Spent almost a week on the beach out here in the Mexican Riviera and it was good… and Hot. Real Hot. We definitely expected as much, but anticipation and realization are two birds of totally different feathers. Heat + Humidity is not my strong suit. Ana, on the other hand, was totally in her element. She might bust her winter parka out for 60 deg F weather, but won’t sweat a single bead in 90 deg, 90% humidity heat. Unbelievable.
Luckily for me, we had air conditioning in the room so sleeping at night wasn’t a problem. Our days went something like this:
- wake up
- eat some tacos
- head to beach
- hurry back to air conditioning, nap
- eat some tacos
- hurry back to air conditioning, sleep
… at least, that is, until I caught some sort of bug and was wrecked for two days. I started off feeling achy with a slight fever, at which point I thought, “great, $%&! flu in Mexico. I’m so screwed.” Lucky for me I neither had a) severe symptoms or b) a flight out of town the next morning (possibly more troublesome)… because that would have made my world trip complete, getting quarantined for flu-like symptoms in some 3rd world country. Anyway, the only bad thing I experienced was some stomach cramps and frequent trips to the bathroom (Sean, if you’re reading this don’t think of it as a bus… think of it more like a Ferry). Could have been something I ate… maybe the agua frescas? Nah, they were too delicious.
We did do some productive stuff while we were here… namely some SCUBA diving. The water was simply fantastic, and the reefs were some of the best I’ve ever visited. I think the water temperature was about 80 degrees(!) meaning we couldn’t wear a wet-suit even if we wanted to. Reminded me of diving back home in Hawaii, but even warmer! We did two 2-tank dives: one along the reef at Playa del Carmen, and one off-shore from Cozumel. The dive at Playa del Carmen was fun as we saw a bunch of turtles just hanging out and eating. Normally, when I see these guys in Hawaii, they’re really shy and swim away quickly… but these turtles didn’t seem to mind us at all: just hung around minding their own business. Diving at Playa is a bit tricky as every dive is a “drift dive”, meaning the ocean currents will push you hundreds of meters from the boat. This took some getting used to, especially since this was the first diving that Ana and I have done since we were in Tahiti 5 years ago. No problems though, as we reacquainted ourselves pretty quickly. Two days (and many trips to the toilet) later we headed off to Cozumel to dive at a spot called “Columbia” which was simply awesome. Delicate coral formations, underwater caves, schools of fish, a wall dropping off at least 100 ft… heck, we even found some huge lobsters that looked ready for dinner. We didn’t get any pictures, as we don’t have a underwater camera housing, but we did meet up with a trio from Chicago who did have one. They promised to email us some photos, so hopefully I can post them in the near future.
For those of you not named Mag-Deuce, and who aren’t exactly sure where we are, Playa del Carmen is a stretch of beach just south of Cancun on the Mexican Riviera (Caribbean). You can see a map of it by Clicking Here. Cozumel is an island just off shore from Playa and is a renowned dive spot. We were pretty excited to sneak a dive in there.
Here are some photos of our stay:
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