So maybe you heard that we just got back from Mexico and Belize?
It was pretty much awesome. My third trip down to that part of the country (where our home resort is, actually).
We headed down con un chingo de dinero (ok, ok....I'll speak English now)
and had a little R&R. Now granted, I have never been on a trip anywhere that I didn't like (I can pretty much always find something interesting to do/see/some sort of trouble to get into), but Mexico is up there as one of my favorite places, at least the Southern part. We tend to avoid the Cancun scene (Think, drunk college kids on spring break), but I love Playa Del Carmen and exploring other parts of the country (Like the Yucatan, which has amazing cenotes and ruins, most notably Chichen-Itza).
These first few are from the grounds at the resort in Playa Del Carmen...The resort there is absolutely amazing. Everything is gorgeous, the pools (There are so many, all running into each other, it's more like a grown-up water park with sangria and sunscreen instead of slides), the landscaping (I took a lot of photos just of the plants and flowers), the rooms, the food, everything. So relaxing. Makes me really wish that I was childless and could do this all the time could share it with the kiddos, they would have soo much fun. But they got to go to Hawaii last year, so they can't complain too much. I had a lot of fun taking nighttime pool photos too, made me wish I had a tripod with me, since I had to leave the shutter open so long to get those ones.
These ones above are all from downtown Playa Del Carmen. It's a nice place just to stroll, a little tourist-y along 5th Avenue, but nice. After being *careful* for a few meals, I'd had enough of hanging with the Americans, and found some nice hole-in-the-wall places for tacos. Mmmmm tacos. Not even the threat of avian influenza could stop me....although with that in mind, I did choose the beef instead. And at one of the local places you can get a taco that is out of this world delish for like 70 pesos (depending on the exchange rate that is about 50-60 cents in US dollars). As you maybe could guess, I am not a sit-in-the-resort-the-whole-time-and-hang-with-other-tourists kind of gal. I like to get out, explore the country on our own, and have some adventures.
....sooo we did.
The pictures above are from Tulum, Southern Quintanna Roo. It's the only seaside ruins. The Mayans used it as a port for getting to/from Central America. It's pretty impressive and beautiful. We went there last time we were in Mexico, but stopped by again on the way to Belize. Which then made us late for getting to the border, which lead to some fun times at the immigration(deportation?) area. More on that later.
These ones are all from Cozumel Island (island of the swallows). Cozumel's got great reef off of it; I went snuba diving there last time I was on the island. As you can see I really, really loved the cocos frios (coconut milk). I drank a lot of them to keep myself properly electrolyte-d and hydrated in the sun (I seem to be a little more sensitive to that in the third trimester, go figure)
Each babymoon, I take some belly shots for comparison sake. I think I look about the same as before...only maybe older. 7 months and in the third trimester, whoo-hoo. Anemia and raging ice cravings in full effect (Thankfully I didn't get sick from the ice down there, I tried to be careful, but it's so hard when you've got pica!)
The Yucatan. This is another state from Quintanna Roo, where Playa is. I really like it there, it feels like the 'real' Mexico. Even though a cop (actually, 2) tried to extort us there for not having the rental car contract with us (it was in our hotel safe). They wanted us to pay them off, but I was having none of that, and had a few choice things (and, um, some yelling) to do. To sum it up, they pretty much got sick of me and let us go without us having to pay anything or us getting a ticket. The rest of our time in the Yucatan was great- we saw some amazing cenotes (underground waterways, the Yucatan has no aboveground rivers or lakes due to the porous limestone shelf, but there are underground swimming holes and caves that are amazing), and hung out in Valladolid and had great traditional Yucatan food, which is a little different than the rest of Mexico's food (Valladolid is the site of a few of Mexico's major wars/conflicts, including the Caste and the revolution).
Belize and the border crossing. That was an experience. Tried as we did, unfortunately we didn't get to the border until dark, since we stopped in Tulum on the way down and got a little distracted. We ditched the car at a tiny little airport in Chetumal, Mexico that looked somewhat secure and then, after some trouble, managed to get a taxi to the border. Most car rental places won't let you take a car from Mexico into Belize, and if they do, it's way more expensive, plus you need to get separate Belizean insurance, and have to get the tires bug sprayed. Too much of a hassle for the amount of time we were going to be there. I tried to call ahead of time to arrange for a ride on the Belizean side, but this became problematic, because you can't dial Belizean phone numbers from Chetumal or some nonsense. So, we had to hoof it across the border and hope we could find a Belizean taxi or bus on the other side. Awesome. And yes of course, it's dark. The pictures above are of the border during the day, when we came back. Unfortunately the pictures don't really do it justice, lets just say it was full of ghetto fences and barbed wire, and not the kind of place you want to stop and take pictures. This was the site of my second run-in with the Mexican law enforcement, me and the the border control guy did not get along. In fact, I may have told him I was gonna 'camina'right past him because what he was doing was illegal politely informed him that there was no way he was going to get me to pay Mexican deportation tax when I'd already paid it at the airport. They have a tendency to try and scare tourists into paying them the tax again, even though most tourists already have paid it with their airline tickets, they just have no proof of it. Well we did have proof and I'm a pretty experienced traveler, no way was he illegally extorting money from this senorita. So after some arguing (and me threatening to take his picture, to which he yelled no!!! and shut off the light in his little ghetto booth), he gave us our passports back, we gave him our FMM cards, and we walked across. He no likey me so much.
(Now, I don't mean to scare people out of traveling in Mexico. Most Mexican law enforcement personnel were perfectly polite and friendly, and the people in the country are courteous and helpful, way better to tourists than most Americans. You just gotta research the laws a little and use your head. Most of the violence you hear about is in the Northern regions by the US borders due to the cartels, most of Mexico is safe. An why the heck would you wanna go there anyway?? It's kinda like judging the US by just walking down the street in Washington DC's biggest slum at night. I am in no way advocating staying inside the resort, AKA tourist playpen, the entire time, because you're afraid of what will happen if you leave. Lame. You won't experience the place or the culture at all that way. Live a little, makes a good experience!)
So, on the Belizean side, thankfully we were accosted right away by a guy on the street offering his taxi services. He grandly exclaimed, "THIS is a Belizean taxi!"
...aaaannnd up drives a POS straight out of the 70s that has parts dragging on the ground underneath it. Awesome. I would've taken a picture of our sweet ride, but I didn't want to be insulting. It was all I could do not to laugh.
Jeff was a little wigged, but I thought this seemed as good a option as any, so in we went and off through Corozal town.
And then he got lost. He spent the next fifteen minutes driving around aimlessly, stopping to pick up his brother in law "who works for the hotel and knows the way," and grabbing a bite to eat at a taco stand. We then made our way down some windy, dark, pot hole filled dirt jungle roads in the middle of freaking nowhere.
Jeff was sure we were gonna die.
I was thinking, Yep, this seems about right.
I've done my fair share of traveling in developing countries, and gotten myself into some pretty sketch situations.
So as we drove around in the jungle, I contemplated how we were gonna get out of this mess if they decided to off us in the jungle, and decided I could probably knock him the f*&@ out with my all-metal Nikon camera body, and then our biggest concern would be having to sleep out in the middle of the jungle among the jaguars and nasty Belizean snakes.
Buuuttt as it always seems to, things worked out ok, and we arrived at our bed and breakfast after a few more wrong turns. The taxi driver exclaimed "we are out in the middle of nowhere!" Welllll yeah that's kinda the point. I picked it because it seemed different and cool, and got great reviews. It's called Serenity Sands, and it's off the grid and an eco-friendly B&B. The owner is a great Canadian lady who was a wonderful hostess and made us the.most.amazing.organic.breakfast.EVER. She has solar panels, a windmill, chickens, and an organic garden and orchard. It was really cool. Her place was gorgeous, and so was the setting, on a bay where you could kayak through mangroves. It was amazing and relaxing and perfect. The ride back across to the border was great, the brother in law from the night before took us, and for only 480 pesos (40 or so bucks) he spent a couple of hours not only getting us through the border and waiting in line with us at immigration, but getting us safely from Belize, back into Mexico, and all the way to our rental car at the Cheumal airport (thankfully, still there). We snagged his business card, and if anyone wants to cross the border, he will drive into Mexico, pick you up, and get you through, easy-peasy. He was great. We tipped him well. So glad we did the Belize thing, it was beautiful and a great experience.
So that was our trip. Lots more little adventures here and there, but it would take too long to type out, so that is the gist of it. Obviously I took a ton more photos, all of which are on photobucket under the username shani1983 in the album Mexico/Belize trip. I put a link on facebook, too. So check them out. I'm gonna try and paste a link HERE:
Leave me comment and let me know if no workey.
Annnnnndddd buenos noches, baby.
(Ok. Last Spanish, I PROMISE).
