On the first day we woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning and we felt fine again. It was still very rainy, which is why our view goals for the first day were: to get money, buy some food and get a Mexican sim card for both of us. With the WLAN in the accommodation we first looked up for ATMs nearby. Then we just walked around. It must have rained continuously the last days, because some of the streets were completely flooded, so that the drivers "sneaked" through the huge puddles on the streets. What came very unexpected was the first Mexican we met who begged us for money. He just looked at us in disbelief when I said with broken Spanish that we still don't have any pesos. But he still was very friendly to us.
After we passed two places where Google Maps had promised us an ATM, we passed a bank and could withdraw our first Mexican Pesos. The exchange rate is currently around 1 Euro = 25 Pesos.
Glücklich über unseren ersten Erfolg gingen wir dann direkt in einen kleinen Supermarkt, um uns mit etwas zu Essen einzudecken. Wir konnten auch direkt feststellen, dass einer der ATMs, welches uns Google angezeigt hatte, direkt drinnen im Supermarkt stand. Im Nachhinein haben wir dann auch in einem anderen Reisebericht gelesen, dass in Mexiko die ATMs meistens irgendwo drinnen stehen.
Our first purchase went out poorly, because the market offered more snacks than real food. But the problem was also that the selection is, well, different than in Germany or Europe. We stocked up with a few small things and a big cup of Capuccino, which by the way tasted very delicious.
The Mexican Simcard
After we brought our groceries to the accommodation, our next goal was to buy a Mexican SIM card. We decided to use the provider TelCel, because it is said that they cover the most of the country. The price was also ok with 300 pesos each for one month. So we had 3GB per month which should be enough for us. With our European tariffs we had much less (I 2GB and Calli 1GB) and we always got along with it. If it should not be enough in Mexico, we will simply increase it.
Everything went very smoothly, because the saleswoman presented us all offers on an information card and she exchanged and activated our cards for us.
Poverty in Mexico
When we were standing in the TelCel store, another man came directly to us in the store and asked us in Spanish for money. Since we only had two 500 Pesos bills at that time, we unfortunately had to put him off as well. He also didn't want to believe us that we didn't have any money and left rather angry. The woman in the store had apologized, but she didn't had to.
Our friend from Mexico had already told us about the poverty in mexico before we arrived, but we realized it ourselves right on the first day. Mexico is a poor country and the people probably face many problems and challenges. The streets and houses all look very decayed and unkempt. But still whole families live in them. We also have the impression that what we would call in Germany "the dangerous neighborhoods", or ruins, is the norm here. Rarely have we seen houses or apartment blocks that could meet our "standards" in Germany.
Ich habe in den ersten Tage kaum Fotos gemacht, da mir nicht danach war und ich es auch nicht als richtig empfunden hatte. Ich würde übrigens davon abraten und versuchen, in Cancún nicht großartig aufzufallen. Das gilt natürlich aber auch nur für die, die so wie wir im Wohngebiet der Mexikaner übernachten und nicht in der Hotelzone. Diese soll wiederum sehr sicher sein. Wir wohnten zwar noch recht weit weg von der „Problemzone“, doch trotzdem sollte man Vorsicht walten lassen.
Wir besuchten auch kurz die Hotelzone bzw. spazierten in diese Richtung und machten dabei einen Stopp an einem großen Einkaufszentrum, welches an einem angelegtem See lag. Dort versuchte ich zunächst mein Glück um eine neue Hosen zu kaufen, da meine jetztigen im Schritt sich mittlerweile auflösen. Jedoch durfte man anscheinend nicht die Klamotten anprobieren aufgrund von Covid-19 (wir wissen es nicht genau, da wir es nicht verstanden haben). Also kauften wir uns nichts und spazierten dort nur herum. Ein Warnschild deutete daraufhin, dass in diesem „See“ Alligatoren schwimmen. Allerdings waren auf dem Wasser Bote und Wasserskifahrer, weshalb wir dieses Warnschild zunächst in Frage gestellt hatten. Als wir dann einen großen Fischkopf am Ufer schwimmen gesehen haben, waren wir verwirrt, hmm… Letztendlich gefiel es uns dort irgendwie nicht, weshalb wir wieder umdrehten und zurück gingen um uns für unseren nächsten Ziele vorzubereiten. Und irgendwie fühlte sich dann doch besser an, bei den Mexikanern zu leben.
Da die ersten beiden ersten Tage in Cancun sehr regnersch waren und wir das Gefühl hatten hier noch etwas entdecken zu können, haben wir uns entschieden noch zwei weitere Nächte in Cancun zu bleiben. Allerdings buchten wir dann eine andere, ziemlich coolen Unterkunft (Werbung), da wir eine Waschmaschine brauchten. Die nächste Unterkunft war dann auch nicht so weit weg von der ersten und diesmal auch ein altes Haus aus der Kolonialzeit. Wir fühlten uns direkt wie in einem Tarantino Film.
Colectivos
The next day we went to Puerto Juárez, where we took a ferry to Isla Mujeres. We thought, while we are here, we would have a look at the island. And to get to the harbor we took a colectivo for the first time.
The concept is pretty cool and we are also really impressed how well it works here. For those who don't know it yet: There is almost always a main station where the colectivos wait until they are full. Then they drive their usual route and if you want to get off, just let the driver know and he will stop at the desired place (we also made the experience how a driver even made a detour into a block to drop someone off there). If you want to ride halfway in a colectivo, you just stand at the side of the road and give the driver a hand signal when passing by. If there is still a free space, the driver will give a signal with the headlight and slow down. Otherwise the driver just drives on. If this is the case, it is not too bad, because there are a lot of colectivos driving, so you don't have to wait a long time for the next one. The price is also fixed and divided into regions or zones. You can also decide if you want to pay at the entrance or exit. We never noticed that the drivers got a tip and they don't expect it. In case we didn't have the right sum of money, we always got our change back.
Puerto Juaréz und Isla Mujeres
Arriving at the port we were immediately impressed by the color of the water. I only knew such colors from some advertisements before. I can assure you that the upcoming pictures are real and that it really looks like this (or in other words: #nofilter). Apparently we were just on time, because after we bought our tickets we could get in immediately and the boat left right after one minute. You could choose to sit on the roof with a clear view of the sea or in the shade. Unfortunately there was no more room for both of us upstairs. But maybe it was better that way, because downstairs it was air-conditioned and so you were protected from the sun (which is much more aggressive here by the way). On the way back we decided not to sit upstairs because we wanted to protect ourselves from the sun after the long trip on the island.
Arrived on the island one is then first directly asked by several people, whether one does not want to buy this or that, needs a taxi or scooter, or whatever. We first looked for an access to the beach and had to realize that the beach is very crowded. The restaurants and other buildings are built very close to the water, so there was no space left on the beach. If there was space, there are many sunbeds and chairs for rent. We didn't like that so we walked further along the beach until we finally found a quiet place.
The white beach, the tropical nature and the light blue water, a paradise. Afterwards we walked on and looked for a stand with sunglasses, because they are really necessary on the island. With the blazing sun and the white sand you can hardly keep your eyes open. When we came to a stand to buy glasses, we were first asked if we wanted something to smoke or have something to "sniff", because he had "really good stuff". We thanked him nicely and only negotiated the two glasses. Although we were able to negotiate down to 30%, we were probably pulled over the table anyway. However, every salesman came around the corner with utopian prices, but I really wanted to have sunglasses. In the end we were both happy owners of overpriced sunglasses of bad quality.
By the way, in Mexico you can also pay with American dollars, which is why dealers usually quote the dollar price frist for tourists. But of course you can also trade and pay with Pesos.
We spent the whole noon there and explored the western side of the island. After we had lunch, we went back to the mainland as soon as the sky turned threateningly grey. We had already bought the return tickets on the outward journey so we could go back with any boat.
Back on the other side, we were looking for a colectivo. A taxi driver tried to make us believe that the next colectivo would not arrive for another hour. But the colectivo was just right behind the taxi and we drove back with the colectivo. As described before, the driver took us exactly where we wanted to go. The rest of the day we relaxed and looked forward to the next days in Playa del Carmen and Tulum. Playa del Carmen und Tulum gefreut.
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