Totopo-a-go-go

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Chetumal, a coastal city that borders Belize. We thought that maybe we would get to head into Belize, but it does not appear that we will have enough time, bummer. The past 2.5 days we spent in Mahahual, a tiny little town on the Caribbean (they call it Costa Maya) that seems to exist solely to give Carnival cruise patrons a place to get wasted and ride motorized vehicles on land and sea.

When we first arrived, we were blinded by the bright sun reflecting off of the white sand. Luckily, I had sunglasses, Julie did not and spent the next three days with a towel over her head. Mahaual felt like an island because its just one long road that stretches for miles. It was like we walked into an amusement park because there was loud music blaring, locals hacking colorful wares, and signs for cervezas plastered on every wall, roof and umbrella. Not to mention extremely loud American tourists getting their drink on in bars, sand and water. Basically, we were scared but excited. The ocean was blue and turquoise and there were palms trees everywhere, I couldn´t believe we had landed in such a paradise.

The trade off was that everything was really expensive and after a long hot walk with our heavy bags we eventually found some rustic cabanas on a less ideal stretch of beach in our price range. We dropped our stuff and I napped while Julie explored and when I woke up all the gross tourists (well except us) were gone! The town transformed itself back to a normal Mexican village, it was crazy, like it took off its clown make-up or something. We went swimming and ate and that was basically it for two days. Wake up, go to the beach, swim, read, get some food, read some more, swim, swim, swim, food, nap...it was fucking awesome. When I had to pee, I just ran into the ocean. There was no reason to leave the beach, it was amazing!

The vegetarian thing was still an issue because so much of the cusine is fish and it was funny because everytime we ordered, each dish would come with its own basket of totopos (corn tortilla chips). We couldnt get away from them, we wouldnt order any and suddenly there would be three baskets on our table. In an attempt to get some ruffage and vegetables into our bodies, last night we decided to walk to a vegetarian restaurant on the way far edge of town, about 5-6 kilometers from our cabana.

That was a crazy walk, there were bats dive bombing us, local dogs harassing us and the mosquitos were relentless. I was especially unnerved by the constant rustling in the bushes as we walked. Julie assured me it was just iguanas (they are everywhere here, and they are crazy dinosaur faced beasts), but I wasn´t so sure. And if it was them, they were stalking us. We finally made it to the restaurant only to discover, much to my non-wheat eating shagrin, that the whole cusine was dedicated to fucking Pita bread. They even spelled out their motto in P-I-T-A (I was so annoied, I dont remember what it was). But I eventally found stuff I could order and had a good meal. We wanted to take a cab back but the host informed us were out of cell phone range so we had to brave the darkness and walk back.

Today we woke up and had a mini food-swim-read session before catching the bus down here. A horrible heat rash has appeared on my legs and I am sure glad I brought some hydrocortizone cream. Each night I have to shower away the sand and sun block, slather on some aloe vera and then sleep on stratchy sheets. So its no wonder my sensitive skin is freaking out. My mom was right and the salt water did help heal my bug bites but I got new ones and basically my legs look really f-ed up right now. The owner of the cabanas was staring at me like ¨Yikes, gringa¨. They are kicking me out so I have to go, but thanks to everyone who has been emailing and commenting. xo