The Beach

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

(originally posted on thistroll.com)

All the backpackers I met advised me to visit Talum and avoid Playa Del Carmen and Cancún. So I booked a hostel at Playa del Carmen for a week. An obnoxious party hostel with instructional signs a la "don't make a mess" and "do your dishes" posted everywhere. Oops.

In Playa it was 90 degrees and humid every day. The saving grace of my hostel was that it did provide A/C in the room 15 hours a day. So I spent a week in Playa seeking out A/C for the other 9 hours in the day.

I monopolized the large TV on the 3rd floor. The wifi up there was crap and they didn't have Netflix or cable anyway, so nobody else used it. I however was traveling with a 15' HDMI cable and 7 seasons of Buffy. During my time in Playa, the swim coach drugged the swim team with steroids that turned them into fish, and Angel traded his soul for Buffy's virginity.

I worked on my new website (this) a lot. One month into the project I had conquered EC2, Elastic Beanstalk, AIM, DynamoDB, Cloudfront, ELB, AWLCLI, SSL, Gulp, SASS, Browserify, Babel, MockMVC, and cross origin headers. SSL gave me the most trouble.

I transcribed all the infuriating "notes" the hostel had posted everywhere:

• Please throw toilet paper in the BIN not the TOILET. Ask for more at reception.

• The A/C runs from 8pm to 11am.

• If you wish to extend your stay, please ask about availability at reception.

• Checkout at 12pm.

• By law alcohol is prohibited in the rooms and kitchens. Any bottles found will be moved to reception. Thanks for complying. -The Yak Team

• It is strictly prohibited to possess or consume illegal substances on these premises. Anyone caught with illegal substances will be handed over to the local authorities. -The Management

• Put your bags under the beds or in the lockers. Nobody likes the mess. Not even you :)

• Breakfast 8am to 10am.

• Please return your dishes to the bar.

• Checkout 12pm. Late checkout $50.

• Not for water bottles.

• Use the cups provided.

• No alcohol allowed (with one of those no-smoking icons with a margarita glass in place of the cigarette)

• Please label your food. Unlabeled items will become everybody's property and moved to the COMMUNIST SHELF.

• Please write the date on your food, using the tape provided. Unmarked food or food that is a week old will be thrown out.

• Respect other guests and neighbors please be quiet after 12am.

• Please clean after you finish. Butler service is not included yet :)

I also went to the beach once. I guess I'm not much of a beach guy.