Mexico Day 9 - The Journey Home

 

Today was our last day in Mexico and the start of our long journey home. Checkout was at 11am but our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 7pm so we had some time to kill. After our obligatory Covid test checkout was easy and we were able to leave our luggage and rental car at the hotel for the day. But it turns out that walking in the hot sun on an empty stomach is not a great idea and I pretty quickly started to feel sick. Our aim was the restaurant we'd gotten tacos from the other day, the one with a tree for a roof, but we were too early. It was too hot to start a search for good food so we ended up at the nearest restaurant with air conditioning. 

The walk into town

David and Christian at the restaurant

Christian's picture of the couch

This turned out to be a mistake. The food wasn't immediately awful, David's meal looked really good and their breakfast food was decent. I, desperate by this time for familiar food, ordered a burger which turned out to be pretty inedible. It looked beautiful but I was quickly concerned with the quality of the meat. Xander too had a burger but a chicken one which he seemed to enjoy. The restaurant let us stay there for a while and we enjoyed a break from the heat. 

David's breakfast

Christian's picture of his breakfast

We wandered slowly back in the direction of the hotel, toying with the idea of sitting by the pool for a bit before heading to the airport. We had promised the kids ice cream and found a place after a couple blocks. Xander wasn't feeling well but thought it was the heat (he was also wearing long pants) and a lack of water. So we got some water, ordered ice cream, and sat down in air conditioning. Xander though wasn't feeling any better and couldn't eat any ice cream at all. And as we continued our walk down the busy street I heard a retching and splash behind me. Poor Xander had thrown up all over the street! We pulled him over to some bushes and took care of him while he purged the meal he'd just eaten. James went to find water but a very nice man hurried out of one of the shops and handed me a bottle. Oh we were so thankful!

Sick Xander

Xander started to feel much better afterwards and we were able to get him back to the hotel. He showered off in the outside shower and put on a change of clothes and by the time he was done he was refreshed and back to normal. And by this time we were due at the airport so off we went. As we drove James and I talked about some of the things we've noticed on our trip and I thought this would be a good time to mention them in here. 

Playa del Carmen wildlife

Jon enjoyed the slide

Xander slides to the first floor

One of the things that has stood out to us here is the noticeable military presence. I'm not sure that it would be considered large, mostly we saw groups of three or four soldiers, but it was constant in Playa del Carmen. We'd see checkpoints of soldiers or convoys on the road too, but mostly it was three or four men driving ATVs down the beach, standing or walking down 5th Avenue, or driving what I'd call a military jeep. I'm sure the military jeeps have an actual name and aren't really jeeps, but they sort of look like a black open backed jeep with a large gun mounted on the roll bar. 

Seeing them so often and so heavily armed was weird and definitely reminded me that this area is not safe. I might barely have noticed lightly armed soldiers but it was strange to see a large mounted and manned gun on the top of a car driving down a road crowded with tourists. The ATV and patrolling soldiers also had rifles and while they weren't on *every* corner you couldn't go more than a few blocks without seeing a group of them. The reason was because in January, November, and October different tourists had been shot in various gang and drug related shoot outs. Now that I'm thinking about it, most of the soldiers we saw patrolling were only in the tourist areas. The only time we saw them on the parallel streets was when they were driving to 5th Avenue. 

Some of the houses were built over what looked like caves

Another thing about our travels was that everything here tastes weird. Sure there is different kinds of food but I don't mean that. I mean things like chips or drinks or snacks, common brands that we see at home taste different here. Doritos that we've had in Canada and Iceland tasted just the same, here they have a completely different cheese flavoring. The Cheetos were really weird, they had a red powder flavoring. There were other examples too, although we also tried more local snacks. But it was curious that brands that are consistent internationally are particularly different here. I wonder if that is just for Mexico or true in South America as well? I definitely felt the lack of any familiar taste by the end of our trip.

We really liked these decorated pumpkin lights

I've spoken already about the culture of selling things and bargaining. That did make it hard for us to shop because you couldn't even glance at a display without someone immediately coming to talk to you. Often you couldn't even walk quickly by without being accosted. As a New England girl I found this incredibly stressful because I hate to be approached when I'm browsing. At first I wondered if this was cultural, if a Mexican tourist coming to Zeb's in Conway or Black's Paper Shop in Wolfeboro would be put off by browsing for souvenirs alone. But I think this might just be a tourist phenomenon because when we shopped on more local streets and in local stores there wasn't any of that. 

A tourist shop

One thing I do love about traveling is visiting the local stores. We found a nearby grocery (which had better prices and more stuff than the nearby Walmart) that was excellent. A couple of times James would go in the mornings and buy huge bags of various freshly made pastries for breakfast. We also preferred to walk away from 5th Avenue. The next street over was less crowded but still had lots of good places to eat and some nice stores. The street after that and the connecting streets were definitely more local and I wish we'd been able to find those taco stands we saw the second day here.

Mayan ruins

Anyway, eventually we made it to the airport and the car return and the check in process was MUCH easier than everything was on our arrival. Our flight was delayed by an hour but that was ok because it gave us a chance to have a very good meal at Wolfgang Puck's. Our trip home was rough though. We had an overnight layover in Miami and stayed in the airport at a ridiculously over-priced airport hotel. David took the pullout couch, James and I had the bed, and the kids all camped out on the floor. It was worth it though, we got three (almost 4?) hours of sleep and that was a lot more than we would have had in the bright airport. Our airline and gate were just steps from the hotel but at 4am we still slept too late because there was an insane and unmoving line to check in. Thankfully we made it on to the flight but I was very worried we might miss it!

Xander and Christian at the airport

Sunrise in a sea of clouds

And now we are home. My dad picked us up in Boston and it was wonderful to be home in the cool air and to see the snow on the ground. It was a fantastic trip and I loved it, but I am always happy to come home.