Cancun

Cancun is... amazing. Yes, its over-touristy, over-built, and its practically part of the US; but I dont care... why don't I care? Just look at the photo above...

I arrived here on aug 3, straight from the colorful colonial town of Campeche and spent the first night in the HOSTEL FROM HELL. Not to be confused with the HOSTEL THAT MADE US SELL OUR SOULS in Barcelona. In short, there was blaring music all night long from the very intelligently placed rooftop bar of our hostel. There was also no fan in my room, and my room only. BECASUE there was no fan I had to sleep with the window open, and the smart people from the hostel decided to shine a bright spotlight (I'm not kidding) onto the hostel wall, making most of my room brighter than the surface of the sun. I'm not a picky sleeper, but these guys are really trying too hard to make you turn homicidal.

So the next night I changed hostels and spent the day using the Riu Resort's beach and pool... I didn't have one of the Hotel's white armbands so I had to constantly cover my wrists and evade security, but it was worth it.

The next day I met up with Charles and his sister and moved my stuff to the apartment of two of his friends, Nidya and Daniela, who were kind enough to let us stay with them. The next few days were pure bliss... we spent them at a 5 star all-inclusive beach resort, courtesy of the Oasis Playa Cancun, (I dont know if they would have been so courteous had they known we snuck in, but I'd like to think so...). So thanks to a couple of old resort bracelets and some tactfully placed superglue we were able to eat, drink, and swim like kings.

The water is a thousand different shades of blue, and the sand is so white and so fine (and also so imported from further offshore since the hurricane 2 years ago left the beach, well, beachless.). So we lazily alternated between the 3 infinity pools of the hotel and the shaded beachfront, playing some volleyball, and waterpolo (with WATERmelons, of course) inbetween. Our margaritas were never far from reach and always half full, it seemed. Yea, life is good. About every half hour it dawned on us that we were in Cancun spending this amazing time for free, and a big grin crossed our faces.

Not too shabby a start for our backpacking adventures, I'd say. So what if it's all downhill from here...I happen to like descending hills.