Thu 2142 I am going to bed, honest. Just a quick extra note to say that being in London this morning feels like a lifetime ago. Not exactly in a bad way, but just saying it does.
2146 Actually in bed, just a random note, that when I was waiting outside the terminal there were loads of taxi-touts, but they weren't tremendously awkward, you know, and they're all speaking English, and I just kept saying no thanks, I've already arranged something, and it was fine. Just adding that as a bit of flavour.
It was kind of sort of muggy, warm there, but not ridiculously unpleasant. I had my fleece on as well. And you could see that it was more or less daylight when we came out. And then it was definitely getting dark as I was hanging around. I'd probably hang around for 30 minutes, maybe. I don't know. I was first technical. I could see the timestamps and the WhatsApp messages for that.
The owner put the ceiling fan on when I came in to my room and the air conditioning on I think at 25 so I've just left it like that. It's pretty decent temperature. It wasn't absolutely oh my god I'm dying muggy outside the terminal but then of course it was evening so who knows what it would be like during the day but you know I guess I will acclimatise over the next week or two I think it's gonna be okay.
0824 Not sure if I wrote correctly yesterday, but I think the place the owner recommended in Bacalar is *rapidos* de Bacalar.
In bed pretty much awake, probably ought to get up, but slightly reluctant to. I kind of don't want to face going out and buying sim and trying to find somewhere to eat, but I do want to of course.
Went to sleep pretty quickly. I think I woke up again about half past three local time. Just had a bit of water and didn't get up to go to the toilet or anything. I've sort of been drifting in and out of sleep a bit for maybe the last hour or two. It really feels like a bit of a shame that I've got to get up again on schedule to go somewhere tomorrow. But that's just how it is because I didn't hang around too much here at the start of the trip.
Ceiling fan makes a kind of quiet, alarmy sound as it rotates as obviously some wear on the bearing. It's not a big deal, it's very slightly annoying if I think about it but not a huge deal. I could have turned it off and just had the air conditioning of course, but I thought I'd leave it on. I did feel a tiny bit cold in bed at times during the night. I've got a blanket to put on if I want it, I think, but obviously I generally felt pretty comfortable. I kind of enjoyed the slight cold and it was fine.
0840 Just transferred some money to replace the stuff I withdrew on my Starling card yesterday. It was an HSBC machine apparently (feels right but wasn't sure), and on a 7000 Mexican peso withdrawal the fee was 92.80 or something like that.
1908 So I sort of drifted out of bed after doing that Starling withdrawal. I was puttering around reorganising my stuff and secreting cash and so forth, and I finally left the accommodation about 11. I was feeling a bit edgy about going out for no really obvious reason, but it was fine, quite warm out, but not absolutely "Oh my god, I'm going to die" hot.
owner wasn't around it turned out she actually sent me a WhatsApp with some details about the keys and said she had to go out suddenly which was nice but I figured it out on my own anyway. I didn't see the WhatsApp until later after I bought my SIM because I had WhatsApp off overnight anyway.
I didn't know specifically where to go but I sort of wandered around you know tried to stay chilled metaphorically not literally and I basically I was wandering around trying to find a I went into a couple of plazas, there was Plaza Chachamool or something (I'm not looking at the map right now). That didn't have a phone shop, but I went in the supermarket there and bought a 14-ish pesto bottle of flor de jamaica drink, which was quite nice, sugar-free.
I was also sort of looking out for places to eat although I really wanted to buy the sim first partly to get it over with and partly so I wasn't there like food on my teeth or something when I was talking to the people in the phone shop when I found one. There were quite a few small business kind of hole in the wall type restaurants but a lot of them would take away only and they all appeared very local oriented I think this suburban part of Cancun is not very touristy. Not that that's a bad thing as such.
I'd been talking to the host on the drive back yesterday about food. She probably just asked me casually if I liked Mexican food and I ended up telling her about my sauce kind of weirdness. And she said that tacos and tamales didn't have any sauce. So that's quite a good job if true. I think it probably is at least semi-true. There were an awful lot of taco places among the small local hole in wall type places (also quite a lot of street carts). There were also some fried chicken type places, but apart from that I wanted to buy the sim first. As I say a lot of them were take out only and I didn't really want to be sitting in the street or walking down the street trying to eat chicken or anything really.
After about two hours total walking, I sort of semi stumbled across Grand Plaza and I went in there. That was much bigger than the Chachamal one with two levels. There was an AT&T kiosk in the middle and I spoke to the guy, but although I'm quite pleased with handling the Spanish, albeit with plenty of errors, the best he could offer was a 14-day validity thing for 200 pesos initial and 100 pesos top-up, with three gigs of data and unlimited calls to Mexico, US and Canada and unlimited social media. That didn't seem like a great deal, but the 14-day validity was really pretty off-putting, so I said I'd think about it.
There were quite a few telcel outlets in the same plaza, maybe at least three, I'm not sure. But in the end when I was upstairs I went and spoke to the guy in an otherwise empty small telcel place. He was quite nice and basically he sold me a packet with free sim and 150 pesos for 25 day validity with the unlimited social media and unlimited calls to North America. It was supposed to be three gigabytes instead of two gigabytes on some sort of promotion, but I actually only seem to have the two gigabytes and I did ask him and he said, oh no, it's there and pointed at some 500 megabyte thing in the balance message, which didn't really make sense, but I didn't really bother arguing. Two gigabytes is fine and the price wasn't too bad. Apparently I can add a hundred and fifty peso packet after the 25 days and get the same deal again. I just go into eg an Oxxo and say I'd like 150 peso packet added to this number please and show the number and they'll put it on for me and it automatically turns into a packet, I don't have to convert the credit or anything like that. We'll see if that actually works but that's the theory. So anyway I bought that, I didn't think I'd faff around trying to find a Movistar shop.
It was when we were testing that sim in my phone in the shop that I saw the owners WhatsApp. It all just worked really easily. Oh, and the guy in the shop made a three-minute phone call to his own number to activate the sim or something. Seems a bit odd, but it's free because it's unlimited national calls, so it didn't do any harm and he presumably knows what he's talking about.
It was probably somewhere about one-ish when I bought the sim, maybe closer to half past or two or not really sure.
2002 Sitting outside with a beer, I was hoping to meet Andre, but maybe he'll be around later. Anyway, just to jump ahead slightly, I've had a quick look on booking.com to see if they've got anything at Rapidos de Baccala. It is a place they recognise, but the closest thing, which is some insanely expensive, 11,000 pesos for two nights place, is three kilometres away. And looking at the map, it looks like, as far as booking.com is concerned, you either stay in Bacalar itself or Xulja (so). I don't know whether you can stay literally at the rapids, but that said, there is one really cheap looking place at Xwhatsit that gets excellent reviews and I could imagine going there, but that would probably be after "doing" Bacalar fully.
I've confirmed my arrival time with the accommodation for tomorrow, fingers crossed it should be okay. I haven't seen the owner tonight but I did see buses going up and down the avenue near here and there was one place where people were queuing and although I'd really like to speak to the owner about it ideally tonight but maybe tomorrow I'm reasonably confident I can get a bus to the ADO terminal. I'll probably have to go stupidly early but that's fine. That way I've got a chance to maybe faff around trying to get an Uber which might work but I don't know and its not super cheap at about 140-150 pesos.
Washed a couple of tops before I had a shower tonight BTW, they are already pretty dry and I can wear one tomorrow. I figured tops would dry more easily than uw.
So anyway, after I bought the sim, I wandered a bit more and I was thinking about tacos and tamales which as I think I said the owner told me were without source and I was dithering and I saw a small place which might have been called Carnes Juanito but I'm not sure and after dithering and wandering up and down the street I went there and I had a very bad Spanish conversation with a woman I asked her if there was a menu and she just started to tell me stuff. In the end I did manage to just about manage the conversation and I ordered three beef tacos without any sauce and I went and sat down and they sent perhaps their daughter over who spoke with English. They obviously didn't rate my Spanish and she asked me about a drink and I agreed to buy some sort of what turned out to be homemade Hibiscus juice drink about a liter of it at 40 pesos. The food was pretty decent. I can maybe just go to places and say, can I have some tacos without sauce please and it will be fine or I can go and get like a single one from a street stall if I'm not worried about health type stuff and that way I can have a snack and experience some local stuff and so that will be good. Maybe because I'm whispering slightly because I'm outside the voice typing seems to keep just missing off big chunks of what I've said but anyway for about the third time I'll say that it was 30 pesos for each taco and 40 for the drink they wouldn't take my money I tried to pay before I'd taken a bite just in case but after I'd eaten they came over and said 130 which was fine and I made 150 with the tip. And I resisted the temptation to go to KFC or something like that and take the easy option.
After that, I walked back through a slightly different circular route towards the accommodation and I called in at the Walmart and I got a bag of Takis Fuego and some beers because I thought it might be nice to share with some people tonight if anyone was around. Logistically that's a bit awkward because I'm only here tonight so if no one else drinks any I either have to leave them for them or you know as a gift or take them with me but you know I thought it would be nice So I got them not a big deal. I broke a new 500 note at the till. I got quite a lot of change, which made me query it politely, and I maybe looked a bit of an idiot, but never mind.
Which reminds me that when I bought the 14 peso bottle of Hibiscus drink at the first place earlier in the morning I used one of the old 500 peso notes and the woman at the till had to call someone else in and then she called someone else in and they were rubbing it between their fingers like oh it's damaged and in the end there was a bit of a queue building up although it wasn't that busy in the end they agreed to take it and then some helpful woman in the Q behind me decided to chime in and say you had to change those at the bank but obviously if the woman at the till wanted to accept it according to a supervisor that was fine I didn't say anything I think she was wrong because when I looked before I came it said they are technically valid it's just that banks do not put them back into circulation once they get paid in
So after I went to Walmart, I came back here, put the beers in the fridge in my room and Had a drink of water. I'd left the bottle in the fridge and then I had a quick look at the map and I went out to a nearby coffee place in the hope of just getting a coffee and passing a bit of time but that was shut so I wandered around a bit more and I knew there was a Starbucks down near the Walmart but luckily there was also a Bonpane or something next to a petrol station and I went in there and I had a latte at 42 pesos quite enjoyed that and then I thought well I'll have another one because I've got all this change from earlier so it will use some of it up so it's kind of free. So I had two. It seemed a bit overstaffed. You had to order at the main counter, then take a receipt over to a separate counter where there were two women sitting there accepting the money, and then they stamped your receipt, and then you went back to the main counter to get your drink. When I got the second drink, I did ask, oh, do you take tips? Because I couldn't see a glass or anything anywhere, and they said no, so I just said thank you, so I didn't have to tip on top of the 42.
Anyway, when I ordered the first coffee, I was at the pay counter, and I'd taken another 500 peso notes out when I'd been back at the accommodation, one of the old ones, and I paid with that, and I said, will you accept this? And I think they were looking at the fact that it was 500 more than that it was an old 500, but I handed it over, trying not to let them see I actually had a modern 200 note in my wallet as well, and I think they used some sort of tester pen on it, but they didn't make that much fuss. So that was good, so I still got three of them left, but I think I probably will be able to use them without too much fuss based on experiences today. I might need to be a bit persistent or accept that some places won't take it, but keep. Just keep trying.
I didn't fiddle with my phone much while I was sitting in the coffee place. I just sort of watched around and it was mostly locals going in and there were some kids getting gelato and you know I felt sort of quietly cheerful you know it's like it's not been a bad day. I bought the sim, I was brave and had the tacos and I wandered around for maybe about four hours so I got some exercise and you know I'm still seeing Mexico and it's fine. You know, I got my goals for today accomplished, so to speak.
So I came back to the accommodation, maybe five, thirty-ish, six-ish after the coffees, and one of the beers I bought at the supermarket, I got four 473ml cans of beer, different kinds, and I got fifth 473ml can of Sol Mezclas Clamato which was only 2.5%. So I had the Clemato sitting outside in the late afternoon sun, didn't stay out quite as long as sunset and I called Mum and Andre came back and said hi as I was speaking to her and I said maybe see you later. Never had a Camato before, if I remember rightly. It actually tasted quite nice, it was a little bit like a michelada.
So then I went back in and did the laundry and had a shower, cleaned my teeth again. Then I was faffing around in my room writing this bit up and dealing with a WhatsApp message from tomorrow's accommodation and then I came out here. So I think that's more or less caught up on the whole day.
2027 I just looked up and Orion is practically overhead in the smallish bit of sky I can see. There's quite a lot of light pollution but obviously it's a fairly bright constellation. That's quite cool.
When I was coming back to the accommodation for the last time there was a really nice little ginger and white cat on the street and it let me stroke it and it was rolling over. I sort of left it and then I couldn't resist and I went back and I stroked it a bit more. Although it did then all of a sudden sort of wow at me like "I'm not happy". I don't know why so I did leave it. I couldn't spend all night with it but it was a really nice cat. I have some photos of it of course.
If I didn't already say it's a shame to be leaving tomorrow and I was thinking that in bed this morning that I can't enjoy a nice sort of relaxed semi-lie in and get up when I want tomorrow but it probably does make sense because I'm gonna be back here and I don't want to rush around like crazy but I also don't want to blatantly waste time I think in terms of seeing this bit of Cancun it's nice to have seen this kind of really localish bit but there isn't a huge amount I can see right here, you know, obviously I could get a bus over to the more central bit and wander around there, but obviously I can do that when I come back. While it would be nice if I had all the time in the world to have spent another night here, it's probably for the best to be going.
But I was wandering around today and I was thinking, well, when you've got to travel the next day, it does kind of induce some level of stress and it is a shame I've got to go tomorrow and I really do need to be careful in general to try to avoid moving around too often because, you know, it's like the overhead of mental load from traveling too often. You know, if 50% of days you've got to travel the next day, that's crap, whereas if it's 20% of days you've got to travel the next day, that's obviously disrupting sort of mental equilibrium and the feeling of, oh I'm just hanging around chilling and stuff a bit, less.
I think I'm getting really conversational with the voice typing and it's not great but if it's the best way to get some thoughts down I am rereading what it's written and although it's got like "you knows" and "like"s in I think it's okay. I'm editing it a little bit to make sure I can get the point across but as I said before I expect the style is going to be different because of that but as long as I've got something kind of readable and showing my thoughts that's probably okay.
For what it's worth, I just checked Cooking.com and the accommodation in Baccalaar still has a tent available for the next two nights and a four-bed dorm with four beds available. So, on the one hand, that suggests it may not be super busy and therefore there won't be many people to meet. But on the other hand, if I want to stay, it at least suggests there's a chance of being able to extend. The thing is, even if it's nice, am I going to think, oh, it'd be nice to try that one on the zocalo with the really good reviews. So I guess it will also depend how I feel about the area around the place with the tent, whether it feels a bit cut off because of dogs or whatever at night. I just have to see how it goes tomorrow and remember that I don't have to rush blah blah blah. I do want to do a day trip to chachoben but I can do that from anywhere. I guess the full day I have there will just be a bit exploratory, maybe wander over to lagoon for a look or down to so-called and perhaps even pop in to the hostel there and see if it is busy or deserted and maybe look at the dorm.
I need to remember this isn't wasting a day because a bit like today it's still going to be cool to wander around the town and see what's there and get a feel for it and it's also an investment in terms of deciding how to spend the next two, three, four, five, whatever days.
If I didn't already say I'm sitting out the front of the accommodation here, there's a nice little sort of patio terrace, but it is open to the street. The street is private and there's a gate which keeps sliding back and forth as cars come in and out. It's got Christmas wreaths on, which is kind of cool, if a little bit weird this late in Jan. And it's fine, but there's a back garden, but I'm not sure you can sit there and it doesn't look super nice. This just feels a tiny bit exposed to random people walking past, but especially with it being a private road, it doesn't feel particularly dangerous, it's just a tiny bit weird to be sitting out here in public, albeit a very quietish public writing this and talking out loud about it. To be fair, I wouldn't be sitting out writing this with voice typing in a hostel or in a back garden at a hostel or whatever if there was anyone else around at all. I'm the odd person walking past. I hear me talking. It might look a bit weird, but it doesn't matter. I'm not saying anything bad and they maybe don't speak English anyway, and they're only walking past, so they only hear it for a few seconds. I certainly wouldn't, as I say, be sitting in, say, a hostel garden with other people around even if they were just at a table ten metres away, I would be using the keyboard or not doing it and saving it for later or whatever.
The guy in the place where I did buy the sim said he didn't get many British people in, mostly North Americans. He said there'd been some guy from the Czech Republic. He also gave me a maybe backhanded compliment by saying that I spoke Spanish very well... for an Englishman.
I guess I'd walked quite a long way to that Grand Plaza. The areas and areas of the accommodation probably are increasingly areas where the average tourist has just no reason to go. And Grand Plaza is not super central. I think I was probably only about halfway to the real centre if that but it's probably big enough for destination and so forth. But some tourists will go there, I'm sure. They don't really need to because there are equivalent shops much closer. to either the hotels or the centres proper.
Sat 0017 Okay, various beers and margaritas outside Andre and Oriana and Deleta, I'm not sure about that but the Panamanian woman came back and we were having a booze-up outside and it was actually very good and interesting but obviously I'm slightly edgy about the bus tomorrow but probably be fine. I don't feel too drunk so we'll see how it goes.
0024 Andre's dog is a Schnauzer and is called (sp) Tiqu, which is Canadian French for "small ass".
0047 jeez, just eaten 95% of a 240g packet of Takis Fuegp *after* cleaning teeth for frist time and had to clean my teeth a second time and my mouth feels vaguely raw and I was spitting out red liquid in a vaguely disconcerting way. Its all fine, I hope, I don't feel that drunk and I have water and don't have to be up insanely ealrym. On one hand I wish Is Been More circumspect but on the other it was really good travel type stuff to have this chat so can't complain. Delita (?) Is 24 and Andre is almost unbeliavly 70 and has children in their 40s - I had put him down as in his 50s.
0056 I am glad I had those beers to offer. Anyway, I don't feel too bad tbh though mouth feels a bit raw from Takis Fuego despite cleaning teeth a second time. Going to send this now and if I missed anything I can fill in the gap tomorrow.
2146 Actually in bed, just a random note, that when I was waiting outside the terminal there were loads of taxi-touts, but they weren't tremendously awkward, you know, and they're all speaking English, and I just kept saying no thanks, I've already arranged something, and it was fine. Just adding that as a bit of flavour.
It was kind of sort of muggy, warm there, but not ridiculously unpleasant. I had my fleece on as well. And you could see that it was more or less daylight when we came out. And then it was definitely getting dark as I was hanging around. I'd probably hang around for 30 minutes, maybe. I don't know. I was first technical. I could see the timestamps and the WhatsApp messages for that.
The owner put the ceiling fan on when I came in to my room and the air conditioning on I think at 25 so I've just left it like that. It's pretty decent temperature. It wasn't absolutely oh my god I'm dying muggy outside the terminal but then of course it was evening so who knows what it would be like during the day but you know I guess I will acclimatise over the next week or two I think it's gonna be okay.
0824 Not sure if I wrote correctly yesterday, but I think the place the owner recommended in Bacalar is *rapidos* de Bacalar.
In bed pretty much awake, probably ought to get up, but slightly reluctant to. I kind of don't want to face going out and buying sim and trying to find somewhere to eat, but I do want to of course.
Went to sleep pretty quickly. I think I woke up again about half past three local time. Just had a bit of water and didn't get up to go to the toilet or anything. I've sort of been drifting in and out of sleep a bit for maybe the last hour or two. It really feels like a bit of a shame that I've got to get up again on schedule to go somewhere tomorrow. But that's just how it is because I didn't hang around too much here at the start of the trip.
Ceiling fan makes a kind of quiet, alarmy sound as it rotates as obviously some wear on the bearing. It's not a big deal, it's very slightly annoying if I think about it but not a huge deal. I could have turned it off and just had the air conditioning of course, but I thought I'd leave it on. I did feel a tiny bit cold in bed at times during the night. I've got a blanket to put on if I want it, I think, but obviously I generally felt pretty comfortable. I kind of enjoyed the slight cold and it was fine.
0840 Just transferred some money to replace the stuff I withdrew on my Starling card yesterday. It was an HSBC machine apparently (feels right but wasn't sure), and on a 7000 Mexican peso withdrawal the fee was 92.80 or something like that.
1908 So I sort of drifted out of bed after doing that Starling withdrawal. I was puttering around reorganising my stuff and secreting cash and so forth, and I finally left the accommodation about 11. I was feeling a bit edgy about going out for no really obvious reason, but it was fine, quite warm out, but not absolutely "Oh my god, I'm going to die" hot.
owner wasn't around it turned out she actually sent me a WhatsApp with some details about the keys and said she had to go out suddenly which was nice but I figured it out on my own anyway. I didn't see the WhatsApp until later after I bought my SIM because I had WhatsApp off overnight anyway.
I didn't know specifically where to go but I sort of wandered around you know tried to stay chilled metaphorically not literally and I basically I was wandering around trying to find a I went into a couple of plazas, there was Plaza Chachamool or something (I'm not looking at the map right now). That didn't have a phone shop, but I went in the supermarket there and bought a 14-ish pesto bottle of flor de jamaica drink, which was quite nice, sugar-free.
I was also sort of looking out for places to eat although I really wanted to buy the sim first partly to get it over with and partly so I wasn't there like food on my teeth or something when I was talking to the people in the phone shop when I found one. There were quite a few small business kind of hole in the wall type restaurants but a lot of them would take away only and they all appeared very local oriented I think this suburban part of Cancun is not very touristy. Not that that's a bad thing as such.
I'd been talking to the host on the drive back yesterday about food. She probably just asked me casually if I liked Mexican food and I ended up telling her about my sauce kind of weirdness. And she said that tacos and tamales didn't have any sauce. So that's quite a good job if true. I think it probably is at least semi-true. There were an awful lot of taco places among the small local hole in wall type places (also quite a lot of street carts). There were also some fried chicken type places, but apart from that I wanted to buy the sim first. As I say a lot of them were take out only and I didn't really want to be sitting in the street or walking down the street trying to eat chicken or anything really.
After about two hours total walking, I sort of semi stumbled across Grand Plaza and I went in there. That was much bigger than the Chachamal one with two levels. There was an AT&T kiosk in the middle and I spoke to the guy, but although I'm quite pleased with handling the Spanish, albeit with plenty of errors, the best he could offer was a 14-day validity thing for 200 pesos initial and 100 pesos top-up, with three gigs of data and unlimited calls to Mexico, US and Canada and unlimited social media. That didn't seem like a great deal, but the 14-day validity was really pretty off-putting, so I said I'd think about it.
There were quite a few telcel outlets in the same plaza, maybe at least three, I'm not sure. But in the end when I was upstairs I went and spoke to the guy in an otherwise empty small telcel place. He was quite nice and basically he sold me a packet with free sim and 150 pesos for 25 day validity with the unlimited social media and unlimited calls to North America. It was supposed to be three gigabytes instead of two gigabytes on some sort of promotion, but I actually only seem to have the two gigabytes and I did ask him and he said, oh no, it's there and pointed at some 500 megabyte thing in the balance message, which didn't really make sense, but I didn't really bother arguing. Two gigabytes is fine and the price wasn't too bad. Apparently I can add a hundred and fifty peso packet after the 25 days and get the same deal again. I just go into eg an Oxxo and say I'd like 150 peso packet added to this number please and show the number and they'll put it on for me and it automatically turns into a packet, I don't have to convert the credit or anything like that. We'll see if that actually works but that's the theory. So anyway I bought that, I didn't think I'd faff around trying to find a Movistar shop.
It was when we were testing that sim in my phone in the shop that I saw the owners WhatsApp. It all just worked really easily. Oh, and the guy in the shop made a three-minute phone call to his own number to activate the sim or something. Seems a bit odd, but it's free because it's unlimited national calls, so it didn't do any harm and he presumably knows what he's talking about.
It was probably somewhere about one-ish when I bought the sim, maybe closer to half past or two or not really sure.
2002 Sitting outside with a beer, I was hoping to meet Andre, but maybe he'll be around later. Anyway, just to jump ahead slightly, I've had a quick look on booking.com to see if they've got anything at Rapidos de Baccala. It is a place they recognise, but the closest thing, which is some insanely expensive, 11,000 pesos for two nights place, is three kilometres away. And looking at the map, it looks like, as far as booking.com is concerned, you either stay in Bacalar itself or Xulja (so). I don't know whether you can stay literally at the rapids, but that said, there is one really cheap looking place at Xwhatsit that gets excellent reviews and I could imagine going there, but that would probably be after "doing" Bacalar fully.
I've confirmed my arrival time with the accommodation for tomorrow, fingers crossed it should be okay. I haven't seen the owner tonight but I did see buses going up and down the avenue near here and there was one place where people were queuing and although I'd really like to speak to the owner about it ideally tonight but maybe tomorrow I'm reasonably confident I can get a bus to the ADO terminal. I'll probably have to go stupidly early but that's fine. That way I've got a chance to maybe faff around trying to get an Uber which might work but I don't know and its not super cheap at about 140-150 pesos.
Washed a couple of tops before I had a shower tonight BTW, they are already pretty dry and I can wear one tomorrow. I figured tops would dry more easily than uw.
So anyway, after I bought the sim, I wandered a bit more and I was thinking about tacos and tamales which as I think I said the owner told me were without source and I was dithering and I saw a small place which might have been called Carnes Juanito but I'm not sure and after dithering and wandering up and down the street I went there and I had a very bad Spanish conversation with a woman I asked her if there was a menu and she just started to tell me stuff. In the end I did manage to just about manage the conversation and I ordered three beef tacos without any sauce and I went and sat down and they sent perhaps their daughter over who spoke with English. They obviously didn't rate my Spanish and she asked me about a drink and I agreed to buy some sort of what turned out to be homemade Hibiscus juice drink about a liter of it at 40 pesos. The food was pretty decent. I can maybe just go to places and say, can I have some tacos without sauce please and it will be fine or I can go and get like a single one from a street stall if I'm not worried about health type stuff and that way I can have a snack and experience some local stuff and so that will be good. Maybe because I'm whispering slightly because I'm outside the voice typing seems to keep just missing off big chunks of what I've said but anyway for about the third time I'll say that it was 30 pesos for each taco and 40 for the drink they wouldn't take my money I tried to pay before I'd taken a bite just in case but after I'd eaten they came over and said 130 which was fine and I made 150 with the tip. And I resisted the temptation to go to KFC or something like that and take the easy option.
After that, I walked back through a slightly different circular route towards the accommodation and I called in at the Walmart and I got a bag of Takis Fuego and some beers because I thought it might be nice to share with some people tonight if anyone was around. Logistically that's a bit awkward because I'm only here tonight so if no one else drinks any I either have to leave them for them or you know as a gift or take them with me but you know I thought it would be nice So I got them not a big deal. I broke a new 500 note at the till. I got quite a lot of change, which made me query it politely, and I maybe looked a bit of an idiot, but never mind.
Which reminds me that when I bought the 14 peso bottle of Hibiscus drink at the first place earlier in the morning I used one of the old 500 peso notes and the woman at the till had to call someone else in and then she called someone else in and they were rubbing it between their fingers like oh it's damaged and in the end there was a bit of a queue building up although it wasn't that busy in the end they agreed to take it and then some helpful woman in the Q behind me decided to chime in and say you had to change those at the bank but obviously if the woman at the till wanted to accept it according to a supervisor that was fine I didn't say anything I think she was wrong because when I looked before I came it said they are technically valid it's just that banks do not put them back into circulation once they get paid in
So after I went to Walmart, I came back here, put the beers in the fridge in my room and Had a drink of water. I'd left the bottle in the fridge and then I had a quick look at the map and I went out to a nearby coffee place in the hope of just getting a coffee and passing a bit of time but that was shut so I wandered around a bit more and I knew there was a Starbucks down near the Walmart but luckily there was also a Bonpane or something next to a petrol station and I went in there and I had a latte at 42 pesos quite enjoyed that and then I thought well I'll have another one because I've got all this change from earlier so it will use some of it up so it's kind of free. So I had two. It seemed a bit overstaffed. You had to order at the main counter, then take a receipt over to a separate counter where there were two women sitting there accepting the money, and then they stamped your receipt, and then you went back to the main counter to get your drink. When I got the second drink, I did ask, oh, do you take tips? Because I couldn't see a glass or anything anywhere, and they said no, so I just said thank you, so I didn't have to tip on top of the 42.
Anyway, when I ordered the first coffee, I was at the pay counter, and I'd taken another 500 peso notes out when I'd been back at the accommodation, one of the old ones, and I paid with that, and I said, will you accept this? And I think they were looking at the fact that it was 500 more than that it was an old 500, but I handed it over, trying not to let them see I actually had a modern 200 note in my wallet as well, and I think they used some sort of tester pen on it, but they didn't make that much fuss. So that was good, so I still got three of them left, but I think I probably will be able to use them without too much fuss based on experiences today. I might need to be a bit persistent or accept that some places won't take it, but keep. Just keep trying.
I didn't fiddle with my phone much while I was sitting in the coffee place. I just sort of watched around and it was mostly locals going in and there were some kids getting gelato and you know I felt sort of quietly cheerful you know it's like it's not been a bad day. I bought the sim, I was brave and had the tacos and I wandered around for maybe about four hours so I got some exercise and you know I'm still seeing Mexico and it's fine. You know, I got my goals for today accomplished, so to speak.
So I came back to the accommodation, maybe five, thirty-ish, six-ish after the coffees, and one of the beers I bought at the supermarket, I got four 473ml cans of beer, different kinds, and I got fifth 473ml can of Sol Mezclas Clamato which was only 2.5%. So I had the Clemato sitting outside in the late afternoon sun, didn't stay out quite as long as sunset and I called Mum and Andre came back and said hi as I was speaking to her and I said maybe see you later. Never had a Camato before, if I remember rightly. It actually tasted quite nice, it was a little bit like a michelada.
So then I went back in and did the laundry and had a shower, cleaned my teeth again. Then I was faffing around in my room writing this bit up and dealing with a WhatsApp message from tomorrow's accommodation and then I came out here. So I think that's more or less caught up on the whole day.
2027 I just looked up and Orion is practically overhead in the smallish bit of sky I can see. There's quite a lot of light pollution but obviously it's a fairly bright constellation. That's quite cool.
When I was coming back to the accommodation for the last time there was a really nice little ginger and white cat on the street and it let me stroke it and it was rolling over. I sort of left it and then I couldn't resist and I went back and I stroked it a bit more. Although it did then all of a sudden sort of wow at me like "I'm not happy". I don't know why so I did leave it. I couldn't spend all night with it but it was a really nice cat. I have some photos of it of course.
If I didn't already say it's a shame to be leaving tomorrow and I was thinking that in bed this morning that I can't enjoy a nice sort of relaxed semi-lie in and get up when I want tomorrow but it probably does make sense because I'm gonna be back here and I don't want to rush around like crazy but I also don't want to blatantly waste time I think in terms of seeing this bit of Cancun it's nice to have seen this kind of really localish bit but there isn't a huge amount I can see right here, you know, obviously I could get a bus over to the more central bit and wander around there, but obviously I can do that when I come back. While it would be nice if I had all the time in the world to have spent another night here, it's probably for the best to be going.
But I was wandering around today and I was thinking, well, when you've got to travel the next day, it does kind of induce some level of stress and it is a shame I've got to go tomorrow and I really do need to be careful in general to try to avoid moving around too often because, you know, it's like the overhead of mental load from traveling too often. You know, if 50% of days you've got to travel the next day, that's crap, whereas if it's 20% of days you've got to travel the next day, that's obviously disrupting sort of mental equilibrium and the feeling of, oh I'm just hanging around chilling and stuff a bit, less.
I think I'm getting really conversational with the voice typing and it's not great but if it's the best way to get some thoughts down I am rereading what it's written and although it's got like "you knows" and "like"s in I think it's okay. I'm editing it a little bit to make sure I can get the point across but as I said before I expect the style is going to be different because of that but as long as I've got something kind of readable and showing my thoughts that's probably okay.
For what it's worth, I just checked Cooking.com and the accommodation in Baccalaar still has a tent available for the next two nights and a four-bed dorm with four beds available. So, on the one hand, that suggests it may not be super busy and therefore there won't be many people to meet. But on the other hand, if I want to stay, it at least suggests there's a chance of being able to extend. The thing is, even if it's nice, am I going to think, oh, it'd be nice to try that one on the zocalo with the really good reviews. So I guess it will also depend how I feel about the area around the place with the tent, whether it feels a bit cut off because of dogs or whatever at night. I just have to see how it goes tomorrow and remember that I don't have to rush blah blah blah. I do want to do a day trip to chachoben but I can do that from anywhere. I guess the full day I have there will just be a bit exploratory, maybe wander over to lagoon for a look or down to so-called and perhaps even pop in to the hostel there and see if it is busy or deserted and maybe look at the dorm.
I need to remember this isn't wasting a day because a bit like today it's still going to be cool to wander around the town and see what's there and get a feel for it and it's also an investment in terms of deciding how to spend the next two, three, four, five, whatever days.
If I didn't already say I'm sitting out the front of the accommodation here, there's a nice little sort of patio terrace, but it is open to the street. The street is private and there's a gate which keeps sliding back and forth as cars come in and out. It's got Christmas wreaths on, which is kind of cool, if a little bit weird this late in Jan. And it's fine, but there's a back garden, but I'm not sure you can sit there and it doesn't look super nice. This just feels a tiny bit exposed to random people walking past, but especially with it being a private road, it doesn't feel particularly dangerous, it's just a tiny bit weird to be sitting out here in public, albeit a very quietish public writing this and talking out loud about it. To be fair, I wouldn't be sitting out writing this with voice typing in a hostel or in a back garden at a hostel or whatever if there was anyone else around at all. I'm the odd person walking past. I hear me talking. It might look a bit weird, but it doesn't matter. I'm not saying anything bad and they maybe don't speak English anyway, and they're only walking past, so they only hear it for a few seconds. I certainly wouldn't, as I say, be sitting in, say, a hostel garden with other people around even if they were just at a table ten metres away, I would be using the keyboard or not doing it and saving it for later or whatever.
The guy in the place where I did buy the sim said he didn't get many British people in, mostly North Americans. He said there'd been some guy from the Czech Republic. He also gave me a maybe backhanded compliment by saying that I spoke Spanish very well... for an Englishman.
I guess I'd walked quite a long way to that Grand Plaza. The areas and areas of the accommodation probably are increasingly areas where the average tourist has just no reason to go. And Grand Plaza is not super central. I think I was probably only about halfway to the real centre if that but it's probably big enough for destination and so forth. But some tourists will go there, I'm sure. They don't really need to because there are equivalent shops much closer. to either the hotels or the centres proper.
Sat 0017 Okay, various beers and margaritas outside Andre and Oriana and Deleta, I'm not sure about that but the Panamanian woman came back and we were having a booze-up outside and it was actually very good and interesting but obviously I'm slightly edgy about the bus tomorrow but probably be fine. I don't feel too drunk so we'll see how it goes.
0024 Andre's dog is a Schnauzer and is called (sp) Tiqu, which is Canadian French for "small ass".
0047 jeez, just eaten 95% of a 240g packet of Takis Fuegp *after* cleaning teeth for frist time and had to clean my teeth a second time and my mouth feels vaguely raw and I was spitting out red liquid in a vaguely disconcerting way. Its all fine, I hope, I don't feel that drunk and I have water and don't have to be up insanely ealrym. On one hand I wish Is Been More circumspect but on the other it was really good travel type stuff to have this chat so can't complain. Delita (?) Is 24 and Andre is almost unbeliavly 70 and has children in their 40s - I had put him down as in his 50s.
0056 I am glad I had those beers to offer. Anyway, I don't feel too bad tbh though mouth feels a bit raw from Takis Fuego despite cleaning teeth a second time. Going to send this now and if I missed anything I can fill in the gap tomorrow.
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