So, I made it to Mexico!
I'll be honest with you. I had a mini panic in the airport as I was waiting for my flight. Despite previously shrugging off lots of people's raised eyebrows at my adventure continuing to Mexico, I suddenly became very nervous.
What if my limited Spanish completely failed me? What if my credit cards stopped working? What if I got ripped off by the taxi drivers I'd been warned about at the airport?
I think this feeling of panic swelled more considerably as my Whatsapp had decided that morning would be the time it stopped working. So I was heading to a country where I didn't speak the language, alone, without my main form of contact home, and I hadn't got any Mexican pesos ready to go.
I had some worry issues that morning.
But fear not! I made it through! One lesson i'm starting to learn is that I worry way too much. I guess not everyone else runs through every worst case scenario in their head before stepping out the door. (Don't worry dad, I will continue to worry just enough to keep me safe!)
So, I changed money at the airport, met a friendly couple at baggage claim to negotiate the bus minefield with and my Spanish did me well enough to find my hotel safe and sound.
In all actuality though, most parts of Playa del Carmen require very minimal language skills. It's Mexico, but not as you know it. And from what others have told me, I was lucky to bypass Cancun, just up the coast, as it's even more gringo-ised!
Walking down the main tourist thoroughfare should be a competitive sport. You have to sidestep vendors outside their shops calling to you, blinding you with neon t shirts and tacky souvenirs, in addition to the food proprietors trying to entice you in. "No gracias," falls so easily off the tongue now.
But hidden there somewhere is the beauty of the real Mexico. The easiest gem to find is the view of the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, framed by white sand and windswept palm trees.
My morning strolls along the shore, before most tourists had arisen, were some of my nicest moments. The first pelican I met scared the life out of me; to my unaccustomed eye it looked more pterodactyl than seabird!
And I will be eternally glad that I chose to do a tour with G Adventures. Not only did it provide me with a fantastically interesting group of people, who I can now count as friends, to travel with, but our Chief experience officer Susi put every effort in to make it the best trip possible. Her local knowledge was indispensable; I knew we were in for a hell of a trip when on the second day we followed her to a wonderfully friendly and colourfully decorated 'real' Mexican cantina on the way back from visiting the ruins of Tulum, and I had the best lemonade of my life!
What could the trip possibly offer next to top that?
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