Parental homelessness

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO

My parents have chosen to be homeless for a while. They sold their house and bought a new one. Except they tore that house down. It's going to take some time for a new one to stand in it's place, so until that time comes, my parents are going to play the part of the vagabond. They have decided that the first stop in their vagabonding will be Playa del Carmen in the Mayan Riviera. I couldn't let my parents go on this beach adventure by themselves, so my boyfriend, Marc, and I decided to go south for the winter. While my parents, little sister and her son would be in Playa del Carmen for a bit more than a month, Marc and I would join for, what I considered a measly 2 weeks.

I love the warmth. People always talk about how great it must be to live in San Francisco because the weather is so nice, but truthfully, it's a bit cold for me. I like the tropics. And I believe that Mexican winters are the way winters should be: 80+ degrees. Landing in Cancun Airport, I was immediately struck by the humidity and warmth. Not to mention the swarm of taxi and hotel salesmen waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting tourist. It really is a bit of a nightmare to walk in to. You are coming off a plane into a country that you probably aren't familiar with and before you even step outside, before you even fully clear the secure area, there are 50 people yelling at you to "come this way!" I looked straight ahead saying "no, thank you," "no, no, no" and still they kept coming. One tour bus driver even jumped in front of Marc and started flipped the tags on our suitcases, asking "where is your voucher?" I had no idea what he was talking about but the aggressive nature of these salesmen really made me stop and look shocked for a second. After collecting myself and fighting through the salesmen/tour people, we finally made it outside where my parents were waiting. The person waiting area is tiny compared to the sales area!

I love the small, torn up, hectic and chaotic streets that make up Playa del Carmen. A 40min drive south of Cancun, Playa del Carmen is a town of about 100,000 people. Although founded many years before Cancun, it is now smaller, probably because Cancun has gotten to famous thanks to Spring Break. But because it's smaller, it has managed to hang on to it's roots a little more. I'm not saying that it's untouched, because it's definitely not. You can, in fact, get away with not speaking a word of Spanish during your entire stay, and if you stay in the touristy area of 5th Ave, you can even get away with using only US dollars.

Of course, that is not what my parents had in mind. My father, having been born and raised in Mexico City, will almost scoff at my suggestion to go shopping on 5th Ave. Don't even mention going to Coco Bongo (although I secretly want to). My parents rented an apartment about 15min from 5th Ave, as well as a car, so that they could get around and really just live here.