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Playa del Carmen Day 1
Today was our final day as a group but as we wanted to spend some time together ahead of me disappearing diving for a couple of days we had a lie in whilst the others went off to Tulum. We then wandered the main strip and checked out our next hotel (The Luna Blue) at the other end of the strip and I went into a couple of dive shops.
In the afternoon we went to the beach for a swim and bumped into Tres. We also saw the Germans Mattius and Sonya, who as it was their last day, were busy getting 3rd degree burns whilst sun bathing. Upon leaving the beach I was walking barefoot in the sand and I stood on a dying wasp who took offence and stung the sole of my foot. I thought I had stood on glass but when I looked the wasp was still hanging there. I flicked it off only to leave the stinger in my foot! I picked it out and the pain for the next 10 minutes was harsh - I really didn't think a sting would hurt like that! To get over it I had a couple of big beers as the rain appeared from no where and came down hard!
As it was the last official night Trevor had bought in some wine and beer. We weren't allowed in the gazebo to drink so we all met up and drank in Trevor's room. We went for meal which was very nice and then onto a bar on beach which was very expensive so we only stayed for one before walking back along the beach. It had been a good last night and we didn't get home until after midnight (that is late for us boring old farts!).
Playa del Carmen Day 2
I got up late feeling ill after overdosing on chilli the night before at the restaurant and said bye to a few people who were heading home at 9. We went to book my diving at Go Cenotes near our new hotel and have a breakfast/lunch. However having not packed our watches we had lost track of time and by the time we returned to the La Paz hotel we only had 20mins to pack as check out before midday.
Aussie simone walked with us and carried Simone's bag (sun burn!) to the Luna Blue. Upon checking in we got given a discount book which gave 20% off at Go Cenotes so I went back to dive shop to get some cash back. I also met one of the dive masters who was probably the nicest french bloke I have ever met - this may be controversial but I can't actually remember meeting a nice one before! I caught up with the Simone's who were drinking 2 for 1 mojitos and jonas joined us after he had booked his diving. We sorted a restaurant for those who were still in town for that evening before heading back to our rooms to freshen up. I get restless easily so went for a wander about 6pm and later in the evening the 8 of us that were still in PDC had a drink and some food before getting an early night.
Playa del Carmen Day 3
I arrived at the dive office at 8:15 and was driven to the hotel to get gitted up. THe sea was very choppy and there was just me and the dive master heading out along with an old man who had tagged along to fish. The 2 dives were okay but nothing spectacular. A turtle and some eels on the first dive and some more eels, a barracuda and a nice school of fish on the second. I'm normally not sea sick but the waves were making me feel terrible between dives!
I met up with the girls at Mamita's beach club around midday where we had free sunbed use but they left at 2pm to have some margaritas. I met them around 3:30 for some food but by this time they were one giant margarita later and very drunk. I grabbed some lime soup and went to shower. My Simone came back saying we need to walk Aussie Simone home but by the time we got back out she had disappeared. We looked for her but she could have gone in any direction so we decided to check on her tonight before we all met up. However about 10 minutes later Simone started puking up!
I walked to to the La Paz hotel where the others were still staying to check if the other Simone had made it back which she hadn't. It was now 7pm and she had been gone for around 3 hours and had not been back to her room plus she was still in her swimming costume. As she was typically the first one in on a night we didn't think she would be out drinking so we were starting to become a bit nervous. We checked with the useless tourist police and had some food before mounting our own full scale search of hospitals, tourist police booths, the beach and hotels. We all swapped mobile numbers to keep each other in the loop and split up and at 11ish Simone and I headed back to our end of town to check with the restaurant where they had the drinks earlier in the day. They gave us her bag which she must have left! At midnight we checked in with Trevor but still no sign! At just after 1am we got a call from Hannah saying they had just bailed Simone out of the local jail where she had been take after being picked up by the police - a terrible thing to happen but the best possible result as we had all sorts of much worse scenarios secretly running through our heads!
Playa del Carmen Day 4
After a long and stressful night I met Jonas at Go Cenotes at 8:30. We were taken to Chac Mool cenote and the dives were fantastic. Very relaxing and very different from open water diving. Superb!
We got back around 2pm and I went to La Paz to say bye to Trevor. Aussie Simone was there and so we went to tourist police to file claim for insurance we took forever as we had to walk all the way to the other end of town to get the name of the restaurant. After picking up my Simone awe told the restaurant what had happened (fearing both their drinks had been spiked and as Simone's bag had things missing when it was returned!) and we went back to the other end of town to write up an incident report and get it stamped. We met Trevor just before his bus left at the station and said our goodbyes (and thanks for being a great guide). We then met up with the last of the stragglers to leave that night for what really was our final meal as jonas, Hannah and Simone where heading to Belize. Very jealous!!
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