La Vida Playa

Well, it's been a while, and at the request of family have decided to get this up and going again. I must say I've had a bit of a change in the way I look at travel. Before on this blog I chronicled my adventures abroad from the standpoint of the backpacker, someone in the process of travel but always destined to come home. But really, since I graduated over a year ago, I haven't really been confined to a return and lately my concept of "home" has seemingly gone on a journey of its own. The real fact of the matter is, what I'm engaging in now is life... not a trip. This is conceivably my new identity and becomes less about the travel and more about my life in a given place.

As such, pardon me if these updates are few and far between. Really, my life here isn't that interesting. I can't tell you all about my escapades in Pamplona during San Fermin or the joys of a small Moroccan town of Chefchaouen. Nor can I really detail how I went tubing down some river (chronicled back in the email days) or going Canyoneering in Switzerland (when I first really got the travel bug). This is my typical day in Playa, and for the most part it doesn't really change:

0630 Wakeup. I've discovered the joy of slow mornings. Time to hit snooze, make breakfast, enjoy quiet. I'll usually shower, depending on the state of my hair, which is getting to be quite long and not too far away from the atrocity that was my sophomore year of high school. Although sun bleached and on a dive instructor, it seems to fit. At any rate, I am out the door at...

0740 ... for my daily trip to Starbucks. Yes, yes, I know... Mark supporting the evil capitalistic empire, how strange (I also occasionally shop at Wal-Mart here, gasp!). But, they make a nice coffee and it's become very ritualistic for me to start my morning. I walk to work from here, either via the beach or through the main road in Playacar (resorty/expat area where I work).

0815 Work has started. I'm usually one of the first to get in the shop and go about my OCD cleaning and whatnot. When customers arrive we outfit them in their dive gear, have them sign waivers, and send them off to their destination for the day- Cozumel, Cenotes, or Local Diving. I usually hang around the shop for a bit after this, channeling more OCD power into our disorganized shop or fixing regulators...


10-1030 ...Comes around and I head off the pool, either at the Occidental Allegro or more commonly the Occidental Royal Hideaway. I set up my pool demo then begin to make the rounds, turning up the charm and getting first time divers to go out to the ocean with me for the afternoon. No, it's not a glorious dive job at all, but the people love it and I make some good money doing it. So there!

1215 Brings lunch. Cafeteria style. Not too shabby.

1300 Pool session with DSD (Discover Scuba Diving clients). Sometimes this is easy but most of the time can be quite challenging. Many folks, especially those at the hotels where I work, are not the most coordinated or adventurous of people. It sometimes takes a lot of convincing and coaching to get people through the skills but completely worth it, because at...

1500 We head off to a shallow reef for the ocean dive. This is usually fantastic and what I love about my job. Not  the greatest dive site in the world, but to see the expression on people's faces when they dive down and you can just tell they love it. That's what it's about. That look in their facemask. Where they completely forget the oddities of scuba equipment and geek out on the underwater world. Some days, we're even rewarded with cool sites, like today. 3 FRICKIN' BULL SHARKS!

1630 Returning to the dive shop from the DSD dive, I clean up all the equipment and wrap up loose ends for the day. 1700 brings the end of the day but sometimes this goes later. All depends.

Nights bring a variety of choices, but lately it's just been me going to bed early. I'm usually pretty drained by the end of the day and do enjoy myself a good sleep. Sometimes I go out. Tonight is one of those nights. I'll do a Playa nightlife post later.

So, it's a start here. Not much I know, but it's 10PM and I'm going to bed. What I'll write about in the future:
-My Spanish and understanding of Spanish slang
-Nightlife of Playa
-The Good and Bad of Tourism here
-Food
-Friends
-My apartment
-And more...

So I leave you with a photo taken on the way home from work.