Getting Lost In Mexico

Did you ever get lost in another country without having the slightest idea of where you were ? If not, your very lucky but also, you’ve missed a crazy experience. Back in 2005 when I went to Mexico to meet up with my sister, I had a whole week to myself, alone in Cancun before she would come to join me at the hostel. So there I was in downtown Cancun, no, not on the strip where all the tourists are, but in the middle of downtown where there were only mexicans and I was called “Gringo” wherever I would walk because of my american eagle shorts and my ray ban glasses. Not so cool when you have american or Canadian written on your forehead in the middle of ghetto Cancun. But, I actually had a lot of fun and the people were very nice.

One day, I saw an ad in a magazine about a park called Xcaret, where there was a zoo, water slides, rides and a dolphin aquarium, so I decided that I was gonna go the next day. I bought my bus ticket, packed my wallet with 400 pesos and left to Xcaret. Once I arrived, happy and exited, I noticed that on the sign it was written that it cost 600 pesos to get in, the magazine said 300 pesos but I never checked the date on it. So no panic, I had my interact card on me. Unfortunately, with my bad luck, my card did not work there and I couldn’t get in the park. I told myself, big deal, I’ll go back to Cancun and go to the beach. So I go see a man who worked there and asked him at what time the bus would pass to go back to Cancun, he replied at 9 pm, and at that moment, it was 9 am.

At that very moment, my heart beat got harder and faster and I was trying to figure out my next step. I wasn’t going to wait 12 hours outside at 32 degrees celsius, no way. But I had noticed a girl, a bit younger than me, who had the same problem as I did, she couldn’t get back home and didn’t have enough money. I even tried getting a cab but we were at least 2 hours away I think, so I didn’t have enough money. So then this girl starts walking towards the highway and I decided to follow her. I was walking  in back of her and couldn’t really talk with her because she was mexican and during the first days my spanish was very bad.  All of a sudden a kind of bus-van stops on the side of the road and she hopped in, so I decided to tag along for the ride. There were five other people in the van from France, so I spoke to them and I asked where this van was going and they told me that it was going to a certain village which I can’t recall what the name was. My heart was pumping even faster and I started getting scared, here I am lost in Mexico. I got off at the village without having the slightest idea of where I was.  I started walking and I was trying to find someone who could have helped me. The girl from Xcaret was still around and I was still kind of following her, I know, I sound like a stalker, be assured I wasn’t stalking her . At this moment, she hopped on a second bus-van as if she knew where it was going, so my gut told me, hey why not hop in too, and so I did. After a good 45 minute ride, the bus-van dropped me off at Playa Del Carmen. I had already gone to Playa Del Carmen before so I knew the place and I knew where the bus station was to get a ticket back to Cancun. fortunately, out of all the places in Mexico these vans could have brought me, it brought me to one of the only places I had visited in the country. It was a pretty scary adventure, but it was actually pretty cool, I am writing a blog on it aren’t I. Don’t forget to travel safe !!