I had never traveled for business before and didn’t have any realistic hopes to. I’m a lawyer, I live in Vancouver and so do most of my clients. But then, a couple of days before New Years Eve, an opportunity asserted itself.
Lawyers in Canada have to article for one year after law school before they actually become lawyers. On the completion of the final day, they take an oath, which is given to them by their principal (the lawyer who supervised them throughout their articles). I had such an articling law student and she had calculated her date to take the oath as being in early January, but, due to various things that I won’t get into, she burst into my office on the 27th in a panic. She had miscalculated and her call date was actually December 29th, but she was going to Mexico on the 28th.
I pointed out that there was no reason that she could not take the oath in January when she returned, but she didn’t want to delay it. “Well, I guess we could do it in Mexico,” I said, jokingly. Her eyes lit up. She loved this idea. She is from Mexico and suddenly thought that taking the oath in Mexico was the best idea ever. So that’s what we did.
I booked a flight for that night, picked a hotel, and arrived in Playa del Carmen (where she was going) the next late morning. (Going to Playa del Carmen means flying to Cancun and taking a bus or taxi to Playa del Carmen.)
I checked into my Hotel Hul-Ku which was just a couple blocks off of 5th Avenue the main pedestrian street and tourist thoroughfare. But I didn’t have a lot of time. In about an hour my articling student picked me up and drove us to a private, picturesque beach.
On the beach, inexplicably in such a short time, she had set up a table dressed with a white cloth, flower arrangements, and custom helium balloons that spelled out her name, “Canadian Lawyer”, and displayed the Canadian flag. She had hired a professional photographer and assembled a group of friends. It was so fancy; it looked like we were getting married.
I gave a speech, posed for some photos, and gave the oath. Just like that, she became a lawyer, and I was free to enjoy the rest of my weekend in Playa del Carmen.
It was unusual for me. I usually love to do weeks or months of planning and studying for my trips, but that wasn’t possible here. I had no time to prepare, so I just wandered. That proved to be fine.
Playa del Carmen is super touristy. The touristy areas are great to walk and grab a bite to eat on a patio, drink a frosty drink (or, if you’re me, a hot coffee). It is a great way to spend a leisurely day.
I enjoyed the color and festive atmosphere.
And, if you poke around, there is some excellent street art.
But it is also kind of expensive and it is full of the worst kind of tourists. Drunk, inconsiderate, annoying. On the plus side, it was easy to get away from the tourists and just walk around eating and drinking cheaply.
That is basically what I did for the rest of that day and most of the rest. (I still had some work to do, but I got to do it on my laptop on a patio whilst smoking cigars. Not bad.)
On December the 31st I decided to do something more adventurous. I visited some cenotes. The area on the Yucatan Peninsula is riddled with cenotes. Basically, they are a bunch of underground caves (sometimes open at the top and sometimes completely subterranean) connected by a vast underground river in the jungle. I couldn’t take my camera with me, so I have no pictures, but take a minute and google image search “cenotes”. Go ahead, i’ll wait.
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Amazing, right? Some are magical lagoons and others spooky underwater lairs. All are incredible.
To enter the system we went two by two on harnesses, rappelling down into a cenote, then finally dropping into the water at the bottom. Yes, it was a bit scary before I actually started the descent (and I was the first to go) but once i was on my way it was amazing. And at the bottom…stalactites and stalagmites so weird and wonderful that it didn’t even seem real, but it was. I loved swimming around and peering down the dark pathways where the river went farther than we were allowed.
In others it was pitch black and we snorkelled with the aid of a small torch. That was great. So spooky to be in water where you could see absolutely nothing save where you shone your light. Below, in places, the ground gave way to a deep crevasse that our lights would not penetrate. Occasionally a scuba diver or a corpse-grey fish would swim by, but otherwise it was just us in this alien underwater world.
We also went zip-lining to connect us with other cenotes. That experience was ok, but highly overrated.
It was a wonderful experience and a new one for me.
By the time I returned to my hotel I was exhausted.
I went for a walk on the pedestrian street, which was extra busy as it was only a few hours to midnight. I settled in at a touristy but inviting bar that had swings instead of stools at the bar, and had a cigar and a virgin piña colada, chatting with various folks.
I was asleep by 11:30pm and flew home the following day. Playa del Carmen is not a place I would have chosen to go for a holiday, but I really enjoyed myself. And it was a great way to finish 2018 and start 2019.
And that is how I travelled to Playa del Carmen just before New Year’s Eve at the last minute, on someone else’s dime – to make someone a lawyer. I think all my years in law school finally paid off.
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