Amigos Nuevos, Rosca de Reyes, Busear, La Playa, Mas Amigos, y Tequila
What a great few days I’ve had in Mexico so far. From where we left off last, I was in Cancun. So in the morning I made my way to the ADO bus station where I would be taking the bus to Playa (Playa del Carmen) and then crossing over on the ferry to Cozumel to meet Eva’s friends Raul and Alejandro.
At the bus station I found a Telcel store where I hoped to buy a SIM card (Amigo Chip). First thing I ask is “Hablas ingles?” which usually receives the answer “No.” This was the case with the guy working the store. No worries, I know enough Spanish to do this. I managed to succeed after we fashioned a tool to open the SIM card slot and I was elated that I managed to buy something I needed speaking only in Spanish!
I grabbed some lunch and hopped on the bus to Playa, waited for the 1pm and met Alex on the other side in Cozumel. We went to his aparment where I met Raul just before he left for work. It’s worth noting that all these new friends are doctoral students doing their practicums, or at least I suppose that is what you would call it. They’re originally from Merida. Alex and I did a quick drive around the island and he taught me about the island, how the street numbers/names work and was patient with my Spanish, though he speaks English perfectly. He then taught me about Rosca de Reyes (King’s Ring), where the word king refers to the three wise men and the word ring refers to the shape of the thing, not un anillo. That’s all I’ll say about that but here is a link for the lazy Rosca de Reyes.
So we went to Raul’s work and I met his work mates and we all ate Rosca. I didn’t manage to get a miniature plastic baby Jesus in either of my two pieces of Rosca but it was a tasty treat. Then we had sope, a traditional Mexican dish which is a lot like what Canadians know as tacos, but the tortilla is more pastry-like and flat. Again, tasty. Sope . Raul, Alex, and I then went to Eva’s boyfriend, Rick’s place and met him and his family and friends. They’re nice people and we got along really well. Rick generously invited me out on his boat to which I calmly accepted, though inside I felt like a six year-old girl about to go to Disneyland.
We went out with Rick’s kids Chris and Julia for a few drinks and had a great time switching between languages, including Canadian and American.
The next day I went out with Rick and his family and friends and we all went scuba diving. I think the last time I did that was in high school in an indoor pool. I got a quick lesson and we went for a 40ft dive. It is another world down there, man. The reef is beautiful, the fish are beautiful and I had an amazing time. Unfortunately I don’t have a GoPro or a waterproof camera so I don’t have any pictures but I think you can just take my word for it that is was awe-inspiring.
When I returned to Alex and Raul’s apartment, I was met with three new faces. They’re names are Ricki, Alex’s brother and Claudia and Chico, Alex’s cousins. Or at least that was my understanding. At first it was a bit awkward, linguistically, but they all speak better English than I do Spanish, though I asked them to speak Spanish anyway. They only speak English when they don’t want to wait for my delayed translation, but not in a mean way at all, which is fair. There were six of us living in Alex and Raul’s apartment. We went to catch a sunset at the end of the night.
The six of us went out with Rick’s kids again to another bar and we had a total blast and retired to Rick’s place for more drinks. I had bought a tequila liquor which has the same kind of smell as tequila but the taste is much sweeter than what you would expect. There are pictures of that event on Facebook if you care to look them up. Good stuff.
The next day, the six of us went to a sandy beach on the other side of the island. Beaches are pretty, I don’t think I need to tell you that. Chico, Ricki, and I did a bunch of body surfing and tired ourselves out pretty well. Somehow I managed to only get a small burn on my back, nothing serious which is good because now I know my bloqueador works as advertised.
Before heading out of the apartment we bought some tacos, real Mexican tacos. They were tasty with pastor and hot sauce but I think I still have a larger than Mexican appetite because they said that the tacos were quite large so I assumed three would be enough. Not quite the case, but close. We went and had dinner with Rick and his family and I finally got to meet Eva, the orchestrator of basically all my fun so far in Mexico. Thanks Eva! She’s lovely.
Later on, we went and dinner at an Italian restaurant with everyone. This includes Rick, his family, Eva, and everyone staying at Alex and Raul’s place. Rick generously footed the bill for everyone, he’s a generous guy to say the least. We hung out at Rick’s place for quite late and had fun relaxing.
On…Saturday…yeah…Saturday…we went to another beach called Playa Azul. This beach is a bit more touristy and has a few more rocks in it. It was here I tried ceviche, yeah I’d never had it before. Jeff approved. I also tried a micheleda which contained lemon juice, worcester sauce, and a beer. There may have been more ingredients but I don’t remember. They were OK once you got enough beer in them. We also went to another beach on the south side of the island I believe. This one wasn’t really fit for swimming as the waves were too large and there were rocks everywhere but we chilled for a while with some drinks and such.
It was this day I decided to start writing down new words that I’m learning. Get this, today I added over 120 new words. I clearly didn’t learn any important things during my self-study. After that we grabbed more drinks and hung out at Alex and Raul’s apartment. A little later that night, Julia, Eva, Angel, and Juan showed up to hang out. It’s worth noticing that once Eva and Julia show up that we mostly speak in English. Again we had a great time talking about whatever came to mind and eventually played a game where you write a famous person’s name on a card and give it to the person on your right. Then everyone sticks that card to their forehead and begins asking yes or no questions about who they’ve got on their face. I was Einstein, Gracias, Ricki.
Angel and Juan left before the game and quite early in general and Eva and Julia left after the game. Once those two left, we switched back to Spanish. Once we switched back to Spanish, everyone told me that I’m really funny in English and though I’m sure I’m funny in Spanish I know that two things: it’s note a noteworthy type of funny, and it’s probably not for the same reasons as in English. No me importa, as long as I’m funny, I’m happy.
OK, we’re caught up. I think that may be considered a long post. I’ll try to keep these things short so no one has to strain too much. Until next time.
