Arriba, Arriba

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Travel Companions - Lorraine (aka 'Loco') and Erum (Aka 'E')
Duration – 9 nights
Movies Watched – cannot remember

Sitting next to - the girls



So, after my Turkey travels I spent a few days in London before heading back to Gatwick South to meet my good friends Lorraine (Loco) and Erum (E). We had organised a girly trip to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. My good mate Saul had already prepped me on where to go and what to do. Lorraine and I met at the designated spot - 'in front of Virgin check-in'. Erum had already texted us to say she had arrived but when we got there she was nowhere to be seen. We waited and waited then called her mobile....she was waiting for us in front of a business class lounge. This just about sums Erum up! We spent the whole 10 hour trip talking - there was good gossip to share! The poor dude in front of us must have hated us! We didn't even put on the in-flight entertainment. The air steward was a nice dude and was happy to provide us with gin & tonics for the duration of the flight. We arrived safely and after a 1 hour transfer we were at our hotel. After we got over the initial shock of realising we did not have wifi in our room we headed to a late dinner (after saying we had eaten heaps on the flight) and had a few drinks at the bar. It was late and we retired to bed!

Jet lag was a real b*tch on this trip as Lorraine will tell you (more on that later). We were awake at 5am and talking lots of crap as the female population does. We spent that Wednesday checking out the hotel and getting our tan on at the beach. It was the one and only time E and I made it into the Caribbean Sea. There was metres of seaweed and the water was a murky brown....we were swimming with seaweed, constantly stopping to remove the bits that had stuck to our arms. We blamed this environmental disaster on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. It was really sad to see and it has ruined the beautiful waters that border Mexico. Like most days spent at the hotel we acquainted ourselves with the barmen and waiters. The drinks menu and food specialties became something we looked forward to every day. Guacamole became a daily plate item.

On Thursday we headed to Cozumel Island. We were given an introduction into the shady dealings of the Mexicans! I had not done any research on Cozumel and after asking one of the local 'businessmen' he told us there was nothing to do there and you needed a car to get around the island so its best we buy the tickets he was selling and do some snorkeling. So we did. Only to reach Cozumel and find that it was an island bursting with life and far from the bullsh*t our 'friend' had told us. We asked an old man where our 'boat' was and he pointed to a dingy. There was no way I was going to jump in that dingy, let alone poor Lorraine who wasn't a strong swimmer. I had already learnt not to trust all Mexicans :-) so I asked again and was shown something that resembled a boat. We went to three locations for snorkeling and it was really great! Lorraine stayed on the boat and was serenaded by the 'skipper' who asked if she was married and told her she was a 'mermaid of the sea'. Snorkeling over we found this fab bar and scoffed down awesome nachos and margaritas.

Friday we were up early to meet the lovely Chantal who was going to take us to a sister hotel as a 'thank you' for booking with the hotel group. We knew there would be a catch but we were not prepared for what awaited us. So we went to this lovely hotel and were treated to champagne and then on our way back we were asked for few more mins of our time. This few minutes ended up being about an hour! We, unfortunately, had the pleasure of meeting Chantal's boss, and his boss and his bosses boss and they were trying to get us to buy a place in Costa Rica! After guzzling another glass of champagne, E whispered to me that she wanted to get out of there so I told them I was not interested. They then turned to poor Loco and E who had to spend another 10 minutes telling them to shove their timeshare up their arse! We left, not waiting around to receive yet another 'present' from the hotel group. We finally made it to the pool, ordered a round of mojitos to calm ourselves and spent the rest of the day perving at 'hot dad' (a dude that was vacationing at our hotel with his young family).

Much to Loco's excitement, we made it into town that night. Now it must be said that Loco is the party animal in the group and E and I were a bunch of grandma's on this trip. Much to Loco's dismay, we hardly had the energy to go out and were in bed and asleep by midnight whilst Loco would stay up fending off the mosquito's that had made their way into her bed (she had two bites on her arse!). At the time, I didn't feel bad, but, I do now, as it may have been an opportunity to find her a husband. As a result we owe Loco a massive night out in London town. Playa del Carmen is pretty good fun for going out. We started off at 5th Avenue in a cool open bar with a band, then headed to this street that looked like a scene from American Pie. We ended up in this cool outdoor club with great music and realised we were the oldest three people there. A quick drink and boogie and we were off to another bar and then another and another. We sat in 'VIP' areas because E would just walk into them without realising....no one would say anything unlike snotty London. We had kept an eye out for a recommended salsa bar but to no avail.....until it was 4am and E was tired and we were heading back home. E spotted the salsa club by chance so we headed in. The salsa bar was pumping and before we knew it there were dudes coming up to us asking for a dance. Loco took a few for the team and had a few admirers. We retreated to bed around 5am.

Given our late night we hung around the hotel on Saturday, checking out 'hot dad' and watching the drinking competitions to commemorate 4th of July celebrations. Loco soon became enthralled with this American family from Texas so would listen in on their conversations and report back to base. By this time the waiters had become acquainted with us and knew that we liked a tipple. Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday. We chilled and complained to the hotel about the water dripping in our bathroom. They never fixed it so we had to do it ourselves....by climbing onto the bathroom sink and putting a pool towel into the ceiling beams. E had enough and complained to guest services....we came back to our room to a warm bottle of champagne (our mini bar fridge wasn't exactly designed to chill) and two glasses. No attention to detail here. Later that evening, we headed to the Hyatt, to hear Leonardo and his acoustic guitar and then headed to 5th Avenue to our favourite Mexican restaurant. I still dream about the food we ate there!

Monday was tour day! We awoke really early and headed to Chichen Itza, a Mayan town and a cenotes (a sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath). We made friends with a young, fun, Aussie couple on our bus and shared a few laughs with them. Whilst Chichen was awesome my favourite part was the cenotes. E and I went up and on the count of three we were to jump in together....on three I jumped and looked for E....she was nowhere to be found...I looked up and the chicken sh*t was still up there finding the courage to jump. After a few attempts the girl jumped and we enjoyed the cenotes with the 300 others that were swimming in our way. We then headed to a Mayan town and in the 15 minutes that we were there E and I managed to buy hammocks. We thought they were full size and it was only a few weeks later, when E opened hers, that she realised we had bought smaller ones. I still have no idea what to do with mine. We made it back to the hotel right on 9pm....for our dinner reservation. No time to shower we headed to dinner and enjoyed a nice meal followed by shots of tequila.

Tuesday we chilled and didn't do much. We got into the habit of having long and leisurely breakfasts. Despite our hotel issues, we loved all the waiters and they were good to us! They were so funny and full of cheeky remarks. Most of them wanted to marry Loco. I think we may have headed into 5th Avenue to do some last minute shopping, as well. The vendors were cheeky too, often asking if we wanted 'some silver, or some souvenirs or some tequila or a husband'. The best quote was something along the lines of 'just call me papi'.

Wednesday was a hot and beautiful day followed by some much needed thunderstorms. We headed to Tulum to check out the ruins and the beach. It was pretty amazing. Mexico is full of so much history and beauty. After checking out the ruins we took a walk to Tulum beach. Another local 'businessman' had told us there was no access to the beach unless we bought tickets to a beach bar. We laughed and said we would take our chances. We got to beautiful Tulum beach only to find plenty of places to eat and drink. We found a great beach bar and positioned ourselves there for the whole afternoon. This is truly the life. Drinking from fresh coconuts we chilled and I took an afternoon nap. The locals were so friendly and helpful. We made it back to base late in a collectivo. Much to Loco's happiness we headed out that night and experienced more of the cool bars that Carmen del Playa had to offer.

Thursday was travel day. I made it into town for one last meal at my favourite Mexican restaurant. Our transfer arrived and we were back at Cancun airport for the 9 hour trip back to London. Mexico is such a beautiful place full of fascinating history, lovely scenery and beautiful people. Next stop....Copenhagen.

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