Today, the adventure really began. I said good bye to the U.S. and flew to Cancun via Atlanta and Indianapolis. As luck would have it, I sat next to Lily and Carolina from Merida, Mexico. They were visiting friends in the US and had each been exchange students several years ago in the US and Canada. They had a friend picking them up at the airport to give them a ride to the bus station and offered me a ride downtown. I gladly accepted since I read that a taxi is quite expensive. Thank you once again for the ride if you are reading this Carolina and Lily! I am staying at Hostal Chac-Mool, a hostel right in the heart of downtown. The first person I met was Jan, a law student from Germany. That evening, I went out in the hotel district with seven other people from the hostel: Ty, Lisa and Anna from London, Jan and Elke(Germany), and Carolina & Francesca from Chile. You can go anywhere around town on a bus for 6 pesos (60 cents US) and there are tourist police everywhere, some with uzi machine guns. It feels quite safe here but definitely over commercialized.