I had to take a little time before writing this post. My initial feelings were that I had made a huge mistake coming to Mexico...but after a day on the beach and some exploring of Sayulita - I'm feeling a little better about it.
Surprisingly, there were wasn't any drama while transiting south - connections were made easily and with low to little stress (we had a layover in LAX). Clearing customs were a bit of a worry for me as we don't fit the typical tourist profile and have no definite return date. We flew through them when entering Mexico - perhaps a little too quickly - one of my gf's agents didn't even speak with her, let alone as any questions. I saw other agent stamping passports so quickly that he was calling the next in line up before he was done.
A taste of Mexico.
Chaos.
Keep in mind this is my first trip to a 'developing' country and my time in the tropics is limited (Hawaii once). There is a long list of things to get used to.
First impressions:
Everything is dirty: I'm no clean freak but I'm need to adjust to the amount of general uncleanliness here. The town itself is fairly 'tidy' though dusty - but the concept of food safety doesn't appear to be present. I do agree it is overblown in Canada but anyone and everyone seems able to sell food. Some pretty ghetto food stands - eg. we saw a churos being made and dished out from the back of a pickup. The highways are strewn with garbage and the river running through the town appears to be a sewage outflow. Which is kind of gross as it bisects the main beach....
Everyone does whatever the fuck they want (or seems to): I'm not sure if this is part of the charm or what...but it's weird as hell coming from a pretty structured country. You first notice it in the architecture - which it's random additions and no sense of uniformity - but then you realize everything is like that...everything.
It's cheap but is expensive considering. Perhaps it's the weak Canadian dollar (Currently it's about 1$ CAN to 12 MXN Pesos). - but I was expecting it to be much cheaper here. The only thing I've found so far that seems ludicrously cheap is the booze (though I never have been overly interested in tricking my brains out). We paid $1 for Corona's from the beer store...but then again, that a drink that barely is more alcoholic or flavorful than actually water shouldn't cost much more than it.
We paid roughly 10$ each for a burrito and water....which is what I'd pay in Vancouver (the water would be free mind you). The other part of the problem is this bartering business....I have no idea when to pay market value or when to barter. Even the hosts at restaurants seem willing to haggle...which is strange for me. We are asking around to get the inside scoop on cheap food - we found a pizza place that was $10 for a large pizza (big enough for both of us) and 2 water...better.
While on the beach today we had a guy offer to sell us a beach towel (which I'm certain was from Walmart) for $65. I understand it's part of the culture and they are trying to work it so the buyer feels they are getting a steal of a deal) - but I can't help but find it a little insulting.
The hostel we are staying at is $20 a night each. The only other Hostel I've stayed at was one downtown Berlin for 16$ a night. We are in 8 bunk rooms and Berlin in was 32 bunks in the dorm...which you'd think would be better. Nope. See the part about everyone doing whatever the fuck they want....I'm running on very little sleep thanks to partying beach bros. There is a bar on the roof of the hostel which blares music much past 12 (1:30 today - a quiet night)...1:30 isn't bad until you take into consideration the drunk beach bros making a ton of noise until 4:30. My gf pointed out that in Berlin or other major cities...people pay for a bed and party elsewhere - whereas here...there doesn't seem to be much of a night life.
Not knowing any Spanish is a massive detriment. Just saying...do some Duolingo if you want to visit a foreign country.
It's late (2:30am) ...I need to sleep.
I'm going to edit and perhaps add onto this later.
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