Deciding going to this trip is one crazy thing I have ever done in my life. I had been felt depressed since a lot of things didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be. I bought the flight ticket one day before I left for the trip. I really need to get out here for a while.
3/7 - Playa del Carmen
This is a full day fly to Cancun, Mexico. In fact, I felt quite anxious about this trip since I booked this so late. I worried about the transportation from Cancun airport to the resort, Viva Azteca, that my friend Jane stayed in Playa del Carmen. I hadn't got the voucher from the travel agency. I was not sure if they would let me get on the shuttle without voucher. I didn't buy the inclusive package to stay at Viva Azteca. I was not sure where I could stay when I got there. Would I feel regret since it is not well planned? Would I bother Jane and her husband a lot since I will be the light bulb between them? Well, it seems too late to think all of this.
After I met Jane and James, I decided to stay with them in the same room by spending $150 for the first night. Can you believe they charge $240 for a person to stay in one room per night? This place is so expensive but there are still a lot of people taking their families here. There are so many rich people out there but I just don't know them. This is just not the type of vacation I can enjoy that much at this time of my life.
Interest thing: The first Spanish word I recognize is ALTO. This word is written on a red octagonal sign wherever there is the intersection. I believe it means STOP. However, no one stop at the stop sign. Finally I asked the driver, "Is ALTO a STOP?" All passengers in the car laughed! I believe all passengers are from US. Only they know what I mean.
3/8 - Xel-Ha
Too many unknown things I get to figure out today. That made me uncomfortable to fall in a good sleep though I was really tired last night.
We have to wake up early to go to Xel-Ha for snorkling. Jane believes that would be a good place for me, a non-swimmer, to try out first time. We saw iguanas everywhere in Mexico. They are ugly but somehow cute if you see them raising their heads sunbath. We also saw more than a dozen dolphins raised in the park.
They kept our sunblock lotion at the entrance and gave us the environmental friendly ones to use. Amazing! I felt comfortable to have that on my skin. It is not sticky at all. I will consider to buy this type of sunblock lotion in the future even though it may be more expensive.
Though I wore a life jacket, I still felt scared in the water in the beginning. I have difficult time to use fins to paddle myself going forward. Jane held my hand in the water so I wouldn't fall behind too much. That was a long swimming before we finally saw a lot of fish in the lagoon. Jane and James went back to the old place to get our towels and sandals. I was left alone there but I had so much fun with water now. There are swimming tubs on the shore we can use for free. I switched to the swimming tub, playing with water for a while. I found wearing life jacket and sitting on/getting off the swimming tub is very inconvenient. I gave up the swimming tub and went into water snorkeling again. This time, when I saw fish, I tried to chase them. This is so much fun to be able to float and see fish that close to me without worrying how to breathe in the water.
Later in the afternoon, we lay down on the hammocks. That was so relaxing. Jane was telling me their stories to Venezuela which I regretted so much that I missed last year. I wish we could stay in the hammock longer. But I have to go back to the resort to see if I can stay in the resort with a cheaper rate. It turned out NO.
I took taxi to downtown and checked in to this hotel, $60 per might. This one is considered fancy compared to other local hotels in the downtown. There are also cheaper ones, $25 per night, but I didn't even bother to check them out since I do not know how safe those are.
This hotel has the traditional Mexican style look. There are three floors. The stairs are located at the corners. In the middle, there is the courtyard and a small swimming pool. The bright colors, like yellow, orange, red and purple are used on the walls and furniture. I noticed they don't put carpet in the room. I believe it's because it's too hot and humid. The carpet would make it so hard to maintain and it would smell. I have a balcony facing the hotel front street. I felt lucky to have this room where I can see people passing by.
3/9 - Cozumel
We had a bad experience visiting the new resort and talking to the selling manager this morning. That's the price we had to pay to get three free ferry tickets to Cozumel and some discounts for snorkeling at first three coral reefs along the west coast of the island.
I didn't enjoy today's snorkeling that much since I was tired physically. I didn't get enough sleep last night. I got sea sick when I changed swimming suit in the restroom at the bottom floor of the boat. The life jacket they provided us is filled with air which is very uncomfortable when I floated on the water. The water is cold and the coral reef is not that colorful.
We went back to Playa del Carmen downtown to have a simple dinner in one of local taco stores. The tacos are greasy but they are really good. If the Mexican restaurants in the states make such good tacos, I won't mind to go more often.
We also picked up the rental car tonight. I can't belive they also rent out the cars without air conditioning. Who wants to rent a car without A/C in Mexico? With $10 more, I'd definitely go for the one with A/C. Renting a car is so expensive here. It's more than $50 per day for a compact car.
3/10 - Chichen Itza
We left early and hoped to get there before it's too hot. We passed several small towns. When we entered the town, a lot of large bumps are set up to slow down the traffic. However, they are not easily to be seen. The painted yellow color faded on most of them, and even more ridiculously, the bump warning sign appears just where the bump is. They didn't give us enough time to slow down. It did sound scary loud when the car ran over it. We hope it wouldn't damage the rental car. We arrived at ruin around 10:00 AM. The sun was just straight above our heads. There was no way to escape the heat even though we tried. James called this place, Chicken Pizza. What a funny alternative name!
Interesting thing: We stopped at a bigger town for lunch. We entered the food court in the plaza. Only two venders were open. The funny thing was one vender had no customers at all. They kept calling for people's attention but no one bought stuff from them. And the cashier was falling asleep in front of the cash register. On the contrary, another vender was lined up with many customers. One old man was so busy to take orders and two ladies were so busy on making tacos. Of course, we ordered tacos from this one and we were very satisfied.
3/11 - Tulum
This was my adventurous day. I went alone since Jane and James visited it on their first day here. I met two travelers on the bus. They wanted to walk to the ruin from Tulum bus station. I thought it's nice to be accompanied, so decided to walk with them instead of taking taxi. On the half way to the ruin, I realized that was a big mistake. Hiking along the highway without knowing where exactly the ruin is under the heat from the powerful sunlight, I regretted that I didn't persuade them to take taxi with me.
At the entrance, we asked if they have the tour guy service. This tour guy who already lead a group of tourists approached us initiatively. He asked us to pay him tips at the end. This is smart that he got extra money by the same work and we saved more money than to hire a private guide.
I think Maya culture is unreasonable and mercyless. The date of the birth determines the person's life. The winner team's captain and the loser team's captain have to die. One die in honor and one die in dishonor.
After the ruin, I walked on the wrong path for a quite distance under the sun again. I finally got to the highway and tried to hitchhike the white van back to downtown. This white van is different kind of public transportation which picks up passangers anywhere on the road, $2 per person regardless distance if I understand correctly. This is actually cheaper than I took the bus $2.90 this morning, surprisingly.
I think it is scary to walk along the highway alone. I hoped the white van would appear soon but it just doesn't come when you need it. I walked along the highway for a while. Thank Lord. The van appeared and stopped for me. I climbed into the car and noticed I was the only female in the van. Later on, a woman in the purple suit came up. It came to my attention since she is different than the local people I have seen so far. She seems friendly and looks elegant. She sat next to me. Then we started to chat on things, occupations, her education, her dreams, her family, her kid, her ex-husband, and most importantly, how she came to believe in God.
