Playa del Carmen2015-01-25 08:18:00
// Mexico! From Bolivia all the way up to Mexico in 3.5 months. It is a hell lot of traveling in buses, I can tell you. The last few days we've spent in Playa del Carmen. If I'm going to Mexico again I will travel to the parts that are not this damaged by the tourism. This is the mini Miami / Las Vegas (although I've never been there, it feels like I'm there now). It has become very Americanized here. Everyone speaks English, the prices are set in dollars everywhere instead of pesos, the streets looks like the US etc. Pretty sad fact, but it will probably be such a great contrast for us when we've been in poor villages around Latin America and suddenly we end up here in a place similar to Magaluf.
It is easy to be ripped off here. The salesmen on the streets are crazy, they call after you more than anywhere we have been. They put the prices way too high. It's Ladies Night everywhere at every bar, so girls goes in to drink for free. But there's no booze in the drinks so the point of drink for free disappears. We have tried to ask for shots instead of drinks, but it has been quite impossible and the reason is that booze is served from already-mixed bottles with water - or water only. But it is free, however, the guys pay admission and expensive drinks with minimal amount of alcohol. However, one can find places with very cheap tequila shots outside of the big chains . (I've never drunk so much Tequila before). There are a billion different types of Tequila and I have learned that it does not need to be as disgusting as the ones we have at home. There are milder variants that you shott with chili pepper and there's Tequila flavored with vanilla and coconut, among other things.
Otherwise, I like the culture in Mexico, I just wish I could see it in real life rather than as tourist attractions. They serve different Tequila to the food, you drink Corona and Sol with pineapple and lime, people walk around in sombreros (mostly tourists though) and the real Mexican men have a big bushy mustache and a cowboy hat. There are colorful skulls everywhere and you sit on swings in the bars. Tacos is also everywhere - of course.
alltid trist när ett ställe blir FÖR turistigt. Vi är på att ganska turistigtställe i Portugal nu oxå, men såhär under lågsäsong är det rätt ok... ;)