Hi everyone!! We´re back!!

Finally we found some time to update our blog. We have been quite busy since our arrival at Playa del Carmen (PDC). As we mentioned before, we started our Spanish classes. After an optimistic start, our moods quickly changed...this is actually hard work, we even have homework...and we are on a holiday!! Knowing French helps a bit, an infinitely small tiny little bit. We quickly learned that our weeks of homeschooling saved us about two days in school. Yep, they have a pretty high pace. When they release us at 17.00 (a school-bell actually rings

Of course that´s not really an option in brizzling PDC and we ended up two nights in the most famous club/bar around here called 'The Blue Parrot'. That´s where we encountered our first big culture clash of our trip. Nothing to do with the Mexicans but everything with the Americans and the way they behave in clubs. Mind you, we don´t intend to bash Americans and we will probably soon report on other culture clashes. So all you Americans out there reading this, please do not take this next section personal.

So just imagine this: when (mostly) white Americans of all ages (from around 12 years to up to 50) dance, they stick super close to one another in separate groups, the woman stands with her back towards the man, bends over and rubs her behind against his...well we will leave that to your imagination...while he is making very obscene movements involving amongst other...slapping on the behind... yes slapping on the behind in a group ritual(!!), on hip hop music, the only music they actually play here in clubs. It was quite disturbing to us and our Spanish teacher told us that if we really wanted to be shocked, we should come here during spring break. Maybe we just might ...

Our good friend Carla arrived on Sunday the 15^th of June. Although we were only 3 weeks down a 52 weeks road, it was actually great to see a familiar face. Obviously we took her to 'The Blue Parrot' on her second day so she could witness the curious dancing/mating rituals we discovered. We ended up in the club next door called 'The Coco Maya' where they also had a European lounge section where they played non-hip hop music and we were introduced to one of the many local tequila based drinks down here called a 'Kamikaze'. Here´sa pic of the drinking ritual.

It was only the day after that we found out that these little suckers (apart from being ridiculously expensive at $20 each), where serious liquid hangovers... Aouch!

In Carla´s first week in PDC we had Spanish classes as well so we were pretty happy that she was suffering a bit from a jet leg. That meant that we often could go to bed early and recuperate from a hard days work.

Last week we had a much needed week of holiday and were able to spend more time with Carla and explore some of the highlights of Yucatan. During the weekend we relaxed at beachclub ' Mamitas' which is only 5 minutes walk from our little Melrose Place and cried crocodile tears when Holland was ousted from the European Championship. Feeling terribly depressed, we decided to do something active and rent a car for the beginning of the week to drive through Yucatan. We ended up in quite a dodgy car rental place. Initially we intended to rent a Ford Ka (for obvious sentimental reasons), but when we arrived the next day the car rental guy, called Lionel (always reminds us of the movie Braindead), he joyfully mentioned that he upgraded us at the same price to a higher class car eg a Ford Focus Station Wagon. Obviously we felt very special and delighted, although we got a bit suspicious when we noticed that this was probably not the usual rental car (since it had a license plate and rental cars down here usually don't) and the car required two keys, one to start the engine and one to open the doors...odd. However, the first day went just fine. We played tourists for a day and visited the historical Maya sites of Coba and Tulum (see pictures). We agreed that the next day we would wake up very early so as to drive up to the world famous Maya site Chichen Itza (about 3 hours drive) and get there before the tourist busses arrive. So, we got up at 5.00AM and drove to Carla´s hotel at around 6.00AM. We parked in front of the hotel, Carla got in and...the key to start the engine did not turn anymore. Within only a few minutes a mob of helpful people arrived to try and help, to no avail. Within a few more minutes the police arrived (they drive Harley Davidson Fat Boys and look frightenly similar to the guys we all know so well from Chips, a modern classic) but they could not help us out either and drove away. Lionel told us that he would only be there at 8.00AM so we just had to sit out our time. Police here, we soon discovered, drive the same round every 15 minutes. So every 15 minutes a policeman (mostly the same guy) got of his supercool bike and tried to turn the key, which we knew would be fruitless, but apparently his learning curve was pretty flat. At around 8.00 PM a very mean looking and big police guy, which we took to be the big boss, drove by on his uebercool chopper and pretty much told us that the car had to go because it held up traffic (we were standing on the right lane). Unlike Dutch police men, this was not the type of guy you argue with, so we of course panicked. Mischa ran to the car rental and Carla tried to reach Lionel on the phone while Thomas tried to explain to the mean looking police guy that Lionel would be coming any moment. More policemen arrived and we kind of stressed even more. Just at the moment we thought that they decided to tow it away, Mischa arrived with Lionel. He said that they usually never had any problems with the keys and we though 'hey why are there two keys then?'. Anyway, he offered us a new car for the day and we told him that this had ruined our day and we would take the car for the next two days. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of the police actions. We figured that we did not want to end up eating cockroaches for the necessary proteins in a Mexican prison...

So the next day (Tuesday) we relaxed at another place on the beach called ' Kool', fetched our new car (a decent looking Volkswagen Pointer, see pic)

and got to bed early for our long trip the next day. Driving here is actually ok. The roads are in decent shape, there are road-signs everywhere so there is no way you can get lost and people actually drive pretty slow and with restraint. The only danger is that once every few kilometers they have big roadbumps to slow down traffic. If you miss the warning signs and drive over one at high speed you are more or less toasted. Chichen Itza was impressive. We arrived around 10.30 AM, which is way before the big tourist busses arrive. So we were able to take pictures of the main pyramid (one of the new world wonders) with only a handful of tourists in the background (see pic)

At the time we did not realize that that was quite unique. We finally did when we exited around 12.00 PM and got overrun by huge groups of tourist, who arrived by the thousands from all over the world, busses everywhere, like one big ant farm, amazing (Cees and Sicco, thanks for the tip to drive up there early!!!). We then continued to Merida, which is a beautiful historic city and also the capital of Yucatan. It is totally different from PDC. Buildings are build very close together in small blocks, with only a few open spaces (the main plazas), which we thought to be quite claustrophobic. In the end we never got to see a lot of Merida since shortly after our arrival we ended up in a bar where we started slamming tequila shots. Here things became blurry. Some memory flashes: big sombrero´s...loud singing...many pictures with the barmen... running through Merida streets... trying to evade security guards that were trying to recuperate big sombrero´s...us explaining that we thought we could keep them...them answering why then we were running away...us answering that that was a very good question...hot dogs (mjummie)...sleep.

On Friday, Carla left (sniff sniff) and we will miss her terribly. We had such a good time. Furthermore, this goodbye was basically our last goodbye from our friends in Holland. Now we are on our own...

But we are looking forward to our new adventures. This weekend we went Cenote diving at Dos Ojos and it was spectacular!! Cenotes are old limestone caverns with fresh (eg not salty) water and visibility of over 70 meters. The scenery under water is amazing with huge stalactites and stalagmites and beautiful light fall. Two dives to remember forever!

So, now one more week of Spanish and next Saturday, 5^th of July, we will be leaving for Costa Rica. We might not be able to update our blog until returning from our live-aboard to the Cocos Islands which ends on the 20^th of July. Until then:

Hasta la pasta!!!!