Here are a few tidbits about my trip to Mexico.

• Americans that I ran into were incredibly impatient and bossy. I was embarrassed.
  

• I was amazed by all the cool cell phones and digital cameras.
  

• I felt strange with all the cars driving on the right side of the road.
  

• I was surprised to see children working at the airport and in the grocery stores.

My first night in Playa del Carmen, I went to dinner then walked back to my hotel via the beach. As I was walking, I heard mariachis and a group of people in one of the hotel beach bars. They beckoned me to come up, but I kept walking. But then a girl came running down after me and said that I MUST come up there, have a drink, listen to the mariachis, etc. So I did. We had quite a good time. The group was a mix of people. The girl, Heather, and her boyfriend were from Chicago and New York, there was a guy they had met from Austin, a group of divers from LA, and two Italian girls. I hung out with them that night, and several other nights too.

One day I took the bus (big giant charter bus) to Tulum, a town where they have Mayan ruins by the sea. They were playing videos on the bus. First they had something with talking dogs that was dubbed over in Spanish. I saw this on two bus rides. But then he popped in a Michael Moore video. It wasn’t one of his big movies, but a documentary about a book tour. I laughed, both at the film and at the hilarious-ness of them showing a Michael Moore video on a bus in Mexico.

I heard some nice music, very evocative of when I was in Ecuador… Chichi Peralta, Celiz Cruz, Maná…. Yet one of the things I missed from St. Lucia was the music. Yes, even that crap blasting in your ear in the bus!

The tourists in Playa del Carmen and Cozumel were a little different from the ones in St. Lucia. Playa was flooded with Italians. There were relatively few Americans there. There were plenty of couples, but there were also more groups of friends and families. Cozumel was more Americans. There were also many tourists from within Mexico. Scuba diving is the big attraction there. It was funny to see all these people from different countries and attempt to generalize about where they were from. The European men wore Speedos and the little boy-short bathing suits. They also wore capri pants. The girls were topless. The Americans were overweight. The tourists could also be categorized by their backpacks. A lot of Europeans, and most notably the men, had backpacks in colors like turquoise and purple and light green. The Americans tended to have earth tones.

The people-watching was very good. One of my favorite things to watch were the couples. For the most part, people looked like they went together. But some couples were hilarious, like a really hot girl with a dorky looking guy. Or a stylish and beefy guy with a chubby girl.

I glutted myself with the following novelty items:

• Enchiladas

• Seinfeld

• Simpsons Reruns

• Nachos

• Haagen Dazs

• Margaritas

• Cocoa Puffs

• Pizza Hut

• Pico de Gallo

• Animal Planet

• The Baby Show

In Cozumel I rented a moped. The town itself was quite touristy, of the cruise ship variety (cheesy souvenirs that say ‘Cozumel’ and gold-lettered t-shirts). With the moped I was able to see more of the town and go all the way around the island. Outside of the town, there was NOTHING. Nothing in the sense of civilization, but it was beautiful. I drove along with the sea breeze whistling in my helmet. It was not unlike southern St. Lucia. Outside of town, there were several beach bars that were practically deserted. I stopped at one to chill and swim and have lunch. At one of these restaurants, the beach continues up the coast, but the road turns away from the sea. At this continuing part of beach, there was a shabby, hand-painted sign that said "naked beach". There were indeed naked people on the naked beach. I took a picture (not of the naked people) with the sign and an up-ended old fishing boat. About seven other sets of tourists took the same picture throughout the day.

Along my trip around Cozumel, I stopped at the ruins at San Gervasio. They weren’t as cool as the ruins at Tulum, but it was still interesting. At both places, there were large groups of tourists. Especially in Tulum, the ruins and setting were breathtaking. It is set right on the sea and there is a large wall surrounding a number of different temples, buildings, and altars. Several times I tagged along with a tour group to hear the explanations. At one point, I was near several children with their parents. I had to laugh because they were complaining about how boring the place was. I thought it was interesting. I wondered at what age your opinion about things like that changes…?

Here were a few ugly/annoying Americans that I saw:

• I told one lady that my family was from Milwaukee. She said, "What made you decide to leave Michigan?"
  

• A fat lady and her husband were eating at one of the sidewalk café restaurants. The strolling mariachis came by and played for the couple. The lady got all excited and said, "ooh, ooh, play ‘La Bamba’!" like it was the most original thing ever. The mariachis dutifully played, but looked less than enthused.
  

• At another street café, there were a large and loud group of guys. They were all smoking cigars and cooking fat steaks on some sort of special outside grill. Both of these disrupted my appetite. Then I heard all of this swearing and what sounded like a fight. It was just these drunk guys yelling at each other. Then I saw one guy’s shirt said "Dixie Cowboy" with a stars-n-bars. I felt embarrassed again.
  

• Many a sappy, female, American tourist stopped to pet the flea-bag street dogs. Yes, I agree, pity the poor animals, but for God’s sake don’t touch them!

My last weekend was really fun, but rather low-key. One of the other PCs in St. Lucia, Lauren, has parents who live in Cozumel. They are working there through their church group to set up an orphanage. Unfortunately they weren’t in Cozumel while I was there, but I went to visit the orphanage anyways. It was really fun. Saturday I went there and met 8 of the kids who live in one house. We walked to the park to watch the men who paint pictures for the tourists. They were cheesy things like Sponge Bob underwater or Spider Man in outer space. But the kids were totally enthralled, and the guys had some interesting techniques that they used to paint these pictures. Later, we met a lady who had a talking parrot. He wouldn’t talk for us, but she let us all hold him. After we came, saw and conquered in the park, we went to Mc Donald’s to have an ice cream and play in the play land. This was massive excitement for the kids, and my bi-annual entry into a McDonalds Restaurant. The kids had a good time. It was a little sad though… in the room adjacent to the play land, a group of well-to-do kids and parents were having a birthday party. I had a number of McD’s birthday parties as a kid, and it was no big deal. But that would absolutely be THE COOLEST in St. Lucia, and I can imagine in Cozumel too, especially from the point of view of a group of orphans. They still made the most of it, and all managed to get balloons.

The kids themselves were really great. There were four boys and four girls, aging from three to about ten. The three year-old and another of the boys are brothers by birth. They were my big pals and we were partners, holding hands when we walked thru town. One of them, Marco, is here holding the parrot. I also talked a bit with the oldest boy, Damian. He had round glasses and I said he looked like Harry Potter. Well that was just the best. Then we talked for a long time about Harry Potter… had he seen the movie? …had I read the new book? …did I know who dies? Stupidly, it didn’t even occur to me until I told Lauren about it, the extra intrigue that Harry Potter would have for an orphan over an average ten year-old.

So that was pretty much the extent of the trip. It was a really good time.

Soon I owe an update on the aftermath of the trip, resolution to the summer and the PLAN for what to do next…