Mexico

The people here are different than the onese I encountered in Peru. In the places we went this trip, I have met more people that spoke English than I expected. By the end of the trip, I was communicating mainly in english while in Peru we were still speaking in spanish all the way till the end. The weather here is very hot and humid. So I would definatly find places with A/C to stay in or come when the weather is better.

There is still a lot I haven't seen and explored in Mexico. I think that this would be a place worth coming again. However, I am pretty satisified with this trip, I think that I have seen enough in the time that I was here. Next time it would be cool to go back to Merida, go check out Xal-Ha, Playa Mujeres, and probably journy a bit farther to see Palenque and some more ruins. But for now, i think we have done as much as we possibly could.

Cancun

While in Cancun, we went to visit Playa de Carmen and Tulum. Playa de Carmen is a nice area with a lot of shops. If you want to buy glassware this is probably the best place to go. Other than that, it is extremely commercialized and a definate tourist trap. They wanted to charge $48 to scuba dive and still going to charge the same price even if you just wanted to sit in the boat.

The next day, we went to tulum which is another Mayan ruin. Unlike the others, the enviroment around this ruin is very tropical and it is right next to a beach. After exploring the ruins a bit, the boys went scuba diving, this time, they only charged $33/person. (This was after I negiotiated the price down from $39/person) But still, it was a lot more reasonable than the other one.

We finally made it back to cancun in record time by taking the "collective busses"which was a lot cheaper and faster than the large commercial busses. We finished off the day with a large meal.

Chichén Itzá --> Cancun

Here I can say that another of the seven wonders is checked off. Chichén Itzá, although I found not as impressive as Uxmal, is one of those wonders. Reason why is that the pyramid itself was never rebuilt. What you see is the original. No touch ups, no changes. I guess credit should be given for how strong it actually is to endure through all this time.

If you want to buy souvenirs this is the best place to go. There are street vendors outside and inside the site that will be willing to give generous discounts.

After an exhausting day we finally journeyed off to cancun where we eventually pampered ourselves by checking into an all inclusive resort. It was nice to be in an A/C room again. It made us feel civilized again. No more improvising and starving. We had everything we needed.

We stayed at the Oasis Palm Beach which was located in the hotel zone but off the main area where all the action was. The boys decided this through flipping a coin. It didn't greet us with open arms either. When we entered, the place was swamped with screaming kids and the hotel didn't have a system to assist all the guest in an efficient manner. We had to stand in line for a while only to find out that we were at the wrong desk and had to go to the otherside of the resort to check in. The service for everything was very slow at the hotel.

On top of that, we had to ask for extra towels every night eventhough they know that there are three people staying in the room. Other than that, the food there was very good and they had a very nice variety of different things to eat.

My First Pyramid- Uxmal

I've always had a romantic feeling about pyramids, I'm not sure why. It took a while till it finally hit me that I was standing in front of one. I always thought that if I did see one it would probably be in Egypt. Little did I expect that it would be right here in Mexico.

The weather here is very hot which makes the adventure more tedious that it really is. There were several different stone structures that were orginally temples or some sort of building meant for worhship and a main pyramid. The steps were very steep and although climbing up looked difficult, it was a lot easier than coming down.

I was dissapointed that we couldn't go inside the pyramid. We were only able to go into the some of the temples which was nothing but stones and was filled with and smelled like a bunch of bird poop. Other than that it was beautiful.

Day 1-2 Cancun Mexico

First step out the airport and we felt like walking talking wallets. A greeted us by the gate and tried to sell us a time share. He kept telling us that we can get discounts but was also probing for our marital status and our age. However, the one good thing he did was point us to the bus that would eventually take us to downtown near our hotel. Our first night was a fairly good one. However we did get some unexpected charges such as the additional charge for having an additional person in the room. However, the space was nice, clean, and had A/C (which we learned later on how important that is here in mexico.)

Day 2 we journeyed off to Merida. What a beautiful city. I guess any city will be beautiful compared to downtown Cancun. Aside for it being the major hub for transportation, there isn't much down there. Merida on the other hand was filled with many things to explore and discover. There were numerous free museums and a lot of shops. The one things we discovered about Merida is that there is always a person in the square that will try to pretend to be your friend and give you advice on places to go to buy Mayan artifacts but the thing is not to trust any of them. There was even a guy who claimed to be working for the state and he too also lied to us.

The hostel we stayed in was very popular among the Mennonites, a christian group. The place was attached to a restaurant that had decent inexpensive food. (San Jose Hotel and Restaurant). The living space was clean but unfortunately it was not air conditioned and there were no toilet seats. Dispite that, they did offere free mini bars of soaps, clean towels, and wifi service in the restaurant.

Key to the City

Although the city has many wonders it is difficult to discover them if you have no reason to explore. The key to the city offers individuals the opportunity to explore the city while having the privilege to unlock little wonders.

So far I have explored the sites around Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. However, there are a few locations that I was unable to go such as the Gracie Mansion, Coney Island Library etc... because they were closed on the days I was thinking of going. But I don't think that I have missed out on much.

Last Day

Today we will be heading to the airport and flying back to New York. This is after a long journey that had us walking, riding busses, mules, horses, motortaxis, and possibly anything else you can imagine.
Kati ate guinea pig, Joon ate alpaca, and as for me, I just feel little deprived of the foods and snacks that I miss.
This has been a very interesting journey. We hav learned to become expert bargainers, trained to spot bull shitters, and most importanly watch out for each other.
But today we will have to endur the hardest thing of all, being stuck in the same plane for the next 10 hours with each other. Will we survive?

To be continued...