Our first day in Mexico!

Pink tortilla, and Gemma!
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Our first port of call was to go to the school and meet some people.  A nice man took us there and tried to communicate with us in Spanish fairly unsuccessfully.  We're finding that smiling and saying 'Si' seems to help! So got to the school and nobody seemed to know why we were there and kept asking us if we were on the Spanish course - maybe we ought to have been! We were shown the high-tec IT room with 3 computers and send our emails to you all.  As an extra challenge all of the computer keys are different and you need to press 3 random keys just to get @, hmm!

La Parrilla food
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Then we went to Walmart as we needed food and other essentials such as mosquito repellent.  We spent at least an hour looking at each and every aisle and ended up with some food and NO insect repellent.  Now we are suffering as the nasty, little, demon mosquitos decided to devour us whilst sleeping!! This will NOT happen again, as we are returning to Walmart and WILL NOT leave until we have el relelente de insectos!

Next was lunch at La Parrilla (photos will be attached) where we sampled some traditional mexican food.  Whilst Bob had un cerbeza, Gemma rather sensibly (and out of character) had a diet coke. We then had nachos for a starter which was very tasty so long as you avoid the extremely hot chill's.  Bob then had vegetarian tacos with refried beans and guacamole, Gemma opted for Aztec tacos with cactus and beer sauce.  Both meals were tasty and mostly green and brown except for the nice, pink tortilla chip! See pictures for more information.

Happy with a cerbeza
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We decided, as we were in PLAYA del Carmen, that we should go to la playa (beach!)!  La playa, in itself, isn't very big/wide, but due to swine flu that isn't a problem as there aren't many people here.  The heat was starting to take it's toll on us so we decided to go in the sea.  Although refreshing, Gemma isn't entirely happy with the sea situation.  Contrary to our belief, the crystal blue, calm Carribean sea, is, in fact, crystal blue, choppy, wavy, salty, choking, sea!  It was a challenge to swim in the sea, as swallowing vast quantities of salt water seemed to be compulsory, however, the accompanying sounds of minor drowning and consumption of said salt water, were most amusing!  This amusement resulted in MORE consumption of salt water, and thus the cycle continued for about an hour.  Blergh!  Scarily, the hotels on Cozumel (island off the coast) look like they are floating on the sea, like some kind of water world but without Kevin Costner.

Playa and choppy. salty sea
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Next was our walk with Alturo from the college, showing us the sights and sounds of PdC (Playa Del Carmen). Alturo is one of the college's spanish teachers and therefore doesn't really speak much english.  Communication was in broken spanish/english but we got by, having a giggle along the way.  He showed us some traditional, cheaper Mexican restaurants and, to Bob's delight, some Mayan ruinas (ruins)!!  Me gusta - Bob.  After 2 hours of walking around PdC in inappropriate footwear, both of us are suffering from fairly substantial blisters, we hope to learn from our mistakes!  Alturo told us of a Monday night film on the beach which other international students were going to, so after a quick regroup and change of shoes, off we went.

The film was odd, something about perfume with Dustin Hoffman, but we did enjoy dos cerbeza y nachos while making a new friend!  Arianne is from Scotland and is going to be on the CELTA course with us, yay!

End of day 1, both looking forward to sleep - buenos noches.