My Trip to Playa del Carmen (Part 2)

January 24, 2019

Here’s what’s happened since the last time we caught up with one another. A couple nights ago, after I finished writing my first entry, a big storm came through and lasted throughout much of the night. The power went out, but only for a minute. The wind howled and palm trees waved wildly like those crazy inflatable tube man thingies they stick in front of furniture stores. It made it difficult to sleep, but also drowned out the incessant barking of dogs from neighbouring apartments.

The scenery around the walk between ruins in Coba was beautiful.

Yesterday, I went to Coba to check out the Mayan ruins. It was awesome. And I mean awesome in the way that it’s meant, meaning AWE-some, because part of the time, we were in awe. I’ll explain that in a second.

That's a taaaaaaaaaall pyramid. I wonder what the view at the top is like . . .

Coba is about 100 kilometres away from Playa del Carmen (I think. I don’t have Internet, remember). To get on site at Coba ruins was 70 pesos, about five dollars. It was well worth it. The paths between the rock structures was wide with trees leaning in over top, making a canopy of sorts. Streaks of sunlight slipped past the trees’ leaves and were jostled to and fro by a welcome breeze. The first few Mayan ruins were small stadiums as far as I understand. Apparently, people would play a weird game with a ball that they had to get through a vertical hoop only using their hips and butts or something. It sounded challenging. Participants had solid motivation to play well. If they lost, they were sacrificed. What a time that must’ve been to be alive—or, in the loser's case, dead.

What a view from the top!

These sites appeared here and there as we made our way to the towering pyramid that soared well above the surrounding jungle treetops. Climbing up was a bit of a workout and everyone took their time while ascending. If you fell, you might bust your head open on every step of rocks. And it is a long way down. Once at the top, we were blessed with the previously mentioned AWE-some view of lush green jungle as far as we could see on the somewhat cloudy day. We took many photos and rested for a while. We were in no rush to depart from the once-in-a-lifetime, panoramic scene sprawling underneath us. I found a small flower at the top and picked it for Becky. It looked pretty and I thought she’d like it. It’s being pressed in Steven King’s The Stand book I brought with me. I started it on my journey. It’s a hefty chunk of literature and I don’t expect to finish by my vacation’s end. It might as well double as a flower press.

After Coba we went for seafood in Tulum on the way back. We ate some friggin good fish, shrimp and octopus tacos. Tacos and seafood were two of the things I was looking forward to most on my trip and this place did not disappoint. I had some gut soreness the next morning but I'm doing alright now.

Fish tacos in Tulum. Yum!

Today was my day to go snorkelling off the island of Cozumel. I took a collectivo bus to get downtown and then a ferry to the island. One of the things that lured me to this tour was mention of glass-bottom boats. Whenever I hear that, I always think of Homer and Bart mooning a great white shark as it tried to break through the glass to eat them. Why not try to recreate that scene by myself? Well, it turns out the glass bottom is small, narrow and at no point did we see anything. It took about a half hour just to make it to a reef and once we got there, it was a bit underwhelming. This may be because I’ve snorkelled at a few places in Hawaii, where I enjoyed the experience of seeing bright fish in a vivid rainbow of colours amidst odd-shaped and equally colourful coral. Plus there were sea turtles, which are the best. This snorkelling spot off Cozumel was touted as being one of the best in the world. Upon further review, it is not. The coral is much further down from the water’s surface and is almost all a bland greyish colour. There weren’t many fish either and they were mostly white or black with the exception of a few with blue edges. Those were my favourite.

I found a pretty flower growing from a tree at the top of the Coba pyramid. A perfect gift for Becky.

We moved on to a second spot and it was similar. At the end of stop number two we saw some starfish. That was the closer. Starfish. I’m not sure if you’ve ever made it to 2^nd grade, but if you have, you’ve probably seen a starfish before. I was thinking the tour was building up to something grand but it fizzled out instead. To make matters worse, I was fricken freezing. It was cloudy at the time and—as I now know—got sun burnt on my back and shoulders pretty bad, but at that time, I might as well have been swimming in a fridge. I had goosebumps the whole time and was shaking whenever we got back on the boat.

We did eventually make a third stop on a beachy area where we could stand. It was populated by other adventurous sorts who like to blast out classic rock while drinking beer. Cool (That cool is sarcastic, just in case it didn’t translate through the page).

A big storm rolled in on our boat ride back to the dock, causing my already frigid body to become an icicle in the wind and rain. Also, I had to pee really, really bad. I peed at every stop we made and yet, my irritable bladder insisted that there was a whole lot more where that came from. I managed not to piss myself while I made small talk with an Australian woman who was at least four beers in. She told me through shouts over the sound of the boat engine that this reef was indeed crap. She lives next to the Great Barrier Reef and explained to me and everyone else within earshot that her reef was far superior. She wasn’t wrong.

When we made it back to the dock, I manoeuvred my way to the can like Peter Griffin, whispering to myself “Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it…”

I managed not to piss myself. Hooray! While trying to stay positive, it’s worth noting that I didn’t get seasick. I did during honeymoon with Becky and that was excruciating. Thankfully, that didn’t happen this time.

Beach day in Cozumel was a bit colder and a lot wetter than I would've liked.

When I got out of the bathroom, my relieved mood was dampened by the frigid cold and onslaught of rain. I may have tinkled in the toilet but Mother Nature was showing me how to win a pissing match. It was the kind of rain that if you step into it, you’re drenched in a few seconds. Considering I was doing my best to stave off hypothermia, I wasn’t keen on leaving. My adventurous desire to explore Cozumel would have to wait. Nearly an hour passed and the weather showed little indication that it would improve. I could either board the ferry back to Playa where the same storm was likely pounding, wait it out in the ferry terminal or say screw it and go explore anyways. I chose that one, hopping underneath one vendor’s awning to another until I found an information booth. They pointed me to a good seafood place that locals go to. The island is crawling with tourists (of which I am a part of) but I didn’t come here to eat generic fast food or other Western influenced restaurants. I want quality tacos and seafood, blast it!

The island of Cozumel. There were a few seconds where it wasn't pouring so I got a German couple to snap a photo of me.

I made my way to the recommended seafood joint, picking up more than a few raindrops along the way. Once inside, I felt the none-too-refreshing air-conditioned air that most restaurants were pumping. I ignored it and ordered a couple of fish tacos to go with my entre of fresh prawns wrapped in bacon and melted cheese. Like my experience with the seafood yesterday, it was mother-lovin’ delicious. It was a little on the pricey side, a bit over $20 bucks (I’m cheap, remember). Since I ate at 3:30, it ended up being the only meal I bought today. I ate a couple Larabars Becky packed for me for dinner. I haven’t been eating breakfast much here since my stomach is usually being an A-hole in the mornings so I skip meals as needed.

Shrimp wrapped in bacon and melted white cheese. Mmm-mmm!

Back to Cozumel. I had a few minutes to snap some pics and then hop on the 4pm ferry back to Playa. There’s a cool-lookin’ Catholic chapel downtown that I poke my head into when I pass by. As it so happens, Mexicans like getting married at 4:30 on Thursday afternoons. There was a full-on wedding going down. Even more surprising, there weren’t more than a dozen people in attendance. Strange, no?

I crashed a wedding. I didn't get up to as many hijinks as Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn though.

I considered walking through Playa but my leg muscles were tired AF and I developed a blister on the inside of my right foot from where my sandal rubs it. Time to head back home. This was my first day travelling entirely by myself and I was a little nervous about making my way around the city without my friend and with my limited Spanish vocabulary. I managed to find the right collectivo. A collectivo is a van no bigger than our Chevy Traverse, which seats eight. It turns out, you can cram 25 people into a vehicle that size. Who knew? I marvelled at the driver as we made our way through the city. He had a lipstick kissed tattoo on his neck, writing and beads tattooed on his arm and a snazzy soccer star haircut. Not only did he manage to swerve in and out of traffic and count out oncoming transitors’ change, he could text all at the same time. Wow! He wins the multi-tasker of the year award.

This is a collectivo. I was the only white guy who used them.

I craned my head in all manner of unnatural ways to see outside the throng gathered in the collectivo as I had to look for where I was supposed to get out. If I got lost, I was effed in the fart hole. Even if I turned on my data and tried to contact my friend, he wouldn’t have answered since he was out and rarely takes his phone with him on outings. Fortunately, my sense of direction is competent and there was no need for me begging for strangers to help me in an area where English is foreign. Downtown, maybe. Where I’m staying, not so much. But that’s all part of the fun!

To cap off the night, I’m writing this. It’s late. I should take some sort of drug to help me sleep because I can’t sleep at the best of times and my back is burnt AF. Tomorrow I’m heading to Rio Secreto. I probably shouldn’t have told you since, you know, it’s a secret, hehehehehe!  ;)

My Trip to Playa del Carmen (Part 1)