Playa del Carmen…oh dear, dear Playa
Playa del Carmen is about an hour south of Cancun. I got into town Friday night and walked through town and the thick heat, looking for the hostel I chose from my book. Playa is a much cooler town than Cancun – my first thoughts were of a tropical New Orleans, probably only because there’s a pedestrian-only street where all the action seems to happen – restaurants, bars, and shops. Lots and lots of shops with people trying to lure you in unrelentlessly.
So, I really didn’t do anything in Playa except lay on the beach. That’s it. Oh, and I’d go swimming in the Sea. Then lay on the beach. And then walk the beach and then swim in the sea, and then lay on the beach. The whole coast here is open to the public, not like in Cancun where the hotels own pieces of beach.
I met one local man one day, while I was laying on the beach. He was trying to get me to try scuba diving and his tactic was to sit and talk with me for a while so I would buy his services. I think it was right around when he told me that I was very white that I assured him I would not be interested in his scuba lessons. jerko.
I have been studying and practicing my Spanish, which is slowly getting better. I find that everyone tells me I speak well, but I have a hard time understanding them. That’s the biggest hurdle. So, I make everyone tell me everything in Spanish so I can practice. I’m pretty good at understanding about half of what everyone says. For example, which sitting on the beach, some guy comes up: “Blah, blah, blah, blabbidy blah, la mesa. ¿Está bien?” To which I replied “Sí”, and then he took my table away. Whatever. Sometimes I get really excited when a conversation is 100% understandable on both ends. For example: Man to me: “¿Una Corona?” Me: “¡Sí!”, which all translates to: Dear fine lady, may I have the pleasure of enhancing your experience here on our beautiful beach with a refreshing, ice cold beer? To which I of course replied, Yes, fine sir, that would be fabulous, indeed.
On Saturday night, I walked up and down the little strip and got sick really fast of being practically begged to go into every shop to buy something. It was about 8:30 and I just decided to give up, suck it up, and go back to the hostel, maybe even to bed. Laying on the beach can take a lot out of you. But, yet, I kind of wanted to do something…
Lo and behold, I walked through the main square, where all the locals were hanging out, watching some sort of concert. It turned out to be some politically-sponsored concert (for a Mexico sin drogas) with local cover bands. The first band was pretty rockin…they even played some rock and roll song that was totally an American song, translated into Spanish. I don’t remember what it was, but it was pretty hilarious, and everyone was singing along. The second band was a little younger, sort of hipster-ish, with a glam-rock wanna-be singer with loads of eyeliner that the local teenage girls fell hard for, screaming that shrill teenage-girl scream. They opened up with a medly with some sure surprises in the middle – Jimi Hendrix->Led Zeppelin ->Michael Jackson (!) -> The White Stripes (!!) -> ACDC -> Metallica. They finished up with one of the worst renditions of The Wall I have ever heard, but I give them props for what they put into it, man…they were rockin out.
One last note here about the food and stuff. I’ve been trying to go to supermarkets and make some of my own meals, so as to save some costs. Lots of travellers seem to have cereal for breakfast (most hostels have kitchens to use and refrigerators to keep stuff in), and I thought, hmmm, I would also like to have some Zucaritas (Frosted Flakes) for breakfast. So, I went to the store and got some Zucaritas and then went to go get milk. I looked in all the coolers, but could not find any milk. Finally, after gong up and down every aisle, I found cartons of milk, like in the cardboard cartons that soy milk comes in. But, they were just sitting on the shelf. And on it, it said Actualmente Leche, which translates as Actually Milk, which seems to me, if it is actually milk, surely no one would need to tell me about it, and why isn’t it refrigerated – you can’t have warm milk! So, I passed on the milk, mostly because I was leaving town the next morning and wouldn’t finish it before I left, anyway. But I will try that milk one of these days, after I refrigerate it, of course.
Tags: Mexico, Tag Index
Tania
October 3rd, 2005 at 8:25 pm
The milk is ultra-heat treated (sterilized), so as long as the box is unopened it lasts on the shelf. The taste is different because of the high heat.