A day for the soul ;-) (Day 164 of the world tour)

15/02/2020

Today was more of an organizational day due to the situation, but we also took the opportunity to call the family, which was really nice <3

Around noon, I convinced Jonas to take the bus to a mall. Because - there's an IHOP (short for "International House of Pancakes")!!! I've been to IHOP a few times in the US and always loved it, and after yesterday's hustle and bustle, I thought we deserved to treat ourselves to it :p Jonas didn't know IHOP, so I also wanted to convince him how fantastic the place is :D :D

Sweets are always a good idea ;-)

So off we went. We took a local bus (it was sooo hot despite the open windows :D :D) to the north of Merida and got off right at the mall.

On the way to IHOP, we passed a C&A store, which surprised me^^ We were also stopped by two students who were conducting a survey. We had already experienced this in the Philippines, but this time the questions were even more personal^^

It was about the city of Cancun and especially about getting married. They wanted to know when we were getting married, and that really caught Jonas off guard :D :D He looked at me and said, "you have to ask her" :D :D

We agreed on summer and were then asked about possible arrangements for a wedding (DJ, table decorations, etc.) as well as specific hotels for the honeymoon. Oh boy! We got creative and it was pretty funny^^

After the survey, we finally reached IHOP and each ordered a portion of pancakes. I had strawberry-banana and Jonas had Belgian Chocolate, and whoaa!!! I was a little jealous, even though my pancakes were also super delicious, but chocolate... well, that's hard to beat ;-)

After IHOP, I wanted to look for a store to buy a new cap and sunglasses, but most of the stores that had them were more high-end, and it wasn't suitable for sunglasses that would be treated poorly in my backpack^^

So we started heading back and stopped at a copy shop to scan our police report. But it wasn't possible at the first shop. We needed a USB stick. Emailing it wasn't an option.

Hmm. We thought it was a bit strange and suggested using our phone and cable, but that wasn't acceptable either. The two ladies there chatted away and seemed to feel "disturbed" by us as customers anyway :D :D

Fortunately, there was another copy shop a few houses down, and they could actually scan and send it by email! Yay! ^^

Plus, the guy there spoke English, and when he saw what he was scanning, he asked, "do you have problems with the law?" :O :p

We told him our story and he said it annoys him because tourism is good for the country, and you don't want to scare tourists away with incidents like this.

On the other hand, he casually mentioned that this kind of thing is part of everyday life here, and he had also had problems with credit card theft. One story he told us was a bit unusual, but when you're here, you somehow believe it right away :D

He set it up so that he receives an SMS when he uses his credit card, and one time he received a notification that someone had bought 10 iPads for almost 10,000 € at an Apple Store :O

He then went to the Apple Store and asked if he could see the surveillance camera videos. The store didn't have direct access, but they contacted headquarters, and he still managed to get the name of the card thief.

He looked for him on Facebook, and the guy had a public profile with 80 friends, so our copy shop owner clicked through all these people on the friends list to see if there was a connection. One of those 80 people had a friend who was an employer of the copy shop owner, and when he asked this friend, it turned out that the suspect was not only an acquaintance but also the friend's nephew.

They went together to the young man's house and confronted him. The nephew tearfully admitted to the theft and still had the 10 devices with him. Instead of reporting the whole thing to the police, where the iPads would gather dust in the evidence room, the nephew gave the iPads to the copy shop owner (under the table ;-) ), he sold them, and went to Disneyland with his wife and children :D :D :D

I think an evening with this guy would be incredibly entertaining^^

He also mentioned that he once lived in Switzerland for 6 months and drove around in his car until suddenly he was at the German border, even though he didn't have a visa for Germany :O :D

Oh well... He's a fun guy^^

Back at the hostel, we looked for accommodation for the day after tomorrow and decided AGAINST taking a night bus from the ADO company ;-)

Now it's just dinner time, and if we're not too tired, we'll head to the city center, where there's always a show on Saturday nights near Plaza de Independencia and the Cathedral, where an old Maya ball game is played :) Maybe it's a tourist trap, but maybe it's really cool - we'll see!! <3