Julie's Journeys: March 2008

#20 - Mexico

Late February seemed like the perfect time to escape Wisconsin and add another warm country to my list!

We chose Cancun simply because our friends Doug and Cynthia (below) won a trip there. I went online and found some great deals for the same week they were going, and even though we didn't stay at the same hotel it worked out great. Cynthia took the photos above and a few others in this series of posts. I didn't want to take my Canon and my Fuji Finepix died, so all of our photos from this trip were taken with Fuji QuickSnap one-use cameras.

We had a gorgeous ocean view from our balcony and the best sand beach on the whole "Zona Hotelera" strip. They didn't have much of an ocean view from their hotel, and there was still construction going on right next door so they woke up to the sound of jackhammers instead of the crashing waves, but they scored a way cool penthouse suite with a perfect setup for happy hour cocktails!

Home Sweet Hotel

You can spend a ton of money on all-inclusive hotels in Cancun, but we wanted to get out and see the country while we were there so we opted for a basic room at the Hyatt Cancun Caribe. We absolutely loved it and would definitely stay there again if we ever go back.

Sunrise on our balcony, overlooking the pool and the beach. The weather was perfect, so we turned off the AC and left the sliding glass doors open the whole time we were there.

Looking back at the main hotel tower from the pool area (above) and the view of the beach behind me taken from the same lounge chair (below).

We even got to witness a wedding on the weekend, which was really neat. It was also very sweet .... lots of guests were watching from the balconies and when the couple kissed everyone started cheering and then kissing too!

The Resident Peacocks

We counted at least 2-3 males and 5-6 females living on the grounds of our hotel. We also learned that they make a lot of noise. They start at the crack of dawn like roosters, except they sound more like howling cats in heat!

Chichen Itza

This ancient Mayan temple complex is about a 2.5 hour bus ride from Cancun and well worth the trip to see it once in your lifetime. It was voted into the New 7 Wonders of the World last year. It's kind of like Stonehenge in that it's all laid out according to the sun and the temples cast really cool shadows twice a year during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

Don't let these photos fool you into thinking you'll have the place to yourself though. I actually had to get quite creative in my shooting angles to not get hordes of people in these shots! It's a very popular tourist attraction now so unfortunately most of the temples are cordoned off and you are not allowed to climb on them anymore.

If you want to learn more about the history you can click here. I normally don't rely much on Wikipedia, but it actually has one of the best descriptions of the place I've been able to find online. It seems like the rest are all links to discount tour companies. And speaking of tour companies, they offer various packages ranging from about $59 to $99 per person. We decided to splurge on the Sky Luxury Cruiser tour, which was definitely worth the extra money because it's an all-day trip.

The tourists are outnumbered only by the souvenir vendors here! I was totally captivated by all the brightly painted ceramic bowls, but I was afraid they wouldn't make the trip home without breaking so I refrained from buying any. However the wood and stone carvings were fair game!

How the Other Half Lives

Doug and Cynthia got a chance to really live the high life for a week at Le Meridien. The photo below shows the living room/kitchen area of their penthouse suite.

Their trip was sponsored by the same insurance company that sent Doug the world's largest gift basket at Christmas and as we know they spare no expense!

This is a true 5-star resort with marble bathrooms and nightly turn-down service with monogrammed robes and little sweet treats on the bed.

But of course Doug and Mark couldn't resist making fun of the over-the-top opulence!

Getting Around in Cancun

You can spend a fortune on taxis, or you can be brave and ride the bus for about 65 cents per person. You can take either the R-1 or the R-2 to get downtown and they run every ten minutes, 24 hours a day.

At night you even get free entertainment sometimes, but during the day you have to provide your own!

Thanks to the idiot lady at the Cancun airport who ran all my cameras through the x-ray machine even after I explained it could ruin the film. Fortunately we only lost the last 1 or 2 images on each camera but a few others came out with these lovely red streaks.

Downtown at Mercado 28

Since Cynthia speaks Spanish we decided to venture downtown to the artists market and try to do a little haggling. Fortunately the market has a food court where we could park Mark and Doug while we shopped! If you ever go there I would recommend you stay around the outside edges, where the vendors are more laid back and let you just look around. The further into the maze of stalls you go the more aggressive they are. We found a few deals, but it honestly wasn't worth the aggravation.

So we decided to join the guys for lunch and some entertainment, along with more than a few cervezas. We can get Corona here in the US, so we went for the Dos Equis and Modelo while we were there!

Electrical Engineering in Mexico

The wires above were spotted just off the patio of an outdoor restaurant, and the electrical connections pictured below were typical all over the downtown neighborhoods we rode through on the bus.

They obviously don't have anything resembling OSHA in this country!

The Big Kiddie Pool

Another really great thing about the Hyatt is they have the Regency Club Suites right next door, and it's all one big complex so we also had access to their gorgeous infinity pool.