Two Weeks with Jazzy Fizzle
A couple of months ago when Matthias was talking to his family in Germany our nephew Justin (whose friends coined him the Snoop-lingo nickname Jazzy-Fizzle) said he wanted to come visit us during his spring break. We looked for flights and he ended up getting a flight to none other than the Mecca of all spring breaks – Cancun, Mexico.
Justin is 16 and in the 10th grade. The last time we were in Germany was last year during the World Cup, almost a year ago. Since we don’t get to see him all that much we were very excited that he was coming. The day of his arrival we went to the grocery store and stocked up on the essential supplies for a spring break vacation – beer and ice. We picked Jazzy-Fizzle up from the airport and had a cooler full of beers waiting for him in the car.
When we got back to our campsite Justin slipped right into the hammock with a beer in hand and relaxed into life on the Yucatan. (By the way, the drinking age for beer and wine in Germany is 16, so as far as we were concerned, he’s legal.) The next couple of days we spent swimming, snorkeling, hanging out on the beach and looking for cute girls. One day Justin had seen an attractive woman up on a balcony and that night he decided to go over to her and yell “Hola!” at the top of his lungs. She came out of her room, leaned chest first over her balcony and they just started talking. She didn’t speak any English, and he doesn’t speak any Spanish, but I have the feeling that they both knew what each other was trying to say. From a distance (crouched behind a coconut tree in the shadows of the moonlight) Matthias and I watched our nephew make his first acquaintance in Mexico – a 21-year old bombshell on the beach.
The rest of the vacation would prove to be an endless pursuit of hot women. It guided nearly all our decisions on where to stay and what to do. Fortunately just a few days after he arrived was the beginning of Semana Santa, the holy week before Easter, or more importantly, the time of year when all Mexican families head to the beach. There were several very adorable young women and we tracked them all up and down the beach. Justin took lots of short walks around the campsite “just to see what was going on” and Julian (the blue-eyed, blonde hair Mexican magnet) became his new favorite cousin.
After many futile attempts at conversation and one enormous pyramid of empty beer cans we decided to head to the real pyramids of Tikal – ancient Mayan ruins in the jungle of Guatemala. It was a really long drive, but in the end it proved to be worthwhile. We camped right at the entrance to the ruins where we booked a sunrise tour for the following day. We awoke at 3:30 the next morning to the sounds of howler monkeys and began our trek out to Temple 4 which we climbed and watched the sunrise with toucans swirling around us. The tour was great, and Justin showed real amazement at the ruins. We spent about 5 hours walking around Tikal, climbing ruins and listening to our guide. Of course he giggled like a little girl when a monkey almost pooped on my head, but the fact that I stepped in monkey poop was a nice consolation for the near miss.
We also made a visit to Finca Ixobel which is just a bit south of Tikal. We ended up running into a couple of Vanagon drivers that we had met in San Cristobal. It was great to catch up with them since it had been about 3 or 4 weeks since we had seen them. We camped there, went swimming in the pond, made a beer run in a tuk-tuk and hit the happy hour hard. William and Julian were already in bed when happy hour started, so Matthias took Justin first, and later Justin and I went back for more.
After leaving Guatemala we had a long drive back to the Yucatan. We spent one night in Belize and then braved the last stretch with lots of reggaeton music, which is all the rage in Mexico and Central America. We made a quick stop in Tulum for beer and continued back to our campsite on the beach in Xpu-Ha. We arrived back just at the tail end of Semana Santa and the girl situation had only gotten better since we left. There were some very cute girls and Justin was brave enough to go over and meet her entire family. Their small trailer was parked right next to our car and one night the father came over and started getting things ready to leave the next morning. As soon as it was dark Jazzy-Fizzle went over to the trailer and let out all the air out of the tires. The plan was to impede their departure, and eventually come to the rescue with our tire pump. But at 7:00 the next morning we heard them climbing into their car and watched them drive off from inside the Yoda Van. A few minutes later I peered around the corner, but they weren’t stopped anywhere on the road. Who knows how far they made it or what happened to them.
Jazzy-Fizzle also likes the Skoal. He is a serious ice-hockey player, and even attends a boarding school so he can dedicate more time to his sport. He and his teammates occasionally indulge in chew. He was a good nephew and even showed his Aunt and Uncle how to chew. In the evening we sat around talking and chewing. We made sure he didn’t walk around too much while he was chewing, because I know with the size of the wad he had tucked under his lip he was sure to loose his balance and fall over. By the end of the two weeks I was really starting to perfect my technique and was even able to spit just as quietly and Justin. It’s probably good he was only here two weeks because that is the last thing I need is an enabler to get me hooked on chewing tobacco.
For the last 3 nights we moved to another campsite on the Yucatan. The beach wasn’t quite as nice as the beach at Xpu-Ha, but we did have a swimming pool right at the beach. And we were surprised by an unexpected highlight – volleyball games with the retirees. The first day when we arrived Matthias was checking us in and walked by the volleyball court. They said they needed another player so he sent Justin right over. He joined their game right away and when he came back he just couldn’t say enough about how much fun he had. He had fun listening to them complaining about their bum knees and bad backs, but also joking around and having fun. They play every day at 3:00 and the next day Justin said he didn’t really care what we did that day as long as he could play volleyball with the old folks. We ended up staying 2 more nights and on the final day Matthias, Justin and I all joined the game. They all make their way over to the courts on their mopeds, golf carts or bicycles, and play in the direct sunlight (which isn’t easy when it is in the mid-90’s with high humidity). But they were so low-key, and most of them are better volleyball players than I am. Matthias wonders if Justin’s account of his vacation will stress the babes or the senior citizens.
And today Jazzy-Fizzle’s Spring Break 2007 came to an end. With pulsing livers we drove him to the airport, had one farewell beer and said our goodbyes. It’s crazy how easy it is to get used to a 5th person in the van. I miss him tremendously and hope we get to see him again soon. At least it will be hard for us to forget him for a while because we think of him every time William uses one of the many colorful expressions he picked up from his cousin (which, by the way, are not really appropriate for a 4 year old to have in their active vocabulary). Next on our agenda: some serious de-tox.
Tags: Cancun, Mexico, Mexico-Guatemala, Spring Break, Tikal, Xpu-Ha
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