Playa del Carmen: April 2016 

Estamos en Mexico!!! Dame tacos!! 🙂 

On our way to Mexico. Long Journey. Sleeping in US territory.

It was a long day of travel. Maybe our longest yet. By the time we arrived at our hotel in Playa, we had been traveling for 16 hours with no real opportunities to sleep. At least in an 18-hour overnight bus, we can get a few hours here and there. Needless to say, we were exhausted. But before we left to our hotel, we had to take care of a little business. Our next destination required a visa, and we couldn’t do it online, so we had to wait until we touched down in Mexico to take care of it. One last final stop before we could finally shed our weight and relax for a while. We took the bus to Playa del Carmen, and walked the rest of the way to the hotel. We tried to stay awake, but ended up falling asleep for a couple hours. When we awoke, it was time for dinner. We asked for a recommendation, and were told to try “El Fogon.” In our week in Playa, we ate there 4 times. It’s out of the tourist area, really good, and really economical. 

Hola amiga de Mexico.

We were on a mission. When we were in Fiji, we met several people who were there to dive. Actually, we were probably the only ones there who weren’t diving. Neither of us ever imagined we would get dive certified, nor even have a desire to do so, but they sparked our interest, and it only grew from there. So, here we were, looking to get certified. I had done some research and found a company that looked promising. The next morning, we slept in, and after a delicious breakfast of waffles (not very Mexican, I know) we waddled over to the dive shop to see what we could learn. It took us all of 5 minutes to decide that this was the place, and put down a deposit to start the next morning. 

Flor, our Scuba master instructor.

In the morning, we met Flor. Flor would be our instructor for the next few days. She’s young, fun, and full of life. We spent the day doing theory- a little reading, a lot of videos. We took quizzes and asked A LOT of questions. It became a bit of a joke after a while. Flor would have fun with us, but knew her stuff, and shared some of her stories. When we first signed up for the course, the receptionist told us that the theory day typically goes until 4pm or so, but there are people who have stayed as late as 7pm. We all made a face like…what’s wrong with THOSE people. Well, I’m happy to say that we were THOSE people. 🙂 We didn’t leave until 6:30pm, granted we took a long lunch, and spent time just chatting with Flor. She later told us that we were the most fun. Most people don’t interact that much, and definitely don’t have that much fun with it. 

Yes!!! I wanna go back.

After using our brains for the first time in a long time, we were both pretty exhausted. We had to be up early the following morning for our pool instruction, so after eating enough tacos for a small army, we rolled ourselves home. 

Back at the dive shop, we readied ourselves for the pool. Flor was there and had everything ready. We hopped in a truck, and drove to the pool site. Here, she explained how to assemble our equipment and what competencies we would be practicing. Even though we were in a shallow pool, we were both nervous. We put on our gear, waded into the pool, and took our first breaths underwater!! What a weird feeling.

Getting PADI certified.

It was nothing like snorkeling. It was actually much easier. Flor went through all of the tests we would have to perform in the water, and we somewhat successfully completed them. At one time, Javier and I were swimming around the pool going up and down, up and down, while Flor just floated in the middle watching us bob all over the place. She didn’t expect us to be absolutely perfect, but where we obviously struggled, she made us repeat until we got it. 

After a quick lunch, we met back at the shop to get ready for our first underwater dive. Again, Flor had our stuff ready, and after donning our wetsuits, gave us a briefing about our competencies and what was expected of us.

Getting PADI certified.

We walked to the beach and waited for the boat. We were both really nervous and excited. Flor helped us get set up, but made us do as much as we could on our own. There were others on the boat who were also learning as well. So, one by one, we jumped off the back, and held onto the line for dear life. Flor gave us the rundown one last time, and told us to slowly start making our descent. She was right in front of me the whole way down making sure I was okay. At one point, my ear was hurting, so she waited with me, and made sure I was able to equalize before continuing our descent. At the bottom, she had me drop to my knees and wait. We were only at 12 meters, and I could feel myself starting to panic a little. While breathing in the pool was a piece of cake, the pressure down here was enough to freak me out a little. It was really a mind over matter moment. Once I was calm and steady, I looked up…where was Javier??? He was right behind me when we started, but the next person off the line, was a bald white guy! I looked to the surface, and saw Javier at the top.

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Getting PADI certified.

At the time I thought…oh, no he’s freaked out and can’t come down. Not the case…Apparently, he needed more weight. He was trying to come down, but found himself unable. Flor went back up, added weight to his BCD (vest) and down he came. At the bottom, we completed a few of the competencies. I did not like the competencies, but obviously, they are necessary. Some of our competencies included, how to share oxygen with your buddy if your tank runs out, how to retrieve your oxygen if it somehow gets knocked out of your mouth, and how to expel water from your goggles. Seems simple enough, but at the time, it was rather frightening. 

Jackie and a Sea Turtle. Big Sea Turtle.

Once we made it through the competencies, we were off to explore. Flor led the way and pointed out different fish, crabs, lobsters, and went looking in small caves for critters. She found a gigantic green eel just hanging out in the dark. It was really creepy. We saw other eels sticking their heads out, as well as a few rays swimming about. A little while later, a turtle popped up. It was huge. Much bigger than any we saw in Galapagos. It moved very slowly, kept an eye on us, and went about its business. 

After what felt like 15 minutes, it was time to surface. Once at the top, we asked Flor how long we were down there. She said 45 min. Really?!? The boat came to collect us and after climbing in, we switched tanks and readied for our next dive and competencies…yuck. Javier and I both made it to the bottom without a hitch, and went through the necessary skills. Again, the dive was quick and full of wildlife. I watched Flor in envy as she floated along while I was bumping off the floor, floating too high, and generally flailing about. One day…

Getting PADI certified.

I was surprised by how tired I was. It was going to be an early night. 

We were able to sleep in the next morning and met Flor at the dive shop around noon. She had spent the morning doing pool competencies with a couple German guys, who would be joining us. We saw another massive turtle, but this guy had seen better days. Three out of four flippers had big bites taken out of them, but he still seemed to manage just fine. We swam under an arch, and both to admitted humming, The Little Mermaid’s, “Under the Sea” while diving. We enjoyed ourselves so much, we decided to go on another dive the following day. Flor and the group recommended Barracudas and another location. We signed up! 

Javier exploring. Getting PADI certified.

After more tacos, it was early to bed and early to rise! We definitely saw Barracudas. Some were quite large, and man are they ugly and a bit scary for us. Their eyeballs are too big, and the way they stare at you is a little spooky. The reef was much prettier here than the previous days. Flor warned us that the current was much stronger as well. At one point I found myself above the reef and the current was taking me toward the shore. I fought it as long as I could before giving in and going with it until the reef dropped off and I could freely move again. It was definitely more of a workout. Javier looked to be doing much better than me at this point. The coolest thing we saw on this dive was a Nudibranch. It’s this brightly colored slug-looking thing. It was so cute and so pretty. I’m shocked Flor saw it. Rumor is, they don’t come out so much during the day, so we were pretty lucky. 

Getting PADI certified.

We liked Flor so much we didn’t want to say good bye, so instead, we decided to meet up for dinner. We agreed on a time and place, and when she showed up, she said that the people from the dive shop were also out, and we could join them. So there we were, having dinner with our new friends, picking their brains about diving- how and where. We only had one more full day in Playa and decided to spend it relaxing and getting ready for our next adventure. We said good-bye to our friends, and told Flor we would see her when we returned to Mexico. We decided to dive the cenotes, so we would see them in a week or so!

Banana Hotel. Our home in Playa del Carmen.

Fast-forward to the next morning. As I laid in bed, I could feel my back was a little sore. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was this pain that actually woke me up. It hurt less to sleep on one side, so I found myself waking up now and then to adjust. I didn’t know exactly how badly my back hurt until I tried to get up. The pain was so intense. It was a constant pain…like 8/10 with jolts of lightening depending on how I moved. Just sitting down on the toilet was excruciating. I was afraid. I thought I seriously injured my back, and maybe I did, we’ll have to wait and see. I Googled scuba and back pain, and there it was… Flor had mentioned that she sometimes has to take muscle relaxers after work because of the back pain. But this was more than sore muscles. I could hardly move! Thankfully, we had nothing on the agenda for the day except watching a soccer game. So, I took a large dose of ibuprofen, which made the lightning less intense, but did nothing to dull the constant pain. Pain makes you tired, and I found myself needing to take a few naps. Javier was very patient, helped me walk, sit, and get up. All I could think was, we’re supposed to travel tomorrow, and I can’t even move! I popped some more pills, tried to stretch without hurting myself, and went to bed. 

Our home in Playa del Carmen.

The next morning, I was looking at 6/10 pain, with lightening strikes. Much better than the previous day, but still a long way to go. We decided to take a cab since I couldn’t walk so great, Javier offered to carry all my stuff, but I tried my pack on just to see, and it didn’t hurt. I could carry my backpack without pain. We still took the cab, but it was reassuring to know I could carry my stuff if need be. We taxied to the bus station and took the bus to the Cancun airport. We checked in to our flight, bought my friend Tiffaney’s visa, and walked toward her terminal. She was flying in from Chicago and only had a small window of time to check into our next flight. We collected her, walked to our terminal where she checked in, and we were all set and ready to go! Next stop…shhh…it’s a secret. 

To see more pictures of Playa del Carmen, click HERE.