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The hostel in Playa Del Carmen was a true throwback to our stay in Washington: it was full of weirdos and the manager was a complete a**e! He spent all of his time flirting with a girl who was staying in the hostel on a language course. She in turn put her new language to good use by 'telling on us' to him when we hadn't washed a pot or emptied the dryer IMMEDIATELY (much as a seven year old might). And like the sexy Iguana at Ezdna he was forced to tell us off in front of her in order to look good in front of his new partner! The other people staying at the hostel were much the same, so as you can imagine we did not make too many friends!
The hostel also boasted the world's smallest swimming pool: length 2m; width 2m; depth 50cm. Utterly pathetic. Tom went for a swim nonetheless, mainly for the novelty value (which wore off in seconds, what with it being no more than a glorified baby's paddling pool).
We went to Xcaret water park on our second day in Playa, which involved the usual stress regarding buses and attempts at communication in Spanish. Of course we arrived later than we wanted and upon entering the park we immediately booked ourselves onto the Snuba tour at 12 noon. Now, to get to the Snuba tour we could either walk across the park to it we could or swim the underground river - obviously we took the river option. This ended up being a major error as we only had 20 minutes in which to swim a river that usually takes an hour! We entered the water surrounded by tourists and as Tom swam downstream Trudy got trapped amongst a group of idiots who couldn't figure out how to don their snorkels and were only too happy to discuss this fact…utter cretins! For the next 5 minutes Trudy was incandescent with rage which only made Tom laugh all the more, almost drowning himself in the process (at this point Tom wasn't even wearing his glasses, that's how angry Trudy was - a blind man underwater could sense the anger radiating out from her).
At the Snuba tour we were given our safety briefing on the boat on the way out to the coral reef. The diving staff chose to wait until everyone was putting on their complicated snuba gear to tell us a few important things (in broken English of course): the many different hand signals we would need underwater; how to remove water if it gets into your scuba mask; and how to equalise the pressure in your ears.
5 minutes later we were underwater and Trudy's problems started, when she tried to equalise the pressure in her ears. She was only able to let water into her mask and when she tried to remove it the way we had been shown on the boat she only managed to let more water in! With sore ears and water in her eyes she realised that she had forgotten to breathe at all during the last 2 minutes. In the rising panic she decided it was time to re-surface but when she looked around to tell someone what she was doing she realised that everyone had swam away from her (while she'd been messing around with her mask, ears and breathing). She swam to the surface and was greeted by a large and empty expance of water. It was at this point, while hyperventilating alone at the surface, that Trudy started thinking about sharks.
After Tom had talked Trudy down into the sea again (the only reason Trudy agreed to go back underwater at all was that the snuba tickets were non-refundable!) we were accompanied by the professional underwater photographer. He took a few shots of us and we couldn't wait to see the pictures later in the day. And what a picture!! The coral looks dead, there's only one tiny fish struggling near the toxic-looking seaweeds and we look utterly ridiculous: Trudy appears to still be terrified from her earlier ordeal and Tom's head looks like a new species of perpetually-angry fish with a tail coming from out of the back of his head.
On the beach the next day we were treated to the sight of a girl wearing basically a ribbon for a bikini. After she had swam in the sea she lay down to sunbathe and Trudy laughed out loud when she saw the girl using a mirror to check that only part of her bumhole was on display and not all of it! Trudy's words: "You're know you're wearing the wrong bikini when you need to bring an a**e-checking mirror with you to a crowded beach!".
During our travels we've met many awesome Americans along the way (you know who you are!). However we've also encountered some appalling levels of American stupidity, and in Playa we witnessed some pearlers. For instance the lady in Xcaret who asked Tom for the time by shouting "TIME" at him while pointing at her wrist (she looked shocked when Tom replied in perfectly unbroken English); or the man we overheard in the bar telling anyone who would listen that the only way to visit Cancun safely is to go to a 5 star hotel and not leave the complex (this was LITERALLY a day after we'd spent a week in Cancun ourselves); or the woman on the bus to Chetumal who wanted to swap seats and thought that the best way to go about it was to simply ask Mexicans in her normal, unchanged American English. This same woman then spent the rest of the bus journey covering her entire head with a blanket every time someone opened the toilet door. This made us want to use the bathroom every 5 minutes for the rest of the journey, thus letting the stink wash over this precious woman.
- comments
mandy white Excellent sea adventure Tru – your time in the water reminded me of my lovely Egyptian adventure – Fear, panic and a disappearing boat, only thing different I wasn't coaxed back in to the water to relive the experienced with aid of an nice photographer. All in all it sounds like your both living it up to my grand expectations – fraught, fear and complications – by the way loving your sweet 20 minute swim. keep up the good work youse two, Big sis xxxxxxxxx
Nono Que envidia! viva Mexico!!! When do you plan to be in Colombia?
Tom & Trudy Hola Nono, espero que todo es bien con tu! Habiamos pasado tres semanas en una escuela de espanol en Flores, Guatemala (pero aprender un nueva idioma es muy dificil!!). No sabemos cuando nosotros seremos en Colombia - donde y cuando queres tu viajar en Colombia? xx