Booze sale at Wal-mart

  Xpu-Ha, Mexico
Friday, April 13, 2007

Friday the 13th! Today we drove a whopping 30 minutes from Cancun to Playa Del Carmen. We left town early to avoid the traffic and we arrived in Playa Del Carmen shortly before 8:00am. We walked the main street known as 5th Avenue. For the record, it is nothing like New York City. There was nothing really open at this time of morning, so we did a lot of window shopping. Michael treated himself to a Vanilla Latte, which seemed to keep him happy for most of the day.
 
The shops on 5th Avenue started to show signs of activity around 10:00am. We spent the day walking the strip and ducking into any of the small shops that looked interesting. Mainly, we just avoided the pushy salesman and the sombrero shops. We found that the day passed by quietly, which allowed us to unwind as we slowed our travel pace again. We both much preferred Playa Del Carmen over Cancun as it was smaller, calmer and had a more diverse mix of travelers. Unfortunately this may not be the case for much longer as resorts are popping up along the beach on a daily basis. Before you know it, it will be the next Cancun...if not part of Cancun.
 
The later portion of the afternoon was spent calling home and catching up with people from the internet café. We left the shopping district right at dusk and headed uptown to find a spot to camp at Wal-mart. When we arrived at Wal-mart the huge parking lot was essentially empty. We had our pick of spots and settled on one that was unobstructed from the nice breeze that was coming off the water.
 
In the morning, we woke up and planned on doing some shopping at Wal-mart. The store was open, but things seemed to be moving in slow motion. The parking lot still had barely any cars in it and the ones pulling in were moving at a snails pace. The odd person walking in the parking lot was so unhurried that they appeared robotic like in their movements. Apparently, the pace of life in Playa Del Carmen was nice and slow.
 
The Wal-mart shop went quickly. We were mainly looking for new hair trimmers for Michael as the set he brought on the trip stopped working a few weeks ago. We walked all over the store in search of the clippers and when we found the right area, we discovered all of the racks were empty. Oh well, the haircut would have to wait a little longer. We did manage to find some really cheap booze though. They were selling 26oz bottles of vodka for $6 CDN. Uh duh, we will take a few of these. We had heard that most goods in Central America were higher in price, so we were basically stocking up to save some cash. It is not like we are booze hounds, but we do like to enjoy a drink every now and then and at these prices we could not pass up the deal. We also found some wine to try that was priced right at $3 and $4. We did put some fruit, vegetables and other food in the cart as well. We need to eat too. As the cashier was putting through our purchases he was placing our liquor to the side. Confused, we asked if there was a problem. This is when we learned that alcohol sales were not allowed until 9:00am and we were 20 minutes too early. We snacked on a muffin and chatted to pass the time until our alcohol was ready for sale. It took us a bit of time to find room in the van for all of our new bottles, but we managed.
 
Once packed up we headed out of town to meet up with the Arnolds at a nearby campsite in Xpu-Ha. The Xpu-Ha Beach Club was a nice place right on the water just south of Playa Del Carmen. We found a spot and set up camp as we were certain on staying there as we were both in need of showers. Waymon came over to check on how the van was running and we were pleased to report that any signs of squeaking, banging, clunking or otherwise untoward noises had all stopped. That's right, they all just went away on their own. We all agreed to leave well enough alone.

Ed, Waymon & Mike work on fridge.

Waymon did notice that our refrigerator drain hose was no longer sticking out the side of the van so the guys grabbed a cold beer, dug out tools and occupied themselves with the challenge of getting to the bottom of the drain hose mystery. The most difficult part was removing the side van panel that covered the refrigerator area. The bolts had rusted themselves in place over the past few months of camping next to salty bodies of water. With a little elbow grease and perseverance the bolts came off. The drain hose had simply slid back behind the panel and was now draining on the sub floor. Not good. We drilled a hole under to the underside of the van and pulled the line downward to avoid any further dilemmas. The problem was solved! Michael tightened up a few other loose screws around the house before packing the tools back up again.
 
The dinner cooperative was back on again. Marina whipped up Chiles Rellenos, which are peppers stuffed with cheese, battered and then fried. The peppers were then stirred in a pot with tomatoes and rice to result in one scrum-diddly-umptious meal. We contributed a side spinach salad and a bottle of vodka. We packed it in a little early and borrowed the movie "Cars", which we borrowed from the Arnolds and stayed up late in the van watching our cartoon movie.