plaza), plenty of tequila, lots of friendly mexicans to talk to.

we walked to the bus stop (at noon, dripping sweat) and caught a bus to puerto vallarta about an hour-ish south.  the driver was blaring mariachi music and the front doors and all the windows were open for some air (which didn't help much).  we got off at the end of the line and found a cab to get to our hotel.  all in all it was a pretty pleasant trip.

pam's birthday dinner was at a very americanized mexican restaurant (which mostly means that it cost more than the places i've been eating at for the past several weeks), but there were cute mexican guys bringing her margaritas so it was worth it.  afterwards we had mojitos at a rooftop bar since all the poolhalls were 'muy peligroso' for us gringo chicas, according to everyone we asked.

the next morning we got a cab to the airport and headed to cancun.  this is the first airport that i've been to where they search all of the checked bags before they give you your boarding pass.  i call my backpack my turtle shell because its basically my traveling house, and i have to sit on it to zip it, so you can imagine how awful it was to have a woman pulling out all of my belongings for the entire airport to see.  her main concern seemed to be a bottle of tequila that i have wrapped up in paper, and she wasn't satisfied until she pulled it all apart to verify its contents.  and then she takes my dresses that she's mauled and wraps the bottle in those.  really.

aside from the pilot obviously doing his first solo flight it was a good trip (i still can't believe i didn't crack a tooth on landing).  back to mexico city (aaaagh), then run through the airport for the next flight.  regardless of what they say on planes, having your electronics turned on cannot affect much, no one payed any attention to the announcements and no one tried to enforce them.  people were running to the bathroom during takeoff, rummaging through the overhead bins during landing, just sorta doing whatever they felt like whenever they wanted.  but there was free booze for everyone for some reason (i had just told pam that i needed a day off of drinking, don't think i've taken a day off for a few weeks, but free booze is not the day to quit drinking).

total travel time was about 6 hours, including taxi and layover, not too bad.  but when we got to cancun and the next bus with seats wasn't for another hour we decided to take a taxi to our hotel, way too hot to sit outside the airport, then in a bus for another hour or so, and then a taxi.

our driver tried to take us to an obviously abandoned building with a giant sun on the door, he was sure this was hotel del sol.  eventually we found it.  when we were planning for cancun we decided to stay out of the hotel district, mostly because the only hotels with availability were way out of our budget.  so we picked one that was on the beach, just further north.  lonely planet didn't mention that it was cheap and on the beach because it was in front of the docks and you can't get in the water.  or even walk along the beach.  so our first nite was spent wandering a short distance, realizing that there are no bars or restaurants anywhere nearby, and being too tired to get a taxi back to town we bought chips and salsa and beer at the oxxo (7-11ish) and ate while watching awesomely bad mexican tv.

a disappointing first day in cancun when we figured out exactly where we were, as opposed to where we wanted to be.  so today we took a taxi to playa linda in the hotel district.  we walked through a resort to the beach and found that all the resorts have large private areas and no bars or chairs for us regular people.  we walked until we found a hotel bar close to the water and that's where we spent our day, drinking on the beach.

i can't say that i'm impressed with cancun, i'll probably never come back here.  the water was pretty but not for swimming any distance, full of floaty sea gunk, and not many fish to look at.  there are so many boats and jet skis that all the swimming areas are roped off and they're pretty small.  a good place to sit on the beach and drink for a day and that's about it.

feeling pretty pleased with ourselves we decided to take a city bus to cancun city.  as we walk on the driver asks if we're lost (maybe we are the first gringos to take a city bus here?).  an airconditioned bus with a giant screen playing music videos, packed with working class mexicans and 2 white chicks.  good stuff.

i imagined that central cancun would be a tourist area (i'm possibly the worst travel researcher ever) and i was far from correct.  but it was way closer to the mexico that i've come to know than the tourist crap we've had for the past 2 days.  we went to the mall for air conditioning and water, then wandered the streets looking for food.  it was a mix of mexico city and san miguel, traffic, garbage, every type of store imaginable, and also tiny family run restaurants.

we stopped at a taco stand and failed at conversation with a super hot mexican guy at our table.  and being who i am, i made pam come with me to find more food, but we found a part of cancun where we didn't want to be.  it worked out, and we found a great place with a full meal and a drink for 30 pesos each.  after we had been paying 45 pesos per beer all day.  stupid hotels.

so today was a good day.  we saw the beaches, we saw the city, we ate at 2 great local places, we drank (and are currently drinking) lots of beer.  we spoke lots of spanish.

tomorrow we get on the ferry for isla mujeres (island of women) about a half hour east of cancun in the caribbean sea.  we have no plans after that, but booked a hotel with a pool table, so no plans necessary for the moment.  we're going to swim with whale sharks!  and visit a turtle farm.  and continue to not take days off drinking.

in case of ditching.  nice.

bus-o-phobia

this is the start of my 7th week on the road and i can't say that i've learned any new skills.  i'm still a shitty planner and get lost wherever i go.  i don't know that i expected that to change but i was hopeful.

i've always been a bit afraid of public transportation.  i remember my first time taking a rapid and bus across town (cleveland) by myself, a freshman in high school, i got completely lost and ended up getting home hours after i was expected.  this was before cell phones and my mom was worried sick and i was probably in tears.  i simply wasn't capable of figuring out how to get where i needed to go, even with a schedule and map.  that experience kept me from learning how its supposed to work because the next time i tried the bus system was in seattle, about 15 years later.  i got an extra christmas job at barnes and noble and didn't want to drive downtown and pay $15 to park.  i remember stressing out every night thinking that i was going to miss my stop, not like it would matter so much since they stopped on almost every corner.  but i didn't ever seem to get the hang of it.

there were a few times on kauai that i considered taking the bus when gas prices got ridiculous, i scouted out the stops, got a schedule, was ready.  but in the end i just couldn't work up the courage to try.  and to anyone familiar with kauai you'll understand how ridiculous that is, there's only one road.  its not possible to get lost.

so now that i'm in mexico its that same fear multiplied by a million.  each bus has about 7 names written in chalk on the window, and the bus stops are just a bench in the middle of nowhere with no signs.

i found out where the bus stop was and walked there to meet pam today.  i can't describe how envious i was that she was able to fly to puerto vallarta, find a bus and get to sayulita.  it doesn't seem like such a hard task but i didn't do it.  i paid about 10 times as much for a taxi here, and it took almost the same amount of time.  public transportation is a skill that i need to learn.

i can pretty much hear everyone laughing at me, and yes, i think there is good cause.  really, who can't get on a bus and go somewhere?  and if i get lost?  its not like i'm going to be late for something.  but still, i can't force myself to hop on a bus.

i did ride the cross country buses, though, but i think that's different.  that's more in line with catching a flight, but slightly easier since there's no security.  my longest so far has been 9 hours, from mazatlan to puerto vallarta.  the other was san miguel to mexico city, only 3 hours.  but both times i was outrageously nervous and got there well before i had to.  in mazatlan i was so early that i started worrying that i missed my bus.

but getting down to the root of this transportation anxiety issue seems necessary.  there's no need to worry about getting lost since i have no real plans, so that can't be it.  i haven't had any bad experiences with fellow riders (unless you count the homeless guys in seattle that smelled like piss) so that's not it.  i've never missed a flight in my life, and can count on one hand the times i've been late for work (but those were only due to severe hangovers, so i don't think they count), but even if i was late and missed my plane or bus it wouldn't be the end of the world (again, doesn't matter if i'm late for nothing to do).  so maybe i just need to fess up to the fact that i worry for the sake of worrying?  is that possible?  and all this time i mistakenly thought i was pretty laid back.

according to google the fear of public transportation is incorporated into agoraphobia.  aren't those people shut-ins?

with pam's help i will ride the bus to puerto vallarta when we leave.  and i'm sure it'll be no big deal.  i mean really, i've crossed the kaiwi channel on a 1man, and stand up paddled the napali coast.  how can i be afraid to sit on a bus?

i hate you.

a week in sayulita

it occurred to me today that i've been here for a week already.  and i don't really have any plans in the works.  and that seems pretty ok.

my days have fallen into a nice pattern here.  i get up at about 8am and walk across town to yoga at hotelito los sueños (the first hotel i stayed at here).  they have a nice yoga space on the 3rd floor terrace of the hotel under a palapa (i keep forgetting to take a picture, its exactly what you'd think of doing yoga under in mexico).  its usually me and eric, then whoever else is at the hotel.  i'm not sure what type of yoga it is but after about an hour and a half i'm super relaxed and stretchy and ready for the day.  not that sleeping late doesn't super relax me but yoga first thing in the morning is awesome.

my next stop is on the opposite side of the hotel terrace at their coffee bar.  all you can drink for 15 pesos.  and free wifi.  does a morning get better than this?

at about 11:15 i start wandering towards my hotel (bungalows aurinko).  i stop at the smoothie shop for a surfer's brunch (lots of fruits and oatmeal) and chat with the owners, a mexican girl and english guy.

and now its hella hot out and time for some a/c at my place.  i like to hide from about noon to 3, time to work on my spanish, play online, make lunch, whatever.  i bought a spanish copy of 'harry potter and the sorcerer's stone' that i've been copying and translating, as per enrique's instructions.  ok maybe he wouldn't like my choice of book but he thought it very important that i copy spanish text so i can better understand sentence structure and get new words.  its pretty slow going as i have to look up half the words.  then i forget them and have to look them up again the next day.  can't say i've learned much since school ended 3 weeks ago.

3 o'clock is beach time, its still way fucking hotter than i can describe but its starting to become bearable.  i grab a paddleboard from the cute mexican guys by the water and spend about an hour catching some small waves or paddling to the beaches further down.  next is swim time, the water is much clearer here than mazatlan, although its still pretty dark in comparison to waiohai.  the water is also really warm but if i swim out far enough out it gets cool, the trade off being that now its scary dark and i'm far away from the crowd.  i don't think anyone worries about sharks here but i don't want to ask.  this is the ocean, of course there are sharks somewhere nearby.

back to the a/c for a shower, a cocktail (did you know you can buy tequila cocktails in a can?), and a nap.  maybe get some groceries across the street.  and somewhere around sunset i walk around town, see who's out, and find a new place for dinner.  the last stop is at the cake lady's stand, a dangerous thing to have a block from my place.

there are a few things that change my schedule.  if there are waves i'll grab a board and paddle out but its been pretty flat the past few days.  if i see someone fun on the beach then nap time gets replaced with drinking under an umbrella.  and i've spent 2 days on darrin's boat (and yes, the second trip will need a post entirely of its own).  but i can't complain about life here.  i don't think i could find anything to complain about.

pam will be here monday to visit, i'm very excited.  there probably will be alot more wandering around town and drinking.  and maybe a night out in puerto vallarta.  i was gonna say that we're gonna go find some trouble to get into but this is mexico, i'm not sure its possible to get in trouble.

beach service.  what a great thing.

yelapa

i'm not even sure how to describe my boat trip to yelapa yesterday.  i have a decent amount of experience on commercial boat trips and private boats, but nothing really prepared me for darrin's boat in mexico.

darrin and his dogs picked me up in his little red volkswagon beetle at 8:30 am.  we drove to the la cruz marina about 20 minutes away, and i had coffee with some of his other guests while the crew was getting the boat ready.

the sayula 1 is a trimaran, about 25 years old, and its about what you'd expect for a boat company, cushions, trampolines, maybe not in as good repair as it used to be.  i asked when it was drydocked last and darrin just laughed.  this is mexico, after all.

our group was an interesting mix of gay men and couples from texas smoking cigars.  one of the guys from texas told me that he paid extra so he could control who else goes on the boat, and he wasn't particularly happy with the speedos.  i thought all the people on the trip were super fun.

usually the boat goes to the islands but today was more of an unusual trip to yelapa, a tiny town on the south west (?) side of puerto vallarta which has no roads or cars, and you have to take a boat to get there.  the crew made us drinks with either rum or tequila and we headed out at about 4 knots.  pretty slow trip across the bay, and it took us at least a couple hours, with a couple swim stops on the way, and some dolphins.  drinking the whole time.

when we finally arrived at yelapa we got in a water taxi and went for lunch on the beach.  there were  dozens of beach chairs and about 4 people, plus us.  more drinks and some pretty good food.  darrin's dogs were running on the beach, we were drinking, and the crew brings some pretty fat joints if anyone wants to smoke.  this is definitely the first cruise i've been on where the captains and crew are drinking and smoking as much as, or more than, the passengers.

our next stop is the waterfall at the top of the town and we have to walk up these narrow cobblestone streets, full on sun, everyone pretty messed up.  two of our group took horses because they couldn't/didn't want to walk all the way, it was definitely a challenge in both our condition and wearing flip flops.  we stopped for a water break about half way, i don't think darrin told anyone exactly where we were going or how long it would take.  i didn't think it was so bad but advance knowledge would have helped.  the waterfall was amazing, as all of them are, and the best part was the cold water that we could swim in for a while.  we hung out for about half an hour then we were on our way back down.

we took up a collection for more booze for the boat, then again for the water taxi to take us back, then we put up the sails and made pretty good time back to port.  a storm rolled in and the last 20 minutes was in a downpour, although no one really cared at that point.

as we were getting off darrin asked us to pay his crew, he didn't want to deal with money.  he told me a couple times that he is looking for someone to run his business, and i could definitely see that he needs help.  money collection would seem to be an important part of running a business, and some people made arrangements to meet one of the guys the next day to pay.  the accounting side of me cringed at this.  but again, this is mexico.

by the time the taxi got me back to sayulita it had been a 12 hour day, definitely not expected.  it was super fun, i made some new friends, and got to see an interesting village that i would not have seen otherwise.  i haven't heard from darrin today so i'm hoping that he and the dogs made it home safely.

yelapa

sayulita

i've been in sayulita for 2 full days and its top on the list so far.

this is a super friendly place, very much like kauai but way hotter.  i've had cocktails with a family from california, a canadian ex-pat, a vacationing mexican family, and a local boat guy.  i've gotten a foot massage on the beach and someone bought me a pot donut.  can it get better?

i went to yoga this morning at the hotel (which i'm moving out of tomorrow, getting a place with a kitchen!) and i met 4 awesome people from tampico.  we started chatting at the smoothie bar and decided to trade surf lessons for spanish lessons.  the hotel has a couple soft tops and we spent a couple hours playing in the waves.  i don't think i'm a great surf instructor, and my spanish class in san miguel left me completely unprepared for any surf jargon.  big fail.  but since they all spoke english it wasn't actually a problem.  i did take the board out to the break but couldn't really compete with the 10 and 11 foot boards out there, and didn't want to snake any waves from the guys with the 'mexican surf mafia' logos, so i caught a couple small ones, said hola to everyone.  good size waves for me and i'm excited to rent a real board tomorrow.

when i got back on the beach there was a guy giving a foot massage to the mother of the family i was with. i was a bit confused about who he was, thought that maybe he was related but no.  so when i didn't want some strange mexican guy rubbing my feet they told me to sit back and relax and don't worry about it.  but apparently he's a roving foot massager, i'm not sure how he gets paid since he seems to just flirt with girls up and down the beach and start rubbing their feet.  was kinda weird.  especially when he stuck my toe in his mouth.  that was exceptionally weird.  but i have a picture.

after some much needed a/c in my room i met darrin at a bar for some beers.  he owns the sayula1, a boat that does trips similar to capt andys.  i saw his website on lonely planet and emailed about a snorkel trip.  he wasn't going out but invited me for a drink and tell me about his trips.  beers, tequilas, a walking tour of sayulita, great guy.  and like all the other boat guys i know, has been to some fantastic places and has alot of good stories.  tuesday we're going to yalapa, seems kinda like a napali coast type place where you can't drive there but has amazing caves and waterfalls and scenery.  its always nice to meet boat guys.

technically sayulita is one hour different from puerto vallarta, but since everyone who has ever come here has missed their plane, bus, school, or appointments, the local government decreed that there was no time change.  my iphone disagrees so i haven't been quite sure what time it is.  and since the dawn of the iphone era, there have been alot of problems with people that have trips scheduled.

this town is basically 3 streets with a central square (and i still got turned around finding my hotel). there aren't any dangerous places that i can stumble into, and all of the action takes place either on the beach or in the bars around the square.  i think i should be able to find my way around in a day or 2.

perhaps i'll stay here for a couple weeks.  it'll be nice to take some time in one place again, unpack my stuff, maybe do some laundry.  there's a new paddle board store and i can rent a board and see what's around the corner.  maybe get back into shape.  maybe not.  the beach is hella hot but every restaurant has umbrellas and chairs and beach service right by the water.  sayulita is already on the list of places to visit again.  and its very very close to tequila country.  a day trip?  i think so.

he's from detroit.

mazatlan...pphhhffttt.

only 3 days here and i bought a bus ticket out.  so this update is for the 2 people who told me not to come here, but i did anyway :)

let's go back to my arrival first.  i was looking for a taxi and was told that there were none, if i didn't already have transportation i had to go with these people and sign up for a timeshare presentation.  that sucked, what a scam.  they really did have a monopoly on the taxis, there weren't any.  so i sign up and still have to pay an outrageous amount for the taxi, which they said i'd be reimbursed for at the tour, and also i'd get gifts and such, like a boat ride.  i get in the taxi for the 20 minute trip and the guy takes me all the way to the opposite side of town, then turns around and drives back, taking over an hour.  i was pretty ticked off.

my first day here was pretty good, except the water is so brown that i couldn't see past my fingertips while swimming, kinda scary.  every time i'd swim at waiohai i'd make keith turn around if i couldn't see at least 20 feet so you can imagine how freaked out i was.  fish would jump next to me, and these gigantic birds swoop down and dive, even more freaky.  yesterday i was swimming and a bait ball comes straight at me, a huge school jumping in and out of the water, i'm out by myself, and what the hell is chasing them?!  they went right around/through me and i don't think i've ever swum faster in my life to get to shore.

so i'm walking up the beach to get my towel and a man approaches with a tupperware of water and a big blue jellyfish.  i'd noticed a couple on the beach earlier.  he tells me that the full moon and high tide and a storm in the south means there will be lots of jellyfish in the water and i shouldn't swim for the next few days.  great.  not like i'd be able to see them anyway, i'd just get wrapped up in the 3 foot long tentacle.  ok, no swimming.

this morning is my timeshare appointment, and i decide to go because they're going to pick me up and take me to the far end of mazatlan, which i haven't been to yet.  i get there and the woman sits me down by myself for breakfast, and tells me that i need to lie about what hotel i'm staying at or she won't get her credit.  fine, whatever.  about 20 minutes later a man takes me to the presentation room to ask me a few questions before the tour.  this was a nice looking place, definitely not anywhere i'd stay, and certainly wouldn't consider buying (el cid, btw, don't stay there).  so he thinks i have a bad attitude when i explain that i was hijacked at the airport and tells me that he's not going to do the tour and i can pay for breakfast and leave.  ha.  whatever.  i end up going to the sales desk and telling them i was done and please give me my free gifts, and i get a boat trip, fully paid, and all my taxi money back.

i catch a taxi to get out of the marina and walk the rest of the way home.  so now i've seen all of mazatlan, i have no desire to go on the hotel's boat ride, and have a bus ticket for midnite tonite.  i doubt i can get my money back for the nites i prepaid, but i really don't care.  i can't swim, and i checked the surf at every beach along the way, 2 foot closeouts at best, there's no point in staying here.  i don't have a room booked anywhere yet for tomorrow but i'll worry about that when i get where i'm going.

i haven't quite gotten the hang of this travel thing yet.  i'm not entirely certain of what i need to do to learn but this is still pretty new and i'm telling myself that i shouldn't worry yet.  if in another month i keep picking crappy places then i'm just gonna fly to fiji and live there till my money runs out.

2for1 beer.  the only good thing about this place.

mazatlan!

i am so happy to be at the beach again.  already today i've gone swimming and running and that's more than i've done in a long time.  i ran in san miguel but with the altitude i never felt like i accomplished anything.  except severe pain.

i've sat in a bar drinking margaritas and had beer with some mexicans on the side of the road, already way more social activity than all of mexico city.  i was sitting on the boardwalk by the beach listening to some music from a bar, deciding which to go into, and a guy walks up and hands me a corona.  and he let me talk in my pidgeon spanish.  another guy sitting a few feet away kept a look out at my back because these giant roaches kept crawling over the wall when the waves broke and splashed, every time i heard a whistle i knew to stand up and someone would run over and kick them back into the ocean.  friendly people here.

he also told me that cops have been cracking down on people drinking by the beach, but i didn't pay much attention to that.  i'm a tourist, they're not gonna do anything but pour out my beer.  but then moments later i saw the police pickup truck drive by, 2 large men standing in the back, black helmets, black face masks, head to toe black riot gear, cradling giant machine guns.  made the kauai cops look like barney fife.  that did give me a little pause, i waited until they were a block away before i picked up my beer again.  

i've only been here a few hours but i like this place already.  i don't think i'm gonna stay here longer than a week but its a nice transition to other beaches.  there's lots to do, booze cruises, trips to the little islands for snorkeling, and apparently this is a great place for bird watchers.  not my thing but having forest is cool.  the swimming wasn't great, super murky sandy scary water, but i'll still do it. and the only place to rent a surf board is several miles away but the waves aren't great so i'm not real sad.  plenty of time for surf in the next few months.

i'm staying in the historic section and i'm glad of that.  there's enough down here that i don't have to deal with the 20something crowd unless i want to go north.  i will, but i'll be happy down here at 1am when its quiet.  this is a really pretty town (by the water), i saw some ugly bits on the trip from the airport but i don't really need to go there.  50 feet from my hotel is a store with $1 modelos and pacificos...why leave?

i'm sitting on my balcony right now, 3rd floor, and directly in front of me is a 2 lane road, then the boardwalk (or malecón), then the ocean.  lots of activity going on right now, skateboarders, rollerbladers, dogwalkers, joggers, and people just hanging out.  the sound of the ocean pretty much drowns out the noise.  the hotel itself is pretty bizarre, open air inside and old style rooms.  my closet is painted plywood and i broke the doorknobs to both the front and back when i got here.  no screens.  the bathroom is not a place where i'd like my toothbrush to live.  i have to take my computer and anything else to the front desk every time i leave and they give me receipts.  and i'm a bit worried about giant bugs.  but its got a certain charm, i guess.  and the balcony really helps.

so my goal for this week is to hike up to the lighthouse.  its the second highest lighthouse in the world, and it looks like a long ass walk.  

view from the bar

moving day

I really couldn't be happier to be leaving Mexico city.
or, I hope I'm leaving. I tried to check in, got sent to a long line of automatic machines, wouldn't work for me, got sent inside, waited in line, got sent to another room, waited in line, was told to go back to first room, threatened to cry, got a pass but not a guaranteed seat (too many people), begged some more, thru security, found coffee, found another guy to beg, more tears at the ready, and got an assigned seat. I'm exhausted and it's only 9:20.
I'm not convinced that I'll get on the flight and hope my bag finds its way to me somehow.
I think I'm gonna try only buses and boats for the next month or so. I really don't like airports.

I don't know if it's a social program or coincidence, but all airport guides pointing out directions are in wheelchairs. and they're all so happy to help me! friendly faces are so welcome today.

lazy lazy day

its almost noon and i'm still sitting in bed.  i wasn't even going to shower today but it was time to wash my underwear.  maybe not how i planned to spend my last day in mexico city but i'm exhausted.  four days of endless walking, sightseeing, and failing at communication takes its toll.

i think this can be considered productive time because i'm watching sitcoms in spanish.  that's gotta be as good as studying.  i got into the habit of turning on a spanish language channel and leaving it on all night, sorta hoping that when i wake up i'll miraculously be fluent.

they pyramids were pretty fun yesterday, but the overall experience wasn't great.  i signed up for a tour through my hotel and in an 8 hour day, we only got to spend 2 hours at the pyramids, and we didn't get to see everything.  the other hours were spent at a craft market and crappy restaurant, neither of which were on the itinerary.  apparently every tour takes you to these places so you can spend your money, you have no choice.  but that's the same everywhere, i've been held captive by tour guides before, at least yesterday i found a really nice bottle of tequila to buy.

i spent the day with sasha (russian) and juan pablo (columbian), who also were by themselves and signed up for the tour.  they were both here for one day only, on layover.  sasha was coming from peru and going back to los angeles, and juan pablo is a flight attendent.  but that further confirms my theory that i am the only tourist in mexico right now.  i met one other couple that stopped here for a layover on a two week long bus trip, escorting their afraid-of-flying mother home to costa rica.    otherwise, this hotel is full of mexicans.

and the hotel gets about a c+.  which is better than when i checked in.  first thing, i find out that there's construction, and would i like to upgrade my room for an extra 100 pesos a night for more quiet?  i really had no choice, and while 100 pesos isn't much money, all these little extras are adding up quickly.  but the joke was on them since my upgrade qualified me for the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  i'm pretty sure i made money on this deal.  and my peaceful, quiet room is far from that, which is why i've been spending construction hours wandering the streets and museums.

the museum of anthropology is amazing.  and i'm glad i went there even if i miss alot of other cool things in this city.

i didn't like mexico city at all when i got here, it was a bit overwhelming.  but i think that this would be a great place to go with a friend, or maybe a group, when we can explore the nightlife as well.  i did walk home pretty late on election night and it was spooky, and the bars during the day are dark and loud, and it would be impossible to try speaking spanish.  so i would definitely come back here again and probably have a completely different experience.

but now i'm thinking of the beach.  swimming and surfing and running and laid back people and a hot young mexican guy bringing me margaritas and helping me put sunscreen on my back.

the pants street.  i also found the fake nails and hair extension alley.

mexico city election day

today is a great day to be in mexico city.  its election day so everyone is out voting.  there are miles of people standing in line and police in full riot gear.  my hotel overlooks the zocalo, which is the absolute center of the city, and its surrounded by all the government buildings and cathedrals.

the square is filled with people lighting candles and holding prayer vigils for their candidates, camera crews filming at all the voting stations, and a giant stage is being built.  not sure for what, but maybe its for the winners acceptance?  a giant voting party?  who knows.  but that's where i'll be tonite.

i started my grid search of the city today, determined to find some cool stuff.  the first place i came to was the main cathedral.  lots of people going in so i followed (and no, dad, there was no earthquake or hellfire, its still standing).  as i wandered in i heard the processional start and thought that i may as well go to mass.  i think the last time i sat through church i was at the vatican, maybe 7 years ago?  so i figure its time again.  the incense brought back all those mixed memories of catholic youth, not only getting paddled by nuns but also church as a comfy place to take a nap.
ya gotta hand it to the catholics, though, i've been to mass at the vatican, in mexico city, and middleburg hts ohio and there's not a single difference.  way to stick to the plan.

next on my list was finding diego rivera's murals at palacio nacional.  didn't happen.  i walked and walked and couldn't find an open door, whether its because of elections or its sunday, i'm not sure, but i'll try again on tuesday.  same for trying to get into most other places, all closed today.

so keeping the cathedral's location in mind, i started wandering around the streets.  not looking for anything in particular, just sight seeing.  this place is crazy.  every store is open and all their goods are blocking the roads, each store with man calling out what he has for sale.  i walked for about 3 hours, when i finally realized that i'd forgetten where the cathedral was and had a moment of panic.  i worked up the courage to ask someone and leave it to me to approach the only crack whore on the street.  interesting conversation.  so i found a chubby older lady with some kids and asked her, all good.

and as i approached home the regular afternoon thunderstorm set in so this is a good time for a siesta before election day madness in the square starts.

dry day for elections?  i don't think so