Cancun to Merida

As soon as I walked off the plane the heat and humidity hit my dry, Toronto winter skin like a wave. The heat really didn’t help my situation though. That airport might as well be in the States, all American travellers, Mexican service workers and even the signs are in English first with the Spanish secondary as in the US. So I hurried to get my two large, heavy bags and get out of there but as soon as I left the baggage area I was bombarded with people trying to get me to take their bus, taxi, hotel, vacation package etc. My LP said that there’s a cheap bus into the city…if you can find it. So this nice guy spoke Spanish to me and helped me to find the cheap bus. When I walked up to the platform and saw locals I knew I was in the right place and paid my 35 pesos. The bus ride was great, as I’ve heard Mexican buses are. By the time I got off at the bus terminal in the city, I was hungry and desperately wanted to shower and sleep. So, I thought I’d find a hostel. I made it almost to the hostel walking with my bags and then gave up, thinking I’d gone the wrong way. So I hopped in a cab and was taken the last 2 blocks or something. So I got out of the cab, onto this potholed cracked street that was wet and muddy (the crazy whiteish mud that’s eveywhere on the peninsula, I think its limestone?). Anyway, my stupid holey soles cause me to slip and there I am fallen, lying in a muddy potholed road. The cabby watched and waited till I got up before he drove off, which was nice. However, getting up was no easy task…50 lbs on my back and about 40 on my front, in a skirt I felt like a beached wale as I rolled and put in all my muscles to right myself and get to my feet. So, I’m covered in this mud and my knee is scraped…by this point I’m ready to go home. Checked into the hostel, 100 pesos, met Laura a 23 year old Christian missionary from Texas and Freddy, a 30 year old Peruvian guy who’s on a trip around the world. Discussion at dinner was intriguing…we talked about veganism, ethics, environmentalism, religion, Christianity, the difference between Canadians and Americans and even a bit of politics, all of this in both Spanish and English, with me working as translator for the other two who understand about 50% of what the other says. Then Freddy and I went in search of a market to buy some frutas and we walked through a few real Cancun neighbourhoods, complete with garbage piles, shacks and random dogs in the street. All in all Cancun was good, I even made it to the beach for about half an hour Wednesday afternoon. The ocean itself is absolutely beautiful, with warm bright blue water and the whitest sand that I’ve ever seen. However, the constructions on the beach and the whole Zona Hotelera was not as I had expected…I pictured it to be just like in all the tourist propaganda, clean, new etc, however it seems that that only exists within the walls of the hotel compounds.
I decided that after that night of no sleep, I had to leave Cancun. So I took a first class bus to Merida. We had to stop at a military checkpoint, which wasn't as bad as it sounds. The soldiers are so young though, with machine guns and big black boots. I met two nice Norwegian girls on the bus, which was wonderful since I hadn't yet worked out where to sleep. So we shared a taxi to Nomadas hostel. So far Merida is wonderful, much better than Cancun.