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| Merry Christmas from Playa del Carmen. |
December 30th we decided to take our day slow and easy. Nathan and Meow-meow slept in. I couldn't sleep because the bed was awful. I decided to go out to the courtyard and take all of the courtyard pictures. I hung out in the hammock and read Harry Potter. It's my yearly tradition in January to re-read the entire Harry Potter series. I know, I know, I totally cheated and started a couple of days early. It was a lot of fun to lay in that hammock in the warm sunshine and read. I read extremely fast and so it's no big deal to sit down and knock out a 700 page book in no time flat.
When Nathan and Meow-meow woke up we decided to walk to the McDonald's that was close to our hotel. While at the McDonald's we met a family from Italy, and they spoke pretty good English. Nathan and the dad got talking and the conversation ended up on Family History. He was interested in researching his Family History. Nathan was able to tell him to go check out the church Family History web site. He asked us if we were Mormon and we said yes. He then asked us why we do Family History? It was an amazing experience to share the gospel and tell him just why we do Family History. It was an awesome missionary experience.
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| Wild sunblock hair. |
The grocery store was interesting. They have security gates you have to go through to get into the store, and there's a security guard sitting next to the gates. They wouldn't let us bring the diaper bag in and we had to store it at the security counter, they don't let you bring in large bags of any kind. Nathan still had a little bit of a cold so we hit the pharmacy section for some Sudaphed. Apparently in Mexico you have to have a prescription to get Sudaphed.
We had no idea how far, or really what direction to go to get to the beach so we opted to take a taxi. Taxi's are everywhere. I got my first taxi ride. The traffic down in Mexico is a nightmare. People jay walk, crazy drivers. Seriously, they put Utah drivers to shame. Very few traffic lights. Police everywhere. It's bedlam. We were merrily on our way and half way through an intersection when some woman ran the stop sign and slammed into us. It scared the living daylights out of me. No one was injured, thank goodness. Our taxi driver and the lady who hit us were arguing about who was at fault. Then the police came to sort things out. Everyone ignored us. No one bothered to ask us if we were okay. They called a different taxi to come and finish taking us to the beach. I was first very thankful that we were all okay and second, glad to be out of the situation.
The beach was crowded!! There was hardly any open space to sit and relax. We rented an umbrella and found a likely spot of sand to park ourselves. I get a huge kick out of people watching. And people watching at the beach was hilarious. There was this one guy that particularly made me chuckle. He was totally "strutting his stuff". He had his chest puffed out and his gut sucked in. He was walking slowly and with purpose. Every step he took was deliberate, slow, and careful. He swung his arms in a "manly" way, showing off his muscles. I was laughing because it was working for him, all the girls were checking him out as he walked by. I gave Nathan a blow by blow account of the hilarity. He found my amusement amusing.
Meow-meow napped quite a bit.
We met a small family from Texas and chatted with them for a while. Meow-meow woke up and we thought we'd see if he would like the water.......Nope!! He did not like the water at all.
Ocean.
I had my first experience with public bathrooms. I had no clue that you needed five pesos to use the restroom. There was a bathroom right next to a nice restaurant, there was a lady standing outside who told me I needed to pay five pesos. That's pretty much all I understood. I get restaurants that will only let you use their facilities if you buy something, we have that kind of thing here in America. I tried asking her where the public bathroom was....you know the free public bathroom. I don't think she had a clue what I was trying to say and I didn't have a clue what she was saying. She finally just let me use the facilities. Luckily enough, these bathrooms did have toilet paper.
A strong wind came up and kept blowing our umbrella over, Meow-meow was not happy with the beach, it was way too crowded so we decided to leave and do some souvenir shopping, and we found a lot of fun things. Everything is all about bartering and the shop owners are like vultures. There were tons of shops that I would loved to have looked in but if you looked even remotely interested in looking, they would be on you in a split. And they wouldn't leave you alone. Being a fast reader has a great advantage, I can window shop fast!!. I would look straight ahead and take in the sights of the stores a few shops ahead of where we were. That way, as we walked past, I already had a pretty good idea of what was in there. And as I also discovered, if you've seen one shop, you've seen them all. Not to mention that shopping and I aren't best friends.
As we were walking and checking out the sights, we saw a baby lion. Can I just say that I have the best hubby ever?? He took one look at the look on my face and said, "You want to hold it don't you?" I, like a kid in a candy shop just said, "uh-hu". Naturally you had to pay to be able to hold the lion and get pictures, and we were delighted to discover that the price was reasonable. I love cats, especially big cats. I am sane enough to know they are wild creatures and wouldn't try to own one. I would have been satisfied with just petting it, but given the opportunity to hold it......well, I just couldn't say no. One day, in the millennium when the lamb and the lion will lie down without any ire, I will have a panther as a pet. But for a few brief moments, I was in absolute heaven as I got to hold a lion cub.
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| His little "roar" was the most adorable thing ever!! |
After our adventure with the taxi, we weren't too keen to hop into another one, so we decided to check out google maps and venture on our own. Play del Carmen has a Wal-Mart and naturally curiosity got the best of me and I had to see what a Mexican Wal-Mart was like. Plus, there were a few things we needed. So, we made our way to the Wal-Mart. Mexican Wal-Mart is a lot like it is here at home with a few differences. We couldn't take the diaper bag in and had to check it at the security. The check out lines were absolutely and wretchedly long. The shelves were stocked with local foods and such....but other than that, pretty much the same. I'm sure people thought I was weird when I was delighted to hear some Christmas songs in English and I was able to sing right along with them. Oh well, I can totally get away with it as I am a Type 1.....it's just my nature people.
After our souvenir shopping and Wal-Mart shopping, we had way too much stuff to carry and decided to brave another taxi ride. It was thankfully uneventful and we got home safely. I realized just what an amazing gift of tongue my hubby has. We hadn't been in Mexico long and he was having conversations with the taxi drivers like it was nobody's business. Every now and then he'd have to look something up on his phone, and he didn't know that much Spanish before our arrival. He went on his mission to Korea and by the time he left the MTC could speak Korean almost fluently. I was glad he was there to get us where we needed to go. I was quite amazed because other than knowing the words for Bano, taco, enchilada, hola, gracias, and other simple Sesame Street words, I had no clue what anyone was saying. And my "Spanish" accent is so "Gringo" it isn't even funny....trust me, don't ever ask me to say "occupado" unless you want you ears to burn.
We were so tired by the time we got home that we ordered some delivery and it was just amazing. I ate way too much. Before we retired for the evening, we sat down and looked through the tour guide to figure out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We only had one other Mayan tour planned for Friday. It left Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday open to whatever whim crossed our path. After reading the tour guide, I really wanted to see Cozumel and Isla Mujeres. And so we decided on Cozumel for New Year's Eve and Isla Mujeres for New Year's Day......and Saturday to plan later.
