The One Where I Arrive

The Introduction

Far Away Fi here. Or, as most of you know me, Fi.
Current location: Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

The Truth

Before I get into living in Mexico and telling everybody “how fantastic life is”, let me tell you the truth: I’ve never had a blog before and I don’t keep a diary. This whole writing thing is kind of new to me, so we’ll see how this goes. If I bore you, please stop reading. I’d hate to make your day worse, or mine for that matter.

The Yak

The Yak is my “home” for next couple of weeks. It’s downright amazing. The dorm I’m staying in has 4 bunkbeds. Naturally 1 of them is mine. Ain’t no one gonna be claiming the bed above me, hmm hmmm. Just throw some towels and bras on there, no guy in the world wants to sleep in that bed.As you can see in the picture, the view from my room is fantastic: I can see at least three trees and the street.

There’s a communal place with some hammocks, some benches and a bar. People gather up to have a drink, talk about travel plans and exchange experiences.  There’s lots of people travelling through central America, and this is a very popular place to stop. People from Belgium, Switzerland, the UK, Holland, the USA, … have been coming through. Even people from Canada and Australia, and even people from Australia who live in Canada. Inception. Lots of faces coming and going. Lots of faces coming and going in drunk, laughing and having a good time. Who really needs more than a good time, right?

The Beach

Living two blocks away from the beach, could make you think I go there all the time. Well, I don’t. I’m at the dive shop 24/7. So I only get to go to the beach on the way to a dive, or at the end of the day. My life is terrible, I know.

Not complaining, though. I got to see a little peace of Holland, dressed as a little kid selling bracelets. And, even though I don’t really have the time to chill out and get a sunburn, I did have the time to snap some pics. You’re welcome, by the way.

The Diving

Time for the big reveal: how is the diving in Mexico? It’s exhausting. Seriously, why didn’t anyone tell me how physically tiring the rescue course is? All I’ve been doing is “rescuing” people, which pretty means you get to drag them in and out of the pool and sea. Working out? Check.

On Wednesday, I went to the pool with my instructor Steve and a divemaster student, Mina. Poor girl, she spent the entire day playing dead so I could save her. Not even a cat has that many lives. The next day I did the exact same thing, only in the open water, aka the ocean. We went on three dives: a “lift dive”, a “rescue scenario 7 dive” and a “mapping dive”.

The lift dive is just that: finding an unconscious diver in the water and lifting him/her out. You make an ascend without going too fast, to minimize the risk of decompression sickness. Look at me, using all the fancy term. The rescue scenario 7 is what happens when you find you find an unconscious diver at the surface: you give them rescue breaths in the water while towing them towards a boat (if there is a boat, of course). The fun part, getting this person on the boat, while waves make you go up and down, is really “easy”. Mina wasn’t dead at the time, but I’m pretty sure I almost killed her, oops. A mapping dive is actually part of the divemaster course, so I helped Mina with her map. Thank god I got Friso’s divecomputer, thanks bro.

After the dives on Thursday, I did my exam. 96%, bitchachos (that’s Mexican for bitch).

CERTIFIED RESCUE DIVER!

On friday it was mostly fun-dives for me. Getting used to how everything is done at the dive shop and getting to know people. Up ’till now: no reason to complain. Nice people, great dives and friendly faces.

The Food

As most of know, Mexican food is goooooooooood. So being in Mexico, I had to try some of the local food. Hector, a friend I met here, is from Mexico city and insisted I try all the different Mexican dishes. To be honest, I’ve forgotten more than half. Apparently Mexican food depends on the region/state and every region has a specialty. Did I know much? #makethatthecatwise

Traveling around usually means you’re on a budget. So, like everything else, food needs to be cheap. Preferably it tastes good too, but let’s be honest: this is no priority. A couple of people at the hostel told me of a “good-ish” place, the foodstalls. This is a big thing here, because the food is good and cheap. The first time I arrived, I felt kind of bad. It’s literally a couple of stalls in a park, not in a nice way, who all sell the same thing: tacos, burritos, food poisoning, …. The sad thing is: there’s a lot of Mexican families having dinner there. Or, as some people call it:

“supporting the local communities“

There’s not even a real place to sit. Since I started with the truth, I should keep it up: I’m definitely going back for a bit of food poisoning,  there’s just nothing like it.

The End

There’s so much more I could tell you guys, but to be honest, I don’t want to. I just want to get the “drink + burger for 70 pesos” deal at the hostel and go sit in a more comfortable seat. The furniture here sucks. There’s literally ONE good place to sit, so it’s permanently occupied. #shotgun just doesn’t work anymore.

Write you soon

xo Far Away Fi