First Days in Mexico

I arrived in Cancun last Saturday, an hour earlier than expected. After a 5+ hour flight, and a 2 hour car ride before that, I was a bit exhausted. Then, I had a very long, stuffy wait on the shuttle bus from the airplane to the airport, which sat on the tarmac for about 20 minutes in the same spot before advancing to the airport. So, I was practically melting.

I left the airport, and looked for my friend, who was supposed to pick me up. But, because I had arrived early, she was not there. I waited for almost an hour, being harassed by millions of taxi drivers and travel agencies, who tried to offer me drives. Eventually I asked where to go to wait for a friend, and found a place closer to the parking lot, a little farther away from the droves of taxi drivers. After a long, very hot wait, Carolina arrived. She arrived about 20 minutes after my expected landing time, which would have been perfect if we had landed on time. I ended up waiting outside for over 30 minutes, maybe closer to an hour. I tried not to look at the time at all, to make the time pass a little faster.

So, needless to say, I was very relieved to see Carolina. She was with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, and they drove me to their house to drop off my stuff. There, I met her rotweiler and her tiny pet turtles (all of whom I loved). They expected me to be terrified of the rotweiler, but (of course) I loved her, and she really liked me too. Then we went out to eat. We went to 100% Natural, a restaurant I had been told about by a friend of mine, that has vegetarian foods. They ended up ordering 3 different appetizers, all vegetarian, and splitting them between the three of us (me, Carolina, and Maggie, since Maggie’s boyfriend stayed home). They wanted to make sure I could try lots of different foods. I also had a giant glass of juice with pineapple and orange juice, mixed. Some of the food was awesome, some was not so great. I was afraid that the fresh cheese or the juice would make me sick, but luckily, the next day I still felt fine. The sauces were really good, and I think I’m going to put some green sauce (“salsa verde”) on everything from now on.

Then we went on a bit of a driving tour around Cancun. We got out and walked around a few malls and a few of the main streets in Cancun (in the hotel zone), and looked at some shops and some stalls where they were selling beautiful stuff. Maggie was taking pictures of me everywhere, doing silly things, and got me to go over to a creepy looking statue of a guy on a motorcycle. He looked very evil. She wanted me to take a picture with it. I didn’t want to, but she insisted. I went over, and when I got super close, he moved!!! And kind of fake-attacked me. It scared the crap out of me. He was a real guy, dressed up like a super creepy statue. Anyway, Maggie thought it was hilarious. Then he put me on his motorcycle and posed for some pictures.

Later we went to the beach to see it at night, and walked around in the sand. I couldn’t believe I was walking on a beach, barefoot, in shorts, in February. Surreal.

We eventually went home and I slept because I was completely exhausted. Oh, but first we went to Walmart to buy some groceries for breakfast the next day. I didn’t even know Walmart was in other countries. I’ve never seen one in Ecuador or Peru.

The next day we went to the beach!! First, Maggie made me some delicious “hotcakes” (pancakes). Then we went to the beach, but it was a bit grey, and we decided to walk around first and feel sufficiently hot and sweaty, so that we could appreciate the cold water. We then walked around again, and looked at more vendors, and they harassed us in broken English until I just about lost my mind. They were more persistent than another other vendors I’ve met, I think. One guy offered me a free massage when I told him I didn’t want a tattoo or to have my hair braided. Another man spoke to me in almost perfect English while I looked at his stuff, and then said something about my “booty shorts.” I was shocked. My shorts weren’t that short! And why on earth would someone talk about my shorts? They weren’t even as short as Carolina’s, I think. Anyway, I didn’t enjoy that. He kept saying booty shorts, and then I left.

I didn’t buy anything because it was all expensive. Carolina said it’s all much cheaper in merida. We finally left and I was happy to get away from the constant catcalling and weird insistence of the vendors.

After walking around a while longer, we went to the beach. The water felt super cold getting in, but then it was AMAZING. I enjoyed it so much. The water was so bright blue it was almost turquoise. The waves were not too big. The sand was almost pure white. It was absolutely incredible. I wanted to stay in the water forever. Eventually though, we had to leave and go back to Maggie’s house to get ready to take the bus to Merida.

The bus ride was about 4.5 hours long and a bit boring. The sound on the movies didn’t work well, so we had to watch without being able to hear (except when they were yelling in the movie), and try to guess what was happening. Finally, we arrived and I went to bed at Carolina’s.

Now I am in Merida. I have my place to stay, and it’s going well. Carolina’s cousin Alejandro took me to get groceries (at another Walmart), so I have a few things to cook for myself now. Carolina’s 11 year old cousin, Valentina, took it upon herself to be my personal tour guide/helper and followed me around for the rest of the day talking more than I ever thought possible, showing me pictures, taking pictures of me with my camera, etc.

My internet has been very…. inconsistent. I am not sure why, because other computers have no trouble with it, but mine constantly disconnects and won’t work for hours at a time. So, I will post this now while it seems to be working, and we’ll see when I get another chance.

Today we were also looking for a volunteer job for me. I found one organization that would like to have me work for them, but Carolina doesn’t know them, and wants to check out other options too. We’re going to try to meet with the guy from the organization I found tomorrow or sometime this week. They have lots of programs in many different types of work, and I think it could be a good place to work. We’ll see how it goes.

Ok, that’s all for now. I’m going to go have something to eat. I’ll post again when I have the time and the internet.