Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Day 1
Landed in cancun and cracked up when I noticed that the huge air traffic tower is a massive corona ad. The name down one side and a giant pic of the beer on the other!
After a huuuge immigration queue and a few laughs with the crew I met, I found the ADO counter and booked
a 7pm bus to playa del Carmen.
People were taking pics and going crazy as a big group of guys walked toward the bus next to mine so I asked a security dude who the hell they were. It was the Mexican national soccer team!I started chatting to a guy I recognized from my flights to and from Cuba. Turns out Ian from west London loves a chat and was kind of a wanker, talking down Mexicans while there were Mexicans all around us. He lost me at "god I love having lots of money in a poor country".
He's also going to playa del Carmen but I'm tipping he won't be staying in a hostel with the rest of us low lives so I should be safe!
Once again I have no idea where I'll be sleeping tonight and it will be about 9.30pm by the time I get there.
Got out of the bus station and it's out of control! This is cancuns love child after cancun had a one night stand with patpong in Thailand.
Holy shit, talk about extremes. After flying in from the 1950's, oops I mean Cuba, playa del Carmen is definitely back to the land of the living.
I walked a couple of blocks and had no trouble finding a hostel and took a private for a couple of nights.
There is restaurant after restuarant offering mostly Italian food for huge prices. There is also ben & jerrys, subway, KFC, McDonald's, burger king, haagen daaz, Starbucks, Walmart!
I did find señor frogs, the scene of my meeting tomorrow with the dude I lent moola to in Cuba.
The beach is one block from my hostel so I can't wait for daylight to check it out.
I had no idea it would be this commercial and I pray that Tulum is a bit quiter but I don't think I'll be in luck there.
Day 2
It's about to piss down so I've quickly dropped my washing off and stopped for some brekky. Best bacon and eggs I've had I ages!
I went to collect my laundry up the road from my hostel but it was all locked up. I asked the ladies in the shop next door in very broken Spanish if they knew where she was. A little girl took me round the corner to another laundry and the lady there went and unlocked my imprisoned undies. Phew!
Went for a walk when it stopped raining and I'm obsessed with the beautiful ceramic mirrors and basins etc but they are tourist prices here so I'm on a mission to find a local market to see what I can haggle. They want $28 US for the cushion covers I paid $8 for in San cristobal...........get farked.
I'm very excited because the Aussie chicks I met and had a ball with in San cristobal are in tulum so I'm meeting them there tomorrow........yay!
Lisa and Kat have just facebooked to say they've saved a bungalow on the beach for me, so looking forward to that.
So it's 4.58pm and I'm waiting on the steps of señor frogs waiting for armador to show! I don't have high hopes but I'll give him till 6pm to allow for flight delays in Cuba because we had one yesterday. The little fucker better come good because I spent a motza today on mexican ceramics and mirrors etc. The stuff comes from Puebla and San cristobal and I so wish I had bought it there because it was sooooo much cheaper. I even bought a cheap wheely case to put all my purchases in!
Everyone thinks I'm Dutch here for some reason, I guess they're half right.
Well no sign of old mate Armador. I sent him an email to see where he is but I doubt I'll ever see that $150 again. Clearly I have a sign on my forehead that reads "if you are male and a dirtbag please go ahead and treat me like shit".
Anyway it's not the end of the world. While I was waiting I started chatting to a guy who was offering tourists photos with his capuchin monkey. This monkey is about the size of the palm of my hand! I was concerned it wasn't being looked after but the guy seemed to really love it. Then again with my super human powers of good character on the blink again, he probably took the monkey home and ate it. He was a cute little critter named Chaplin.
I went for a huge walk around town and it really is a one day stop kinda place. Very Phuket-esque. So I've packed my shit up again and I'm off on a morning bus to Tulum which I'm really looking forward to.
