I've only been in the country 3 hours now and, although I'm tired to the extreme, I'm loving every minute. After having spent an hour or so exploring (it's a bit of a dump, to be honest, but an interesting one) I'm back at my hotel, sitting under the fan with a badly-dubbed Robert De Niro film for company. Imagine Noel Edmunds starring in GoodFellas and you'll get what I mean. The bars are refreshingly gringo free, surprisingly, and the locals are friendly.
In a minute or so I'm going back to my current local (sorry Rish), El Poblano. My new friends Alfredo and Miguel said something about happy hour - as I'm on a budget, I think it would be inappropriate for me to miss out on this money saving opportunity..
Most of the music here seems to be familiar, unfortunately. I was expecting Latin sounds of every variety pumping out of every street corner, but instead it's not far off what you'd get on a commercial radio station back home. I've taken the decision not to visit bars that are playing Nickelback and it's considerably lowered my options. Cancun's favourite song? With Or Without You by U2. It's everywhere.
Anyway, I need tacos and cheap Sol. Adios.
Oh, no photos today either. I can't be arsed to work out how to do it yet. Sorry.
12th Jan 2006, 11.30am
Decided not to start another page for today as I've done sod all. And why the hell should I?
I'm back at El Poblano (which as far as I can work out translates as "the poblano") sipping on a drink the locals favour called horchato which is a rice based drink. Sounds nasty? I can assure you it's not. The obligatory eggs, beans and tortillas are on their way and I'm lazily planning a day of sight seeing and cafe hopping.
Last night turned into a much later one than I would have liked (obviously). My new friends insisted on feeding me enough tacos and tortas to fill Mr Creosote and teaching me the sort of Spanish swear-words that would make Bernardo Manningez blush.
No sunshine as yet, but it's still more than pleasant.
12.15 - Eggs eaten. The sun is now well and truly out. Ouch.
This afternoon will mostly be spent going through my packing to see what I've forgotten to bring, cat-napping and supping freshly squeezed fruit juice at El Poblano with Miguel and Alfredo. These guys are great. The only thing Alfredo can say in English is "My friend, my friend!" and me in Spanish in "Mi amigo, mi amigo!". Miguel can speak a bit more, but most of our conversation is sign language based and highly entertaining - although I'm not sure if either of us are laughing in the right places.
10.30pm - Back from the supermarket with water, a delicious coconut based drink that tastes faintly of pork and a strange calamari like cheese. It was the sort of shop that offers everything; excursions, money exchange, you can eat and drink there and I swear there was a row of prossies lined up (no pun intended) by the meat counter. I settled for just cheese and liquids.
It's absolutely pissing down, so I'm sat inside watching 'Los Simpson'
Homero: mmmmmmm! hamburguesos!
1.15 - Back home. Met up with Los Mexicanos Locos, Miguel and an extremely sozzled Alfredo. I got the Sols in (they refused to let me pay for any earlier) and we picked up where we left off. By the end of proceedings Miguel and I were chatting and laughing away understanding no more than 10% of what each other were saying and Alfredo was fast asleep, still clinging onto his cerveza as if his life depended on it.
Poncho and Oscar (waiters)then appeared with about 10 empty bottles of beer, tequila and rum and faces filled with mischief before ushering Miguel and myself over to the other side of the bar. The bottles were then placed in front of sleeping beauty. My confusion soon vanished when they and four other members of staff surrounded the hapless Alfredo demanding payment for the empties in front and demanding it NOW. Alfie, to his credit, simply rose from his slumber, downed his lager and performed the globally recognised raised arms "what!" gesture before returning to the land of nod. Good man!
So far, so good.
More thumbnails ...
1 vote 
