CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS FROM YESTERDAY’S DIVE.
Today, Tuesday 2nd, I had my PADI certification exam and I would have to pay the course, so got out of the house at 8am, went to the nearest ATM and withdrew the rest of the money needed. I hate to be traveling around town with so much cash on me.
Walked to the Royal Hideaway hotel and to the Barrakuda Dive School. The receptionist gave me my exam sheets and I started writing my answers. About 1 hour later Hugo arrived and he went through my answers. Had about 4 wrongs but in total it was an excellent result:
PASS!
Thank you thank you!
Hugo gave me my temporary Certification and wishing me luck, sent me on my way.
Exhilarated, walked down the beach towards town when I remembered: I HAVEN’T PAID THE COURSE.
Immediately tried calling Johnny but it was mission impossible as I ran out of credit (funny how you never seem to have credit when you need it most!), so texted him instead.
Keep on walking and soon felt very warm so piled my stuff on the sand and jumped on the sea.
I supposed that I was on the water for about 10min, but when I got back my stuff was no longer there. Bollocks! Looked around but no sign of it. I had about 4000 Pesos in cash and my Bank card. Bollocks again!
Two lifeguards drove past on their beach motorbike so I stopped them and explained the incident. One of them hopped off their trusted vehicle and after a quick look around the sand, in a safari tracker fashion, spotted a set of fresh footmarks heading into the bushes. We followed him and soon enough he found a fanny bag with two ID cards in it. Obviously the person that stole my belonging also stole that bag and dumped it after removing any valuables. We looked around for my bag but no luck.
Looking back, when I set foot on this Grande adventure, I did some arrangements in case of this situation would occur: I handed some cash to trusted friends and instructed them to wire it to me in case of an emergency like this one.
But, even with a contingency plan in place, I did panic since I’m human and also because that whole thing caught me off guard.
The money does not worry me because “money comes, money goes” but what annoys me is the bank card. I wasn’t a Visa or a Mastercard so I don’t think my Dutch bank will dispatch a replacement to Mexico.
Anyway, whoever stole my stuff, I really hope he makes good use of the money, like pay his kid’s tuition fees or provide nourishment to his whole family for a few weeks.
I knew I had to stay in Playa del Carmen until my mission was accomplished but was part of my mission to be robbed??
I always say that everything happens for a reason, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what is the meaning of this whole episode.
Ciao 4 now
~Paulo ~
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Oh maaaan. How unlucky that was...
ReplyDeleteM.