Polar Bears in Playa

It's the first day of the year so regular readers will know that it's time for us to put on a brave face, (and swimming gear), to take part in the traditional Canadian New Year event – the Polar Bear Swim. Here is Sheila getting acclimatised for the big day last week.

We have been in Playa del Carmen on the Mayan Riviera since mid-December where, we discovered, there is such a thing as a free lunch. There are also handy little cars that can be rented for just $2 U.S. a day.

We were very pleasantly surprised when we booked this car for just $60 a month and assumed it was a mistake that would end up costing us dearly. Staff at the rental office in Cancun were equally surprised as the regular price was $35 a day, but it was no mistake – just a fabulous deal from economy car rentals.
As for the free lunch! While checking out our $2 a day car we were talked into a tour of a time-share development with the promise of a free breakfast and, more significantly, 2 free tickets to Cirque du Soleil in nearby Puerto Morelos. The breakfast was so big it turned into lunch and the show was absolutely fabulous – and we didn't pay a cent or buy the time-share.

Now for our Polar Bear swim. Our North Pacific Canadian island has been battered by major storms since we left in mid-December and our friends have suffered days without power. We too have suffered with torrential rains, no internet for ten days and the noisiest New Year's celebrations imaginable. The road to the beach was quiet this morning. This was not surprising as the entire population had been up all night letting off extremely loud fireworks, banging drums and singing as loudly as possible while the kids smashed pinatas outside our front windows. At least we had a jigsaw to do amidst all the commotion...

Undaunted, though very sleep-deprived, we put on our swimsuits and readied to brave the mighty Caribbean. However, we realised there might be a problem when we found the beach road underwater...

...and the red flags flying at the lifeguard hut...

And then...

Giant waves were crashing onto the deserted beach, the seaweed was piled high on the sand and we had to give up our Polar Bear swim. Oh well – asi es la vida as they say here. That's life ....There's always next year.

We have one more week in Playa del Carmen before we begin our tour of Central America. We hope that you will come along for the ride – if you don't mind the heat.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2019 to all our blog followers.