It began with the planning. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh the planning. Megan and I did...everything...which included finding flights, making hostel reservations (checking millions of reviews and comparing prices), deciding what we were gonna do, and stressing out a LOT. Most of this, might I add, took place the day before we left. Also, might I add, my plane ticket cost $208 and I am quite proud of this purchase. Anyways. Moving along.
We went from April 1-9, skipping school Wed, Thur, Friday, because not very many people have classes Wed (I have cooking), and we have different classes on Thurs and Friday, so it was like we really only missed one day of each class. I just realized it is because of unnecessary details like this that my posts usually end up being ridiculously long. Like seriously, that was a whole paragraph.
Soo the people that went were me, Megan, Tom, Katie (Vancouver), and Jackie (Austin). The latter two didn't really like the itinerary we put together, so they just did their own thing and then we met up at the hostel at night because we had already made the reservations. Which was fine.
I'm putting a map here for reference purposes showing the places we went. I hope you appreciate my Microsoft Paint masterpiece. If you click on it it blows it up really big.
Fun tidbit before I continue. Megan and Tom accidentally bought tickets to Ciudad del Carmen, which is in another state than Playa del Carmen. Oops.
We flew into Cancun and went straight to Playa del Carmen. I was feeling pretty snobby about being in a city with tourists who just want to get trashed and be able to say they've been to another country, and unfortunately that has been my attitude the entire time I've been here. Or rather... I want to be the only tourist. :)
Anyways we got to Playa del Carmen and that wasn't much better. SO much English it made my head spin. What we thought was going to be the first adventure was that we asked some server where our hostel was and they told us it was no longer in existence. But he just said that because he didn't know and didn't know how to answer. So we checked in to our $13/night hostel...which was surprisingly nice! Basic, but perfect. Then we ate and promptly went to the beach.
After our stroll on the beach, we found this place that does scuba diving. Tom's all certified and goes on dives and stuff, and Megan and I decided to do it too. Katie and Jackie decided to stick to snorkeling. The next day when we were gonna do it, the sea was too choppy, so we had to postpone it a day. Everybody else went to this park type thing that is built around natural features but super tourified. Like people dressing up like Mayas and stuff. It was also super pricey, so for that reason and the fact that I had homework to do for the Friday class I skipped, I stayed on the beach, read, turned in my stuff, and relaxed. It was kind of a fun day on my own.
The next day, we did the scuba diving in Cozumel, an island off the coast of Playa del Carmen. We were supposed to get 2 oxygen tanks and go to several locations on a boat, but it was a definite bait-and-switch type situation. Fun, but not what we paid for. After a big big mess which we handled with poise and mediocre Spanish skills, we got it cleared up and got a lot of our money back. Regardless, I'm glad we did it. It was kind of scary...it took me a half hour to breath normally, and then we had a half hour of swimming around. But it was pretty darn cool. Here are a couple pictures and my first attempt at uploading a video, courtesy of Tom and his super sweet underwater camera case.
The next day, we went to Tulum (Too-LOOM)reeeeally early so we could get to the ruins before everybody and their mom did. We got really lucky with transportation; in all the cities we went to, there were these awesome "taxis colectivos"-- collective taxis, or cheap charter buses we could take. The taxis colectivos are either a car or a van where you fit in as many people as there are seats that are all going in the same general direction (the people, not the seats), and that way it turns out to be really cheap. And there are tons so you don't have to wait for them. It was amazing. So we got to this hostel around 8, also like $15/night, and it was SO NICE. Cute cabins, pretty flowers, and a staff that included a lady who, after explaining how everything worked, sat me down and drew a map and explained places of interest, and her mother in law, who made us breakfast every morning, even when we were trying to rush out to catch a taxi that was waiting on us, she insisted on packing said breakfast to go. She also made us burritos to go on our last day. Anyways, so we put our stuff in the hostel and headed literally across the street to the ruins. Actually after crossing the big street it was a ways to the actual entrance of the ruins, but that was ok, because our hostel fee not only included a room and breakfast but also bikes. Here are some pictures from that day:
Us biking to the ruins. Very Brady Bunch, decided Megan.
This was in an area with stores outside the ruins where some "voladores" (flyers) were doing their thing. The four guys tied to a reel of rope on top of the post plus a person playing some flute type thing sit up there, and then the four jump off, but they don't go very far right away since they're tied. Then the post slowly spins, and the guys slowly descend, also while spinning, and while the guy up top is playing. Then they get to the ground after a couple minutes and come ask for money.
We must have seen like 10 iguanas in a 3 hour period!
This is me covering up the English part of the explanatory signs so no one would be tempted to be lazy.
The next day we woke up at an ungodly hour again, which we did like 7 of the 8 days, believe it or not, and went to Coba, (Co-BAH) to see some ruins. Some people beat us, so we not-so-patiently waited for them to come back down this pyramid so we could get some National Geo-esque pictures. Then we walked literally miles and miles and looked at a lot of buildings and stones that all started to look strikingly similar.
Post-climb. I realize this picture is bad; I just wanted to show how high up we were. If you blow it up you can see a little dirt path behind me with a tiny tiny person.
My archaeologist shot. I am such a nerdddddddddd and I don't careeeeeeeeee.
Later that day we took a bus to Valladolid, a cute pueblito (little town). That place was one of my favorites because it was so not touristy. We did a lot a lot a lot of walking around, peoplewatching, building watching, etc. We walked to this church that Tom's guidebook raved about, because apparently the insides are really cool. I don't remember what was so special about it, I think it was like pillaged by the Maya or something (is that properly used? I just wanted to say pillaged.) BUT we couldn't go inside, because they were having mass outside. Hmmmm. It was cool to see, regardless.
Another plus of this outside mass was that a ton of people were selling food, including one we had never heard of, called "marquesitas." They're like this pancake/crepe-type mixture poured onto a waffle iron-type thing, and once they're crispyish, they're filled with your filling of choice (jam, nutella, chocolate sauce, etc.) plus cheeze and folded or rolled. Go figure. But they were delish!!!
Good heavens, this is long. Gold star if you're still reading.
I might be getting my days mixed up, but at some point when we were near Valladolid, we went south of the town to a place with limestone landforms called "cenotes" (say-NO-tays) that I think are unique to the Yucatan and that I think have something to do with a meteorite. You know what? I don't think I can describe it well, so you'll just have to see the picture. I think the only thing that doesn't show up in the picture is the hole up top. So you know who's who, this is....me, Megan, Tom, Jackie, and Katie.
The next day we woke up at 6 again and went straight to Chichen Itza. (Chee-CHEN eet-ZA, which struck me as funny cuz the accents are the opposite of how we say it in English). It was amazing!!! On this one, we decided to splurge and get a guide. He was cool. He spoke Maya. It sounded funny. The tour, however, was not conducted in Maya, as that would have been a complete waste of money. Here's more photographic material:
Ball court. Look for the little hoops on the side that you might recognize from The Emperor's New Groove, if I'm not mistaken.
Here's Chac Mool, messenger of the rain god Chaac (said chaaaaac with a scratchy voice if you want to say it in Maya). There is actually a lot of confusion between archeologists who's who, or maybe they're the same. The reason for my odd amount of interest, though, is because "Chac Mool" by Carlos Fuentes is the first real short story I read in Spanish.
The pyramid of Venus
The observatory. I was just watching a thing about the Mayan 2012 end of the world prophesy...I guess they did some of those calculations in that very spot.
And of course the famous part! Reaping the benefits of waking up early.
The next leg of the trip was to go from Valladolid back to Cancun, where we spent 2 nights before leaving. The first night was in the world's worst hostel, which involved a tick in Megan's bed, soaking wet unusable mattresses after a bug bomb, and an invitation to topless yoga. Second night we switched and went to a lovely one nearby with an internet cafe and everything. Ooh and in Cancun we found a restaurant called Las Papas (potatoes filled with meat, cheese, cream sauce, chipotle...and an odd slab of fried cheese on the side. And delicious horchata!!!) that Megan and I are in LOVE with. There's a few in GDL and then they have like a satellite campus in Cancun. That was a nice treat. Both times.
Anyways, our first day in Cancun, we went to Isla Mujeres, an island off its coast that supposedly has amazing beaches. It is true. As soon as we got there some people jumped us with a boating/snorkeling offer that was actually pretty good, so we did that.
Then we went to a beach there. The water there, like everywhere we went, was out of control. I felt like I was in a pool!
Then the next day we woke up in our tick-free hostel, packed up, and headed to the bus station from where we were going to head to the airport. That was where Tom, frantically tearing apart his backpack, realized he left his wallet in the hostel...or somewhere, and this bus driver was already mad at us for holding him up. So we went to the airport and gave Tom money to go check in the hostel. Fortunately, they did have it, and he taxied to the airport. We didn't understand why, but they rushed us through the get-your-ticket line and over to the gate. Then Tom showed up running. Perfect timing. So we get to the gate, and it turns out they had bumped our flight half an hour EARLIER, but we didn't know it. Again, fortunately, they couldn't load up said plane because the flight before it came in late. SO that was a close one, but we made it back just fine!
Oh my gosh, I'm so sick of writing and you're probably sick of reading so let's call this a day. XOXO!
PS here is a cheezy end-of-the-post pic:
