Vacation to Playa Del Carmen/Cozumel, Mexico
July 9 to July 16
We arrived to LAX 2 hours early for our flight. After getting checked through TSA we had an hour to kill, until our flight got delayed 2 hours, then we had 3 hours to kill. So we did what any Mexico bound american would do with three hours to kill at an airport, we drank.
By the time we boarded the plane to Cancun we were proper drunk and ready for a 5 hour flight. The flight was like all flights, rent a movie, drink some diet cokes, listen to music, whatever. The real fun began when we landed. Right away I was pulled aside and searched after going through customs. The officer set my bag on a table and asked me how much cash I had with me. I was warned about this so I already knew the answer. I replied, “I don’t have any cash, I only brought cards.” He handed me my bag and pointed to the exit. I had $600 cash in my pocket. The next step was trying to get a taxi at 11:30 at night to drive us an hour to Playa Del Carmen. After waiting for 30 minutes and negotiating cab prices, we finally got a ride. We showed up to our hotel around 12:30 in downtown Playa Del Carmen. The second we got out of the cab we were met with multiple police vehicles in the middle of the street with an announcement playing over the loudspeaker. The police were lined up on the street holding automatic rifles, it looked like a god damn movie scene. Turns out they do that every night because there is a curfew due to covid, you get used to it.
After doubling back twice we finally found our hotel, "The Illusion Boutique", it was not as nice as it looked online and our room only had one bed. We were so exhausted we just decided to take an L and deal with it the next day. Dru tried to spoon me twice. The next day we woke up early and went to the front desk to see about our bed situation. They apologized for the mistake and upgraded us to their parent hotel, “The Lahun Suites”. Full kitchen, living room, dining room, and master bedroom, this will do nicely. Price: $55/night. It also had a pool on the roof that we smoked cigars in almost every night of our stay. We spent our first full day walking around 5th and 10th street which are the most populated areas in town. We ate and drank like kings, the food is absolutely amazing. When you walk down 5th street you are going to be offered cigars and drugs every 10 seconds or so, you get really good at saying “no thank you”.
On Sunday we went to the island of Cozumel to rent mopeds and snorkel. The ferry ticket was $20 and the mopeds were $35. Once we got to Cozumel it was a 5 minute walk to the moped rental shop.
We walked in and rode out, in style. This was by far the greatest decision we could have made. Riding mopeds around the island of Cozumel was a blast. I couldn’t read any of the signs, I didn’t know which direction to go, and I had no agenda. We cruised down the coastal road until we found a spot that looked good for snorkeling. We spent about an hour in the water, there was tons of sea life. After that we got back on the mopeds and continued to rip, we stopped for lunch at a little shack on the beach called Alberto's Beach Restaurant. The fajitas were amazing and incredibly affordable. As long as you stay away from the main tourist restaurants, all of the food here is affordable. Two beers, an appetizer, and a meal usually went for about $15. After making the loop around the island we got back into the city of Cozumel to return our scooters, it was rush hour… Dru stopped me from going the wrong way on a one way twice, I forgot to use my blinker multiple times and forgot to turn my blinker off even more times. It was the most fun I’ve ever had. We finally found the shop that we rented the scooters from and returned them, good as new. After that we went to a really cool bar in Cozumel called La Inombrable to watch Italy vs England.
Dru hates soccer with a passion so the game was really enjoyable for me. It went into free kicks and the Italians pulled it off. The ferry arrived a half hour after the game and took our asses back to the mainland. We like Cozumel so much we decided to spend 3 days out there before we fly back to LAX.
Monday we decided to head to the infamous cenotes that are scattered throughout the area. We started by going to Cenote Azul. It was beautiful but packed so we walked a half a mile north to Cenote Eden. This one only had a few other people at it and was way bigger with much better views and places to jump in. We threw some backflips and some pencil dives and hung out for a couple hours. Eventually we got hungry so we asked the guy in charge at the cenote where to get some food. He told us there was an awesome taco place a half mile down the road. We got to the taco place starving, it was closed and looked like it had been closed for 5 years, mother fucker. Dripping in sweat we hailed a cab and went back to town for some grub. After lunch we went to the grocery store for some beer, liquor and mixers. A bottle of Absolut Vodka in Mexico is about $10. We’re going clubbin’ baby. The night life in Playa Del Carmen is insane. Thank god they close everything at 11pm or my hangovers would be unbeatable.
There was a $10 cover to get into the club but drinks were affordable and the dance floor was “Lit” so it was worth it, we had a blast. After trying to talk to multiple women only to find out they didn't speak english we started taking bets on who did and didn't. This entertained us for a good 4 hours, we are children.
Tuesday we decided to make a laundry day. We found a laundromat nearby and walked in. The language barrier was tough but we finally rented 2 washers and 1 large dryer. I even took the shirt off of my back and threw that in, gotta wash as much as you can when you can. We lounged by the pool for most of the day, it was nice to get a day to recoup.
Wednesday we woke up at 5:30 am to get ready for our shuttle. We were heading out into the deep blue to swim with whale sharks and I was psyched! Our tour guide Raul was the coolest guy ever, of course he was, he was a whale shark diving tour guide. Most of the other people on the boat hadn’t snorkeled before so he made Dru and I team number one which meant we got to swim a little longer with the sharks and we also got to go first so the shark wasn’t bothered yet. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.
What an amazing animal. Four of the ten people on the boat got sea sick and vomited over the side so we eventually turned back for land so we didn’t lose any crew members. On our way back we stopped at a little reef to do some snorkeling and we got to see a little bit more sea life. After that we went to Isla de Mujeres and parked the boat on the sand bar. There were hundreds of boats anchored. This was basically a big party and Raul finally broke out the cervezas. I knew he was holding out on us.
Me: Hey Raul you got any cervazas on this ship?
Raul: Of course my friend. How many do you want?
Me: How many do you have?
By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted so we just walked up the street to eat some food at our favorite place, El Fogon. El Fogon has THE BEST tacos on earth and they went for $1.50 a pop. We probably ate there three times and I had 9 tacos every time. After getting phat we went out to watch the Suns game at Piola.
Thursday we spent the day in Playa Del Carmen. Nothing too crazy, we walked around town, sat by the pool, ate a bunch of food and planned for our 3 day stay in Cozumel. Can't wait to rip mopeds for 3 straight days, someone's definitely going to crash.