The Travels and Adventures of
Stefano Capacchione

Still only a few days into our trip, we used the comfortable services of ADO once again to transport us to our second destination… Playa del Carmen. We arrived to a street full of vendors trying to sell us everything from hats to specialist “sea salt” that you inhale through your nostrils. Not having a taste for salt at that moment in time, we politely declined and swiftly made our way to our pre ‐ booked accommodation.

We were staying in a dorm room of a hostel but it felt like we had upgraded to Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (Dubai's 7 star hotel) in comparison to our guest house in Cancun. As with most hostels, the dorm had bunk beds but these weren't just any bunk beds, they were king size bunk beds. Adding to the luxury was an extremely powerful albeit freezing shower and a gourmet breakfast of toast and jam for just 15 pesos which was the equivalent of 70p at the time. The piece de resistance however was the air conditioning that started at 10pm and continued until 10am the next morning!

As you can imagine, there was no air ‐ con in the 33 degree heat of the day (poor us!) and also not very much to do for a budget traveller. On a short term holiday, we might have crashed a jet ski into some swimmers or taken a trip though the skies on a paraglide but I'm afraid that just wasn't to be.

Most of our time was actually spent relaxing on the beach although we did take a trip into the main plaza of the town centre just in time to witness a protest from some local teachers. We had no idea why they were protesting and we were a little wary of getting too close in case something sparked violence and although it remained peaceful the whole time we were there, we later found out that this wasn't always the case.