'This is the town. The beach is a different place.'

Where: Avenida Tulum, beside a colectivo van. Line: 'This is the town. The beach is a different place.' The driver said it patiently to a man in a swim shirt holding a towel. Next: the driver added that everything costs more the closer you get to the water, and the man nodded as if he had been told a secret. He got in anyway. I have said that sentence to myself more than once in my own first year.