Stranded in Mexico

May 29, 2008

Today we left Playa del Carmen. It was a sad day… it is the last time we will see the beautiful Caribbean Sea.
The bus was of course about an hour late so we were behind schedule… no big deal though. So we head out, in route to Chichen-itza. About two hours or so into our trip, we are all pretty much asleep, being lulled by the moving bus, we hear a loud beeping noise coming from the front of the bus. We realize it is coming from the dashboard. It is some sort of alarm telling us that the bus is overheating or that there is some sort of malfunction and we need to stop. So about 15 minutes of driving with the loud annoying beeping sound we stop on the side of the narrow Mexican road to check out the problem. We are stopped for probably about 30 minutes or so and then its “on the road again.”
No less than 30 minutes on the road the delightful beeping noise comes back.
So we eventually stop at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere to check the problem again. This time we were stopped for over an hour. We entertained ourselves by way of games, a short jog to the end of the street and back and anything else we could think of to make the time go by. Luckily the weather was cloudy and pretty cool because it had just rained. It was a perfect day to be stranded at a gas station in the middle of nowhere with only $1 bag of chips that the Mexican gas attendant sold us, that really should have been like $0.25, and water. Haha
After the bus driver worked long and hard on the radiator we head out, yet again. We barely make it to the town we were suppose to stay the night in, Valladolid, before the beeping, yet again, filled our ears. So with our plans already really messed up we just stopped at our hotel and checked in.
This town is a good picture of a Mexican town. There are very few, pretty much none besides us, milling around the streets and staying in the hotel.
The hotel entrance is just a large double door in the side of the building front, just like any other store entrance on the small crowded street. When you enter the hotel you go right into the dinning area of the restaurant. It is all open air, so the heat and humidity just follow you wherever you go. As I said before, it is cloudy so that makes it nice. The décor is what I consider authentic Hispanic décor. Diego Rivera paintings on the wall, fountain in the middle of a courtyard, high arcs, plants everywhere.
I really feel like I’m in Mexico now. But it is a good thing. I like it.
Across from the hotel is a little park. It is beautiful with trees all around and a fountain in the middle. There are vendors lining the sidewalk selling all sorts of Mexican trinkets. I was a tourist today… I bought a Mexican dress from one of the ladies. It is beautiful. The dress part is white with beautiful big colorful flowers embroidered around the top around the collar and around the bottom. The underskirt or slip is hand sewn embroidery and is only white. Many of the women walking the streets are wearing this type of –vestida- dress. I’m so excited about my authentic Mexican moo moo! Haha
We made our way round to a beautiful old Catholic church that was filling with people as it was about to hold mass.
We found lots of Mexican stores, like the ones we learn about in the Spanish books like la Panaderia- bread store, la Zopateria- shoe store, la joyeria- jewelry store, la paleteria y halederia- ice cream store, even a pet store selling baby chicks.
We tried some amazing strawberry sherbet type ice cream.
It was a pretty uneventful day as far as going and doing things but it was still an exciting day!