:* Playa del Carmen *:

We got [back] to Playa del Carmen pretty quickly and with no drunken sombrero incidents. The plan was pretty much to find that Extra where we could get the tickets so we walked around and asked directions, then asked again, and then some people seemed to generally gear us in the right direction but maybe not with the right number of blocks so we did some back tracking and were sad to find that a hotel that would give us “just a bed/mattress” was going to cost us 550 pesos. We kept walking, kept walking and came across another hole in the wall type place (though this one had a box light with the word “hotel” on it). We went to check out how much it would be and they told us 250. Sweet!

We ditched our stuff (it wasn’t much to look at, especially cause the maid was in there cleaning at the time) and continued our pursuit of the Extra. Upon arrival, (yay we did actually find it!) we asked about the tickets and they confirmed that in fact the tickets were sold there they just hadn’t arrived yet. Okay, we thought, we’ll just hang out and have some lunch and wait for them. It was about lunch time anyway.

So we ate pizza in a way that was particularly reminiscent of our failed attempt to go to the Disco oh so long ago only we weren’t dressed up fancy. Same kind of pizza though. And after a while of eating, the tickets were still no shows. We figured we’d come back.

I believe that Chelsea actually said she was tired so we made our way back to the hotel and took naps. I actually ended up sleeping much more than her even though I wasn’t the one who felt so tired apparently. Who knows what the deal with that is. But after we got up, we walked back to the Extra who still didn’t have tickets.

We spent the day doing a little bit of shopping. Chelsea got a purse which we later discovered was the culprit for her suddenly pink shorts and trying-to-turn-pink white jacket. I got video taken with this adorable little monkey named Lola (who's in the picture at the top). For dinner we met up with Megan and Laurie who were also in Playa that day. Originally we were going to try to find a place with live music but finding that, the time we wanted, and within relative price that we were willing to spend, we were out of luck but dinner was still nice. Afterwards, with Lauie, Chelsea and I went *back* to the Extra. This time they had the tickets! WOO!

As it turned out, what we would have spent in Merida for general admission tickets we were able to get VIP tickets for. So we got VIP.

Upon return to the hotel, I tripped. Well let me backtrack a little. Chelsea had been tripping over the sidewalks all day as we walked along and did so right in front of this group of Mexican guys which we found to be rather hilarious but she never actually fell down. So we were walking, checking to see if maybe there was another hotel because *OUR HOTEL WAS ANT INFESTED*. YUCK. Bleh. So we were checking out our options when I tripped beside this Marquesita stand into the mud-slime-guts of the gutter. Thing is, there probably really were guts that I tripped into; I’m pretty sure there was a butcher shop like right there.

But anyway, we made it back to our hotel. I looked at the yellow stained walls, the ants crawling around in the bathroom (The ants go marching eight by eight HURRAH HURRAH). And contrived to rinse myself off (because I don’t think I would have felt much better if I had actually showered. And so much for my jean shorts.

After that experience we decided we’d head out to Cancun early and just hope we could get a good place. So we went to bed, and then in the late morning walked over to Wal*mart where we ran into Megan and Laurie and informed them of our change in plans. We also bought granola bars and yogurt drinks which made for a very tasty breakfast on the ride from Cancun to Playa del Carmen which we just hopped on the bus for.

Cozumel * " : .

And as it turned out, splitting off early from the group was definitely the way to go. We took a cheap taxi to the ADO station and hopped right on a bus leaving to Cancun

(like…literally…we bought tickets and the bus was held until they could finalize our transaction that’s how important we were). Unfortunately we weren’t able to use the student discount, but that’s okay. We figured we’d just keep that possibility in mind for later.

So we toodled along until we got to Playa del Carmen (now you’re probably thinking…why did you title this Cozumel if you went to Playa?) Well, to get to Cozumel (since it’s an island) you have to take a ferry, and the ferry is located in *drum roll pleasssssssseeeee* Playa del Carmen. So we walked among all these vendors and stuff with eyes the size of plates and then got to the ferry which was going to be leaving in an hour. That worked out fine for us because we were then able to go look around a little bit (even though we were going to be coming back) and made a discovery!

We walked into a store (with the best exchange rate in town it boasted) and asked about getting those blasted tickets for the futbol game which were so elusive. Well, no one really knew, and then they asked another guy who said “yeah they sell ‘em over there by the extra” (err…he said that in Spanish) “You have to be there early though like three days before the game” So we’re thinking, Excellent! That’s just when we’re planning on getting back from Cozumel and such we’ll be here!

So with that bit of information we boarded our ferry boat to Cozumel where there was a college aged guy in a sombrero who was quite enthralled with his Corona auctioning off said beer to the passengers. Some people did play along, but the guy decided that his Corona was worth more than the 100 pesos or however much he was offered and drank it himself.

When we got to Cozumel, we were decently hungry. We began walking around to try to find a) our parasailing place b) a place to eat and c) a hotel, ideally near said parasailing place. We came across a good place to eat (that was cheap) first and had a feast of quesadillas, hamburger, enchiladas, and fries (well…I had the enchiladas, and Chelsea had the burger). It was quite excellent and, figuring we were pretty close to our parasailing place (or at least within walking distance) we also stumbled across a sign (and by sign I mean there was something painted on the back of a building) saying there was a Hotel Pepita “just around the corner”. So we were like “sounds like a good place to check out” and we did it was only going to be 350 pesos a night. Sweet! We say to ourselves especially after we saw the room where we had a little fridgerator and shower and all.

We settled in and called the parasailing place setting up a time..or...well…trying to set up a time and decided we’d actually just stay in Cozumel for two nights instead of the originally planned just one night (we had no idea how excellent of a decision this was until we got to Playa but more on that later). So we walked over to the Super [grocery store] and bought some bread (actually they were like little loaves like we ate in Tecate which probably that doesn’t make any difference to anyone reading this…) but yeah that bread was 1 peso a piece and some ham (that was actually turkey but tasted like ham…) and cheese and some coca light etc. So we got some food.

We went and looked for some beach I think…but there wasn’t very much beach to be found (odd, right?). But there was some shopping, I felt pretty familiar with the area since we’d been there over the summer and we took some photos. Basically that was the day.

The next morning we got up, I called the parasailing place and we got right to the parasailing business! We took a taxi down to Playa Mia (and the taxi driver accidently undercharged us he explained) and we got on the boat and watched some other people parasail and then it was our turn. I actually took my videocamera up with us so I have video of it it’ll just be some time before I can actually upload that.

Parasailing was quite a bit of fun. It didn’t really hold too much of an adrenaline rush like I’d hoped, but it was still really pretty to see everything from up in the air. =) Pictures are currently on facebook. Hopefully I’ll have that video to you all fairly shortly.

When we finished, we were taken off the boat by another boat with two other people. They got dropped off at another beach that was further up the way and Chelsea and I decided we’d just get off here too. As it turned out, we didn’t have to pay to stay, and while we were supposed to eat at least 10 dollars worth of food, we didn’t, and Chelsea also didn’t pay the 10 dollars that you were apparently supposed to pay to play on the big blow up toys. And by didn’t I mean of course we paid…0 =D

So we spent the day there and then took a taxi back to our hotel area which was now the same amount as the first taxi since we were further up towards where we wanted to go. =) So that was all good. =)

Most of the rest of the evening we spent relaxing. We ate our sandwiches for lunch and ate dinner out at a place they kept asking us to come to. =) I actually got myself a hoodie while I was there. Not because I was cold, but because I think I’ll wear it a lot when I get back to the States (well…for winter anyway haha).

The next morning we got up and went down to catch the ferry early to go to Playa del Carmen!

More pictures can be found here:

The Inframundo Trip

Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, y Cancun

***>One month from today I'll be on my way home<***

Inframundo: Tulum, Mexico & Surrounding Areas

Hello Ladies and Germs! I now present to you the long awaited next installment in my life in Mexico. On Saturday morning I got up, realized I’d not packed a few key things (like my swim suit) and shoved them into my overly full backpack. Not long after that, Chelsea’s mom picked me up and we went down to Los Arcos and met up with Diana and the rest of our Inframundo group (but Diana wasn’t actually coming with us).

Fourteen of us piled into the van with all our backpacks secured to the roof with bungee cords. Guillermo was our guide (who apparently is also the subaquatic archeology prof. So we went off down the road and stopped at an archeological site where it was reaaaaaallly hot (I think this was a day where the weather was supposed to be 112 according to google) and we actually rented bicycles and went through the place. After that, we went a little farther down the road and swam in a very cool cenote.

When it was time for the cenote to “close,” we all hopped back into the van and headed for our home base: Tulum. Our home for the next couple days were cabañas on the beach. It was a pretty nice set up, though we only had electricity from 7 PM to 6 AM and never hot water but it was good. In the afternoons it was only a short walk down to the actual ocean. Laurie and Megan slept in their hammocks and Chelsea and I slept in the twin beds.

In the morning, everything was very lax which was very nice and not what I expected. While we had a schedule everything wasn’t super rushed. We were treated to a breakfast of donuts and apple yogurt and then we got into the van and went to another archeological site. On the way there we were stopped by the police who thought Guillermo might have been running some sort of prostitution gig because there were what appeared to be only girls in the van and a male driver. But it was cool we convinced them that we were students and just on a trip.

This particular archeological-ruins site looked like something out of a movie like the secret garden or maybe even some deleted scenes for Pan’s Labyrinth. It was really beautiful. There were trees growing out the rock-work and everything looked untouched. I vaguely was expecting fairies…or at least CGI ones.

This was also the place I think where there was a very tall wooden watch tower. I climbed up it (after the wooden picnic table right next to it collapsed rather noisily), and it took you up above the tree cover. (I thought of you, Dad). It was quite a site.

This day I don’t think we went to a cenote, we just went back to camp early. We brought out our cloth to the beach and hung out there for awhile (with sunscreen). That evening we decided we would all go out to dinner as a group which was nice. We went to an Italian place in Tulum (and got stopped by the police again but I’m not sure what for this time) and my order was actually kind of forgotten…but eventually I got my food and it was all good.

The third day we went to (guess) another archeological site. This one though had the possibility of seeing animals. Well, we didn’t see any big ones, just a gigantic amount of mosquitoes. So that was rather unhappy, but Ariana taught me a song in german about mosquitoes. That was fun.

We were all glad when we finally left and we went to a magnificent cenote. There was a tree that I jumped off of on the ledge. There were quite a few people there and we explored a little cave first but it was really nice and pretty.

The next day we were apparently supposed to get up early but we weren’t informed of it. The schedule was going to involve going to Tulum (the ruins) before heading out back to Merida. Chelsea and I were actually kind of sick of seeing ruins though, so we opted out and decided to start our own part of the vacation right there. =)

SpriNg bReaK 20o9

Hey to those of you still keeping up with this =)
As of half an hour from now (don't you like how last minute I am...don't even ask about when I finish(ed) packing...) I'm off for our excursion trip and then going to be futzing about in Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, and Cancun. I should be back on Easter though. =)
Either way, don' t be looking for any updates during the week 'cause I'm not going to have internet access, that sort of thing. Hope all is well!

Cheers! <3 Kate

March 28, 2009

My bad, this is so late. The thing is the weekend actually kept me quite busy. But on to the interesting part of the weekend which would be Saturday afternoon where in we went to the cenotes!

Chelsea and I met Megan at the cathedral and took a little walk over to catch a combi which cost us all of 14 pesos for an hour ride to Cuzumá. When we got there, we were let out and there were a bunch of people with bicycle taxis waiting for us.

Chelsea and Megan each chose different bicycle taxis, but they fit two people each, which left me with the exceptionally difficult job of making a decision. The kid behind Chelsea was…exactly that, a kid, but normally I would ride with her. Megan helped out and said she would go by herself so I sat with Chelsea. Well, the two of us laughed the entire way at ourselves, the entire way being 5 km with this poor kid who was pushing us. We weren’t really sure if he was going to make it. But surprisingly, he managed.

When we got to the end of the road, we hopped into a cart with a pony that began the trek to the first cenote. We got to spend 30 minutes at each cenote which I think was actually just enough.

The cenotes were so interesting because while it was sweltering outside, when you went down into them they were so much cooler, then plus the water it was very refreshing. The water was so clear you could see straight to the bottom. Absolutely beautiful.

While we were there, there were also a couple of daredevils who climbed up some of the rocks and back flipped into the water. We clapped…so I kind of felt like a bit of an enabler but it was actually really neat to watch while I was glad for the first time that my guy friends from home weren’t here so that I didn’t have to worry about them getting similar ideas into their heads.

With that said, we made the rounds to the other two cenotes, all of which had a different appearance and charm before heading back to the bike taxis where Angel (the boy) and the other guy waited for us. They drove us back (this time Chelsea and Megan rode together with the other guy so it wasn’t quite as difficult for Angel, and we made it back, took a convi and came back to Merida.

You can find the pictures here on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028672&id=47802150&l=bd46b25b55

Cheers! <3>

March 27, 2009

Today I played hookie from school. It was only one class and I’ve yet to miss so I thought I’d take a three day weekend and save myself the 16 pesos to get there. So the morning was spent relatively lazily in my room reading, e-mailing, etc.

After lunch, Chelsea and I went on a wild goose chase to find tickets to a soccer game. This was kind of not smart of us because it was over 40 degrees celcius (over 100 degrees out) and we were walking around trying to figure out where we were going. Also when we got there just before 4 the place was closed.

Then we went to Grand Plaza where Chelsea got her hair cut and dyed grey. No, it was not supposed to be grey, they were supposed to make highlights it just turned into a disaster. But it’s all good, we got it, because, thanks to prior disastrous highlighting experience, I knew enough to get them to change it. Now it looks quite nice and the cut is really cute.

Since it was 8:30 by the time all that was finished, we went to the food court and got dinner. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich…and ended up with some sort of burger. Yeah…I…don’t entirely get it either. We’ve really have excellent luck the two of us. The good thing is that in the end the hair turned out alright. =)

On the other hand, I just got an e-mail telling me my coke points are going to expire. Despite the large amounts of cocacola I’ve drank down here, they don’t participate in this points awarding system. So. You know, if you don’t happen to have a coke account yourself, but happen to have a code laying around that you feel like passing off to me so my points don’t expire on the 3^rd, that’d be pretty super sweet of you.

And I think that’s about it. Haha. Would reaaaaallly like some super sweet streak of good luck right arouuuuunnnddd now. We’re going to visit some cenotes tomorrow and hopefully nothing bad will happen. We’re going to cross our fingers (and not get them slammed into car doors or anything like that. We’ll make sure to take extra caution since the way things have been going of late haven’t proven to be particularly auspicious). I’m actually not as bitter as I probably sound. I’m kind of looking at the day as a “wow, it really didn’t go our way, did it?” and laughing to myself. So no worries. But really. Hope things go well tomorrow.

Cheers <3>

March 24, 2009

The goal for the day was to do laundry. That, at least, was achieved. The other, somewhat secondary goal was to find tickets for this soccer game in Cancun. That was not achieved. Chelsea and I went to this place in Plaza Fiesta where supposedly they would sell them but they didn’t. On the other hand, Chelsea did some investigating/asked someone else who gave us another location that we just have to find at some point. We can go check there then at some point in time.

Unfortunately, it was a work day. I actually set up the hammock in my room and got to work (now some of you think I’m being sarcastic but no, I sat in the hammock and read for 2 hours until I got a phone call from Mandy saying that they were going to the Centro for banana splits if I wanted to come along. It was kind of her birthday yesterday so I did. That kind of was a 3 hour trip (2 hours in the bus, 1 hour there…ah so pathetic). That kind of left me doing homework til 2- 2:30 in the morning. Which was a little unfortunate but that’s okay.
Cheers <3 Kate