A Memorable Day en Puerto

Today, I woke up and remembered that I was still adjusting to Mexico, running out of my room and around the corner. The bathroom was occupied, so I quickly made my way downstairs to the other bathroom which was thankfully free. What a way to start the day. It did make it easy to get out of bed though, so that’s an upside I guess. I came down to a tray full of starfruit from the family who stayed the night before, and it seemed that they left early this morning. As I sat with the two Germans, the other family who was only staying the one night as well, came down, and brought out some sliced pineapple, and left it for us to eat before they too left our presence, heading for Mexico City. Apparently, this was a common parting gift, and I had no complaints. I wouldn’t mind putting this into practice for my future. So, the three of us sat around and had a lazy start to our day, discussing the plans for the day, which mostly consisted of going to the beach, Playa Coral for the day. I told them I would join them later, because I wanted to go check out a hostel to look into volunteering in exchange for accommodation. The Germans set out, and I had the place to myself which can be rare, so I appreciated being able to turn up my music, and run around the house singing whatever I pleased.

I spent some time doing some laundry, handwashing each item in the sink, and hanging them up on clotheslines on the roof. Then, I threw my laptop in my bag, and set out toward the hostel, trying to dodge the sun whenever possible. This was maybe an hour after noon, and the sun was high in the sky, which meant high UV and hard to avoid the sunlight. Arriving to the hostel, the walk from my current space took maybe 15 minutes, which meant 15 minutes closer to the beach than I already was if I stayed here in the future. I expected to see something like a sliding glass door, or some sort of welcoming front entrance, but only saw a black metal door, with a keypad next to it. I did not call ahead to make an appointment, and I figured I would just ask if I would be able to interview, so I was unaware of any passcode. I walked up and peeked through the small square in the middle of the door, where I could see a couple of people in a pool off to the side, and then made eye contact with a man who sat behind a desk, and I assumed this would be who I wanted to talk to. I stood there, thinking he would come over to the door, and he looked at me for a bit, smiled, and then said “just pull the rope.” There was a rope which hung through the square in the door, and when I pulled it downward, it opened the latch on the door, and I entered. The few people in the outdoor areas on either side of me smiled and seemed very friendly. I walked up to the desk, and the receptionist asked me “Do you have a reservation?” No, I did not. We talked for a while, and he explained that we could do the interview right then since I was there in person, and as he gave me a tour of the space, he asked me some questions, like if I had ever worked in a hostel before or what other types of experience I had dealing with people and working in general. This was the most laid back interview I had ever had, and people greeted me warmly as we walked from room to room. We entered the room where the volunteers slept, and it was a small room, with five bunk beds, allowing ten people to sleep in the one room. There were a lot of different smells that hit my nose when we walked into the room. None of them were particularly bad smells, but maybe some scents I would have to adjust to. What more do you need than a bed?

Having exchanged information with the hostel, I set out for the beach, where I would reunite with the Germans, with a place set up now to stay for likely the rest of my time in Mexico. Worst case, I would decide I hated the situation of the hostel, and I would go back and find another place to stay where I could pay maybe $20 a night or so. But I don't believe this will be the case, and I look forward to this new experience. Arriving at the beach, I pay the 100 pesos to get in, which includes a beer and a water as well, which works for me, since I forgot to buy a water on my walk. I usually just refill the same bottle, but I had been using the same one for a while now and it was time to swap it out. I found the Germans, and passed the corona to one of them, not really wanting a beer at 3PM. This guy is just unbelievable, best German I have ever met, and he definitely didn’t tell me that I should mention that. Definitely not. I decide to sit at the beach and bring out my laptop, experimenting journaling on the laptop while at the beach, which is actually quite enjoyable. Everything is offline, but that is okay, so long as I make sure to save the document every once in a while in case something were to happen. I am working on a project that I think will take me a while, so this may become a habit of mine for a while, taking my laptop places and typing on the go. At the beach today, we met a woman who sat near us, with a small speaker, playing nice relaxing music, and enjoying her time on the beach. The Germans made conversation for a while as I was writing in the shade, a little bit away from everyone. When I returned, I introduced myself, and found out she was a journalist from Holland, and we proceeded to talk about writing for a while. It was awesome to be able to ask someone who had actually made a career out of writing, about how everything came about and to hear about her own experience writing, interviewing people, and doing research, and being able to provide information to the public from her own unique perspective. It was also very nice, hearing how much she seemed to enjoy doing it, and it really made me wonder if I would be able to create a sustainable lifestyle from writing eventually. I think that if I continue to put energy into this, and try experimenting with different types of writing, I could very well make this something that I do to support myself, and I think it would actually be something I would find very rewarding. Maybe one of the most valuable things she explained was if interviewing someone, she would research the person beforehand, and learn as much as she could. Then over time, questions would pop up that she may want to ask during the interview, so she would write them down somewhere to remember and organize. Then during the interview, she noted how important it is to make a guest feel comfortable, and recording the interview gives you the ability to go back on any detail, and also have a fluid conversation, without needing to stop to take notes or anything that would be interrupting the conversation. At some point, I will definitely want to try this, and I look forward to seeing what kind of results I could get from this. Many thanks to the writer from Holland. Life is cool that way, how you just never know who you may meet or what you may experience.

After another beautiful sunset on the horizon in Puerto, we parted ways, and I went with the Germans to go eat. We found a place with sashimi, and other seafood, with most things being under 200 pesos, which is around $11. Quite good prices for seafood, at least compared to where I live in the states. The food was very good, except for the chopped habanero I put on one of my tostadas, thinking it was jalapeno. That was a mistake, let me tell you. We then walked around the night market for a while, haggling a bit with the locals, seeing the same 20 or 30 shirts in every shop, and wondering how cheap they get them for. Hey, business is business.

Wrapping up the day, I ride on the back of a moped, which is driven by the German, who claims the title of The Driver. We are arriving at our cross streets, and we look up the street, as it is a one-way, and we plan on driving up it the wrong way maybe 100 feet to park, and save ourselves the time of going around the entire block. As we peak around the corner however, we see flashing blue and red lights, so it seemed like a better idea to avoid the one-way. We go straight, looking to park the bikes and then wait for the police to continue. Once we park the bikes, the police turn onto the street and park right next to us. One of the officers gets out of the car, and begins speaking in Spanish. Of the three of us, I spoke the most Spanish, so I am doing a bit of the translating. He explains that this as well is a one-way street, and we have gone the wrong way and this is una problema. I explain that we did not realize this was the case, and then asked if there was any sign that said this street was a one-way. I showed him the sign that showed this road as a two-way street, with an arrow pointing both directions, and he explained that that was only on the other side of this block, and rather than crossing the street, our only option was to go left. I explained that there was no signage, or arrows telling us to go left, but he didn’t really seem to care. It almost seemed as if he knew what he was doing was not admirable, but proceeded with it anyway. His ears were not listening for logic, but intead for numbers it seemed. He explained that it was still una problema, and they would have to write up tickets for both of the Germans for driving on the one-way. One of the Germans then asked, so how much money do you want, and the officer instantly replied, “five-hundred.” Basically, we had the option to go deal with the hassle of these tickets, or we could take care of it right here with just 500 pesos, and so with that, the police drove off, 500 pesos richer, straight in their pocket. The German summed it up perfectly in his strong accent, “fucking bullshit.” It’s a tough predicament to be in, because there really is not much that you can do, except to pay the small fee upfront, rather than a larger fee later and then have this incident on record as well. Because of this, I will be very careful to keep in mind that following the rules here is of high import, if I do not want to get taken advantage of by the police here, who seem to do what they please. Thank you all for reading, and enjoy the world around you. :)