Playa Del Carmen

After Eric boarded the bus that would take him to the airport bright and early, I suddenly felt extremely alone. I had never vacationed by myself before, and never really had any interest in it either. Though, I was determined to make the most of it and quickly regained myself as I walked out of the bus station. I would be living in PDC for 7 days total solo, and would be spending 5 of those days practicing Spanish at my hotel which was also a learning school. I spent the weekend before settling into a routine before class on Monday; grocery shopping, studying, beach time, exploring town for a few hours a day and settling in for the night to talk to Eric on Skype and family back home. 

 

Monday morning I started class at 8:30 and met a few other folks my age that I would be studying with all week. We all entered class together and meshed well, which I was excited about (since this meant that I had automatic friends to hang out with all week) and were about to start up before another teacher entered the class and pulled me alone out. This meant I would actually be studying Spanish by myself all week. I wouldn't have any friends to hang out with after all, but the advantage here was that I was able to get private lessons for the price of public. I spent the next 5 days studying Spanish from 8:30-12:30, studying school work afterwards (for online classes), going to the beach for a few hours where I studied homework from Spanish class, and settling in my hotel room for the night to eat dinner and talk to Eric/friends. As it turned out, those 7 days went by much faster than I expected them to, and while I missed Eric, I realized vacationing solo was not as lonely as I previously thought it would be. My hotel served free breakfast each morning where I ate with a guy from my original class, met other people staying at the hotel, and spoke with the chef each day where I had the chance to practice my Spanish. At the beach, I had many random men come up to me for a chat which I normally would not appreciate but this also gave me the opportunity to practice my Spanish. With a few conversations each day, I quickly realized that loneliness is all a matter of perception; you either make the most of your solo travels or you don't.

  My experience studying Spanish all week was a great one. I had no idea how much Spanish a person could actually learn in only one week. Having private classes was definitely beneficial, however my teacher was agreeable and very patient as well. What a good time. I would definitely recommend a week or more of Spanish while traveling through Latin America.

On my 7^th day being in PDC, I got on the bike to start practicing riding for the first time in years (on Eric's bike). When Eric left for home, he took the bus as he knew I would be too nervous to drop him off and ride the hour back to PDC by myself. I was determined to pick him up from Cancun airport when he arrived, so I spent a few hours practicing the night before he arrived driving around town and going grocery shopping on the bike. I was surprised how little issues I had with the drive, and this gave me the confidence to try and pick him up the next morning.

My Classroom and teacher 

Garden pool at hotel 

Breakfast bar 

Exploring PDC

 The beaches were packed all week long

 And people were so excited to be there. I had many people ask if I was a professional photographer as I walked around with my big camera. These guys even asked me if I could take their photo and email it to them later. They lived in Argentina and were on spring break as well. 

 Only meal I had eating out. The grilled green onions were fantastic!

 Last dinner date with Eric Liu before he flew in the next day..