Chop etilgan: 08.02.2022
How are you?
Well, I better continue writing in German, because you probably don't speak Spanish as well as I do.
After all, I've been here for 72 hours already and had time to perfect my skills. 😝
Oh guys, where should I start....
With the little 'chaos' that I threw us into at the beginning?
With the fact that I finally crossed the 'big pond'?
With my first flight in Business Class? 🤩
Or maybe it would be better to start chronologically...?
Está bien, then like this:
It's been a while since I could write an entry.
About 7 months.
In my reckoning, that's half a lifetime.
Africa, Asia & Europe are practically finished, so it was finally time for a new level.
I don't even know anyone who has been to this corner of the world and who I could have asked.
So I was completely unbiased and open-minded. (But also prepared for anything.)
I had no idea if I would be able to feel the country.
(Day 3 is coming to an end and I can already tell you in advance:
Yes, I can!)
We are currently sitting on the plane that will take us to a completely different state within 2 hours.
Leaving Cancun.
Away from the turquoise Caribbean Sea to the south of Mexico. ☀
But you will only be able to read about this chapter next time.
So if you're loco enough, show up here again.
You know, I can't keep it short. In fact, I don't want to at all.
😝
I just love to get lost in details and trivialities, but who am I telling that. (...right, Maya?)
So:
If you're not into reading, you can look at pictures and close this page if you want. 🙃
To the rest:
¡Vamos! Let's go.
I can't remember exactly when the final decision for Central America was made.
AND we switched between Mexico and Costa Rica for a long time.
We watched countless YouTube videos and travel blogs and at some point it became very clear which way the scale was tipping. Especially when the fortune teller in Berlin strongly recommended the trip with her crystal ball.
Well, of course that's silly, but actually there were often little signs in everyday life that pushed us in a certain direction. (could you believe it or not 😜)
From the moment of booking, we were incredibly excited about the departure.
Well, at least I was.
Juli tends to keep things to herself.
Internally. 😁
_________________________________
The BER is not exactly a showcase airport. Well, except to show how NOT to do it.
So we knew very early on that we would NOT start our adventure from there.
An ICE train took us to FFM in just under 4 hours, where we checked into a room at the airport for 1 night and finally, on February 6th, it finally started. ✈️
The taxi ride to the airport was already booked the night before, so all we had to do in the morning was get in the car.
Within 10 minutes we were at the gate.
'Baby, where is your necklace?'
'Fuck! I'm afraid it's still where I hung it up in the room yesterday.'
PANIC
It is a very special, a very important necklace, and since we had plenty of time because we were early, as real Germans should be, we quickly decided to go back to the hotel.
Lucky for us, a taxi passed by.
But after 2 seconds we knew it probably wasn't the best choice.
Imagine a strong Eastern European accent:
'turn right?' 'which way?'
In my head:
Uhm. Are you perhaps the taxi driver?
Hey, he had no idea where to go. I repeat: the hotel is less than 10 minutes from the airport and it is a very well-known hotel chain.
Why is he asking US?
He constantly crossed the lines and seemed very unsure of what he was doing.
He drove around in circles for a while. Exit down. Back on the highway.
Wrong again. Dedum!
But then he showed some cojones.
Or maybe he was just suicidal and wanted to take us with him to death.
He actually BRAKED and stopped in the middle of the fucking
HIGHWAY!!!!!!!!!
No joke.
I thought it was over now.
He took out his phone and calmly checked Google Maps.
No, not on the shoulder of the road, but directly on the lane of the highway.
Go big or go home!......
After a while, he finally made it and I held my precious piece of jewelry in my hands again.
By the way, we had agreed on a fixed price beforehand.
30 euros for him to drive us there and back.
So the meter was off and everyone was happy in the end. You know how it is.
But this crazy dude wasn't done with us yet.
'Madame, please pay 40 euros? I drove a long way now.'
'Uhm. Because you kept getting lost the whole time?! No, it stays at 30.'
Silence
His luck.
One shouldn't mess with me when I haven't had my caffeinated cold drink in the morning yet. 😝
From then on, everything was super easy.
Because, as I leaked at the beginning:
We wanted to leave the economy class to the lower class this time. Plus, a 12.5-hour direct flight didn't leave us with any other choice.
Was it necessary to fly business class for nearly 1200 euros more?
-No
Will we do it again?
-maybe
Was it awesome to feel super important from the beginning... to get everywhere faster... to get everything for free in the exclusive lounge at the airport and then to get drunk on champagne on the plane instead of banging your knees on the seat in front of you and sitting frustrated and stiff on the too narrow seat for half a day,
to really be comfortable?
Only one thing was 'annoying' and yes, that's really complaining on a very high level.
-The food.
You have to imagine, they actually have silver cutlery, real plates and even TABLECLOTHS there.
And well.
—So in short—
My little sister put it quite aptly:
Vivien wants fries and gets truffles.
Funnily enough, she didn't even know that they actually had truffles.
Among other things.
Also something with Gorgonzola (DISGUSTING.)
Polenta and salmon rounded off the disgustingness and made me envious of the cardboard boxes filled with undefined homogeneous masses in the economy class.
Otherwise, the flight was heavenly.
I would like to say that time flew by, but even in the comfortable horizontal position with a cuddly blanket and a real (white-covered) incredibly soft pillow, 12.5 hours are still 12.5 hours.
But hey - You're the first to arrive at your destination when you sit in the front of the plane. Every child knows that. 😝
So we landed in Cancun on time around 4 p.m.
It was shortly after 5 p.m. when we entered a completely new continent with a new stamp in our passports.
It was cloudy.
But the weather app had already prepared us for that.
But it was sooo nice and stuffy and warm. 🔥
How I love to step out of the plane all disheveled, destroyed, and completely lost.
Forget everything, as long as the humidity of about 900% transforms my weird hair into popped sofa cushions.
Because then I know:
From that point on, however, the misfortune took its course.
I'm a clever fox. So I booked our transfer from the airport to our accommodation on booking.com shortly before departure.
My GMX mailbox said that upon arrival, I just had to look out for a sign with my name on it that the driver would be holding up.
Hurrah. A sign with my name. A premiere for me.
People everywhere.
TaxiTaxi - calls.
But no sign saying 'VIVIEN'.
Double colons
Let me fast-forward here -
I ACCIDENTALLY BOOKED THE TRANSFER FOR THE NEXT DAY.
So officially we had no pick-up service! 😬
So no sign. 😢
I simply got the arrival day wrong... I had it in my head the whole time that we would arrive on the 7th when we left on the 6th.
Sentence with a X
I think it was Juli who first came up with the idea that the hotel was probably not booked for the next day either.
Ouch.
So we were there in Mexico.
With gray skies, without a driver, and now also without a roof.
Well okay.
We still drove to our booked accommodation with some random guy.
You can always ask.
'WE ARE FULL TODAY'
Well okay.
Back in the car and asked at some hotel nearby.
Booked unseen for 1 night and of course, we were completely thrilled!
Fun. The room was shit. And completely overpriced.
But
Well okay.
After the obligatory bed bug check, we went out to explore our surroundings.
The ocean was only 5 minutes away and compensated us for everything.
Palm trees everywhere.
And did I mention how warm it was? 😁
Unfortunately, it was almost dark and even though most people would probably categorize me as 'irresponsible', I am well aware that you should still be cautious in Mexico.
I didn't know exactly where we were yet. What the situation is with safety, etc.
By the way, Puerto Morelos was our choice to acclimatize ourselves and arrive for the first 2 *cough*, I mean 3 nights.
We read that it is quieter there than Tulum, Playa del Carmen & Co.
We wanted to ignore and avoid these places for as long as possible.
Tourists are annoying.
And yes, I'm one too.
A tourist. And definitely annoying too.
But seriously.
We want to chill!! No disco party in our room and also no hordes of people annoying us.
And Puerto Morelos seemed to be an okay place for our 'demands'.
And it actually was. 💙
On the first evening, as I said, due to the advancing darkness, there was only room for one cocktail and one cerveza, then it was off to bed.
We fell asleep around 9 p.m.
I woke up around 8 a.m.
Stretched first.
Glad that the night was over.
Woke up a thousand times uncomfortably and wide awake.
It was still dark outside, hmm...let's wake up Juli first.
'Baby, it's a little after 8.
Shall we get up?'
'I'm still so tired. Is the night really over already?'
It was.
At least mine.
But here too, I was wrong.
(and so was my watch)
Time difference, you fox.
In reality, it was shortly after 2 a.m.
Well okay.
Juli then slept a few more hours. And I just wanted it to get bright outside.
Hello Vivi.
Hello Jetlag.
I was really happy when she finally opened her beautiful eyes and we could start the day.
It was 4.5 hours later.
And 1 hour later we were already on our way to the beach.
Armed with Coke and coffee, we took the first real promenade walk and felt really comfortable.
Man, it was all so beautiful and exciting. 😍
In essence, for the next few hours we just walked back and forth.
Supermarket, hotel, beach, look around. Repeat.
We found it more and more beautiful, if there was even any room for improvement.
The sun was scorching. Colorful houses. Relaxed vibes. Palm trees. Pelicans everywhere.
In between, we changed rooms.
From one accommodation to the next.
Oh, and I mentioned the stupid room... It's still stupid, but it had an incredibly cool rooftop terrace.
We didn't expect that.
And unfortunately, we didn't really use it, because of course, on the first day of the trip, I didn't let my poor friend settle down, but rather convinced her to join me on a snorkeling trip and Juli had to go with me!
In case I haven't told you yet: Juli (hereinafter occasionally referred to as FINS) broke her hand shortly before the trip and had to have surgery. So snorkeling was particularly fun for her. 😋
But let me make it short:
It was just so-so.
Not only did the boat driver give a half-hour briefing on HOW TO SNORKEL (huh?), but there was simply so little going on down there.
There were few fish, few colors.
Really not noteworthy.
Well okay.
Fins got her first sunburn during that time, and I got one more experience on the list that I don't necessarily have to repeat.
Back on land, our new room was ready.
Great view from the room.
There was an amazing floor-to-ceiling window in the shower that made us almost forget about the smell coming from the drain.
Well, you can almost stay anywhere for 2 nights.
I'm also a very attentive reader of reviews and knew that everything was a bit run-down, but the people were nice and the location was perfect... What more could you want?
Actually, I have to think now about what we did for the remaining 2 days, but I don't think we did that much.
Eat. Beach. Sleep. Repeat.
Occasionally a cocktail somewhere or a beer for Fins. 🍻
We didn't find really good food, even though Juli was especially looking forward to Mexican stuff. Tacos, burritos, and so on. Don't get me wrong,
-They exist there, 100%, for sure. But all for tourists. All at tourist prices.
We even went to the supermarket and had typical local food prepared there for the equivalent of 2 euros, just so we could finally taste it.
But we probably just didn't look well enough for the 'real' food.
But what we definitely didn't look for, but found, was the best burger by far and the most delicious fries that my gourmet stomach has ever tasted.
And only by chance or the weather gods, we were driven into the shop or practically washed in in the first place.
On the last evening, it started pouring rain. Everything was flooded. The streets turned into wild streams and our search for food in the town was interrupted.
We couldn't go forward or backward.
We stood under an awning for a while, but I didn't really want to spend the night there.
So we jumped from puddle to puddle and made our way to the Burger shop, which was very close to our accommodation.
And honestly: best decision.
It may not look so spectacular, but let me tell you: that's deceiving!!
The morning after, we devoted ourselves to packing our backpacks, took a taxi to Cancun (and for the fact, that I booked it for the CORRECT day, I would like recognition now, please) and yeah - that's the end of the Puerto Morelos chapter and actually the end of this blog post 'already'.
Many may be relieved now... while others are eagerly awaiting the next anecdotes.
But no matter what type you are:
as always, I thank each and every one of you for any form of attention and say goodbye into the night, while the roosters are already crowing where you are.
Crazy.
& see you soon.