Alright Folks, Well this is the last postcard from Latin America. I know that I am officially in North America but Mexico is most definitely part of Latin America. I came from the calm and tranquility of Caye Caulker to the touristy mass of Playa del Carmen. I was told and had read that Playa is the back packer version of Cancun. Well its not! It is here that I have to draw the definition of what I believe a traveler is and what a tourist is. A tourist is someone that makes no effect with the language, believes the locals are ignorant because they don't speak English, buy all that tat available, usually get sun burnt everyday, and generally make no effect to meet the locals and understand their culture. Whereas a traveler meets with the locals, tries to speak the language (if the don't already know it), well I am sure you see where I am going with this. So no, there is no way that Playa del Carmen could be considered a travelers town. When I arrived I immediately wanted to leave. Coming from a place like Caye Caulker can only have made the transition worse. It was not what I expected and if it wasn't for al the diving I did I would not have stayed at all. The locals are quite nice once they realize they can't sell you any tat and once you get off the main street the place opens up a bit to the traveler. The shop I went diving with were really cool and I met some really nice people on the dives as well. It was my only beacon of calm while I was here. If I could have stayed under the water I would have. The main street is full of all the colourful crap that you would expect to see in any major tourist trap. Walking up and down it you see and hear some funny things. The shops do all the usual totting to try and get you to buys their stuff, some of which have a unique and funny approach. One guy refers to his shop as having "the best crap on 5th Ave" another asks you to come into his shop so that he may have a "chance to rip you off as well". The place is full of t-shirt shops and some have given me a smile when I am trying to get out of the way of some fat sun burnt American smoking a huge cigar with his 5 super sized kids! Most of which are not worth repeating on such a site as this. So, now that I think I have most of the aggression out of my system I can tell you what I have been up to hear. By the way, if you liked Playa my hat is off to you, just don't ever ask me to go on holiday with you. As I did not go to Playa with the rest of the group I got here about a week or so after they had left. Out of laziness I decided to stay in the same hotel for a couple of nights before I found a cheaper hostel to stay at. Sharlene posted my flight tickets to the hotel and they had confirmed that they had arrived so I felt that I should stay at least one night as I had used them as a post office. Upon arrival I tried in my best Spanglish to ask for my letter. The receptionist had a half hearted look and told me to come back in the morning. Next morning, with the assistance of another guest, we discovered that my letter had been given to someone else! Caye Caulker had served me well and I was still on super chill mode but this new information was threatening to potentially destroy my chill. Upon further investigation it turned out that one of the receptionists had given my letter out to a GAP tour leader some two weeks previous and she was now in Nicaragua! Okay, chill levels still okay but starting to erode at the edges! I informed them at this point that I could not leave the country without these tickets and that I did not want to hang around Playa spending my money waiting for the letter to be sent back. At this point the hotel out of a feeling of guilt offered me my room for free as a way of apology, which I gracefully accepted. They said I could have the room until the 15th free of charge. Chill rebuilding - starting to expand. So with this new money saved I went out and spent it on 20 dives, yes that's right 20 dives! Guess what, the letter turned up on the 5th and I was "asked" to vacate the room the next morning. When I informed them of their previous offer I was told I could stay but would have to pay $36USD a night! Ooops, I have no money! I was able to get them down to $22 but my budget is totally messed up at the moment. Luckily the flesh trade is alive and well in Playa and I was able to subsidise my shortfall with a few hours of work! Anyway, that is the last time I ever want to talk about that! So the diving, yeah lets talk about the diving. I saw some amazing stuff. Loads and I mean loads of turtles as big and bigger than me. A few schools of Tarpon, they look like sardines but again are bigger than me. They don't look real and at the same time look so graceful. The current here is super strong and on most dives you just let the current take you along but when you saw something cool you had to swim so hard just to stay still. The other cool thing here is the Cenotes. They are caves that were formed when all the continents were one. After the Ice age the water level rose when the ice melted and filled the caves with both salt and fresh water. So when you are diving there are loads of stalactites and stalagmites that were formed thousands of years ago. The water is quite cold as it is under ground so we had to wear two 3mm wetsuits. The water is so clear and with no current and no fish it is like you are flying through the cave systems. The really cool thing is when the fresh and salt water mix (the microcline). It creates a layer of water that is fuzzy and when you are in it everything is blurred. The fresh water sits on top of the salt water and you can swim from one into the other through the microcline. So I have now logged my 49th dive, I wanted to get to the half century but I could only charge so much for my body! It will have to wait until I get home. Well that has been my little adventure in Mexico and from here I am off to Las Vegas. I thought after this place I might as well go for broke on the touristy places. Until next time, Em.