The first 10 days…
Exactly 10 days ago, on October 1st, we got up nice and early in Macclesfield,
UK. Hana picked us up and our first fear
occurred when her car broke down…
We pushed it down Buxton Road to bump start
it and off we were towards the Manchester
bus station!
After a quick breakfast there, we got on
board the Megabus to London for only £1
each and 5 hours later we were at Heathrow
Terminal 5. We made our first major mistake
by volunteering for a later flight and €600
as ours was overbooked, got screwed by British
Airways and ended up with none of the promised
cash, hours waiting at the airport and an
arrival 12 hours delayed!!!
What a start!...
We arrived in Mexico City the following day
(Thursday) only to find out Quentin’s
luggage was missing… Could it get
any worse?
After wandering for half the day in the airport
and buying a Mexican mobile phone, we flew
to Cancun, then took a bus to Playa del Carmen
where we improvised a first stop.
Our number 1 priority was to sit on the beach
so we did just that and we then made our
way to Posada Fernandes, a cheap and cheerful
little hotel nearby. We dropped our bags
there (well, Laura’s bag…) had
a well deserved shower and headed back to
town for some local street food: massive
chicken and beef sandwiches with lots of
onions and some green chili sauce –
spicy and yummy! We savored our dinner on
the beach, had a little walk and went back
to the hotel for some sleep.
Playa del Carmen being very touristy, we bought some fresh fruit for breakfast and
decided to take an early bus the following
morning and headed to Tulum which was always
going to be our first destination…
A couple of hours later, the bus dropped
us off at a random bus station and we walked
towards the playa and the Mayan ruins, in
search for a place to stay… The mosquitoes
there just loved us and made a meal of us!
This combined with the heat and the weight
of our bags, we jumped into a nearby taxi
that drove us to Cabanas Mar Caribe, which
displayed wooden huts right on the beach!
Our first move was to buy a hammock ($60)
and we even considered spending our first
night outdoors, under the stars…We
were both feeling a bit sick and exhausted
at this point so we swiftly changed our mind
and got a hut with a bed and after a few
hours sleep, we had a little salad at the
beach restaurant and headed to town for something
more substantial at a little local tacos
restaurant (Dias Pequerias) where we had
some lovely ‘gringas’ (big tortilla
with meat and cheese), along with a delicious
chocomilk! We were still too tired to explore
the town so we went back to our little sandy
hut for some more sleep.
We both felt a lot better the following morning
and got a hut nearer the sea, with no bed
this time. A local guy showed us how to attach
our brand new and colorful hammock…
little did we know we would not sleep in
a bed again for a long, long time…
We spent the day on the beach, getting slightly
burnt and refreshing ourselves in the warm
turquoise water…
We turned our hut into a real comfy little
home, did a bit of washing as Quentin didn’t
have anything to wear and explored the beach
for a while. Many of the cabanas surrounding
ours had been recently destroyed by a hurricane
and there was a sense of wildness around
us that we just couldn’t get enough
of, apart from the mosquitoes of course…
The following day, we asked Roger (pronounced
Ho-hey - lovely local dude) to open a fresh
coconut for us and had it as our breakfast.
We then went back to town for some real authentic
lunch: ½ a chicken, grilled and served
with tacos (everything is served with tacos!)
some spicy green and red chili sauce and
some onions… No cutlery of course!
So nice…
We met 2 girls from Belgium (Deborah &
Anne) back at the cabanas and had dinner
with them. Quentin bought a machete and a
fresh coconut for the following morning and
we tried to find some beach rackets, with
no luck…
How exciting it felt for Quentin to crack
open his first fresh coconut, like a real
man! After some more sunbathing on the beach,
we went to another random road food place,
where we were served a big chicken soup to
share along with some tacos. The locals were
very surprised to see some foreigners eat
there! I doubt anyone had dared it before
us but it was a simple and satisfying meal.
While Laura had a long afternoon siesta in
the hammock, Quentin went fishing with Roger.
Although we just fished on a little boat
near the beach and only equipped with basic
lines tied around plastic bottles, it was
an awesome feeling to spend this quality
time with a local.
The following day, we had an improvised dinner
on the beach: savory pastries, along with
tomatoes, avocado, crisps, oranges and bananas…
What more would you need?...
A few more days went by, with some quality
time roasting on the beach, swimming in the
turquoise Caribbean Sea, watching the millions
of stars in the sky…
Yesterday (Thursday 9th October) we had an amazing day fishing in
the sea. Laura caught the biggest grouper
in the world (about 50kg) and the Mexican
dudes who were on the boat with us caught
some barracudas. We then went snorkeling
and saw dozens of fantastic and colorful
fish by the reefs and corals. Quentin went
along with Carlos (our captain for the day)
and helped bring back a few massive conchs
while he was spearing lobsters! The plan
had originally been to go to Punta Allen
but we didn’t really care… It
was such a fantastic day! And it ended in
the best manner, all gathered around our
deliciously cooked fresh fish and sipping
a few cans of cold Sol beer!
And here we are today, in Tulum town, sending
these few words that can hardly summarize
what we have already experienced in only
10 days… Hopefully Quentin will soon
get his bag. And we will struggle a bit less
with sleeping in our hammock. No doubt we
will meet many more people (and mosquitoes)
and experience many more things… Our
next destination is still to be decided:
Punta Allen remains on the cards, Merida
might just be our next port of call…
Watch this space… 10/10/2008 | 
