Cancún, markets and Puerto

Sunday was spent in more sheltered places, because the tropical rain likes to show up for short but intense spells and today it did so several times. So I went to Mercado 23 in the morning, where I had lunch: a pork leg torta (pork sandwich) and, for dessert, I stopped at the fruit stall and asked for a fruit I didn't know by name, jícama, which looks like a turnip and tastes like a pear, which I ate plain and with salt and lime juice, as if it were a tequila, following the locals' advice. They also told me to try it with hot chilli, but I didn't fall for that, as there was no tap nearby.

After lunch I went by Mercado 28, a more modern and more touristy market. But it was at Plaza 28 that I opened hostilities with the local tequila: first I was invited to taste one. The second I asked for myself, after a chat about tequila and our own firewater. After that, and to thank him for his kindness, before beating a retreat I gave the attendant 50 pesos... Guess what happened? I had to sit down again, because he went to fetch 2 more bottles for the tasting. After leaving there I stopped at the bakery and had a vanilla bun and a pineapple taco to settle my stomach.

Towards the end of the afternoon I went for a stroll through the Art Garden and along Playa Langosta until I reached the Torre Escénica and the dock of Captain Hook's boats, which were about to leave for a trip with dinner, a party on board and a re-enactment of a fight from the days of the pirates who roamed these parts. Saturday's dinner was at Puerto de Cancún, which has a shopping area with restaurants and bars by the sea. For dinner I ordered a beef arrachera and, to go with it, a local beer called 2XX.

Now it's time to catch the famous R1 bus, which takes us almost everywhere here, and head to the Forum area. That's where Saturday night happens. Sweet dreams, you lot, because my night is just about to begin.

Saturday night ended in the area known as the Forum or Coco Bongo, with yet another hilarious bus ride that I'll tell you about later. The bar area is very lively, with the bars turning the music up as loud as possible and dancers at the entrances, which are open to the street. There are tickets at €20/30 without drinks and others at €40/50 with an open bar. But the buzz is huge just from walking down the street amid the crowd of people passing by. There's also action at the back of the bars that face the beach, mainly from the locals who gather there to party. I even came across a mariachi group on the beach trying to sing, but the noise from the nightclubs was so loud you could hardly hear them, even standing right next to them.

On the way out for the night I took a disco bus with coloured LED lights and thumping music and a sign saying to let the driver know in advance which stop you want, because the mind-reading driver had been abducted by UFOs.

If the ride there was hilarious, the ride back had something to tell too, with the driver flat out on the pedal and a light hand on the horn cord, which never stopped honking. This time the driver had an assistant who travelled standing up, hanging out of the door that was always open, calling out to people in the street asking if they wanted to hop on. Then there was a bit of a tussle with another bus trying to overtake us, and it was already well on its way to doing so, but my bus's driver found another gear and made up the lost ground and off we shot ahead to the next stop. I don't know if the driver earns a commission for each ticket sold, but of the many times I've taken the bus, I've been given a ticket on just 2 occasions.

But hold on, it wasn't over: there we were, shooting along in the bus, when lots of lights appeared on the road... It was the police... Running a checkpoint. The Tarzan who'd been hanging from the door came straight over to sit next to me and the driver shut the door and turned down the radio, they looked like 2 little angels when the police told us to stop. The driver opened the door and one of the policemen came in through the front door and walked to the back of the bus, where he got off, and another stayed at the entrance and took a photo of the bus passengers without saying anything. I'll probably end up on the front page of some newspaper in the next few days.