i swam with whale sharks again with andy, it was another epic day. there weren't as many the second time around but we definitely had enough to make it great. one almost ate me, although i look nothing like plankton. after a couple more days in isla mujeres we traveled to playa del carmen, another new place for me. it was pretty touristy but i liked it better than cancun or puerto vallarta. there were endless streets to walk and fantastic people watching. there wasn't alot of 'old mexico' there, big expensive restaurants and people selling the same stuff as everywhere else but i still enjoyed it.
after the horrible sleepless nite (see previous blog post) we switched to a back room and life was good again. lots of lazing on the beach with margaritas, excellent way to spend a couple days. i was pretty sad when andy had to get back to the real world. i guess some people do have to work.
pam and i caught a bus to tulum, about an hour south. its a much smaller town but still filled with tourists. there are 2 areas that you can stay, by the beach with nothing around you or in town, far from the beach. we were worried that we'd end up in the same situation as in puerto vallarta where we thought we were near beach and ended up with no restaurants or stores anywhere nearby, so we picked town. there's one main street which is actually the highway, and nothing much on the side streets. the usual stores and restaurants. our first nite was spent in a bar catching up on olympics.
pam had to get back to seattle soon so we only had one full day in tulum, and we used every minute of it. we woke up early and did a scuba dive in casa cenote, it was pam's first scuba experience and our first cenote. gina was our guide and she was great. she's swiss and speaks german, french, spanish and english (and who knows what else). i really need to learn more languages, i was pretty jealous of that.
she ran pam through the basics of scuba, then we were off. this cenote was a mix of salt and fresh water but its a great place for a brand new diver since most cenotes are in caves and there's a danger of hitting your head on a stalactite if you surface too quickly. this was open air and wasn't as dramatic but still worthwhile. some fish, lots of interesting algae covered things, a rock tunnel to swim through. pam had a little trouble with buoyancy control and gina ended up dragging her around a bit to keep her off the bottom (or off the surface) but overall she did great. way better than my first dive, my mind kept telling me i couldn't breathe under water so i kept popping to the surface to breathe. was sort of embarrassing.
after the dive we took a collectivo to the ruins. it was my first trip in a collectivo, which is basically a van that gets crammed with as many people as the driver can find, as long as they're all going in the same general direction. it only ended up being 10 pesos cheaper than a cab, i'm guessing the big advantage comes with longer distance trips.
the ruins were beautiful. not as dramatic as the pyramids i've seen but standing by an ancient mayan temple on the edge of the clearest blue water you've ever imagined was breathtaking. there was a man doing a home video documentary nearby, he'd point his camera at a temple and say 'this was the ancient mayan wafflehouse', or something completely stupid like that.
after a thoroughly exhausting day we sat at the bar and watched olympics (in spanish of course) for the rest of the nite. i thought i knew a decent amount of spanish but i could hardly make sense of the broadcasters. there are way too many sports terms. the best was gymnastics, apparently mexico doesn't have their own announcers for only this sport, so we'd hear the american play by play then they'd repeat it in spanish. i'd say it was a good learning tool if i was able to remember any of it.
the next morning we were backtracking to playa del carmen, then catching a ferry to cozumel for pam's flight home. while waiting for the bus we met an english traveler going home after 3 months in south and central america. he described himself as 'a broken man' and couldn't wait to eat gravy. he was wearing these amazing shoes which he had made in guatemala. he went to a store, picked out ones he liked, the man traced his feet on paper, and they were ready the next morning. i can't wait to do that!
the ferry to cozumel was about 35 minutes and mostly uneventful. there were 2 super annoying chicks nearby that yelled for beer service, then were amazed when they found out they had to pay. i think i fell asleep but pam witnessed the scene they made when they were trying to describe their father to the mexican waitress, telling her to go find him to get money for their drinks. no spanish, wouldn't go get the money themselves, complete idiots. too funny.
cozumel is about what i expected, a small part of the island crammed with the usual touristy crap. same clothes, same trinkets, same super pushy people yelling at you to buy their junk. i find myself becoming a bit rude to them because i just can't handle it anymore. i don't want to buy something for my boyfriend or mother, i don't want to come in to your store, i don't need a taxi, i'm not snorkeling with you, i don't care if your jewelry is nicer, omg people please stop! at least in playa there were so many other people that i could walk for a minute or 2 without getting harassed. its non stop here. when we needed to walk somewhere we'd go well out of our way to pass the least amount of stores and stalls. i think i've been to too many tourist areas in the past couple weeks, my tolerance is all used up.
we got to our hotel after about 20 minutes of constant sales pitches and our room wasn't ready, maybe in half an hour (mexican time, that's about an hour and a half). and we encountered probably the biggest loser american tourist yet. we sat at the bar for more olympics and beer and this super overweight loud obnoxious offensive non-stop talking guy was going off about everything to his mexican 'friends'. and saying how much he hates gringos. but i think i figured him out, americans won't put up with his crap and mexicans are too polite to tell him to shut up. we had to sit next to him again at breakfast this morning and it was really hard not to throw my scrambled eggs at his fat head.
pam left for seattle this morning and i instantly missed her company. she's a great travel buddy and although she says she's not good with directions at least she's better than me. it was also nice to have someone to plan with instead of making all of the decisions myself, i don't always like to be in charge of myself.
i wandered around town a bit by myself, booked a scuba trip for tomorrow, and i'm off to belize on sunday. i think i'll spend today catching up on my spanish homework, watch some olympics (when did trampoline become a recognized sport??) and hiding from the crazy street peddlers. i'd almost rather go hungry than walk down the street for food today. so i'm going to hang my do not disturb (no molestar) sign on the door and nap the day away. i'm not missing anything outside.
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| one good thing about a tourist beach |
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