Sunday, October 16, 2010 Cancun, Isla Mujeres

I was pissed because it was all overcast (not even a chance of sun) when online it said it was supposed to be sunny, while further south Playa del Carmen way, I could see it was perfectly sunny. However, better than have Hurricane Paula making things absolutely miserable as also predicted by the weather channel. I took a 30-minute ferry to Isla Mujeres, which is a small touristy island, which is supposed to have some great beaches. Well, it was void of tourists, full of hawkers, all cloudy, and the beaches had sandbags instead of sand. Not impressed to say the least. So I rented a moped, which I absolutely love doing in tropical paradises, and rode through the island. They said go slow; yeah right! I was zooming past normal cars, golf carts, and semi trucks, left and right. I spent the afternoon back on the mainland swimming on Cancun's absolutely beautiful beach. The color of the milky turquoise-blue waters was unbelievable, even despite the cloudy weather. It was warm and I just felt as though I was swimming in a giant Adios Motherfucker (and my insides did, too, from my hangover). There were seriously dozens of resorts, most of which were packaged tours or all-inclusives, which would be really fun with a group of people. The beach was full of fat American couples and drunk Mexican dudes. I was walking on the beach and some middle-aged man comes up to me and says in a Southern accent, "Say, will you go over there and flirt with my daughter?" One of the weirdest thing someone's said to me in a long time... So obviously I obliged, and was joking with her, etc. Too bad she couldn't have been oer fifteen years old! I took a shower in the still-deserted hostel and beelined back to the way better and way more me Playa del Carmen because, I'm sorry, but Cancun just sucks. Not only is it filled with underage Southern frat boys and sorority girls and Midwestern happily-ever-after honeymooners, but it's also expensive and not any better than Vegas. I did happen to have some pretty good tacos at this hole in the wall place, though. Right next to all the 5-star restaurants and Margaritavilles. In Playa del Carmen, I tried my luck at a different hostel, which was even better than the one before, because it had an enormous common courtyard where everyone was having fun and prepartying. I met a Swedish guy who happened to be coming to SF next weekend, so we got to talking and now he's staying over at my house! It was all Aussies and Europeans, which is not surprising because Americans don't travel and are all in Cancun, but exactly what I was looking for. They were really funny, and besides, I can hang out with Americans the other 364 days a year, in America. These Viking-huge Norwegian dudes were loving the fact that I was taking handlepulls, and even loved me even more after I explained the game Taroots to them. We all went out to the Blue Parrot, which was apparently the place to be; it was so much fun. The Australian guy Tim from the other hostel was there, the Israelis were all there, and it was good music and dancing. Playa del Carmen was bumping tonight because there were tons of rich Mexican vacationers for the weekend. I ended up staying out until 5am because that's what everyone here does. For me, Playa del Carmen kicks the shit out of Cancun, despite both being not really Mexico. Americans all miss this European secret, lured (like I was) by Cancun's booze cruises and wet t-shirt contests.