Mexico 2014..
Last minutes deals are a good thing. Neither Bear or I have ever been to a tropical location and Mexico had a killer deal on an all inclusive resort just 1 hour south of Cancun. SOLD!!
So what to take to Mexico? Easy Sunscreen! and even more importantly go to your doctor or the clinic and request these - Teva-Norfloxacin 400mg. These 6 miracle pills are the best thing if you get that dreaded travelers ick.
We started out by leaving Victoria bright and early in the morning and headed to Toronto. We landed at Pearson and wandered out to the shuttle buses to get our bus to the Hilton. We arranged at the Hilton got our room key and headed up to our room. What a dive ! The room was not clean, the A/C sounded like a tractor starting up. I will not head back there again to be honest with you. We decided to explore the area and off we went.. walking in Toronto.. We headed to what looked populated which was just passed an overpass. Under that pass we found 7 dead birds and 1 dead rodent..How odd !
We walked along a bit further and TADA!! a Shawarma place.
I have never had one so we went in and we both ordered a beef shawarma. OMG SO TASTY!! it was super yummy to say the least. After we ate we wandered some more and being Sunday nothing was opened in the area so we headed back to the pit,..erm Hilton.
Next day we were up and back at the airport on our way.After getting our boarding passes we headed to the Mexican area. The big test... will I get punted and told to stay in Canada or will I get into Mexico...SUCCESS!! Mexico -1, USA-0. Up up and away we went. 4 hours later we were in Cancun!
So far we have only moved about within the buildings. It was super nice and sunny outside and people were moving to and fro. We got our bags and headed to the shuttle bus area. The instant we left the airport door and stepped into the real non-A/C part of the world I thought.."OMG I am gonna die!" I half expected to exploded into a white puff of smoke.. you know how see thru us Canucks are! Well luckily we did not go POOF! and we adapted pretty quick. There was a rep from Westjet waiting for us and loaded us into the bus for the drive to the resort. What a ride that was. The hiways there are pretty decent and people there understand that -slower traffic keeps right - It was glorious being able to fly down the hiway and not ever getting caught behind some feeble Pat Bay Hiway driver.
All along the hiway there was resort after resort, it was mighty impressive seeing all those massive resorts. About every 5 or so miles there was a Federal or Local police stop in the middle of the road. All the federal officers packed some serious firepower, M-16, AK-47s, Uzi and Macs. Not sure what they had these stops for but I know if I was driving I would be a total better driver then I am at home! We dropped off people at various resorts along the way to ours.. At the resort just before ours the driver was not paying attention and drove into the gate at the entrance. Well that kept us sitting there for almost 1 hour as he sorted out the damage and how it was going to get paid. Ugh.
Finally at our resort, the Sirenis, we arrived!! The lobby was massive and you could see straight out to the ocean , there was not a door or window anywhere. They loaded us into a golf cart and a long drive thru the resort to our room. The room was huge and the bathroom bigger! Good thing too cause I will be in there allot for one day! HAHA. The resort was divided up into buildings and each building had a concierge desk in the thru way to assist you.
After we settled in we headed to the beach and to explore a bit. The campus was as big as Sidney BC!! You could seriously spend days walking around and never see the whole resort. The beaches were amazing, white sands, blue waters and endless blue skies.
All the beaches were white sand and the water was clear and vibrant blue! There was people everywhere and all were smiling so that was a sign that this was the place to chill for a week. I took no time in discovering the all you can drink stations located thru out the resort I was quite impressed with how much I can utilize an all you can drink station. The food in the buffet was hot, fresh and plentiful. It was all very tasty and well laid out. It was apparent I have little self control when it comes to a buffet with 300 items..they all tasted so damn good ! Thank goodness for stretchy shorts.
We booked our trip to see some ruins. I have always wanted to see Chichen Itza so we decided that was the place for us. The trip was a full day affair as the site was over an hour away by bus.
The morning of the tour we headed to the meet up site.We loaded onto the bus finally, 45 minutes late, and off we went.. The tour guide was a nice woman, spoke English and Spanish very well, the other guide was an older gentleman, quieter and equally as gifted in both languages. As we drove along the lady guide would spend about 10-15 minutes speaking in Spanish, then 5 minutes in English. This went on the whole trip to the point most if us zoned her out as she was more comfortable chatting up the Spanish people. When the other guide spoke, he would go Spanish..English..and so on. He was awesome and he had the attention of everyone.
The country side was amazing, low dense forests all the way there, all of a sudden a small village would appear. They catered to the people driving thru with fresh fruits and meats. And Beer..beer was every where.. It was eye opening to see the levels of poverty and wealth all within a short distance. A family living in a cinder brick house with no doors or windows and beside that a huge house with elaborate gates and doors, new cars in the driveway. There was no clear division of wealth like you see here in North America.
We arrived at the site and all I could say is WOW!
Pyramids, columns, arenas of epic size, carvings .. I was blown away. Huge structures carved from stones as big as a Smart car, all assembled with the precision unmatched in today's world. We listened to the history on the structures, how the Mayan Calendar really worked, Us North Americans are such doom seekers!! HAHA, end of the world!! We were the laughing stock of the South Americans because of that!! hehe.
What we saw was amazing and I would go back in a heart beat. The one thing though that we found painful was the peddlers. So many of them and the item of the day was the jaguar whistle/call things.. OMG.. jaguar roar here, there..everywhere ! I was about ready to whack one with a stick! Funny thing now.. I wish I had one here at home.. imagine what the neighbors would think if they heard that.. heheh Cougar in the area...and not the sexy miniskirt clad ones !! ~RAWR~
From there were loaded on the bus and travelled deep into the jungle to a cenote. Damn these are awesome... would suck majorly to stumble and fall into one in the dark though. Note to all tourist...playing flashlight tag in the jungles of Mexico is not wise.
The cenote we went to was huge and deep, some of the daring were permitted to leap from the top into the water.. and easy 100 feet. Nothing to worry about though, these cenotes are ancient and deep..and they house mysterious fishes in them. That alone was enough to creep me out. Deep water, big hole, freaky fish..enough said!
We all loaded into the bus again and took off for the city of Valladolid. What a majestic and beautiful city. If you are in the area go and visit. After a short stay and some site seeing we were off to home.
The next adventure hopped a cab and went to Playa Del Carmen. The weather was a bit shady..sunny then rainy.. and rain in Mexico is serious business. Makes our west coast rain look puny!
As we walked through the city we were constantly greeted by people who knew us from the resort. The line they all used was... "hey shop here, a deal for you.. almost free!" I was never 100% sure if these folks truly knew us from the resort but what the heck.
We noticed that when we got there that the prices were ..well for example, a can of coke was 10 peso.. after lunch the same coke was 30 pesos. So if you go to Playa, go early and shop. They do not barter like I thought, they were pretty fixed on the pricing.
If you stay in a resort on the Maya Riviera I would recommend that if you want to travel to Cancun, Playa Del Carmen or any other sites along the hiway that you avoid taking a cab and walk up to the hiway. There is a local service of white vans that drive up and down the hiway. The cab was 330 pesos each way, the van was 30 pesos each way. HOLY!
We saw an adventure park that we wanted to see, Xcaret. So we got up nice and early and headed up to the hiway and hopped into a white van. We got to the meetup spot at the park and waited about 20 minutes for the shuttle bus to pick us up.
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| Watch yaa lookiin at |
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| So friendly.. and wee buggers |
It was a bit of a drive thru the jungle to the park but well worth it. What a huge and amazing thing to see as we drove up.
Once we paid and entered, we grabbed the map and started our days adventure. Xcaret has something for everyone and is well worth going to if you in Cancun,
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| Big !! |
Xcaret is an ecological reserve established to raise and protect many of Mexicos native animals, and it is also a world renown turtle conservatory. We spent the entire day tour on our own, seeing all manner of animal and tourist. The turtles were truly amazing!! I saw ones that were no bigger then a silver dollar and they kept getting bigger and bigger until they were as big as a smart car, HUGE and so majestic.
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| Itching each others butts |
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| HUGE !! |
In the park we saw many things, a zoo with jaguars and sharks, turtles and wild boars that were into biting each others asses..haha.What an amazing day it was there.
We spent the last day relaxing on the beaches, walking the grounds and sucking up the benefits of all inclusive.
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| Godzilla... |
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| Ruins by the resort |
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| sand, huts and endless drinks |
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| Sirenis... loved it |
Happy Travels
~Wombats....
