¡Viva México! The Solo Trip

I went on my first ever solo road trip in the U.S. in 2016. I've made it a habit to take solo trips as often as possible, and they have created some of the most absolute best memories. Since that first trip, I've dreamed of taking one outside of the U.S., but I've always let other people's fears for me get in the way. Never-mind that I've had more assault-type experiences in my own country than I ever have abroad.. but I digress. Anyway, I finally got over that and made my way to Mexico.. alone. 

And. It. Was. Amazing.

It was at this point when the plane was making its final descent into Cancun that it started to actually sink in that this trip was really happening..

Once I landed, I hopped on a public bus line called ADO to take me to my Airbnb in Playa del Carmen, about an hour away. It was very simple to use and much cheaper than a taxi or private transport. I had air conditioning, a charging port for my phone, and a movie. Things were moving along nicely. Don't let the empty seats in the pictures fool you like they did me though. There were literally 3 people at the bus station at the airport, and I was sure that was going to be it for the duration of the ride. But we ended up at another part of the airport a few minutes later and the bus completely filled up with locals. I'm still trying to figure out what part of the airport is exclusive to locals coming in, but have yet to learn. 

At any rate, I was on my way and very very happy.   

It was about a 10 minute walk from the ADO station to my Airbnb, so I got a nice little stroll through downtown Playa. This was my first image of the area, and I pretty much immediately fell in love. Everything was so casual and relaxed - it was wonderful.

    I had no problems making my way over to the apartment I would call home for the next few days and was greeted by my host, Patricio, and his 2 dogs. The language barrier was a bit of an issue at times, but for the most part, we could communicate basic things with each other. 

The apartment complex itself was right in the downtown area and near the beach. It was lovely. 

The first day was pretty much getting settled in, but the next day, I was off to explore a bit. There were different motorbikes everywhere. So I took a picture.

This was the first place I had breakfast just because it was the closest to the Airbnb. There wasn't a coffee pot in the room, so I was very glad to finally get some here.

After breakfast, I headed into a drugstore to get a few necessities. This was in the back. Not much of a museum if you ask me, but there was certainly a lot of tequila.

Next, I headed to the beach where I spent most of the afternoon. It was a bit crowded but not awful. I thought about getting a massage when I saw there were places offering them, but alas, I decided I was too sweaty and nasty for that at the time. There also aren't many pictures here since I was mostly in the water. I don't know if you know this or not, but it's bloody hot in Mexico in August.

I took a few more pictures on my walk back to the Airbnb after beach time..

More motorbikes..

And more bikes..

The OXXO store is the main convenience store in town. There are several of them across the city. A lot like our 7-11 stores, though there were some of those in town too.

I finished the day at the 3D Museum. It was a little pricier than I thought it should be, but still kind of neat to see. Each of the paintings is done by a guy named Kurt Wenner, and the idea is obviously that they appear to be 3 dimensional. The tour guide here was very sweet, took many photos for me and assured me that I have been gypped out of an Oscar in some previous life.

I did a bit more exploring downtown after the museum. I'm not really a nightlife kind of person, but in PDC, that's really the only time of day it's comfortable to be out. I was thankful that sunset was upon me. 

Coco Bongo is supposedly the place to go for actual nightlife in Playa del Carmen. I had no interest, but I had heard a lot about it during the family vacation in Mexico back in June. So it was still kind of neat to see the place that so many folks had talked about. 

I stopped for an iced coffee pretty soon because did I mention that it was hot? And not many places seemed to have an interest in air conditioning, including this one. When it came to ordering, I told the barista, "Quiero una vainilla fria por favor," in Spanish with no problem and was feeling pretty good about my communication skills. But things only went downhill from there when she continued to ask me questions about my drink preferences in Spanish and I was forced to out myself as a complete fraud who had no idea what the crap she was saying. Apparently she wanted to know what kind of milk I preferred, but I swear I never heard the word "leche" come out of her mouth. I really wish I had done better in my high school Spanish class. Anyhow, I got my delicious cold drink and enjoyed every sip of it. 

Then I walked around a bit more and took a few more pictures before heading to bed..

Oh look, more bikes! I wish someone would have offered me a ride, but oh well.

I'm not sure why I remember this as a classic touristy spot to visit during every family vacation taken to any Mexican city since the beginning of time, but alas, it exists in PDC too. It wasn't terribly crowded though, like I remember it being in other touristy Mexican cities I've visited. 

The next day, I opted to venture out a bit further to the city of Tulum to see the ruins there. For this trip, I needed to get on the local bus service called the Colectivo, which was about a 20 minute walk from where I was staying. Of course, coffee was needed, so I stopped here for a café frío con caramel y pan de chocolate.

I've heard of hostels before but had never seen one until now. I keep thinking that I might get bold enough to stay in one during one of my solo trips, but we'll see. If you haven't heard of them before, it's an incredibly cheap way to stay somewhere that's done dorm room style. You stay in a room with several beds for people, often bunk bed style, and then share common spaces for things like showering and eating. I've looked a couple of them up, and the price is often as cheap as $10/night. It's hard to pass up that kind of deal, but I tend to enjoy my solitude when traveling alone, so I'm not entirely sure how well my introverted side would do in one of these places. 

I was just glad to see other people hauling their luggage around here.. made me feel not quite like an outcast when it had been me previously.

It was a long walk, but I eventually made it to the Colectivo station. These buses are smaller than the ADO buses but also much cheaper. An hour long trip down to Tulum cost me $2 on the Colectivo. They also have many places they stop along the way, so you have to be sure to listen to them yell out the next stop and to also make sure they hear you say where you want to get off. Thankfully, my stops were at the end of the route both ways, so it wasn't a huge deal for me to have to pay much attention to the other stops.

Finally made it! Now I just needed to figure out where the entrance to the ruins was. Thankfully, again, I could get enough Spanish out to convey my question and asked someone, “¿Dónde está la entrada a las ruinas?” The man knew exactly what I was asking, which was great. Until he proceeded to answer my question and give me directions in Spanish. Once again, I was outed as a fraud who has zero real Spanish-speaking capabilities. But since he had pointed across the road, I at least knew which direction to go and just said, “Muchas gracias,” and went on my way.

The Tulum Ruins were pretty neat. I learned about some of the Mayan history and how the temples were used for many purposes. Apparently, if there was a drought, they would do a rain dance. If it didn't rain within a week, they gave an animal sacrifice. And if it still didn't rain within about a week, they gave one of their slaves as a human sacrifice. Don't worry though -they didn't waste the human sacrifice because they ate it. No big deal.

This is Christo. He spoke English, helped me with some of my Spanish, and helped me around the ruins.

The ruins are on a cliff that overlook the ocean, which was lovely. I didn't really appreciate the ruins for what they are when I was there, and I'm not sure why. But once I pondered where I had been and the history of things that had happened there, I realized how incredible they actually are. I wish I knew more about the Mayan history and people. There are still some Mayans today that are around and live in the area. I hear that the food they make is the best. I would have loved to have sampled some.

I had originally planned on exploring more of Tulum after the ruins, but it was hot and I was tired. So I decided to hop back on the Colectivo and head back to my Airbnb, were I could take a shower and rest in the air conditioning. We passed by the Grand Sirenis Hotel on the way, which brought back memories since that's where my family had stayed when we were all there in June. 

I wasn't thrilled about the 20 minute walk to the Airbnb once I arrived back in Playa, but at least the scenery was always interesting. This is an apartment building I passed by.. 

And this was very much like a small outdoor Home Depot. 

Street vendors everywhere..

The historic payphone is alive and well in certain parts of Mexico..

I thought paying for parking was a big city thing, but nope. Its a thing here also..

I actually have no idea what in the world this thing is, but I took a picture of it anyway. After this picture though, I had to stop using the camera on my phone. I had Google Maps telling me which direction to go to get to my Airbnb, and every time I left the map to use the camera, I had a harder and harder time getting my map back. I think my phone was just as hot and tired as I was. Once I made it back to my room, I stripped down and bolted for the shower. I think on average that I took about 14 showers a day. Give or take.

Ok, ok. If you know about my family vacation to Mexico that happened back in June, you likely know about this guy. I don't think there's any need to rehash that story here, but if you've been wondering if I met up with David during this solo trip, the answer is yes. I actually met up with him my first night in town and again a couple of days later, but there is absolutely no way I was going to take my phone out and ask for a picture after all of the public embarrassment I caused him back in June! But during my last full day in town, he had taken off work and we got to go on a free tour through his work company -who happened to also provide free photos.

The first part of the tour was ziplining. But before we hit the ropes, we took pictures. Don't judge the cheesy poses. We didn't choose the cheesy poses, the cheesy poses chose us. Actually, it was the photographer who chose the cheesy poses. Every. Single. Time. We just did what we were told.     

I have ziplined before but never could go upside down, so I was excited to be able to go down Spiderman style...

Yes, that is in fact a hair net underneath my helmet. Don't be jealous of the zipline fashion.

David declined to go upside down, so all of his photos are pretty much this exact pose.. 😄

The last line we went down was in a hammock. I had no idea that was a thing on ziplines. It was kind of cool but also kind of awkward. The good news is though, our hammock didn't have a tear in the bottom like some others did, so at least our chance of living through it was decent.   

Next was riding ATVs. Are there more cheesy poses from both David and me in existence? Yes. Did I opt to leave out the pictures of me making the cheesy poses? Also yes. This is my blog.. I choose the pictures. 😎

The last part of the tour was swimming in a cenote. Basically, there wasn't much pleasing us because we spent the entire day complaining about the heat and then complained about the cold water here. But I'm glad we ended on this. I'm glad for all of it really. I'm incredibly grateful for so many parts of this trip, and that includes David's kindness and hospitality. He is a genuinely warm person and I'm grateful to have met him. Out of all the people I know that live in Mexico, he is my favorite. 

In all honesty, throughout this trip, I felt many different emotions, both happy and sad. But that's not a bad thing; it's actually a testament to how incredible it was. While I won't be sharing details about personal conversations here, I can say that I wish that I hadn't frozen up like I did during certain parts of our talks. I wanted so badly for every part of this trip to defy all fears, but I've still got a lot to learn there. I thought about some things from my past that haven't really affected me in a while. But again, not in a bad way at all. Oddly enough, it made me more thankful for being on the other side of so much darkness. I'm in such a completely different place today than I once was, and I'm just so grateful for this life.    

 

My last night in PDC was pretty rough. I wasn't ready to leave, and I was really sad about it. But I'm forever grateful for the days I got to spend there. And... I went to another country... by myself! It feels so good to be over that fear. I can go anywhere now, and that's such a good feeling. I'll just need to learn every single language of the world so communication barriers aren't a thing ever again! There's only a few thousand of them, so no biggie, right?! 😆

As sad as I was to be leaving Mexico, there were two things I was thankful for when I got back to the U.S. - getting my voice back and being able to COMMUNICATE with people again was one of them. I'm as determined as ever to become fluent in Spanish now, but man, I was never so glad to listen to people talk to me and just KNOW what they were saying without having to think about if I recognized any words or if I could decipher enough to get the basic message. I've always stayed at a resort when visiting different parts of Mexico before now, and it's completely different than being in the middle of town. I took language for granted, but I sure don't now.

The other thing I was grateful for upon my return home was getting my kids back after their summer stay with their dad. I never realize how much I miss them each year until I lay eyes on them and get to hug them. We were also lucky enough to be greeted back in Texas by these sweet friends who the boys have known since they were born. It was such a sweet time with them. Oh, and Korben got his driver's permit this summer and drove us from Dallas to Weatherford on the way home, so of course that had to get documented with a photo. I'm not really sure when I became old enough to have a child that drives, but I sure plan on taking advantage of it. 

It was all such a lovely end to a really great summer. What lucky people we are.