My Trip to Playa del Carmen (Part 1)

January 22, 2019

Well I made it! I’m here in Playa del Carmen, staying with an old friend of mom and dad’s. He's a private dude so I won't mention him by name. 

I arrived at Cancun airport yesterday at 5pm local time (Eastern Standard Time), which is two hours ahead of us in Cranbrook (Mountain Time). The flight in went well enough, meaning that I didn’t have a panic attack, although I did have raunchy gas, thanks to Nyquil Nasal or whatever it’s called that I took the night before. It hurt my gut and I got almost no sleep. Ugh. This is what it’s like to travel as me. Sore gut and raunchy gas is always part of it. It just depends how bad it’s going to get. Thus far, it’s manageable.

I bought a cup full of mango slices. The first piece tasted delicious. The rest tasted like pumpkin for some reason. Ah, nuts!

Once I saw the land from my window seat in the WestJet plane, I realized I was travelling to a city in the jungle, which is sweet. Even coming from B.C., this place is as lush and green as any place I’ve seen before. It made me want to go out and explore its nooks and crannies. My friend has since explained that the jungle in inhabited by mosquitos with malaria, amongst other creepy critters such as scorpions and tarantulas, so it didn’t sound as appealing after that. He’s encountered a scorpion and a spider in his apartment before. If I have a run-in with said creepy crawlers, you can be sure I’ll write about it.

This Lego luchador minifigure and I had a fun adventure in Mexico.

I bought a bus ticket to Playa del Carmen when I arrived in Cancun. As I waited, I turned on my data so I could send a message via WhatsApp to my friend to let him know when I would be in Playa and another message to Becky to let her know I wasn’t dead. I got to Playa at 7:30pm. It was dark and I didn’t see him anywhere, not that I knew what he looked or sounded like since we’d only been in contact via email. I tried the WhatsApp thing again and then gave up and called him with my cell. Fortunately, I got through to him and was able to be picked up about 10 minutes later. I met a Mexican friend of his and we went to a Montreal Canadians sports bar for poutine. Not exactly what I had in mind for my first meal in Mexico. I had a Philly Cheesesteak. It was pretty good, but I couldn’t help but wish I was eating tacos instead. (I took a photo of all the Canadians jerseys for dad. It’ll be sure to get a reaction since he’s a Bruins fan).

My first stop in Mexico: A Montreal Canadiens sports bar. I wouldn't have predicted that.

Afterwards, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. We were there until 10:30pm and it was busy. Weird. Then, while conversing with my friend, I realized he never received by WhatsApp message when I arrived in Cancun, which is why he wasn’t waiting to pick me up at the bus station. That also meant that Becky didn’t get my message. In the Wal-Mart parking lot, I turned my phone off of airplane mode to activate the roaming feature. I had texts and a voicemail from Becky. She was worried about me and wondered why I hadn’t sent her confirmation that I’d arrived like I said I would. I felt like an idiot. Still kinda do. I was able to send her a text but for some reason I still can’t figure out how to get a phone call through to her. She saw the text and was relieved. I felt a little less crappy. Scratch that. I still feel crappy.

My friend doesn’t have Wi-Fi so I can’t use the Internet or WhatsApp at his place either. There was a park downtown that I was able to connect to for a few minutes this afternoon but even that was sketchy. I didn’t expect it to be this difficult to communicate with anyone. I guess this is why people don’t cheap out on the $60 it costs to have roaming activated for the duration of a trip. Thriftiness is usually good. In this case, I was wrong and dumb.

My friend’s apartment is clean and small. To get in, the compound has a gate and security guard. The door to his apartment is also gated. I always feel a little sad when I come to countries that have to have these levels of security. I get that its necessary. I just wish we could all get along and not try to steal each other’s stuff. Naïve. I know.

Just below my 3rd storey apartment window: Three ducks and a dog.

It’s noisy here. Dogs barking, doors slamming, kids wailing at midnight. I was exhausted when it was time for bed but the heat and the cacophony of loudness kept me up. My friend lent me a fan and said I should open the window. The air outside was cool and that helped. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to open the window. I guess not sleeping and then flying all day followed by a lot of new and unexpected experiences messes with your head. Who knew? Even so, it took a Gravol, Advil and Melatonin to get me to sleep. I was praying desperately for sleep and it finally came.

The view outside my apartment bedroom window with Lego luchador minifig in the foreground.

I felt a little woozy when I woke up. I decided to rest in bed for a while before checking the time and taking a piss. By the time my friend and I headed out for the day, it was 10 or 11am. He told me which vehicles or buses to take to get downtown and how to get around. I took notes on a scrap of paper and grabbed a mini map for good measure. On the bus ride into Centro, I heard Mexican music on the radio, saw some vibrant coloured houses, walls with graffiti and sunshine through green foliage that line some of the streets. It was sweet. These are the kinds of moments I was looking for—something different from my walk down the same street every day in Cranbrook. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got an eight minute walk for a commute to work, which is awesome, but every now and then I need a change of scenery. I desire to know what life is like beyond my one strip of road that I frequent every day. There’s a big world out here and I want to see it. More than that, I was to experience it. The colourful bus ride into downtown was my first “I can’t believe I’m here doing this right now!” moment. I hope to have many more while I’m here.

My friend toured me around downtown.

I stayed in a neighbourhood in Las Flores. The walls were painted with colourful graffiti images.

First, I saw the beach. My bus from Cancun actually dropped me off a block away from the ocean but I didn’t know it was there because it was dark out. I put my feet in the sand with my flip flops on. It was colder than I thought it would be. When I got out, I remembered how much it sucks to have sand stuck to feet. I’ve gotten enough rashes from sand to know that I needed to wipe this stuff off quick. There was a big puddle in a deactivated fountain nearby but that didn’t do the trick. I needed a bathroom. Yo necessito banho. (My time with the Duo Lingo app is paying off). The problem is, there are almost no bathrooms around here. Like, anywhere. It’s crazy. There are a lot of people and plenty of merchants and shopping malls but very few bathrooms. I don’t know where everybody is taking their pisses. The ocean, perhaps? McDonalds had one, albeit tiny and the sink wasn’t even located in the bathroom. It was in the main eating area. A worker said something to me in Spanish. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to buy something in order to use the can so I just smiled and went in. When I relieved myself, I went to the sink to wash my feet. You know, normal behaviour. It wasn’t exactly a private experience as patrons were scarfing down Big Macs a few feet away, but that didn’t stop me from removing my sandals, rinsing them off, then putting my big friggin gringo feet in the sink and washing them one by one. You’ll be happy to know I don’t have sandy rashes on my feet. Mission accomplished.

Parque Fundadores downtown Playa del Carmen. I'm waving my arms on the bottom left part of the statue.

5^th Avenue is the main street in Playa and it runs parallel to the beach. This is where most of the tourists hang out. It’s also where all the stall merchants try to sell me drugs. I’ve never been offered weed as many times in my life as I was today, including all the times I’ve actually bought weed. My friend warned me that the guys down 5^th were really pushy and he was right. They get right up on you and claim to have what I want. “Weed. Blow. Women.” They don’t know me very well. I wish one of the merchants sold a shirt with a maple leaf on it that said “I’m Canadian. I’ve got legal weed at home, thanks.” If I had an Internet connection, I’d Google how to say that in Spanish. That might keep the merchant leeches off of me. Maybe.

5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen: Where everyone's a drug dealer!

After some exploring, we found a handful of taco stands. I bought my first two tacos, one beef, one breaded chicken, and downed them in a few minutes. They were delicious, although they could’ve used cheese and the salsa wasn’t as good as my mom and Becky’s homemade salsa. I can’t fault them for that though. That stuff is legit. I went back and got a quesadilla after I finished my tacos. The quesadilla had cheese and chicken but no other ingredients inside. It was a little disappointing. Still good though. I also drank Coke from a glass bottle in dad’s honour. I took a photo while drinking it. That should offset the ill will I put on myself for the Montreal Canadians pic. I ended up getting a couple more tacos from these stands later on and that stuffed me to the brim, which is too bad because my friend is out right now at his favourite taco place. I declined to go because my gut is telling me not to eat anything until tomorrow. Considering I don’t want to get sick on Day 3, I’m holding off. It took no small amount of self-restraint to decline an offer for the best tacos in the city. Go ahead and shine my medal.

My first taco meal in Mexico was washed down with Coke in a glass bottle. 

Next, we went to some tourist info booths to find out about tours. I booked a tour to go snorkelling on the coast of Cozumel, an island close by. It also has a glass bottom boat. Cool. I can only hope my stomach doesn’t kill me by getting seasick. I got wicked pukey on honeymoon with Becky seven and a half years ago during a caged shark encounter. Sharks = cool. Bobbing up and down = barf. So we’ll see how this goes. That’s on Thursday. Today is Tuesday.

My first tacos in Mexico. Hooray!

On Friday, I’ll be going to Rio Secreto. That’s Secret River for all those who aren’t pros at Spanish. Rio Secreto is a labyrinth of underground rivers and caves that you can swim in. Sounds really neat. We’re supposed to be getting a fair amount of rain in the next few days so I was looking for a non-weather-related activity in case it’s stormy.

Other than that, it looks like one of these days I will be going to Coba to check out some ruins. That should be sweet. On Saturday, there’s a lucha libre (wrestling) event in Cancun. I hope that works out because that will rock!

Okay, I’m done writing for today. It’s been good so far. My friend is a good guide. He’s quiet and mumbles so I have to ask him numerous times what he’s saying but he’s a patient guy so that’s nice. I’m not sure what I’m doing tomorrow. Whatever it is, I hope to not get lost. Public transit is a bit confusing and my Spanish is lacking. Why oh why didn’t I memorize numbers!? What good is it if you ask how much something is and then don’t understand the response? I’d study them now but I don’t have Internet. Oh well.

My Trip to Playa del Carmen (Part 2)