Disclaimer:  My writing is detailed and a little lengthy.  You've been
warned!  Hopefully you will be entertained too!  :)



Saturday, April 15, 2006



It's 6 AM on Saturday when my alarm clock goes off and my day begins in
Chicago.  I'm fresh off of 3 hours of sleep because of last minute cleaning
and packing for this trip.  Less than an hour later, I met my friend Raf and
we headed out to O'Hare for our 9 AM flight to Cancun.  Despite feeling a
little tired and anxious about the flight, everything was going smoothly.
That is, until the plane didn't start boarding on time.  When we were
sitting on the plane and the captain later spoke over the intercom, he
explained that there was damage to the cargo area and it had to be
duct-taped.  I'm not even kidding.  LOL!  It made me feel very safe!  Then
as Raf starts tapping the window, he points out to me that it's a bit loose.
He convinced me that it was because we were in an exit aisle, but I didn't
like the way things were starting off on this flight!  Fortunately, we soon
took off and actually landed on time.  Next, we patiently made our way
through Immigration and Customs.  Props to Libby for giving us detailed
information, tips on what to bring, and what we could expect when we landed.
She could be a professional travel guide, seriously.  Although Cancun's
airport was very busy, we swiftly made our way through the maze of car
rental, tour, and taxi/shuttle services without incident.  As we made it
outdoors, we felt the hot sun and knew we had finally arrived in Mexico!  My
brother John tracked us down in a sea of people and drove us back to his
place in Playa Del Carmen, roughly 45 minutes away.



After dropping off our luggage and getting settled, we headed out to our
first Mexican soccer game!  The stadium was only about 4 blocks away and
tickets were 40 pesos (about $4), so you couldn't go wrong.  This was a big
playoff game featuring Playa Del Carmen's team (Inter Playa) and some other
city.  Let me say it was quite an experience!  Horns and drums were played
almost entirely throughout the game and all sorts of group chants composed
of various swear words and insults were hurled at the other team!  One thing
I was curious about was there were a lot of security guards and a couple of
them had riot shields.  Then Inter Playa scored a goal and it all became
clear!  The crowd went frickin' berserk!!!  Streams of toilet paper were
thrown through the air, huge banners were waved, people ran around
frantically, the noise level somehow tripled, and some fans even started
climbing up the fences!  It was crazy!  Perhaps my favorite part of the game
though was when the guys with the drum and gigantic air-horn got RIGHT
behind the other team's bench and blared their instruments for about 3
straight minutes in the other team's ears.  That was classic!  Inter Playa
advanced, so there would be another game next Saturday, woohoo!



Sitting out in the sun and drinking beer for a couple hours made me a little
tired, especially after our flight and only 3 hours of sleep.  I was intent
on enjoying my first siesta of the trip after the game, but it was not to
be.  On the way back, there was a pool party going on with a bunch of people
John and Libby knew.  After I saw the enticing pool and a couple girls in
bikinis, I decided the siesta would have to wait.  All 4 of us mingled at
the pool party as a band played and we drank several more cervezas and met
many interesting people like Sharky (this older bar-owner dude who
appropriately was wearing a shark-tooth necklace).  It was here that Raf and
I were first introduced to Donia, a very friendly woman who we'd see the
next few days.  At this point, I don't remember exactly what was talked
about, but we learned she was visiting her friend Paul and she was a
professional masseuse.  As the sun fell and the day turned into night, I
still really wanted to power-nap so I'd have energy later.  However, Raf
kept making fun of me since he was on roughly 3 hours of sleep too.  So we
went to dinner and ate tacos el pastor (pork tacos) at a local place called 
El Fogon.  There I put way too much hot sauce on my first taco and tried 
cooked cactus for the first time.  I believe I described it as tasting like 
a "slimy, salty, green pepper."  It wasn't bad though!  Although I was quite 
intoxicated before dinner, I was now feeling rejuvenated and ready to test 
out the nightlife in Playa.



Next, we strolled over to the Beer Bucket for a drink.  Then we went to 
El Pirata for drinks right off of the ocean on the sandy beach.  We
enjoyed a few more cervezas as we chatted and looked at the moon shining
over the water.  Eventually, one of my contacts started bothering me so I
wussed out and decided I was going to cash in the chips and call it a night.
John, Raf, and Donia would stay up and head over to the Blue Parrot, where I
would miss a fun time and be told about it the following day.  Apparently
there was more drinking, plenty of dancing, and beautiful Dos Equis girls
that I missed!  They had some good pictures and I'd be made fun of for my "3
hours of sleep excuse" the rest of the week.  That was the end of our long
first day though.  My younger brother Dan, his girlfriend Amanda, and her
cousin Natalie would soon be joining us the next afternoon.

View pictures for the day here.