Day 1 - 3

June 4^th –  Playa del Carmen

Today, my first official day with no work! I can’t believe the trip has finally started and there is no way for things to suddenly go wrong and change my plans. The day started perfectly – a nice, lazy breakfast on the beach. Can’t ask for anything more than eggs with a huge side of salsa. Then, what I’ve been looking forward to for weeks – scuba diving. I went diving on one of the small reefs right off the coast of Playa del Carmen. I couldn’t ask for a better day: water that was a perfect 86 degrees, a lazy sea turtle swimming next to me, and a guide who was more than happy to show me all the tiny details of the reef. Unfortunately the boat was having problems so we had to return to shore before doing our second dive. Instead, I agreed to go to lunch with the 3 other divers from my tour – what I didn’t expect was that their destination of choice would be Senior Frogs. When I think of all the amazing things to do in Mexico, Senior Frogs is definitely nowhere on the list! But a few tacos and a margarita while being made fun of by the staff weren’t the end of the world.

Tonight I had the opportunity to meet the others on the tour with me. It’s an interesting dynamic – some of the group started together 15 days ago in Mexico City, so those of us joining today are the new kids on the block. There are stories of bad roommates, nights on the town, and sites that have been seen together. I think it will be interesting to see how the group melds together over the next few weeks. About half of the group will be going all the way to Costa Rica with me while half will drop off in Guatemala, where we’ll get another new group of people. The constantly shifting group makes for an interesting, fun, and somewhat unpredictable challenge.

June 5 – Playa del Carmen to Tulum

Today started with my first taste of actual travel. It was just a short one hour bus ride from Playa del Carmen to Tulum. On a normal day that would have been fine, but today it was POURING. As expected in Mexico, the bus was over crowded so some of us were standing, and the water was coming in through the air conditioning system. Everyone sitting on the right side of the bus was completely soaked, all the bags were drenched, we may as well have been sitting outside. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but since this was the only “nice” bus ride we were supposed to have the whole trip, I can only imagine how downhill it will go from here.

We got to Tulum in the early afternoon, and it was still pouring. However, since we didn’t want to waste the day, I left with three of the others from my group (Dina from the UK, Martina from Switzerland and David from DC) to go see the Tulum ruins. Our tour leader told us it would be a short 2k walk down the beach – after 50 minutes of walking, we decided he must have underestimated. We got very lucky – the rain let up just enough for us to see the ruins.

The things they built were amazing – about 15 large buildings just sitting on the edge of the coast. The buildings have been there for hundreds of years, have been through hurricanes and horrible weather, and yet they still stand. It was really cool to look at the ruins and compare them to those in both Chechen Itza and Machu Picchu.  So many similarities, a few differences, and all are amazing for allowing us a small glimpse into the history of these cultures.

June 6^th – Tulum

Today was another scuba diving day! Dina and Martina are both certified scuba divers as well (though both have more experience than I do), so the three of us decided scuba dive in a cenote. A cenote is an old sinkhole that allows us to see into an underground river and it consists of a number of different chambers/caves.

We dived in one called Dos Ojos – there are two different open water areas that are tied together by underground caves. They are freshwater so the water was pretty chilly – I wore a full length wetsuit covered by a shortie wetsuit. It is so amazing when you get underground though – it looks similar to a cave, with lots of stalactites and stalagmites and columns, but it is all underwater. We had flashlights because it was completely underground. You could shine your light into one of the chambers and just never see where it ended. On the second dive we also came up in one chamber that had about 8 feet of air above it. As with many regular caves, there were bats hanging from the ceiling. Since the ceiling was so low and we were bobbing in the water, they were right above our heads – probably the closest I ever need to be to a bat! Doing the cave dives was really cool and something I would love to do again.

When we got to the hotel, it had finally stopped raining and we were lucky enough to get a few hours of beach time. Our hotel is amazing – it’s an eco lodge outside of town, so it is fairly secluded. They only turn the power on a few hours in the morning and evening each day, which is all you really need. We are right on the beach and are sleeping in little huts with mosquito nets over the beds. The bathrooms are all shared, but the best part is the showers. They are all outdoors, so as you are showering you can look up and still see the sun. I could definitely stay here for a few additional days.