Camping in Tulum

Last week I just had my normal routine with classes. I changed my subjects a little which means I have nonstop classes from 08.30 -13.00 twice a week. I cannot remember the last time I had to get up so early for school. I was glad in a way because then at least it wouldn’t be so hot. But I was wrong because it’s already 30 degrees at that time of the day. However crossing the road at that time of the day is impossible! You have to wait like a good 5 or 10 minutes to be able to cross and even then risking your life. Fenja and I decided that we wanted to follow a language course but they are quite expensive and as Mexicans are obsessed with Germany for one reason German was for free. So I am in German now hahaha. The first class was so funny. We were waiting in front of the class room as we were not sure we were at the right place. Some Mexican students came closer and looked really weird and asked what we were waiting for. “Is this German?” we asked, and they replied yes, still not understanding what we were doing there. I said to the girl ‘We are NOT German’. “oooh” she said. But she looked so confused as everybody at school thinks we are from Germany. What even is Holland? Anyway, we walked into the class and said down, everybody looked at us with the same thought and then the teacher said kind of laughing: “What are you doing here?” I repeated and said that we are not German. That class was a nightmare. We tried to speak German but then we were speaking a mixture of Dutch and English and a bit later even Spanish and French! What! The class after was way better though haha.

For another class we have to organize this huge taco event for our uni in November which means we also had to eat some tacos to decide which ones we wanted to sell. I am in a group with two Mexican girls and a German girl. The two Mexican girls took us to an unknown quite hidden taco place which is 1 minute from my house (!). It was really small and did not even have a menu. There was some music playing and you could see the grill where the meat was being prepared. And I have to say; there I tasted the best taco ever! I was not hungry when I got there but then I ended up ordering more haha! It was called ‘Pirata’. A huge tortilla with melted cheese and arrachera and sirloin meat. We felt some drops coming from the sky and two minutes later it rained like crazy and then stopped again. That was the second time that week, also the second time I hand washed all my clothes and let them hanging outside. But I am not complaining. I woke up this morning and I looked out of the window and it looked really dark and grey, then I heard some thunder. Really nice for a change. Talking about thunder! Last week I was enjoying one of my sleep-in days but of course that did not last for long. Every single day from 7AM until 8.30AM I hear like 30 dogs barking nonstop and there is no possible way of sleeping! I have tried ear plugs, putting a pillow on my head and one day I was so mad I walked outside to look for those damn dogs but I did not find them. Which is why I wake up every day before 8. Anyways, the one day I did not hear dogs I heard the LOUDEST crash ever! I thought they were destroying a building but it was way louder than that. This continuous sound of things banging and crashing, I thought somebody was throwing bombes, not kidding. It went on for like 30 minutes. Later that day someone asked me if I had heard the thunder. That was thunder?! Geez! As if the sky and ground was breaking in two like those ‘end of the world’ movies.

Thursday I went to a bar called Amarula. Coolest thing ever! There is no way of recognizing on the street unless you know it is there. There was a bouncer waiting in front of the door who opened the door. You then walked into a garden with stairs going up, all surrounded by plants. At the end of the stairs there was like a church door and when I opened it I entered the place. It was like an indoor garden with all these cute fairy lights and decorations. There was also an outdoor part where you could sit, loved it!

Saturday we went camping in Tulum, a place 2 hours from Cancun on the coast. We went with some friends from uni and their friends, good way to know more people. The cars were exploding with things and people but we still had to go to the supermarket. We bought a whole shopping cart full of food and drinks and then had to fit it in the car. Don’t ask me how but it fitted. Just like Cancun there is a hotel zone in Tulum and I have never seen a cuter or prettier hotel zone than this one! It was like driving through a 15 km long tunnel made out of trees and plants. On the sides were hotels and cafes which had this whole ‘into the nature’ thing going on. Everything made out of wood and a lot of fairy lights and colours. Also the hotels had bike rentals so there were a lot of people biking! Ending the hotel zone there was a long and very bumpy and sandy road waiting for us. When we got to the camping spot we parked the car and got all our stuff out. It was a small area with a hill which brought you to the beach. The whole place was covered in numerous palm trees which was such a pretty sight! I only freaked out because every tree had the skin of the creepiest insect ever on it. Like a snake leaves it skin behind, so to these little things only the skin is exactly the shape of that insect. So scary  We looked at the sea and we were saaaaaad because the algae problem was even worse here! The beach was covered in huge amounts of seaweed and the water was brown, even though it is supposed to be super-duper blue. But luckily a big part of the beach was still covered in soft white sand. We set up the tents and moved our stuff from the car. We then sat on the beach, played some volleyball, some went swimming and others were setting up a little tent on the beach. We put some music on and just relaxed and enjoyed the cool ocean breeze while the sky was turning from blue to pink to purple to night. Once it got darker everybody went crazy on the insect repellent hahahah. When it was really dark we all sat around the campfire and enjoyed a few drinks. I looked up and the sky was AMAZING. The last time I had seen a sky so clean a clear and filled with so many bright stars was in New Zealand. I could not stop watching them. Later on I grabbed a towel and lied down to watch them. I was looking at the ocean when this super bright flash appeared above me. First I thought it was somebody with a torch but when I looked up it was a shooting star! I saw 2 more that evening. Fenja lied down next to me and as we hadn’t brought a sleeping bag or pillow we thought ‘Might as well sleep here”. We were attacked by 903498734 sand bugs but then someone gave us a sleeping bag and I created a pillow out of sand and it was quite ok to be honest. After a while everybody was suddenly sleeping with us on the beach haha! We were looking at the sky and suddenly all the stars were gone and there was a strong wind. I forgot how it felt to be cold (and not from the aircon). We then felt a drop of water but ignored it. However 3 minutes later everybody started running like crazy to the tents as it was pissing down hahaha. The tents were SO hot it was not even funny. I slept on my sandy towel on a root on the ground. I woke up at 7AM because I was suffocating, I went outside and sat on the beach. Everybody went swimming but because of my algae fear I stayed haha. It was such a slow morning and nobody knew what to do. It was just too hot to do anything. I was covered in more sand than skin and I was so sticky and oh god, is this what camping is always like haha. It was really fun though. We cleaned everything up and tried to fit it back in the car. There were coconuts on the ground so we cut one and drank the juice and ate the coconut. I must say I was disappointed by the juice. It does not taste like water or milk or coconut. What even? The coconut is so delicious though!

Fenja and I are sitting here half crying half laughing and scratching like crazy because I have never experienced this many mosquito bites! They. Are. Everywhere. But it was worth it, definitely.

P.S. I was in the supermarket and I was talking Spanish to some friends when the whitest grandpa ever stopped and looked at me with the most shocked face ever and said: “You, you are speaking Spanish???? But you do not look Mexican, at all????????” I laughed and said: “Yes yes I know” And he said: “You look American” -.- I did not say anything but he was wearing this camouflage suit with a hat that said ‘Kenya’ and he is telling me I don’t look Mexican. Hahaha so funny he was so confused.

P.P.S Lizzy disappeared 