Managed to tear myself away from Tulum & took a Collective to Playa del Carmen on the Mayan Riviera about an hour away. Again got a great deal costing about £15 a night for a place a couple of blocks from the beach. Unpacked & set out to explore. This was going really well until I spotted some very unfortunate creatures on the end of chains. They happened to be a lion, tiger & leopard cub. Now this might sound like a great thing to see apart form the animal cruelty issue & yes they were all very cute, however in my warped world animals on chains mean snakes on people! S then was persuaded to ask if there was a creature lurking in the street & yes there was a couple of blocks away! Oh great. Thankfully I didnt get to see it as S was on the lookout.
We had a plan to combat this potential sighting by having a safety word. We decided on vegetable to be just that word (I don't know why either) but that was the word. So the drill would go like this: S would be on maximum alert, if he saw it then he would shout vegetable, at this point I would close my eyes & he would guide me to safety!! Brilliant.
So it was Ryder Cup weekend. I spent most of the time in the pub next door or on the internet keeping up with the action. The place next door was called the Tequilla Barrel & had some other people in there watching the events of the Sunday singles matches unfold. I was gripped by the excitement of it all. It is my fave sporting event by a mile so I was very emotional by then of the match & the fact that it was such an amazing win by the European boys was just unbelievable.
After that many days were spent on the beach when the weather allowed & hours watching Law & Order on the laptop when it poured down. Like Playa as although it is developed & has lots of the usual tourist stuff it wasn't too badly detroyed. Found some great cheap places to eat & there was a Wallmart so cheap beer & tequilla were readily available.
As the weather didn't seem to be improving it was deciced to head off to Palenque where there are some Mayan ruins. At this point S had booked his ticket to return to Utila but about a couple of hours before he was due to leave he decided to come to Palenque with me. We boarded an overnight ADO Gold standard bus which as it turned out was very comfortable & almost empty so I had a double seat to myself.
Sorry just have to mention that I am writing this now in Guatemala where the bar next door is playing Christmas carols!! Just heard a rendition of Rudolph . Very strange indeed. Got to move my gear to another room now so will be back to finish the next installment in a minute.
