But I thought...

Trip Start Dec 15, 2006

Trip End Feb 07, 2007

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Flag of Mexico Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

But I thought Cancun was the destination the Americans swamp on the Yucatan? Apparently Playa del Carmen (which the Lonely Planet claims is the fastest growing city not only in Mexico, but in the world) is popular too, and looks to have been Americana'ed up a year or two ago. The main strip running parallel to the beach has the same density of American food and clothing stores as midtown Manhattan. That aside though, it could be easily avoided and the rest of the city was my introduction to the typical smallish Mexican town.

The footpaths are small, electrical cables dangle dangerously (not 100% if they were live - obviously I didn't find out) , the rubbish is mostly untended to, and the cars often use every centimeter of the road width. Thus exploring these places on foot during times of heavy traffic is a precarious pastime.

5th Ave

After about a month of being housed by friends and family of Rus while in the States, I was back to good old hostelworld.com to find accommodation. Actually, I got this one out of the planet, and I figured when it was described as 'a little rough around the edges' that it couldn't be too bad. Right? I won't go into too much detail but the least worst parts about it were the almost complete lack of sleep due to no privacy in the dorms (remedied by joining the guilty parties in drinking until 3am) and mossies/bugs that were eating me alive making sleep when all was quiet even harder.

Anyway, enough about my poor choice of hostel, the main reason I lobbed into Playa was to check out the ruins nearby. There was the town of Coba which has some ruins in it that I did a day-trip to, which will be the next entry. I was then trying to meet up with Dan, a mate from school, and head to some other ruins with him.

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