I am alone in an Airbnb in Cancun. It is part of a hostel but I rarely see the other tenants, who mainly speak spanish and I have never had a lot of luck interacting with them, I do sometimes help them find the right door when they first arrive. They will try the keys they have gotten from the lock box in my door as first guess.
The people on my Tues/Thursday/Sat shop ride stay way in front of me (:-) and I usually do not stop in at their cafe afterward. Only a few offer to speak english with me.
I have never found a bar where I could sit and talk English. I’m sure there is such out on the Hotel Road, but I have not found it. I really should give this search a try. It feel like Master Class level lurking. I pride myself on knowing so much about Cancun but don’t have a good idea how to break this nut. Part of the problem is learning what Hotels are all inclusive (I am not allowed in). As I say, Master Class level, one I may never have the energy to take on. Mainly people here are in groups or couples, especially drinking at night
I have found a solution. I discovered it way back in 2016 but only recently started taking full time advantage of it. Surfin Buritto. The seating there is outside but under a roof incase of rain. There are three counter top tables that seat 3-6 on high top HEAVY stools on both sides. I show up about 11:40 each day and sit at the bar top closest to the road. So far this year, 7 lunches, I have always been able to get a seat at that table. Sometimes I am on one end or the other but as soon as people leave I maneuver myself into the center so I increase my chances by 100% of siting next to someone!
Turns out I was there for lunch everyday, except one, that I was in Cancun. I offer menus, napkins, a pen to fill out the burrito “contents section” and general tour guide information. I usually stay until 2 and sometimes to 3. I try to tip generously enough that I am a welcome sitter.
I talk to people everywhere. But as I say, Surfin works the best and is the most reliable. I did meet a Canadian couple the first days waiting for the bus out to the Hotel Zone. He was not my age but not young, maybe 60? She was well preserved. They spend a lot of time in Cancun. They were in a Airbnb condo over by Las Americas Plaza which is very close to my home. They talked up Poblano Restaurant which is right in the main tourist part of Cancun. He described it as always full and hidden away. I am pretty sure it is just one of the main ones that have barkers out front to try to lurer in the tourists in. I think it showed there lack of knowledge of Cancun. But, I will have to try Poblano sometime and I was sorry I did not have a good “strategy” to latch onto this couple and spend some time with them,
I should invite people to come and have a drink with me at Surfin at a little after 12 noon.
The first couple I took notes about at Surfin was from Indiana. My brain, especially with all the drinking, has no retention of the conversations I have. So I try to write them down on the phone’s “Notes” whenever I get the chance. I had on a Tshirt from a boys camp I am involved with. I always hope that someone will recognize the name or ask about the cycle hat I wear, but nada. There is a town in Illinois called Kawanee My camp shirt says Kawanhee. I only know about the chance for the mix up because when I type the camp name into Ebay, it offers Kawanee Illinios as the most likely alternative. Anyway, the guy mentions the shirt and I explain the confusion. They were playing grand parents to 5 grandchildren last week. Are now unwinding on the beach and thinking about getting up the nerve to ride the busses.
I can’t get over that the T-Shirts have been such a failure, not just this year but for 6 years! Not just in Cancun but in Portugal! I should wear one that says Boston or Patriots or Celtics but I am too much of a snob. I tell people that I really pay attention to 2 sporting events, the Iditarod and the Tour de France. I will have to substitute in shirts from those events, Daughter got me a great one from Giro d’Italia but my stomach grew out of it!.
Next an older couple. They are staying in her brothers condo. They have been down 10+ times over the years. Brother is delayed, air traffic control problem. It could have been nation wide that day? I kind of remember the story was a computer that kept tack of pilot notifications died and it took them hours to get it replaced. One news source says “Before a flight takes off, pilots and airline dispatchers must review the notices, which include details about weather, runway closures or construction and other information that could affect the flight.”
Next I get a young couple going to college in Virginia. She is wearing a head scarf. Her father is Chinese and her mother German. She has visited both countries, even when she was 6. The young man is Turkish but raised in the US. He is studying finance and she is pre-med.
The next day I get a young couple from Calgary. They had 3 days on Isle Morals. It is just outside Cancun. They did the golf carts and the beach. Lived in town. They got there using the 5% ADO bus fro the airport and then a taxie to the Isle Morals ferry. He is thinking about doing surfing and has talked to Philly, my name for the older man who runs the surf shop next to Surfin Buritto. I can assure him that he is buying the best and indeed I see him stating his lesson on the beach later.
Next a woman from Montréal reading a book in French, her native language. The book is non fiction about people with problems? She is a social worker trying to help the homeless. She is afraid the Canadian health care system is going in the wrong direction.
Two guys and 2 girls from Indiana, staying in a condo. The young lady who would talk to me is working at Toyoto. They are paying to send her to grad school, I assume at night, in AI and she does not like it. She did undergrad Finance. She does not code in her job, mainly spread sheets but she is learning Python.
Next a nurse from Montreal doing Yoga. She spent 10 days in what she called the jungle outside Porto Morals . Never got to the square! There were 30 people, 3 instructors. She loved it.
Two young ladies from Manchester and Leads. They are traveling on their own. One really does the research. They did a group in Peru Machu Picchu Then Mexico city, then up to LA and las Vegas, Yosemite.
A young couple from London.
They just graduated. She is working as a Barista and he in finance to make the money for this trip. Later I got a couple on a “rewards” trip. The top 10% of sales people are here. This is not their first one. They are from Louisiana. The company does farm sales. Not tractors, more expendables?
Tuesday the last arrivals where 2 couples from Indiana and Minessota at least in their 60s. They each split a burrito. The Indiana wife was the most talkative. Had to concentrate on staying on her stool. Her husband was right across from me. We talked a little about establishments along the hotel road and beer,. He did ask what I was drinking out of the small cups? (it is tequila).
Before them was a Lithuanian couple, Vilnius. He found the Cancun people much more pleasant to deal with. He travels some on business in Africa and they just see him as a large dollar sign and start off the cab fare at 100$. They traveled to thailand for 2 weeks last year. Earlier were 3 girls from Colorado, Airbnb in cancun. I think they took a cab out but hopefully will switch to bus. The one blond was very engaging but did not often engage. She said she worked in oil and gas and this turned out she was monitored emissions for a climate non-profit. She had gone to Colorado Mine school and was very interested that I seemed to have heard of it. She did not like it as it was too fixated on getting her into one area but it did get her a job. They asked aobut places to eat and I gave them a couple bck in Cancun. They sadly took their buritto to go instead of staying to engage with the wonderful 76 year old! She bounced witht the music!
Sunday and Monday we had IT from Toyoto with a bruse on her ankle. She had been down a couple weeks ago with her parents but this was with 3 people her age now in Airbnb on water near Surfin.,
Saturday I had law enforcement manager from Wisconsin. He was larger than I am and self contained. I thought he had a togo drink and was waiting on togo food but turned out the establishment had run out of the normal stay drink classes and was putting everything in togo styrophome. He certainly looked US but I was slow to engage, waited for him to speak English to the waiter. It is always better if I give the “target:” a chance to see me read, eat the condiment off the top of my drink, otherwise make a general mess and fool of myself.
Wisconsin and I talked about the normal how long are you here for, been here before, how much did you pay to get from airport, where are you from. Clearly when he said he worked in law enforcement I had to be on my best behavior. The good sign was that he rides the buses and normal tourist, especially ones in their 50s like him do not. I brought up the topic of our society failure to get on top of the oxi contin epidemic. My thought is that normal drug users like me have lifetime strategies to allow us to be partially functional but because this Oxi thing took many people with no prior drug experience and really got them hooked, it was a cheap blow. The doctor did it! Luckily I did not share all this with him! I know we decided to blame in on the Statler family but I would imagine there will be good books and Harvard Business School studies like the ones about the 1918 Pandemic that will shed more light.
Another topic was servalence and facial recognition. There is a lumber company in Wisconsin where the owner has installed facial recognition. I image he is using it to track his employees and maybe his customers. It is probably a multi store, maybe multi state operation and Wisconsin said he was a billionaire. I should ask daughter Elizabeth what her compant is saying about the state of such software.
Our final topic was even better. I proposed my normal question: if you were given the power to change things in Wisconsin law enforcement, what would you concentrate on? He came up with the line we have all heard: that communication from the people above him is very poor.
Sunday jan 22. Erica sits down in my trap. I am talking to other people so she gets to see I am not too dangerous. When we do start talking. I find out that she is a lot older than she looks, 30? And a risk taker. She drives trucks. Living outside of Cincinnati now. Tried to get friends to come to Cancun with her but they all backed out so she came alone. She has started using the busses! She is looking to get out of the tourist bubble. I tell her about the two public entrances to the beach that the locals use. When she is ready to leave, I offer to walk her up to the entrance nearest us. It is only 200 yard away. She comes. We go onto the beach and watch the people. I tel her I am going to walk down to the next public entrance at Coco Bongo. She says she will come. I am smart enough to give her as much room as possible. As we walk by a 7-11 type store she says she is going in and will catch up later. I am happy she has found an easy way to ditch the old man and I go onto Coco Bongo.
I am on Coco Bongo, doing my normal thing of watching the people. She calls to me. She has followed me down. I tell her my next errand is to pick up beer etc at the local super market. Off we go. I stop to take our selfie on a side street.
She has already discovered that everything at her hotel costs twice what it does out on the street. She loves learning something like this and beating the system. In the supermarket she picks up a lot of strange stuff. A piece of chocolate cake and is willing to deal with the counter people to get a container. She lets me pay for things and we get on the bus to ride into Cancun. We take the R1 which heads toward the bus station.
She has expressed interest in travelling outside Cancun. People at the hotel are of course pushing the tours but I am telling her that she can go anywhere on her own at 1/10th the cost. I have told her about the collectivo system and we are on our way to their gathering point across from the ABO bus terminal. I manage to get us off the bus at the right stop, just before the ABO. Erica decides that this is a great place to eat her chocolate cake on a bench. She goes into a restaurant right there but they refuse to give her a fork. She remember that she has one in her bag from previous meals and eats the cake on the bench. This is working great for me. She clearly feels comfortable calling the shots.
Ok, so next is a stop at the collectivo stand for her to ask about how much it would cost to travel to Tulum. We have a bit of a challenge crossing the busy traffic circle but again it feels to me that I am not just leading, she is pulling her weight. As we approach the stand, I say that she should do all the talking, I’ll hang back. She does pretty well. They speak next to no English. She has her high school Spanish that is next to useless. I do jump in to help her to understand that there is no collectivo to Tulum, she has to take one to Playa and then get the next one onto Tulum. I think she is blown away by the low price.
Next, Tom gives a tour of the bus station. Again, it is her job to go up to the counters and find out what a ticket would cost to Tulum. I warn her that bus stations, in fact all over the world, are filled with the people who have just arrived in the town and may be very down on their luck. I think she is a little gullible, as evidenced by the fact that she is wondering around Cancun bus terminal with a 76 year old man!
Now we start walking back along the main drag where the busses go back to the Hotel Zone. Right away next to the bus terminal, of course, is a hostel. A young man from Jamaica? is hanging around out front and a 60? year old woman is sitting on the stoop. We divide and conquer. He has had all his money and his passport stolen. He takes Erica off for a tour of the hostel. The woman lives here for months. She has to go back to Canada? for a few months each year to keep her benefits coming. She is a little spacy and after Erica returns and we walk on, Erica has the reason. Everyone in the hostel is smoking weed. The public rooms are filled with it.
End of tory. I am still on a quest for a pack of crasines. Erica will catch the R1 buss back to the hotel Zone. I wish I could do this extended adventure every day. The supermarket here does have the desired crasins and I walk the 20 minutes home.
Tuesday Jan 24, last day. Fitting that I get one of the great conversations.
Mili and we will call him shirt. Surprise, I remember the women’s name but not the man’s. Mili was brought up in Israel. She and shirt run a T-Shirt printing/selling business in Amsterdam. They just flew in, have the “all inclusive: bands on their wrists but have not been able to get into their rooms until 3pm. They came to Surfin or at lest to their hotel on the bus. Mili got caught in the door and is not happy with the damage to her knee.
She is probably older, early 30s? Just one great line after the other. She saw shirt when they first were introduced, thought he was bad boy. Once she found out he was not, she was ready to break up but a lady friend sat her down and talked to her about how had it been going year after year picking bad boys? Her father was a Mr Jeckly and Hyde. Really abusive when not sober and would not admit to it afterwards. We quickly moved to why did I drink and was I abusive to my girls. Instance analysis and I get to drink in the session! I said the best evidence I had was that both daughters were asked again and again by docters if I had ever done anything and I got a clean bill of health. I am guilt of mental abuse. The worse one, I think, but probably they will say is wrong, was with older daughter choosing private middle school. We sat her down, told her it was her choise, and then forced her to take our choose!
Mili is then onto why do I drink. I did a bad job answering. I might have said that it allowed me to be more out going and engage with great people like her. She wants a light for her cigarette, I go out into the sidewalk and get someone. She asks what nationality the good looking older surf instructor next door is and I go over and ask him. It certainly seems I could do such things sober but I think it is fair to say I do them a lot less and wish I did them more. Isn’t it wonderful that the conversation is about the most important person to me, me!!
Shirt was equally as engaging as one can imagine to hold the attention of such a fire cracker woman but I do remember her raps more. I have to get better at some form of the following: I am coming to Amsterdam and want to take the two of you out to dinner. I find it really hard to meet interesting peopel and the few that I know now are dying! I have to get more aggressive about latching onto these chances. I did of course give them my card and showd shirt the web site and these pages. He right away said, oh, a diary. Caught! They are both wearing their own products, shirts.
One great line after another. Mili says sex is over rated. Shirt is smart enough to keep quiet. We talk about how Mili looks at women’s faces. I point out that I am not the only man who is still stuck in the sex hole. I do say that I would love to go back to the few women I have met who seemed to share the male obsession with sex and ask them how long they they stayed obsessed. I would love to spend the rest of my life talking about women’s, and maybe some men’s faces. Showing sheets of contact prints and asking people to rank and talk about it. In the same vein, I would love to interview people like Mili and try to get some ideas about what are the common factors that make them who they are.