My birthday week!

Yayyy finally 19! Even though it’s such a weird age. Anyhow this week I had quite some celebrations. On Wednesday I went to see my mum and grandparents who came to visit me for my birthday which was Thursday. We spent the day around the hotel zone walking through the centres and I showed them my university. At night I had the best dinner, again! We went to eat to a restaurant called Cenacolo Mare. Same as a few weeks ago only placed next to the lagoon. We were the only ones there and got a table outside next to the lagoon and were just in time to see the sunset. As it was quite cloudy we could not see it very clear but the sky did change into all these pretty colours. While we were waiting for our meals one of the waiters told us to go look by the water as there was a crocodile! They were feeding it tortillas haha. It was tiny compared to the one we saw last time but it was still quite scary! It held so still as if it was made from stone. As an entrance we ordered a squid carpaccio. And even though I don’t like fish etc. it was actually quite tasty! As a main course I had the ravioli with spinach and cheese and all these other amazing things. When we had finished our meals we felt the wind blowing quite hard and there was lightning. Then a few drops fell so we quickly moved inside were we continued our meal. I was very excited for dessert, of course, so I was waiting for the menu. However then all the waiters came to our table and started singing ‘Las Mañanitas’ for me, a Spanish birthday song. They gave me a chocolate pastry with a candle in it and ‘Feliz Cumpleaños’ written around it. And because our waiter overheard that I was obsessed with the tiramisu there he brought one as well! One can never have too many desserts right? Outside there was thunder and a little bit of rain. We finished our dinner and they drove me home. Cancun always rains at different times at different places. It had rained a lot at my house but not in the hotel zone, weird. At home I hung out with Fenja until midnight and we celebrated my birthday in the kitchen with some very weird birthday songs from YouTube, a fried old brown banana as it was the only food we had and a tequila shot for a good night sleep. Uhum.

The next morning I had classes but luckily we did not have the first class so I started at 10. Our classes also finished half an hour earlier. As I had no food at home to have breakfast I was super hungry. With two friends we went to an Italian restaurant which was so nice! Full of colourful tables and decorations and amazing food. We spent quite some time outside enjoying the food and weather. Afterwards I went to the cinema, the only movie available at that time was ‘Vacations’. We had no idea what it was about but we decided to just watch it. It was soooo stupid but so funny, really liked it! Afterwards we went home. We were supposed to have dinner but because we were so full we decided to just invite some friends over to our house were we socialised before going to Han, the club. My friends gave me a cute birthday balloon and made a cake out of chocolate cupcakes called ‘Pinguinos’. We spent the whole night there but around 3AM we got hungry so what better way to end the night than eating tacos? Everything tastes better at night anyway.

Friday I had no school so Fenja and I spent the day with my grandparents and mum. In the morning we did some grocery shopping as the only thing I had home was corn and tomato sauce hahaha. After having spent ages in the supermarket, as they are HUGE and sell everything you want (except good chocolate), we dropped our things off at home. We went to La Isla which is a really nice open air shopping mall by the lagoon in the Hotel Zone. We wanted to have lunch at an Indian restaurant but it only opened at 18.30. We went to McDonalds to calm our hunger and walked around a bit. Around 18.00 the sun was already slowly coming down which created this amazing golden glow over the lagoon. We sat down to watch it and people were having all these selfie photoshoots which looked so funny haha. There was also an iguana invasion and they had only half a tail and were gigantic. Of course we could not leave without our own photo there. Then we went to the restaurant. It was one of the nicest restaurants I have seen! It was covered in bamboo and plants and trees as if you were in a jungle. Our seats were next to the water so we could see the sunset. I had a view over the lagoon and some cute Asian inspired restaurants floating on the water with red lanterns. The food was AMAZING. We all ordered different dishes and shared them. It was great.

Saturday we had to get up really early to catch the bus to the Hotel Zone for our first diving lesson! We shared a taxi with some random people and got there at 08.15. It would start at 08.30 so we were right on time. However at 8.30 there was only one person more with us. All of the other people came around 08.45 or 09.00 or even 09.15. No shame no shame. They just came walking in like it was nothing. No one seemed to bother but us Europeans were just like, what is happening? Weren’t we supposed to start 45 minutes ago? We eventually started 1 hour later. We got an introduction and briefing about the rules of Buceo (diving). After we had to set up our tanks and all the belonging equipment and try them on. We stayed for 4/5 hours in the really shallow pool (60cm) doing breathing, safety and swimming exercises. The first few times it was really scary to breath underwater because you don’t expect it to be possible so I held my breath even though that is the worst thing you can do while diving. We also had these exercises where the instructor would turn your oxygen tank off under water to give you the sensation of what it feels like to stay underwater. Now we were 20cm from getting air but what if that happens 20 meters underwater? They thought us about those things. As you have to bite on the little tube which you breathe through your jaw starts to get really tense and can hurt. The instructor told us that it took her 1 year to get rid of the pain. Sweet. Nice. Amazing. We had to kneel underwater or sit underwater the whole time but as Mexicans are quite small they could just sit but my head was almost above water and I kept floating up haha. Must be easier in the sea hopefully! Also we had to do an exercise where you have to move by only using your breathing. If you breathe in your lungs fill with air so you float up and if you breathe out you go down again. This is for when you’re in the sea and you are close to touching a sharp rock or coral for example. After that we went home, had lunch and I was soooo tired that I did nothing the whole day. Just me and my Netflix and I went to bed at like 9.

Sunday was the last day I spent with my family before they went back to Mexico City. We had dinner at a taco restaurant in the old authentic town of Cancun. So not the touristy part. It was called ‘La Parilla’ and because the national day of independence of Mexico is near there were soooo many flags, piñatas, paintings and other Mexican decorations hanging. Also various mariachis came to sing. All this while eating some guacamole and pastor and bistec tacos. What more of a Mexican experience do you want?

P.S. A few days ago I was brushing my teeth in my bathroom before going to bed and I saw this gross slimy pink lizard thing. I thought it was on the other side of the window until it moved my way. I immediately closed the door and built a ford of towels in front of the gap under the door so it wouldn’t walk under it, into my room and attack me. However I have not seen it since then?? And yesterday at restaurant I saw it on the ground at the toilet so it might have been on my shoulder all this time without me knowing? Help. On the other hand, Lizzie is back!!