Hola from Playa del Carmen

Well I made it. :)

Here's a crappy pic of google maps showing where I am.



I'm at the letter A, which is Hostel 3B. The city blocks here are very small. The walk to the beach is all of 3 minutes.

First I had to go though customs and immigration to get into Mexico. I laughed at the thought of that. I figured I would have problems since I was declaring food. I brought a couple boxes of granola bars. They were cheap, and I figured would be a good snack. They didn't blink an eye at me checking YES to one of the questions. Next I needed to convert my dollars into pesos.

The nice lady at the counter said the rate was 13.X and there were no fees.



A little bit later, I did the math. Yeah, I got screwed. :( The places here in Playa have signs saying 12.95 or so rates. I should have waited till I got here. Oh well, you learn as you go when you travel.

Next, was to purchase a bus ticket. I was told the counter was outside terminal 2, and to the right. Sure enough it was. Here's my ticket.



Here's a shot looking back at the bus ticket stand.



Here's a nice shot of the control tower. I think they may have been about to start more painting.



The bus was a full size grey hound sized bus, but only had about 8 people on it. The drive was about 45 minutes, but I slept. The 3 hours of sleep the prior night didn't do much good.

Here's a shot of the bus.


I got to the hostel a little before check in time, so I waited in the common area. Here was my view out the front door.



20 minutes or so later....



Damn, they were not joking about the afternoon siesta, huh?

Once my room was ready, I got my keys, and was ready to unpack. Here's not exactly my bed, but these are in the same room, and easier to take a picture of. I think there are 6 bunk beds in the room. I got a top bunk which is closest to the ceiling mounted fans. :)



Here's my stuff thrown in my locker.




I then grabbed some tacos from a street vendor, washed them down with a mexican coke, and headed for the bleach. Here's the beach from the streets.



And up closer...




After a swim, I took a shower, and was tired already. After checking email/facebook on my phone, I later went out for dinner. Here's a shot of 5th Ave, their main shopping district.



I had some more tacos, and was exhausted. The outlets in the common area were taken, so I laid down in bed, and actually fell asleep around 9pm, and slept till about 9am. Here's a shot I took out my room's window before I crashed early.



They seem to just do a little work whenever they feel like it. Must be nice, huh?

It's now lunch time on day 2. Time to go get some food.