Saturday, December 23, 2017

Seems it never rains in Southern North America

And when it does, it snows! But let's tie things up:

So last time I posted was when I was still with Lauren and Alan in Monterrey. And I've been quite on the move since then! But before bragging about the white beaches and turquoise waters of Cancun and Tulum, I wanna sent out some love to the great people I met in Monterrey, and even to the city itself. To me it's always a huge win when coming to a foreign place and there having a friend already waiting to pick me up at the airport! Lauren and Alan generously shared their place and lives with me for quite a while. Not to forget their friends and also Alan's family, all of them were super friendly. Almost every Mexican I've met so far has been living up to the stereotype of friendliness I've made up about them...
During my last days in Monterrey, we went on an adventurous camping trip (ask about the 'bear' story next time we meet), to a family posada (which didn't look christmassy because some parts of the family are Jehova's witnesses) and climbing/ bouldering in a small room without designated routes, followed by a starry, starry night (ask for the... never mind).
I witnessed two miracle-like events in Monterrey: first was snow in town, which hadn't happened in about 20 years -  everybody went crazy but me because the houses are designed to keep the cold IN! The second was the national soccer final between the two Monterrey teams, which has never happened before - everybody went even crazier but not me because, well, it's soccer!

On Dec 12th, Lauren and I flew down South to warm and sunny Cancun, sending lots of jealousy invoking photos from the beach the next day. We chose airbnb and landed a big hit with a chilled host in a family-style mayan designed clay house with a frickin swimming pool in the yard... No mames wey! The next highlight was picking Maik up at the airport, though the place was designed in such a stupid way, that Lauren and I were basically forced to climb over a small fence to get to arrivals. After the happy reunion we drank beer by the pool, went to a tacos restaurant and took turns in the hammock on the balcony. Pretty much a solid 9 on the scale of first nights for Maik, I'd say.

So since Cancun is a top tourist trap, we left the next day and after some trouble being on the right side of the street for the 'collectivo' (taxibus), Lauren, Maik and I made it to nearby Puerto Morelos for some more beach time. We managed to get an appartment right across the ocean, which we only had to share with some ants and which also featured a huge terrace we occupied both nights, playing the ukulele and singing songs, you know, about life, love and the Pupsgesicht. Those were easy and lazy days, only to be ended abruptly when Lauren left early on Sat to fly back to Monterrey, while Maik and I went further down to Tulum.

Ah,  Tulum, a place popular amongst backpackers for it's pretty beaches and ancient ruins, of which we didn't see the latter because too much time spent on the former. First we stayed in a rented, leaky tent without mattresses for $500 (~23€) on a stormy, rainy night, but the mangrove jungle around and the beach only metres away from it made up for every inconvenience. At least for 2 nights, then we really needed to shower and there was no water because... something. The German girl at reception told me a company came in and tried to fix the water problem, but instead made it worse and then just left. I just laughed! And then we left to a hostel at the edge of town, which clearly shows I'm much less of a hippie sometimes than I make you believe... And I wanna say how I also forgot in all of my anxiety about being clean and organized that people there were very approachable, caring and sharing, without expecting something in return.

Leaving you with that thought of love and peace and smoke, I need a break and you some pictures! 













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