Mexico

 All kinds of pics here:

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I forgot to add this during my last post, and since it took an hour to upload it from an internet café in cozumel I feel that I must share it. It’s my mom and me running up the steps of the Philly Art Museum to the tunes of the lovely Erin.

We made it to Mexico. Immigrations accepted us. In fact, immigrations befriended us! I had a great conversation with the officer who let me into the country. Erin and I met up with her dad, Ed, in the airport and then headed to the center of Cancun. We woke up at “8” the next morning. Well, we thought it was, but really it was 6am, no wonder I was so tired. But we had a lovely time exploring the area. If you have never been to Cancun, think of Las Vegas in Spanish. It’s over the top and ridiculous and very VERY Americanized. We were glad to hop on a bus to Playa del Carman, where Ed randomly made an appointment with a realtor.

So we spent the afternoon looking at luxury apartments along the Yucatan Peninsula. We eventually meandered our way down to Tulum and after heckling with the taxi and various hotels, we finally found an affordable cabana. If you don’t know what a cabana is, it’s a bunch of sticks holding up palm leaves woven together. Ours has a bed covered by a mosquito net…very simple. We spent our first night among other back packers and fell asleep listening to the waves with a cool ocean breeze. I wasn’t complaining. We spent the next day wandering around town and collecting info about the area. The first lesson we learning in Mexico, is that you have to heckle for prices on everything. It seems as though everyone is out to make a buck and there are deals every where. Getting the opportunity to practice my new Spanish skills has been a total blast. I started teaching myself from a book two months ago. I was surprised to find myself understanding a lot more than I thought I would. Erin is much better and it’s been a blessing to have her as the communicator…at least for now while I get my chops up to speed.

The next day (Friday the 9th) we woke up early and got picked up and taken to the jungle to see a cenote called Dos Ojos. A cenote is a cave filled with water where part of it collapsed to reveal the caverns inside. We rode mountain bikes for a mile and a half to the cenote. I saw a huge tarantula crossing the road on the way.

I kinda messed up my bike seat in the beginning and the tour guide seemed to be really cranky for the rest of the day. So instead of giving us a tour he seemed to ignore us, which ended up being the best thing ever. We found out the next day that the guide told the bike rental shop that we weren’t allowed to ride bikes. How exciting to be in Mexico for only 2 days and already we are black listed! Anyways, here we were, snorkeling around this beautiful cave with little fish and a view of the jungle from the water. Because we got there so early we had the whole place to ourselves. All I can say is that if you ever get the chance to swim in one, do it! We borrowed the tour guides under water lamp and swam around to some scary dark parts. It was thrilling.

Afterwards we ended up back at our hotel, hard to call a bunch of huts a hotel, and enjoyed their gorgeous beach front property. We’re making a habit of enjoying happy hour and having dinner by the sea.

 

 

Tulum is quite beautiful but we struggled with the large amount of tourism and it being expensive as a result. We did, however, find sanctuary in the dirty town 2 miles inland where authentic Mexican cuisine was found at a fraction of the price. Soon Jamie arrived and it was an absolute pleasure to have him. Our first day we all rented bikes and rode to ancient Mayan ruins right on the beach.

The next day we took a guided tour of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere reserve where we zipped through the jungle and mangroves uncovering tons of amazing birds. We jumped in the chilly water and floated through the freshwater through a maze of mangrove canals. The next day we said our goodbye to Ed and hired a wonderful taxi driver, Ruben, to take us 40 minutes west to discover large Mayan ruins in Coba.

and to snorkel and high dive the underground cenotes.

 

On the way home we saw a little boy and girl playing catch with a crocodile by throwing bits of chicken on a string to it. I couldn’t get over how random and dangerous this was.

 

The next day we left for Cozumel where we were pleasantly surprised by how many wonderful locals lived on the island. There were a fair share of enormous cruise ships, but got along just great. The food and pina coladas felt excessive, but we managed to survive diving/snorkeling, renting a convertible buggy to tour the island, and all around relaxing in hammocks.

While eating lunch we got into an argument with a waiter in a restaurant for charging us for food he thought we ordered but didn’t it, which ultimately involved the police. At this point I really notice the difference between our cultures. We have been experiencing a lot of machismo, from aggressive men with passive aggressive tempers, who are funny and dynamic when you meet them but rather unpleasant when something doesn’t go their way. Overall the trip together was incredible. We all took the ferry back to Playa de Carmen and said fairwell.