Home

The sadness of heading home. Breakfast at the French place again, transport to Cancun Airport and heading home. Nearly missed the connecting flight in Phoenix because the guy in the row in front of me passed out and shit himself when disembarking from the plane, literally ran through the airport with shoes in my hand and made the plane as they were announcing final boarding for any remaining passengers. K & N are dicks with Nexus passes and were therefore never at risk, their smug faces when I finally got on board were quite punchable.

Thurs, Tulum

Candise looks great in yellow. Our last day in Mexico, breakfast at the French place again, crepetacular.

Headed to the jungle pyramid ruins of Coba, guided tour for part and then just wandering around the jungle for a while.

Four brave souls climbed the pyramid, unfortunately for me I had to stay below to take photos, such is life.

Wed

Scored by finding a delightful French breakfast place with good coffee, a nice garden area and very complete crepes. Lots of coffee here with Candise and Jeff.

After breakfast it was time for tattoo date with my tat twin. Candise can be very persuasive, lol. The tattoo artist had a more... casual approach to tattooing that I am used to.  Jeff mentioned later that he had a momentary waffle on joining us in tattoo land, had I known that at the time I'm sure I could have gotten Candise to charm him, oh well he made a great tattoo chaperone at least.

After tattoo we cabbed down to the beach and spent the day walking the sands with no plan.... NO PLAN! Drinks and sand and ocean and food, I've really never been to a place before with clear waters and white sand. Kurtis & Nahanni met up with us for dinner on the beach, we're all in a pretty mellow place, drinks and quiet contemplation.

On to Tulum

Packed up in the morning and headed for breakfast and a bus to Tulum, the group has been whittled down to just myself, Kurtis, Nahanni, Jeff & Candise, joining later in the trip meant missing out on most of the larger group but can't be everywhere.

Kurtis has an impressive aptitude for Spanish and is quite helpful in our dealings, got a van to take us to Tulum, better than the bus.

Found our place in Tulum, really nice three bedroom condo, and headed out for groceries to make dinner. Got caught in a wonderful deafening rainstorm at the supermarket, rain so loud on the roof it was making us gasp and laugh, fun. Cooked simple Mexican dinner, adobo chicken tacos and such, Jeff pronounced it a triumph, he may have been being slightly polite.

Monday in PDC

Breakfast with Kurtis & Nahanni, the sloooow of PDC feels amazingly good after the thrum of Mexico City, happy morning.

Spent the day just walking around, stepped into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in my life, beaches and shops and endless offers of drugs, cool place.

Scored these lovely high fashion ensembles along 5th in PDC, we were a hit on the strip indeed.

Goodbye to the D.F.

Leaving Mexico City now, for the reasons I have mentioned and many more I would come back,  underrated city full of so many things, a bit eye opening really.

Plane to Cozumel then ferry to Playa to meet up with everyone finally. Stomach is starting to calm down though the 45 minutes ferry ride on a rough ocean is uncalled for.

Playa del Carmen is a shock from Mexico City, I could walk to the condo but am feeling pretty rough and taxi is right there. Find the condo, no one is there except Rob who I don't actually know, quick introduction and request shower and bed, really feeling rough now. Rob's an awesome dude, sets me up for a nap. Sleep for hours until everyone gets back home and we all head out for dinner.

Feeling better indeed but not quite up to going out the final BPM showw, oh well.

Not going to be much for pictures here as one of my memory cards went south and lost about 80 pics.

From the plane, the mountains around MC.

Finally sick

Was out late last night at the cocktail bar and then stayed up later drinking with Aurora at my Airbnb, even with the pickpocket yesterday each of my days here has been better than the last, lots of laughs and smiles all day. Big hugs and kisses to and from my cocktail buddies at Artemisia, ordered to visit again and an offer of a place to stay, amazing.

But.

My body woke me up around 5:00 this morning and let me know that things were not ok. it was correct. I have a not so great constitution at the best of times so this was expected, I got the e. coli vaccination before I left and have been taking Floristor twice a day for a week. I also have Cipro.

Took the first Cipro dose and some Immodium and cold sweated in bed for a couple hours, I need to leave for the airport at 7:30 and am kinda panicked, checking for later flights from the bathroom.

Timed out the length of peace between bouts and worked out optimal timing of a Uber to the airport, lol.

Jumped in Uber, airport is close, about 25 minutes, ran into airport bathroom, repeat.

Changed my seats to the back of the plane near the bathroom but I will make the flight dammit.

Dina making me a Golden Fizz, James sent her the recipe from Vancouver, she really wants to visit now.

History!

The headdress in the picture is the one Montezuma was wearing when he first greeted Cortez and his men when they arrived in 1519, the intersection pictured is believed to be the location of that meeting. All things considered 500 years isn't that long still it feels pretty neat to stand on the spot where two empires met and realize the weight of everything that came to each of them in the years that followed.

Day Three

Felt fingers on my butt on the subway this morning, wallet gone, raised a fuss, could feel someone pulling on the wallet chain, eventually he ran off, wallet OK and unopened, myself pretty shaken, had to go sit for an hour to stop knees shaking.

Once the adrenaline wore off I set off again, spent most of the day just walking around the downtown, markets, art galleries, ate ant egg tacos for lunch which were kinda great.

Again Last Night

Was walking back home around 6 last night and heard someone yelling my name, assumed it couldn't be me and kept walking, heard my name again and laughter, definitely for me. Across the street was Luis from the bar last night, awkward hug and promised him I would stop in again for a drink, freshened up at home and went back to the bar, still crazy nice people, still pretty much their only customer.

Left the bar around midnight in search of dinner, took subway to El Vilsito (learned from Anthony Bourdain) an auto body shop by day, taco place at night, best food ever.

Day Two

Too excited to sleep much, up early and out the door, walked around a while and had some sort of breakfast thing from a sidewalk taco place, crazy good, they find my Spanish to be hilarious.

Headed back to the airbnb at 9 to meet up with my guide, Nadia and her driver Ivan. Spent the day at various Aztec and older sites, climbed pyramids, drank pulque, fun.

Last night

On the way home last night I stopped in at a bar that turned out to be awesome and friendly and managed by a guy who worked at The Keefer in Van for 5 years. All three bartenders, Dina, Carlos and Luis were super friendly, probably didn't hurt that I was their only customer.

Day One

Found my airbnb, was greeted by my lovely hostess Aurora just in time for a breakfast of pineapple tamales and coffee with her and a couple of her friends, the place is great.

Exploring the city, found my way to Mercado San Juan, saw butchers selling iguana and skunk meat. The lunch special in the market was beans and rice, followed by menudo and then a couple chicken tacos for $4, the guy next to me told me it was the best deal in the city and then he paid for mine, hoping everyone is this friendly.

Walked through the National Museum which has been a to-do list item for years, impressive but all signage in Spanish meant lots of guessing as to the identity and significance of each piece, if I am on point then I'm pretty sure the statue in this pic is Steve the God of Haircuts.

Welcome to somewhere else

Landed in MC, changed money, decided to find the subway rather than taxi. Google says subway is 1km away, spent 25 minutes trying to leave the airport, not really designed for walking to and from.

Walked the one km through what I am assuming is not the nicest part of town, morning rush hour, loud, busy, broken sidewalks and a gauntlet of old ladies selling breakfast. Eventually found the station, an insane madhouse of concrete and people, never seen anything like it, stood in sardine crowd an hour before the violent shove onto the train, in a bit of a daze but on my way.

Leaving for Mexico City

Now that Aero Mexico has a direct flight from Vancouver getting there is really easy, flight leaves at Midnight, lands at 7:00am, great if you can sleep on planes.