A Hard Two Day's Night

It's been a rough couple of nights. From Palenque I took yet another night-bus, and knew it was going to be a long trip when I sat down and the woman next to me had a baby in her arms. No overhead light to read by, and only one of the earpieces in my headphones worked, and just barely at that (what do you expect though, I bought them here for $2.50, cheap even by Mexican standards!) - oh please let the movie be good, and in English (the last bus I was on showed the tweenie-bopper flick Ella Enchanted - a moving film about a girl cursed by a witch into obeying whatever is commanded of her, which of course she breaks by falling in love with a handsome prince, though much to the loathing of her stepsisters, and the prince's evil uncle - yes, this on a bus full of primarily adult men - who comes up with these choices? - but hey, it was in English, so of course I watched it). No such luck. But the woman next to me was very nice and amazingly the baby didn't cry once; in fact, on a night-bus full of babies, not a single one of them ever did - the Mexican people have a lot to teach us on the art of shutting up noisy babies. In the end I got quite a lot of sleep.
I arrived in Tulum, far away enough from Cancun to be peaceful, but close enough to get a steady influx of day-trippers. I figured I would save money by paying $5 bucks to sling my hammock between two palm trees and sleep on the beach. First though like a dope I tried to take an open hammock, figuring it belonged to the place, and got accosted by some beach bum... I mean a hippie, who politely explained that this hammock belonged to somebody else. Then I had to pay $5 more dollars for some rope to hang my hammock with, not knowing that there was rope laying all over the beach. Finally I got my hammock set up, and realized that not only was it very small (I bought the cheapest one available, for one person), but that I also had no blankets. The wind didn't stop blowing once, from sundown to sunrise, and even bundled in every article of clothing I had it was still a long night. I'll admit it, I really know nothing about hammocks apparently. The resident hippies were pretty cool and helpful though, ushering me into the ways of the hammock lifestyle. And the beach - oh, the beach! As far as the archetype of perfect beaches go (and I've seen many), this took the cake - solid-white sand and crystal-clear blue waters. I went to the nearby ruins of Tulum and got a lot of sun and swimming in. Nevertheless, the proposition of another night in that hammock didn't appeal to me, so I left paradise for the small town of Valladolid. Ever one for new experiences, I went swimming in a cenote, which is an underground lake of sorts. It was a bit eery, with bats swarming above and dark water beneath, but also amazing - tree roots and stalactites hung down over the water, and through the one gap in the cave's ceiling a shaft of sunlight flooded in, lighting the water in fluorescent shaders of blue. Best of all, I got a room in a hostel, so I'm sleeping well tonight (assuming none of my dorm-mates snore loudly).