Our past week has been super chill. I’ve been trying to write a post every Saturday so everyone can keep up with what we’ve been doing. After writing last Saturday’s post – we experienced some fun new Mexican quirks we hadn’t known about.

So – as mentioned last week – it was Semana Santa (Holy Week) which apparently is just a giant excuse for everyone to go to the beach with their entire families and drink a ton Coca-Cola and eat an ungodly amount of fried snacks. We were looking forward to Semana Santa ending so we could have the quiet neighborhood we once knew return back to normal. But why would be so lucky?! Turns out – they get TWO weeks of Spring vacation! So the loud music and debauchery continued through this week as well. Damn it.

Last Saturday, after writing last week’s post, we decided to take our 2 mile jaunt to the bank and to the Mega (our huge grocery store similar to a Wal-Mart.) Normally, we’ve been going to the Scotiabank to get all of our money withdraws but noticed that people seemed to be leaving the ATMs looking confused and frustrated. Not knowing what was happening – we attempted to take out money but none of the ATMs seemed to be dispensing.

We knew that there were a few Bancomer ATMs on the bottom floor of the Mega so we walked up to see if we’d have better luck. Again – nope. It was like all the ATMs in town were out of service. Luckily – we were still able to pay for groceries with our card. Unluckily – we didn’t have cash to take a cab home so we got a good workout in that day. When we got home, we checked our account just to make sure there wasn’t a problem with our bank. Lo and behold – our 2 attempted transactions at the Bancomer apparently went through on our bank’s end but…we never got the money. SWEET! I did a little Googling and found TONS of forums of this same thing happening to people down here during these crazy holiday weeks. Turns out – the ATMs are notorious for running out of money but still debiting your account. Oh, Mexico – you sneaky sneaky place.

Regardless – after filing a dispute with our bank we were finally able to get the money credited to our account while they investigate. Hoping the dispute sticks. We learned some lessons here: if the ATM doesn’t dispense money, DON’T try again. And if it’s a holiday coming up? Stock up on dough beforehand. Yeesh.

Anyway! That was fun.

This past Wednesday we had dinner with our friend who hosted us through Airbnb the first couple days we arrived in Mexico. She cooked us an awesome meal and we lived it up with some red wine, what a treat! It was great to catch up with her and chat about the past month of living here with someone who has lived here for 5 years. And? We got to hang with her two doggies!

Rocco!

Enzo!

We went to our 2nd futbol game whilst being here – unfortunately Playa del Carmen lost this time around and it seemed to be about 10 degrees hotter than last time. But it was still fun hearing all the locals cheer on their team and cuss out the other team. Their sense of humor seems to be right up our alley. Plus we LOVE that it’s free to attend!

We’re headed to Cozumel next Tuesday for a night. Excited for a change of scenery and to explore another area.

Other fun things!

• We’re just blown away at how many fresh fruits, veggies, and fresh squeezed juices we can get for the price here. Obsessed.
• We have a new neighbor next door for a month- her name is Regina. She just beat cancer and plays the electric guitar (which she brought) and she’s American so we can actually converse! She’s awesome.
• The amount of water we drink down here is insane. I’m sure it’s from all the sweating. So. Much. Sweating. Always sweating.
• The amount of random crap on the sides of the street is very amusing. (Hence the t-shirt photo…is that for sale? To take? Are you drying them out? Either way we appreciate the B.U.M. shirt.)
• Throwing T.P. in the trash instead of flushing it has now become second nature.
• We booked our plane tickets for Tokyo and Hong Kong! Departure date of June 13th. Check out our future travel plans here.

Hasta la proxima!