Mexico / Playa Del Carmen

Day 1 – The penultimate journey

Arriba Arriba Andale Andale, were off to Mexico…

Feeling decidedly groggy we woke, packed and booked our 11am transfer to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Guatemala and hello to Mexico.

We had chosen Mexico as our final destination as the flights were relatively cheaper to London from here and we wanted to find a beach resort for our last location. Neither of us fancied Cancun which is full of tacky bars and loud annyoying Americans, but a few people had told us Playa Del Carmen was much nicer and only an hour away from the airport.

Todd, the guy we met back in Bolivia, had given us details of an apartment he rented in Del Carmen too so we had booked it and was looking forward to having our own space to chill out in for our final week.

After an incredibly slow check-in, we made our way to the food court for a very much needed hangover burger and to spend our last Quetzales.

Our flight wasn’t until 3:30 so we went to the gate and read, blogged and used up our final data allowance. Here, we bumped into Rory (from the snug) and his family. He had told us the previous day that they were off to Cancun, on the same flight and had offered us a lift. We had declined the lift as I think we both had a bit of foresight and didn’t want to share a car with two very active little boys, we were right. They became even more excited, running around and destroying the airport lounge when Glenn gave them the rest of our change.

It was then that Rory asked how the band was at the snug (he had left after the boxing). Glenn and I shared a quizzical look together and said ‘what band’. It was only later when we went through the pics we saw this!

The flight landed in Cancun and after waiting for around an hour for our luggage, we said our goodbyes to Rory and headed out to find a bus. We needed pesos so Glenn went in search of an ATM whilst I found a tourist desk. This turned out to be a taxi desk in disguise who promptly told me the bus would drop us at the wrong side of town, blah blah blah but we could share a collectivo which would drop us off at our apartments.

Glenn returned from the ATM, it seems the airport ATM only gave dollars. You would then have to change the dollars at a ridiculous rate to Pesos. Losing a lot of money in the process.

We um’d and ar’d for a bit and decided to go with the Collectivo. We could pay for it with the dollars we already had. More waiting about until the agent told us that it would cost more because our apartment wasn’t in the Playa district, it was at this point we walked off.

Getting a bit pissed off, we weren’t sure what to do, we didn’t have Pesos for the local transport so after trying a few other agencies, we ended up getting a taxi for the best price we could, knowing we were being royally ripped off.   Note if ever going to Mexico, take Pesos with you!

The taxi took us to a darkened street which seemed in the middle of nowhere and announced we were at our apartment (we may have done a wrong-un here). We went to reception where we paid the first night with our final dollars, agreeing we would pay the balance after we visited an ATM.

Glenn asked where the nearby bars were so we could get our ‘welcome to Mexico’ beer and was informed that as it was Sunday, they were all shut at 5pm, government rules. However, there was one that served till 9pm, not too far. It was now 8pm.

We were shown to a lovely apartment and quickly unpacked. It was here that Glenn realised he had lost his phone, probably at one of the airport kiosks! After over 15 months of travel he had lost it on the penultimate leg! There was nothing for it but to make our way to an ATM and then find the one and only bar to commiserate with a beer.

 

 

The first ATM was out of order so we had a bit of a Schlep to find another. There were about 3 in a row, all behind glass booths so we chose one at random. We entered the details, the ATM counted the cash and then nothing!

We waited with our hearts in our mouths but after 15 minutes of waiting, nothing was happening. It seemed the ATM was stuck with the screen displaying ‘transaction in progress’. I went outside to see if there was a number we could contact and spoke with a local who had great English and a lot of empathy, he then spoke to someone else who said that it had happened to him before and you just had to wait.

We had no choice, if we left, the cash could come out and worse, the card. Glenn now frazzled by the airport and lost phone wasn’t in a happy mood. I sent him outside to calm down and have a smoke whilst I stood guard. He went outside only to be accosted by a local drunk. He came back in exclaiming ‘I fucking hate Mexico’.

After an agonising 30 minutes with people coming and going either side of us, making seamless transactions (why did we chose this machine!)  the ATM spat out the cash, the relief…..didn’t last long, the card didn’t follow.

 

 

Another agonising 30 minutes (not exaggerating here) where there was a lively debate between us on whether we should leave or stay (I was for staying) the ATM chugged into life again and spat out…. The receipt! no card!

Another 30 minutes of trying to look inconspicuous in the middle of the city, at night, outside an ATM! The machine chugged into life once again and presented our card. The bliss, the joy, THE RELIEF!

We hugged each other and then set off to the minimarket. It was now around 10:30 so we had to settle on a bottle of sprite, some bread and a packet of ham which we ate back at our apartment before turning in.

Welcome to Mexico, Ariba my arse!

Day 2 – Exploring

 As we had promised ourselves a relaxing week before we came home, we had a lazy morning drinking coffee, having b/f and catching up with the blog.  Enjoying the fact that we had an apartment with some space, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen/living room, all of which meant I could wake up and smell the coffee (Shell getting up before me and starting the percolator). She had received some not so great news about returning to her previous job so was feeling a bit down at heart.

Around midday we thought we would venture out and see what Playa Del Carmen’s main drag had to offer, so heading out in hot sunshine we made the long walk to the beach front.  When we got there, it was quite an assault on the senses with lots of tourists/holiday makers, hotels, bars, restaurants and tacky gift shops.

We wandered around for a bit and checked out a couple of scuba-diving shops as we fancied doing a dive (if Shell’s cold clears up) later in the week, but neither of them really inspired confidence and they were quite expensive.
 

In order to get out of the sun and avoid the numerous street hawkers trying to offer us boat trips, tours, etc we took refuge under an awning of a nearby restaurant.  We stopped here for a few welcome to Mexico or should I say Playa Del Carmen beers.  We sat and drunks our beers in relative silence.

After a couple of hours, we decided that we would head up the other side of the road to where we had spotted a beach bar.  We arrived at the bar and found a table right on the beach in the shade of some palm trees, the beach was very nice but way too packed with tourists.
 

Sitting there supping some more beers we watched as hundreds of tourists walk up and down the jetty to catch a boat trip to one of the nearby islands and trying not to get our feet wet as the occasional big wave flooded our area. Whilst we sat there a quite bog standard band was playing in the main bar just above us.

We sat there without saying too much to each other until the dam broke and we finally admitted, ‘we don’t like it here’ it was too much like a holiday resort and very tacky, it was a bit too much for us after so many nice dusty beach towns we had been used too.  So, we just agreed we would have to make the most of it (considering we had 8 days here) and explore places outside of town, maybe hire a car to get out of dodge.

Feeling a bit better after we had voiced our feelings and looking on the bright side, we wouldn’t be so sorry to leave here for the journey home, we headed back towards our apartment.  We briefly stopped at a shop to pick up a bottle of local rum and ingredients for cubre libre’s. We then returned to the apartment where I discovered that I had lost the room keys (Mexico isn’t going very well for me!), fortunately the receptionist gave me some spares telling me to keep quiet and he wouldn’t charge me for them.

Back at the apartment we cracked open a couple of Dos Equis and broke out some music.  A couple more beers and the Rum got broken out (after I had a knife fight with the bottle top and sliced my finger!) and we started on the Cuba Libre’s.
 

Our night turned into a private party with us trying to find and play the most tacky/bizarre you tube music video’s from the 70’s/80’s the best/worst we came up with was ‘Einstien A-Go-Go’ (Shell)  me following up with Lene Lovich’s ‘Lucy Number’. I’m not sure the neighbours appreciated the ‘eh who a who’s’ that we were singing along to. 

By the end of the night I think we had exhausted all the bad songs we could think of and as the Rum bottle was almost empty and with a final rendition of Brotherhood of Mans Angelo… long ago, high on a mountain in Mexico…. we took that as a sign to go to bed.

Day 3 – Another Lazy Day

Not feeling very inspired to explore Del Carmen, we spent the morning lazing around, blogging and having a late breakfast. Occasionally hiding from our neighbours and feeling a bit embarrassed about the noise we probably made the previous night.

By the afternoon, we decided to investigate the pool area that was housed in the sister hotel opposite ours. Unfortunately, a dip didn’t look likely as the whole area was in the shade and the pool looked a bit unkempt.

We settled down on a couple of sunbeds to read but it was like lying on a rack as they were wooden and minus any cushions. Moving to a nearby table, we settled down again to blog and read however was quickly chased away by the mozzies (Shel 3 bites, Glenn 1).
 

We headed back to our apartments shared area and once again settled down. I found the most uncomfortable hammock and Glenn a table to continue blogging.
 

As we hadn’t really achieved much, we decided to tripadvise an authentic Mexican restaurant and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Glenn found one, which whist was about a 30-minute schlep, had great reviews and was cheap. So, that’s where we headed in the evening.

It would have been a 30- minute schlep had we not gone in the wrong direction. After almost arriving at the beach, we turned around, headed back and after asking for some directions, we arrived, a bit hot and bothered and stood in line at the huge queue of people waiting to dine.

It wasn’t long until we were seated and ordered two huge slushy cocktails which were very welcomed and downed very quickly. We placed our orders and waited for our food.
 

It was delicious, you could see why it was popular. We had a ‘on the house’ bean and mince soup together with a side of garlic beans and salad. For main, we had an Arracherea dish (cut of steak) which was incredibly tender and served with charcoaled salad onions, a jacket potato, Guacamole and washed down with a cheap bottle of wine.

Fed and watered, we headed back on the long journey to our apartment, stopping by a nearby Wallmart to pick up some supplies.

The rest of the evening was spent feeling over full and watching downloads. Tomorrow we would venture a bit further.