Playa del Carmen

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Mike, Kimi, Andy, Jessy, Ryan and I all really enjoyed the trip to Playa del Carmen.  We went during the very first part of the rainy season (mid-May) and did not see a cloud in the sky the entire time.  Most of the time we enjoyed ourselves by being beach bums and relaxing all day.  We met a few locals hanging out at the bars at night and it was a lot of fun chatting with them about what life is like living in a vacation spot.

We also met Quique, our beloved friend who had a crush on Jessy the whole time.  Quique hung out with us at night sometimes and even gave Jessy a ride home on his scooter.  He took us on his small fishing boat so we could experience deep sea fishing.  Well, little did we know how little the boat actually was and later how it actually felt.  Needless to say, the majority of us were not feeling to well.  (Mike, Andy, Kimi, and myself)  Jessy and Ryan were fortunate enough to laugh, talk and enjoy the beers!

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I would not have traded this experience for the world because we learned a lot about the "Blue Marlin" fish.  We were deep sea fishing and Jessy spent a good 15-20 minutes realing in a huge fish.  None of us could tell what kind of fish it was, but we were all excited to see it.  Finally, after much anticipation, the fish presented itself and I looked at Quique and he looked extremely sad.

I did not know what was going on, and we all were excited about the huge fish and confused as to why Quique was so sad.  Quique explained to us that the Blue Marlin is a sport fish and is meant to be caught and then released.  The fish was already dead when we caught it, so there was no point in releasing it.  This was an extremely sad moment for Quique and soon to be the rest of us.

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So we took the fish onto shore and had a local restaurant cook it for us so we could eat.  As you may suspect, the whole coast of people gathered by the fish on shore and were very upset and asking why we would do such a thing.  I was the only one who could understand Spanish, so I knew how serious this was for the locals, but we explained that the fish was already dead, so we decided to keep it.

In other words, we were killers.  We were oblivious Americans.

So, after catching this fish and cooking it, none of us could enjoy it because how bad we felt, so we had a few more drinks ( :

The fishing trip was both a phsical experience as well as a cultural experience and I don't think any of us would trade it for another trip