Tourist Sites

After our horrendously touristy day yesterday at Playa, we decided to go all backpacker today and hit Isla Mujeres (Island of Women). It was AWESOME! The ferry from Puerto Juarez costs MX$70 return, and takes about 30 mins. Once there, the whole island is highly walkable, and most streets are lined with ultra-cheap restaurants and awesome little shops. This place really struck a chord with me, and reminded me so much of Ko Phi Phi. We spent so much of the day just lounging around on North Beach which was fantastic and so relaxing.

It’s a hard life!

We continued our exploration through Mexican food tonight with some delicious grilled fish and sangria. Yes, yes, I know you can get these in Sydney or pretty much anywhere else, but I’m determined to believe they were more authentic here because we are in Mexico! So pfft!

I should explain a few things. Firstly, Ange and I are in Mexico to celebrate New Years. On Dec 31 we are joining a Gecko’s tour through Yucatan Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. I’ve never done a tour like this before, so I must admit I’m a bit unsure about how it will work. Part of the fun for me is booking the hostels and looking at what there is to do in each place. But it hasn’t started yet, so I shouldn’t be so negative. It could and should be awesome fun, and a great way to meet new people!

So, we decided to arrive a few days early to see the various sites of Cancun and surrounds. These include Playa del Carmen, the Hotel Zone and Isla Mujeres. Our hotel isn’t located in the “Hotel Zone” of Cancun, so we are far removed from all the stereotypical spring break images that appear in everyone’s minds when talking about this place. Hotel Margaritas is downtown, which is far more ‘Mexican’ and local. It’s still very touristy, and you can’t help but feel that this whole place would’ve done much better if it wasn’t so tied to the US. There are Wal-Marts, Home Depots, Starbucks and McDonalds here by the bucket. Bit of a shame, really.

Anyways, so it was that we went to Playa del Carmen (by bus, every 10mins, MX$34 each way). Essentially it’s a large beach resort. Awesome public beach, but really expensive shops and the like. Go here if you like your developing countries safe and familiar. Go here if you like Starbucks, more English than Espanol and tourist shops. All the cruise ships dock just beyond here, and because of that you have to negotiate huge crowds during the day. On the plus side, it’s really relaxed and so easy to tan. Yay!

Playa was also home to my first bargaining experience in Central America (rather unsuccessful actually – they’re just not into it!). We also learned the typical Spanglish selling phrases: “check it out”, “looking, looking” and the like. And some new ones: “Honeymoon or just practicing”! Gotta love their forwardness!!

Again, went home and watched more Universal Channel – Clueless and Bring It On. Clearly this channel has a chick-flick focus!

Woah … today was a crazily long day of travelling, travelling and more travelling. We woke at 4am, took a taxi to Newark Airport in New Jersey and boarded our plane for Charlotte and Cancun, Mexico.

Both flights were fairly uneventful, although we had plenty of time in Charlotte to explore the airport. Which we didn’t really do, as there really wasn’t a lot to do there, aside from eat and watch the flights leave. After 2hrs that gets old!

Arrived in Cancun to a lovely warm day – 28 degrees and sunny! Oh, how I could get used to this! We made it to our hotel relatively OK [thanks to Ange's research] (bus from airport to downtown Cancun and walked from there) and decided to go exploring. It was 4pm by this time, so we went to the supermarket and bought some water and other supplies. We went exploring around the block and saw the hotel we will be checking into for our Gecko’s tour in a few days. To be honest, it looks nicer than our current one.

We’re staying at Hotel Magaritas and it’s quite nice. The room is large, airy and has a balcony. The balcony does look out onto the pool, but also the backyards of all of the other places on the block – so it’s not the nicest view in the world! The big plus is the TV and Universal Channel. This channel is awesome – 24hr English language movies. And so it was that we watched the Whole Nine Yards eating ice cream! How Mexican is that?! Haha.

Had my first ‘real’ Mexican dinner tonight too – chicken fajitas and beer Blanca. Mmm… so good!

Spent the morning running our bags to Suk’s place at Little Neck. Dropped them off, and then headed into NYC for one last time to visit the Natural History Museum with Jainy and Sharon.

This museum is awesome (and awesomely huge)! It’s one of the world’s most popular museums, and when you enter it, it is not hard to see why. It houses some amazing sections on space, oceans, and cultures. We only had a few hours there, so we focused on space (including a visit to the Planetarium) and foreign cultures. I could have spent days in the Asian history section – it was so detailed! Each separate culture in the region was represented and explained. So refreshing!

We left at 5pm, which meant time to go back to our hotel to pack and sleep. After all, we have to be up at 4am tomorrow morning for our flight to Cancun.

Photos from NYC #1

Photos from NYC #2