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During my trip to Mexico, I got to go to the beach twice (one of the times had a CRAZY story involved, which I’ll share in a few paragraphs). Both times we had to take two public buses each direction to get there, which was a great experience. The first beach was fairly mediocre. It honestly looked more like a lake, and I never touched the water. I did love walking up and down the beach in the sand though, so that’s pretty much all that I did. However, we ended up going to dinner at Cocos & Grill. The head waiter was excellent, and gave our group free appetizers and a drink with our meal, and even came out with a guitar to sing songs to us in Spanish. It was amazing. We sat out on a deck on the beach overlooking the ocean at sunset, and the palm trees were wrapped in white lights. It was absolutely breathtaking, and I tried to soak it all in as much as I could. The guacamole there was honestly the best I’ve ever eaten in my entire life, and I would pay big bucks to eat it again!
The real beach day was Sunday:
On Easter Sunday (the day after our trip to Chichen Itza), while in Mexico, my co-leader and I decided to take our group to Playa Delfines, which is a public beach we heard great things about.
We ended up taking two public buses to get from our hotel to the beach, but they dropped us off right near the entrance, which was convenient. We’d bought a 2L bottle of water for everyone to stay hydrated, and bought some food to make lunch on the beach as well.
When we got there we did “church on the beach” (it was Easter after all!) which was fun, before heading out into the water. I ended up going on an hour walk with one of the students on my trip, but enjoyed how refreshing the water felt hitting my legs as I walked. Plus, these views are amazing, right?
After lunch, I decided to get into the water. Swimming in the ocean isn’t my favorite thing, because I honestly hate sea creatures (or fear them perhaps more than hate). But, the water was crystal clear (standing with water up to my waist I could easily see my toes), and I couldn’t see any sea life, so it felt like a glorified pool with waves (which is my absolute ideal). We spent about half an hour body surfing and bobbing in the waves; it was amazing. Then I looked up and realized that the waves were getting much bigger (3ish feet tall) and coming in much faster. I yelled at the rest of my group (5 college students) that we needed to head in closer to shore (we were only up to our waists but with the waves being what they were, it felt much deeper). Right after that I heard a man start screaming in Spanish “ayudame! ayudame! ” (help me, help me). I was a life guard growing up, so I immediately turned to swim out to him (he was over to the left of us and just a bit further out, and I assumed he was distressed by the strength of the waves). My group followed me, and all at once we realized why he was screaming for help- he was stuck in a rip current and so were we!
In the morning before the waves picked up
While we weren’t close to over our heads, with how quickly we were being sucked away from shore, along with the waves, it was impossible for me to get my footing on the sand, and I honestly thought there was a good chance I was going to drown. Then I realized that my poor co-leader was going to have to deal with this whole thing on her own if we did drown, and there were so many thoughts like that flying through my head. I knew I couldn’t save anyone in that moment, because I was struggling myself to keep myself breathing and my head above water. Then my lifeguard training really kicked in, and I remembered that to get out of a rip current, you need to swim parallel to shore. I couldn’t even yell that to the students in my group, so I turned and swam harder than I ever have before, and I was able to get out of the current.
I finally got to a group of Mexican men who were calling for the lifeguards, and I grabbed onto them for dear life, shaking horribly. I have no idea what they even look like, I don’t know their names, but I’m thankful for their steadiness and calming voices as I dragged myself closer to shore. I started waving for the lifeguards to, who helped rush out and grab others (there were several others beyond my group in the current). I turned and stood and watched my group, those students who were primarily my responsibility, get pulled under waves with a look of terror on their faces, and it was an utterly helpless feeling. I wasn’t strong enough to help them, but did what I could. Needless to say we were all shaking pretty badly, and I flipped right into counselor mode in dealing with a traumatic situation.
We all ended up going for a long walk on the beach, which definitely helped a bit. It was one of the scariest moments of my life.
But that moment doesn’t define the day. The beauty of the day, the celebration of Easter, and the laughter and fun that our group had defines the day. Plus- this is absolutely gorgeous. Me getting sucked up in a rip current doesn’t define the day. The beauty and life around me does… and what a great life lesson that was.
Finally caught up on all these Mexico posts. It sounds like it was an amazing trip all around!!!! That is so awesome that you got to get to know the community but also get some time to enjoy the sights. That beach looks lovely, glad you were safe!
It was really fantastic! The beach was so beautiful… the pictures can’t completely capture it! 🙂