2: acquaintance with the beach

Scott filming from the beach

After the long day previously we took it easy in the morning and grabbed a cab with Scott to the beach along the hotel strip. We had to walk through the Hilton in a purposeful and confident manner to get there. The beach itself was nice enough but as it was along the Zona Hotelera  it was surrounded by massive high rises and my idea of a boutique beach hut atmosphere was dashed. We had about 20 minutes of sitting on the beach before a massive storm blew in and gave us an enforced exfoliation.

The colour of the sky versus the sea was amazing - the change between bright sun and howling rain was so swift we barely had time to make it back up to the hotel, by which time we were pretty much soaked through. The rain went on for a bit so we decided to head to the mall and get some lunch until it had passed by. The mall was very Americanised; it was a bit like wandering through a theme park. We decided on some local cuisine and went for Johnny Rocket's diner where we had burgers and milkshake. Scott decided he needed to get some flip flops. He is doing a masters in Art in LA and had come to Mexico with the purpose of making a film on Super 8 as part of his course; however had come with jeans, boots and shoes, which we thought was very funny. We spent an inordinate amount of time taking the piss out of him for being American and also writing down English placenames (Worcestershire is a great one) and asking him to tell us how they should be pronounced. Our brutality seems to have been appreciated as he hasn't run away yet.

After lunch we mucked around in the rain and went to the Aquarium to poke nurse sharks and see the Dolphin show, which was fun in a sort of 'we're not sure if we really like dolphins being enclosed' sort of way - although in general the place seemed well kept and all the fish looked pretty healthy. They had a massive shark tank containing bull sharks, lemon sharks, sand sharks and black tips - all pretty small but impressive nonetheless.

Isla de Mujeres

The next day Clare and I got a ferry to Isla de Mujeres (25 mins away), a much more laid back place with beach bars where everyone drove round in golf carts. The island held a dolphin encounter place and a turtle farm (where they were in season and laying lots of eggs), but Clare and I only made it as far as the beach where we drank beer and I sunburnt my arse. We had spent quite a long time chatting to a Devon girl in a diveshop nearby; she had been living in Mexico for the last four years and was now a dive instructor (despite only having learned about three years previously). She had been off the island only twice in the preceding six months and said the biggest problem is boredom. We all agreed the grass is always greener!