The Beginning of the End

I'm not sure whether it was the chest-rattling cough, the sweats, the chills, the headache or the nausea that woke me up. Regardless, I was awake on a bus at 5AM, trying not to throw up every time I coughed, wishing I could just die and get it over with. This was NOT how I had planned to begin my relaxing week in Playa del Carmen. Fever and the Black Lung are not conducive to sunbathing and snorkeling. The bus seemed to move in slow motion, as did the taxi to the hotel and the hotel employee who checked us in. All I wanted was a bed, a blanket (or maybe an ice pack- it changed every 5 minutes with my fever), and to stop. traveling. Luckily, this was the low point of the week and it just got better from here. Which is good, because the only way it could have gotten worse is if I had actually coughed up a lung or thrown up on my bus buddy. Luckily, I was traveling with 14 pre-med students and I was offered ample advice, sympathy, and access to everyone's personal mobile pharmacies.

Due to some divine intervention and a saintly mother, we spent the last week in the nicest hotel I have ever seen, much less slept in. The Maya Palace Riviera was just that: a palace. It took us a few days to adjust to the Americanized Cancun area. The only Mexicans to be seen were hotel employees, everyone spoke English (yes, the taxi driver can understand you when you are doubting his navigation in the backseat…whoops), and everything was expensive/listed in USD. It was a marvelous opportunity to sit back and relax by the largest pool in Mexico and a gradual transition back into American culture, but I found myself missing the "real Mexico". We knew that we had definitely left Mexican Mexico when the bus driver told us that the bus was full and no, we could not stand in the aisle. Whaaaaa?!?!?! Since when can you not stuff a Mexican bus with twice as many passengers as its design intended? Nevertheless, we continued to go about our business, speaking Spanish to the hotel employees and chuckling when they threw out a no mames güey or pinche _____, crude phrases that most guests didn't notice. My family might disagree in favor of beachtime, but I'm glad that they are going to see the "real Mexico", eat real Mexican food, and be fully immersed in the language. Even if they don't like chile and don't habla español. Don't get me wrong, the Mayan Riviera is gorgeous and sunny and vacation-y. But it's not Mexico.

After laying low for a few days to nurse myself back to health, I was ready to leave the hotel complex. I had opted out of an earlier trip to Chichen Itza, a choice that I might regret later in life (it is one of the 7 Wonders of the World, afterall), but like I said before, I am all pyramided out. On our second to last full day in Playa del Carmen, we hired a driver to take us to the ruins of Tulum. Yes, this meant more pyramids, but these were beachside pyramids. Like I said, the Mayans were all about location.
These were by far the touristiest (I wanted to say most touristy here, but Word SpellCheck suggested touristiest. Definitely not a real word, Word…) ruins we had visited, but it was also the best maintained site we had visited. The pyramid sits on a cliff overlooking the aqua blue ocean and the surrounding jungle is slowly creeping around the ancient stones in a valiant attempt to reclaim the site. After getting our daily dose of pyramids, we continued on to Paamul, a little paradise hidden between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. We rented snorkel gear from an American-turned-Mexican couple and flippered into the ocean. I have this thing where water makes me feel very squished and claustrophobic and I never quite grasped the idea of face-in swimming, so I was nervous about this whole snorkeling thing. Not to mention the fact that my sinuses were filled to capacity and I was still coughing like I had been smoking 6 packs a day for my whole life. Once I got over the weird feeling of breathing through a tube and stopped hyperventilating, I had a great time. Paamul is not home to the world's most breathtaking reefs, but that was alright with me. I was having enough breathing struggs without having my breath taken away. It was surprisingly easy to just float along over the reef, giving a few kicks once in a while to avoid a sea fan or a coral outcropping. We spent a relaxing afternoon spotting tropical fish, laying on the beach, and playing follow-the-leader through the reef.

This seems like enough adventure for the day, but it was only half over. We returned to the hotel just in time to form TeamPuebla for beach volleyball and spent the next hour and a half throwing ourselves around the beach, laughing, and occasionally making contact with the volleyball. Despite our obvious lack of serious dedication or team cohesion, we managed to be Queens of the Court for quite a while. Even if we hadn't won however, I had a great time and left the court with a laughter-induced belly ache, a swimsuit full of sand, and a big smile. We rushed through the showers and donned our favorite red, green and white clothing in preparation for a Mexican Christmas party. We had gone shopping the day before for hot chocolate, apple cider, cookies, and decorations in preparation for one last Shabang before heading back to the wintry tundra. Over steaming mugs of hot cocoa and Bailey's (early Christmas splurge) we revealed our Secret Santas and put on a mini talent show. The youth group classic "Christmas Carol Trivia" game was a huge hit and inspired an impromptu caroling outing to spread a bit of Christmas cheer throughout the hotel. Although we were all missing our families, garland-decked homes and snowboots, it was a great way to end our semester together.

On Friday morning we did some last minute packing, turned in our keys, and had a rushed goodbye group hug before everyone headed their different directions. Some members of the group headed towards Cancún for a few days, others prepared their passports for US customs, and I got on a plane towards Puebla, by way of Mexico City. Sitting in the airport, I suddenly felt completely alone. I had spent every single hour of the last 2 weeks in close contact with the same 16 people and they were suddenly gone. I didn't realize until that moment just how much they had defined my semester here in Mexico and how much I was going to miss them. Sure, we'll see each other back at ND but everyone will have own friends, do their own thing on the weekends, and probably not share frequent updates on the state of their digestive tract.
Malia, Erica, Marisa, Alexxis, Kelsey, Regan, Amanda, Shelly, Patrick, Mitch, Pat, Stella, Maggie, Cara, Andy and John: Thank you for an unforgettable semester. ¡Nos vemos pronto!