After six wonderful months in Playa del Carmen, I leave early Thursday morning for a five day trip that will end up in San Cristobal. I’ll spend a month there studying Spanish and then camp out in Puerto Escondido for three months or so taking a ton of surf lessons.
As you could probably tell, I really enjoyed my time in Playa. I’ve done over 40 dives in the area and had innumerable SUP sessions. Unfortunately, I also dodged two hurricanes in late August/early September (Laura and Marco) and, all in October, got direct hits from a major tropical storm (Gamma) and two hurricanes (Delta and Zeta). We were all very happy to see the calendar turn to November this year!
Most importantly, I met some incredible people here, many of whom are in the pictures below.
Some of the Aloha Paddle Club gang having beers after diving at Casa CenoteOne of our Friday evenings at Lido Beach ClubThanksgiving dinner with local friends and my brother and nephewChristmas Eve dinner with some of the Lido Beach Club groupOne of the nights we won the Tuesday Trivia nights with our complimentary drinksWatching the Super Bowl at a rooftop bar with Katherina, Clint, Q, Ryan and Katherina’s momThe amazing Isreali partners (Omar and Ofir) of Barefoot Divers in Cozumel and Memo, the indomitable dive instructor I did my last few dives with. This was after my final dive with them. A nice goodbye dinner with Paulina, Rhonda, Katherina and Clint from the Lido Beach Club group.Our little goodbye dinner with my dear friends Julia and Erik Rindle, the owners of Dive Shop Mexico in Playa. A goodbye dinner with the Trivia Night gang: Lena, Christina, Phil, Ryan, Ethan, and a guest appearance from our Kiwi cryptocurrency god, Nacho.