Yes, I've been bad. For a while I had my reasons, but even that time passed by long ago. For those of you who are curious, Karen's been much better about keeping everybody abreast of where we've been and what we've been up to. Her updates are probably the main reason I've allowed myself to be extra lazy.
As usual, "plans" have changed and rather than making our through central america down to costa rica or even panama, we've turned north and find ourselves in Mexico. One of Karen's friends is studying here so we visited her in Merida for Carnival. We were thinking about heading back down to Honduras to do some scuba diving in the bay islands (renowned for some of the cheapest diving in central america) but we have flights booked out of Cancun at the end of March and that only leaves us a month to make it all the way there and back again. I checked around and it seems that Playa del Carmen has similar rates so now we're shopping around for a dive shop where Karen can get her Open Water certification. After that we'll be able to go on a few dives together. Karen is looking forward to spending some time on the beach SLOWLY getting a little pigment before we head back to the states for a wedding and a bachelorette party.
Part of our reasoning for staying in Mexico is that border crossings here get to be a bit pricy. Belize charges a departure fee of 15 dollars per person (20 if you stay more than a day) which seems to me more like a toll to pay for the use of their roads than anything else. Mexico charges about the same to enter the country, so going to honduras and coming back would cost $60 per person in border crossings alone. Why spend four or five days in transit just to save a little money on diving and accomodations...
The trip from Merida to Playa was an interesting experience. It should be about five hours to get here in a bus. For some reason our guide book said it was five and a half hours on a first class bus and cost 25 dollars. However it was only 16 dollars and four hours to get to Tulum and then 2 more dollars and an hour ride from there to get here. Something didn't add up. We were ready to take the bus to Tulum and transfer from there if need be. When we went to shop around though we found a bus leaving a 9:30 in the morning for about $12. Perfect. When we got the tickets the lady said their wasn't a bus at that time. I asked if it was full and she said no, but it's Mayab. We're not sure why that was significant but we said, yes, that's fine, that's the bus we want. She kept trying to put us on a bus that left in the evening and took 10 hours to get there and we kept sayin no. When she asked first or second class we'd said second and we thought maybe the Mayab bus was first class after all which was why she didn't want to sell us the ticket. It really didn't make any sense. Unfortunately in all the confusion I never asked how long the Mayab bus would take. The next day when we boarded it, we found out. It was 9 hours before we reached Playa and there were no bathrooms on the bus. Just that morning I was coming down with a cold so my bladder was extra sensitive... The over airconditioned ride was less than fun and we were pretty tired by the time we arrived -- just after sun down.
Maybe this is why she kept saying it was a Mayab bus. Maybe there was some significance in that name indicating it was going to take the long backroads all the way south half way down to the border before going back up the coast to reach its final destinations. You would think this would be something she could mention. Sir, are you sure you want to go two sides of a triangle when you only need to go one? Had I known, I would have opted to pay the extra 6 bucks to arrive before dark.
So there we were, just after the sun set, tired and hungry. We checked into the first place we found with a reasonable price. It's a bit of a dump, but charming in some respects. When we came back from dinner and crashed into bed at about 8:00, queen was playing in the background. Karen said she'd never heard that particular song before until this trip. This was her second time hearing it on the trip though. And her third. Maybe even her fourth. I guess somebody had put the cd player on repeat. Not repeat the album, but repeat the song. They played every song two or three times in a row before somebody would get up and change the song. The music was loud too, and only got louder when the crowds congregated in the room outside our door. It sounded like fun, but we were too tired to notice. Maybe tonight we'll join the party before going to bed.
We meant to find a new place after getting up this morning, but the first place we looked at cost twice as much. It looked clean, but our little hell hole was starting to grow on us and being our lazy usual selves we decided to stay another day. This afternoon while looking for lunch, we found a place that had a weekly special. It's nicer, includes a bathroom, has a tv and AC and costs two thirds what we're currently paying. Tomorrow we move in. A week gives us plenty of time for Karen to complete a dive course and for us to follow it up with a few dives together. After that maybe we'll head down the coast to somewhere a little less developed -- maybe someplace without a starbucks...
So long for now,
J
