important life lesson: always book trips well in advance, and avoid the budget airlines.
i always thought westjet was considered "budget". i love westjet, but it's "no frills", right? man. try flying US airways. there were no tvs, at all, no snacks (free ones - like peanuts), at all and they tried to con you into a US airlines mastercard on the flight. their check in counters all had free standing manual signs that were incorrect so you spent lots of time in wrong lineups, so that was fun adventures. we flew 4 airlines getting to mexico, and the mexican airline was hands down the best.
we flew mexicana into mexico city first. we honestly thought we were going to crash. the emergency door behind us sounded like it wasn't shut, so that was a fun take off, and when they turned on the airconditioning it appeared that smoke was billowing out of all the vents and through the overhead bins - it was just condensation. but it scared me enough to say a bad word loudly in a public place. we survived.
mexico city is freaking huge. as far as you can see, houses. except for on the mountains, which i can admit i was not expecting mountains. it was quite pretty but holy crap, does that city go on forever. it's amazing to see from the air. our next stop was phoenix, which is also really beautiful and not what i expected. our connection was pretty tight and there were some tense moments but - we also made it. both places we had to pick up our bags, go through customs, re-check bags - what a pain in the ass. by our last leg we were pretty tired and grumpy, i had something weird going on with my tongue (it was gross, but it's gone now.) so every time len pissed me off i threatened to lick him. we got in late, had a wonderful welcome to canada by three stellar yvr employees (talking about f***ing immigrants and c***s****ck**s. censored, just for your sensitive eyes) who gave me the stare down when i gave them the hairy eyeball.
next time: direct flight. no stopping in the US. ever again.
but they didn't catch our stashes of prescription drugs, switchblades, machetes and biological warfare, so woohoo! par-tay.
now we've crashed back to reality. len is at work, i'm about to get more sleep and hit the greyhound (ugh) back to kamloops.
it was good times. there is so much more of both mexico and belize i would like to see. travelling in mexico is easy and comfortable - and safe, at least where we were, and amazing. you see true mexico, not the vendors on the beaches selling junk and tourist traps (well, there are still tourist traps) and if you try a little spanish, it's an even better experience. belize is more "don't worry mon!" relaxation and so beautiful. maybe next time we'll get a little more inland action....but those sharks and rays will likely trap us back on caye caulker.
thanks for sharing what was one of, if not the best, vacation either of us has ever had.
Friday, January 29, 2010
lens advice: "when in mexico, eat anything you want any time you want as spicy as you want, because in mexico, its expected that you will shit your pants."
and its true.
¿again, no apostrophes, and instead of brackets, i have these?¿.
we went for dinner last night with our new german friends wolfgang and claudia, and by friends i mean two german people we met on the bus and they followed us to our hotel and got a way better deal than us in a nicer room so we kind of hated them but what can you do. they sat with us at dinner, claudia lit up a cigarette and i thought ooooooooh great. this is going to be fun ¿dirty smokers. and yes, i mean all of you out there too.?. then our meal sucked and the toilets had no seats, adn just when i thought it was a write off we remembered the bakery and we bought some churros and muffins, then some beer, and sat in the courtyard of our hotel listening to some spanish music from the street, drinking cervesas by the mini pool. us and the germans were the only people at our little hotel, and tulum was BUSIER this time around.
this morning we got up bright and early and headed to the bus station to catch the bus to cancun. the Internetz told us there were 4 buses out today. the bus lady took some sort of exception to len and told us there were no buses until 10. i tried to get more info and tried to get her to tell me there was a bus at 8 but she said no and she meant no. so we pouted for a while, i went and got a liquado especiale ?uxmal, my favorite? and got len a strawberry ice bar and we pouted some more and all of a sudden, a bus pulled up. destination = cancun. go figure. so i stomped up there and asked the new guy ?nicely? if there were seats available, then i gave her the hairy eyeball when he said yes and sold us 2 seats to cancun. we jumped in a taxi right away and got on teh water taxi for isla mujeres, and we were on the beach by 1130. the sun came out to play and we roasted up good, our last day to darken up ?or burn?. then we rented a golf cart from a sketchy, sketchy place and bombed around the island for 2 hours, checking out houses, beaches and iguanas. itçs a cool little place here in isla mujeres, much like san pedro on ambergris caye. busy and full of tourists, but itçs nice. we had a great time, didnçt crash the golf cart and hung out at sunset eating ceviche ¿delicious, delicous salsa with octopus, shrimp and conch cooked by the citrus acid, served with fried tortillas...yum? and a couple of cervesas. now weçre on our way for Our Final Meal in mexico, checking flights, trying to stave off depression. itçs a full moon and the tide is high, so it should be a great last night.
itçs been a fantastic trip, full of adventures, fun, sun, gut rot, good food and amazing people, scenery, marine life and wildlife. i had no idea 2 weeks could take this long and pack in so much. we just looked at the weather at home and itçs grey, grey grey for both of us, so weçll soak up what we can tomorrow like big ass solar batteries.
off to eat some fish and drink some dos equis.
tasha and len.
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
we´re too depressed to blog.
we don´t want to leave. ever.
it rained yesterday, most of the day. so, we went out and power shopped then drank a bunch of 2 for 1 beers at el capitan and had to go have a nap. we´re staying in a funky place len stayed in before, which is tres chic with an itty bitty pool. good times.
today we headed to coba to explore the ruins. they´re pretty fantastic, very jungly. i had the best tour guide EVER and he was free. his name was len and he has a good memory from his last ruin tour. we also vultured other people´s tour guides and got info there. i climbed up coba (like a monkey) and came down on my ass. i was quite proud of myself. len walked up and down like it was nothing. jerk.
we spent the afternoon on the beach in tulum, despite the ominous clouds and wind, because we won´t be back here again. we´re headed to isla mujeres tomorrow for our last day-night before heading back to The Real World. stupid real world.
time to go eat enchiladas.
it rained yesterday, most of the day. so, we went out and power shopped then drank a bunch of 2 for 1 beers at el capitan and had to go have a nap. we´re staying in a funky place len stayed in before, which is tres chic with an itty bitty pool. good times.
today we headed to coba to explore the ruins. they´re pretty fantastic, very jungly. i had the best tour guide EVER and he was free. his name was len and he has a good memory from his last ruin tour. we also vultured other people´s tour guides and got info there. i climbed up coba (like a monkey) and came down on my ass. i was quite proud of myself. len walked up and down like it was nothing. jerk.
we spent the afternoon on the beach in tulum, despite the ominous clouds and wind, because we won´t be back here again. we´re headed to isla mujeres tomorrow for our last day-night before heading back to The Real World. stupid real world.
time to go eat enchiladas.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
we made friends!
we spent the day yesterday chilling out on san pedro. well, negatively judging it compared to caye caulker is more like it. its a nice place, far more lively than caye caulker, but just busy and noisy. and pawn shops, which to me = crime. (i can{t find the apostrophe on here so they will either be missing or be {)
we chilled out on the beach and people watched, way more toys and things to do (parasailing, seadoo rentals, ultralight rides, etc.) we were glad we stayed on caye caulker. we{re totally biased.
we hopped the ferry to corozal and on the way met this hawaiian guy named kyra moon (i{m not kidding) and an older american named bob. we decided to just make a run for the border (haha. get it? yo quiero taco bell!) and rented a taxi with them and just headed into chetumal. (mexico)
what a beautiful city. so clean and fairly modern (don{t let the name "belize city" let you believe its a city, it{s all houses on stilts and dirt roads) and authentic mexico (albeit wealthy mexico). we walked by a salsa dance class and heard music with the beautiful horns from our room. our room at the Ucum hotel.
you can laugh, we did. bob thought maybe it was a sex hotel that rented rooms by the hour. kyra hoped it did. there were plastic covers on the mattresses, so who knows, but it was $20 a night so we didn{t complain.
so, we{re at the bus station about to head north to tulum, so i{d better go. it was raining this morning....it better stop. or else.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
"hey tasha, there's a dolphin out front of the balcony". words i could hear over and over and over.
honestly, this place is paradise. yesterday after enjoying a choco banana (frozen banana dipped in chocolate. aaaaaaagh) we stopped by the bakery to pick up cinnamon buns for our ferry ride today to console our broken hearts. yeah...we're leaving. sad sad sad.
our thoughts on belize: paradise. really laid back and relaxing, which we weren't quite prepared for when we got here. it really grew on us - the people are great, caye caulker is fantastic, i love that there are only golf carts and no cars, it's quiet, the food is incredible, the diving is amazing - it's just a little expensive. but we made up for it with cheap accommodations. we both are ready for a step up tonight though - a shower with hot water would be nice, no sand flies would be great, a toilet that didn't perpetually stink would be ok too. but our balcony and our birds eye view will be greatly missed.
something strange is that we've met virtually no one. i mean, we've made chit chat with people, we quite like this older quebecois couple who are always on their deck chairs (they come here for months every winter) and we chatted with the realtor couples but really - it's just a lot of other couples (of all ages) and no one seems overly keen to make friends. maybe it's just us, we're such an unfriendly duo. :)
so, we've loaded up on fry jacks and beans (and happy cow cheese! remember those, shea?) for breakfast, picked up some souvenirs and are getting ready to catch the ferry to san pedro then corozal. tulum tomorrow.
bye caye caulker - we'll miss you.
love,
len and tasha.
our thoughts on belize: paradise. really laid back and relaxing, which we weren't quite prepared for when we got here. it really grew on us - the people are great, caye caulker is fantastic, i love that there are only golf carts and no cars, it's quiet, the food is incredible, the diving is amazing - it's just a little expensive. but we made up for it with cheap accommodations. we both are ready for a step up tonight though - a shower with hot water would be nice, no sand flies would be great, a toilet that didn't perpetually stink would be ok too. but our balcony and our birds eye view will be greatly missed.
something strange is that we've met virtually no one. i mean, we've made chit chat with people, we quite like this older quebecois couple who are always on their deck chairs (they come here for months every winter) and we chatted with the realtor couples but really - it's just a lot of other couples (of all ages) and no one seems overly keen to make friends. maybe it's just us, we're such an unfriendly duo. :)
so, we've loaded up on fry jacks and beans (and happy cow cheese! remember those, shea?) for breakfast, picked up some souvenirs and are getting ready to catch the ferry to san pedro then corozal. tulum tomorrow.
bye caye caulker - we'll miss you.
love,
len and tasha.
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Monday, January 25, 2010
to leave or not to leave...that...is the question...
ok - we're still on caye caulker. but before you judge us, here's the deal.
it's beautiful here, and so relaxed. everything is expensive except for our beach cabin, but we have the national geographic channel right from our deck. yesterday i was swinging in the hammock watching a stilt, a plover, a dipper, a heron, an egret and a pelican poking around in the flats in front of us. last night at dinner on the beach, we watched a stingray swim around, a baby nurse shark and a crab. it's unbelievable.
so day before yesterday we went out diving again - just me, len and daniel, our guide. it was awesome, a private tour. caye caulker is so dead, they're cancelling trips left right and centre. we've been trying to get to tourneffe elbow since we got here and can't get enough divers together for the minimum, everyone wants to dive the blue hole, which we're kind of meh about. we want to see corals, fish and other creatures instead of a big sunken cave just to say we did. so we did a great dive with daniel (no barfing! clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap) and saw some great corals, and just as we were coming up i looked down and saw a HUGE turtle swimming up behind us. it was fantastic. we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with a real estate agent about properties in belize (don't get excited. we were just curious). she's from victoria and tried her best, but no sale. it's actually pretty reasonable and the north caye has lots of potential, but just a dream for either of us right now, that's for sure. we lazed in the sun and got the relaxation part of our day out of the way then hit our favorite place for dinner - more lobster. mmmmmmmmm.
yesterday we awoke to ignacio, the slightly crazy old man who owns our cabin (with his curly balding hair and huge yellow glasses) yelling at some tourist for trying to take a photo off of his dock. you're stuff is safe at ignacio's, that's for sure, he's like an insane little old pitbull. sunrise was incredible and len was glad since he'd been awake since 2. see, i'm kind of like a senior citizen - a day in the sun and i'm ready for sleep by 8pm. this is great for me, i can sleep until 6:30 no problem but not len. he watched several movies (hey nicole: he likes blue crush) on the ipod and i snored away. we got up and checked out diving, but our good friend Wind was back and we couldn't get a dive in anywhere. we ended up wandering to this place that offers manatee watching, so we figured hey, why the hell not. we're already hemorrhaging money so why not give a little more. we went home for a quick nap (which was interrupted by ignacio yelling at someone else trespassing on the property. he has a big sign that says "IF YOU TRESSPASS YOU WILL BE CHASED." he's not kidding.) the company managed to round up enough people to go on the manatee trip (seriously hurting around here) and we headed out for a quick snorkel and some manatees. the snorkelling was amazing, it was called the aquarium for a reason. there were tons of little fishies and great corals. i was off on my own, minding my own business when i dove down to check under a big formation to see if anything exciting was under there. as i was coming back up, this huge, hairy thing came out into my line of sight under water, it's face right up to mine 6 feet below the surface: it was a Stealth Len. i nearly crapped my swimsuit then drowned from laughing. the jerk.
we hopped back into the boat and headed to the mangroves. belize is a fascinating country with a wicked conservation ethic - there are protected areas everywhere and the manatee calving grounds are no exception. on our way there we got so excited because we saw some mud and our crazy guide yelled "manatee! manatee!" but no. it was just a dolphin.
JUST a dolphin.
have i mentioned i love belize?
it's interesting because 1 minute before this i thought "i bet we'll see dolphins." my psychic abilities failed me further on when we nailed a stick indicating a shallow reef and it slammed against my finger which was hanging onto the boat. i thought i ripped off my entire FINGER but really i just scraped the nail. hurt like a bitch though, and lucky i didn't break or dislocate it. because i would have missed the manatees.
THAT"S RIGHT. we saw manatees. not super close but they would come up and you'd see their cute little noses and cute little tails and go awwwwwwwww, it's a frickin MANATEE.
in my office i have this little fimo manatee i bought on etsy - his name is mookie. he came with a life story about being a lonely manatee who has a bit of a weight problem and just wanted someone to love him, so i bought him. i can't wait to tell mookie i saw his non-fimo relatives.
we got back pretty late last night (6pm! almost bed time) and had a BBQ on the beach (where we saw the ray/shark/crab mentioned above). i had a couple of belikin's and some chicken and something did not agree with me. might have been the malaria medications but either way, it wasn't a very pleasant night. and remember: we have half a bathroom door. plus the wind died and the place was loaded with sand flies so we had to get up at 2pm and deet ourselves up.
good times.
we realized late last night we had forgotten to pay for our room that day and spent the night living in fear of ignacio, terrified that he was going to come ripping in there at 6am throwing our stuff off of the balcony, but we got up early enough to pay him and make him happy. we checked out the diving again and found a group going to tourneffe north, not quite the elbow but nice so we ran to catch up. we hopped on the boat with a pretty big group and headed out onto seas that were choppy as hell. huge waves. crazy. not good. getting into the water for the first dive was terrible; getting out was worse. i got slammed against the ladder and had a small bloody nose and was nearly, nearly ready to just cry and go home, but then after a few minutes in the shelter of the reef i felt better and we went out - and found out this was a THREE tank dive. oh jesus - that wave action 3 times? i dunno. i thought i might lose my breakfast but i managed to hold on. the diving was incredible, absolutely amazing. the corals are bright and diverse, the fish were in huge schools and tons of different species, and we saw this huge, huge sting ray that flew through the corals. it was fantastic. the third dive was again a big coral wall, formations, lots of small fish, just unbelievable. these atolls are all over and each is more spectacular than the rest - it was ok to not see the big prizes like sharks and eagle rays when you're seeing corals and fish like that.
we did see a lion fish, which doesn't belong here but because of people dumping their aquarium fish in the sea have shown up all the way from florida to honduras. it was crazy to see it - there must be so many for us to actually spot one. amazing.
so, that's what we've been up to - diving, sunning, lobster eating and sleeping. it's been fantastic and we're going to be sad to leave tomorrow. we're heading back to mexico tomorrow - probably spending one more day in belize in corozol then heading to tulum for another night and see where we end up.
we love belize. it's the best.
it's beautiful here, and so relaxed. everything is expensive except for our beach cabin, but we have the national geographic channel right from our deck. yesterday i was swinging in the hammock watching a stilt, a plover, a dipper, a heron, an egret and a pelican poking around in the flats in front of us. last night at dinner on the beach, we watched a stingray swim around, a baby nurse shark and a crab. it's unbelievable.
so day before yesterday we went out diving again - just me, len and daniel, our guide. it was awesome, a private tour. caye caulker is so dead, they're cancelling trips left right and centre. we've been trying to get to tourneffe elbow since we got here and can't get enough divers together for the minimum, everyone wants to dive the blue hole, which we're kind of meh about. we want to see corals, fish and other creatures instead of a big sunken cave just to say we did. so we did a great dive with daniel (no barfing! clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap) and saw some great corals, and just as we were coming up i looked down and saw a HUGE turtle swimming up behind us. it was fantastic. we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with a real estate agent about properties in belize (don't get excited. we were just curious). she's from victoria and tried her best, but no sale. it's actually pretty reasonable and the north caye has lots of potential, but just a dream for either of us right now, that's for sure. we lazed in the sun and got the relaxation part of our day out of the way then hit our favorite place for dinner - more lobster. mmmmmmmmm.
yesterday we awoke to ignacio, the slightly crazy old man who owns our cabin (with his curly balding hair and huge yellow glasses) yelling at some tourist for trying to take a photo off of his dock. you're stuff is safe at ignacio's, that's for sure, he's like an insane little old pitbull. sunrise was incredible and len was glad since he'd been awake since 2. see, i'm kind of like a senior citizen - a day in the sun and i'm ready for sleep by 8pm. this is great for me, i can sleep until 6:30 no problem but not len. he watched several movies (hey nicole: he likes blue crush) on the ipod and i snored away. we got up and checked out diving, but our good friend Wind was back and we couldn't get a dive in anywhere. we ended up wandering to this place that offers manatee watching, so we figured hey, why the hell not. we're already hemorrhaging money so why not give a little more. we went home for a quick nap (which was interrupted by ignacio yelling at someone else trespassing on the property. he has a big sign that says "IF YOU TRESSPASS YOU WILL BE CHASED." he's not kidding.) the company managed to round up enough people to go on the manatee trip (seriously hurting around here) and we headed out for a quick snorkel and some manatees. the snorkelling was amazing, it was called the aquarium for a reason. there were tons of little fishies and great corals. i was off on my own, minding my own business when i dove down to check under a big formation to see if anything exciting was under there. as i was coming back up, this huge, hairy thing came out into my line of sight under water, it's face right up to mine 6 feet below the surface: it was a Stealth Len. i nearly crapped my swimsuit then drowned from laughing. the jerk.
we hopped back into the boat and headed to the mangroves. belize is a fascinating country with a wicked conservation ethic - there are protected areas everywhere and the manatee calving grounds are no exception. on our way there we got so excited because we saw some mud and our crazy guide yelled "manatee! manatee!" but no. it was just a dolphin.
JUST a dolphin.
have i mentioned i love belize?
it's interesting because 1 minute before this i thought "i bet we'll see dolphins." my psychic abilities failed me further on when we nailed a stick indicating a shallow reef and it slammed against my finger which was hanging onto the boat. i thought i ripped off my entire FINGER but really i just scraped the nail. hurt like a bitch though, and lucky i didn't break or dislocate it. because i would have missed the manatees.
THAT"S RIGHT. we saw manatees. not super close but they would come up and you'd see their cute little noses and cute little tails and go awwwwwwwww, it's a frickin MANATEE.
in my office i have this little fimo manatee i bought on etsy - his name is mookie. he came with a life story about being a lonely manatee who has a bit of a weight problem and just wanted someone to love him, so i bought him. i can't wait to tell mookie i saw his non-fimo relatives.
we got back pretty late last night (6pm! almost bed time) and had a BBQ on the beach (where we saw the ray/shark/crab mentioned above). i had a couple of belikin's and some chicken and something did not agree with me. might have been the malaria medications but either way, it wasn't a very pleasant night. and remember: we have half a bathroom door. plus the wind died and the place was loaded with sand flies so we had to get up at 2pm and deet ourselves up.
good times.
we realized late last night we had forgotten to pay for our room that day and spent the night living in fear of ignacio, terrified that he was going to come ripping in there at 6am throwing our stuff off of the balcony, but we got up early enough to pay him and make him happy. we checked out the diving again and found a group going to tourneffe north, not quite the elbow but nice so we ran to catch up. we hopped on the boat with a pretty big group and headed out onto seas that were choppy as hell. huge waves. crazy. not good. getting into the water for the first dive was terrible; getting out was worse. i got slammed against the ladder and had a small bloody nose and was nearly, nearly ready to just cry and go home, but then after a few minutes in the shelter of the reef i felt better and we went out - and found out this was a THREE tank dive. oh jesus - that wave action 3 times? i dunno. i thought i might lose my breakfast but i managed to hold on. the diving was incredible, absolutely amazing. the corals are bright and diverse, the fish were in huge schools and tons of different species, and we saw this huge, huge sting ray that flew through the corals. it was fantastic. the third dive was again a big coral wall, formations, lots of small fish, just unbelievable. these atolls are all over and each is more spectacular than the rest - it was ok to not see the big prizes like sharks and eagle rays when you're seeing corals and fish like that.
we did see a lion fish, which doesn't belong here but because of people dumping their aquarium fish in the sea have shown up all the way from florida to honduras. it was crazy to see it - there must be so many for us to actually spot one. amazing.
so, that's what we've been up to - diving, sunning, lobster eating and sleeping. it's been fantastic and we're going to be sad to leave tomorrow. we're heading back to mexico tomorrow - probably spending one more day in belize in corozol then heading to tulum for another night and see where we end up.
we love belize. it's the best.
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Friday, January 22, 2010
oh, and another thing...(part 2 of today's blog)
there's a guy who rides his bike along the path in front of our cabin selling tamales. len went to the store and brought me beer.
i think i might be in heaven.
i think i might be in heaven.
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we almost died (but don't tell our moms)
warning: this blog entry may contain content and language not suitable for young children. reader discretion is advised.
ok - so, still in belize and we're sad about the thought of leaving. we've gotten into the caye caulker groove here (having a beach front cabin on stilts with a hammock helps) and though we're in bed by 9, we're up with the sun.
it's been windy as hell, which has been a blessing and a curse.
blessing:
no bugs
breezy nights
can't hear the people in the cabin 3 feet from ours
curse: no diving
that's right, we were shut OUT yesterday. after spending some time pouting and wandering about the island, we decided to reminisce about all the great things we saw on our snorkelling trip. len's highlight was being chased by a moray eel - one that our guide had made come out with some noises and i smartly left alone because i could tell it was PISSED. len is not as intuitive as i, and got pretty close. it chased him for about 5 feet. silly len. mine was probably seeing a little turtle go swimming away. so cute.
we wandered down to the "public beach" - this tiny little area free of sea grass with a destroyed concrete pier to sit on (in places where it's not sunk) and some sand. it's beautiful because it looks over through "the split", which was cut by hurricane hattie in the early 60s. the north part of the island is largely uninhabited as there's no electricity and such, so you see what this island looked like before the development (and it's mild compared to other places). tons of mangroves and palms, very little sandy beach.
we had some down time in the hammock/chair on our lovely balcony then went for a walk down a mystery path to the south end - turns out there's some private (unoccupied) homes and a lot of bush. we saw more wildlife in that short walk than the previous days here on the island. tons of little lizards, iguana, wicked birds, a giant moth and the biggest, grossest spider that you can imagine (well, maybe you can probably imagine worse, but it ended up in my nightmares). we watched sunset on a nice private dock, then ran the mosquito gauntlet back to the "town" for dinner. fish kebabs. mmmmmmmmmm. they were out of pina coladas at our favorite place, rose's grill. we've eaten there every night.
then: the wind stopped.
blessing: we could go diving.
curse: hot as hell
mosquitoes and sand flies
you could hear the neighbor fart in the next cabin.
now, our cabins are not deluxe, but they ARE $25 a night. we have half a bathroom door, which has made for some interesting new breaking of barriers, but it's colorful and wonderful and we love it. but. you can hear EVERYTHING without that wind, and man, is it stifling. nothing dries out so everything is kind of dank but still: we love it.
this morning we were up bright and earliesh and headed to the dive shop. yesterday we were told we couldn't dive because it was too windy. today the guy said "oh, we can't dive, it's too sunny!" and that's when len murdered him and i'm blogging for bail money.
we headed out towards the reef on nice, calm turquoise water. i was happy. life was good. our diving group consisted of me, len and knutz, this norweigan guy who we keep running into (he was on our bus/ferry here). we slowed down before the reef, i saw the giant waves crashing up on it, and thought "man, i'm glad we're on THIS side of the reef." then, daniel the boat driver switched with cas the dive instructor (giant, looks like wesley snipes), and i thought "whoa, what's going on here?"
he revved the engine. i was worried. he floored it, and we broke over the waves. what. the. hell.
i guess it explained why they moved us to the back of the boat, but man, we were breaking over HUGE waves (against them) and this one, giant one was coming. we hit it hard and went practically vertical, then i heard knutz utter the english words i'm sure we were all thinking:
"holy FUCK."
i actually thought we might flip over and die. good times.
we headed out on open water and bounced our way to ambergris key. we saw some flying fish (fan-tastic) and it was perfection. we found our spot, jumped in and descended on our first dive.
now, i've dived in mexico, thailand and canada. this - this was incredible. the visibility wasn't super great, and the coral was a bit dull but the things we saw?
big ass turtle
nurse sharks (up to 6,7 at a time)
spotted eagle ray
i knew by the time we saw the ray that today was the greatest day EVER. the ray was gorgeous, gliding through the water like it was flying, it was absolutely incredible. we floated around and then ascended to choppy open ocean waters. my stomach was not happy with this and i had nightmares of a repeat of diving with dax and chad in playa a few years before. all three of us ended up barfing off the side of the boat. oh god - no.
so, we needed some surface time and floored it into san pedro, where we docked, i took a bonamine and had some water and crackers and we relaxed. then - we headed back out for dive #2. oh dive #2. not so successful for either of us, really.
we got there and my guts were NOT happy. at all. i hurried as fast as i could to get geared up, flipped backwards off the boat and a: got water in my mask and b: blew a clip on my BC. len was in too and came to help me, and that's when it happened. "go away. GO AWAY" i said. pushing him away.
"uh oh." he said. "she's gonna be sick."
wesley snipes was in with us by this time and said "just do it. puke. you'll feel better and we'll go under." it was great to have support, so, i went ahead and chummed away.
holy god it was bad. but better than doing it off of the boat. some fish came up and had some lunch and len was yelling "do it again tasha! we want to see more fish! they're hungry!" so, i obliged. once i felt better, len and i descended and met the others at the bottom. well, i descended, len floated because he FORGOT HIS WEIGHT BELT. that's right, Mr. Diver jumped in WITHOUT HIS WEIGHT BELT.
to be fair: we got in there pretty quickly. probably a lot hinged on the fact that i was going to barf. he needn't have hurried because i barfed anyway, but in his haste, forgot his weight belt. he popped up and got it and we carried on. so we drifted around, checked out corals, then i looked around to see Mr. Diver Len flailing in the water, pointing at wesley snipes. i swam over and surely saved len's life, pointed to len and he went to help - len's BC valve was screwed and was filling up with air, making him super bouyant and sending him to the surface. whoops. the two smartie pants divers figured it out and we carried on - again. len's highlight was the nurse sharks, especially when there was a bunch of them and extra especially when wesley snipes wrestled with one. he held it like a big puppy, it was unbelievable.
we finished our dive and came back to the surface, which i was dreading, especially because at our safety stop the current was whipping us around a bit. i mentally prepared myself for round 2 with the chumming. we got up, i got near the boat, kicked away and promptly started yakking all over again. it was great, more fish came up for everyone (but me) to enjoy and i tried to stay as far away as possible. i'm glad though, because i felt much better. i popped up and wesley snipes said "hey - rinse your face - your brains are coming out of your nose." ahhh. the class.
so - between the bad tacos, the half a bathroom door and my ralphing my guts out into the ocean 4 feet away, len and i have certainly learned a lot about each other this past week.
we spent the rest of the day kicking around in hammocks, reading books and napping and deciding we like caye caulker more than we thought we would. it's breaking the bank though, ice cream cost us $8US, so send money via paypal, please. of course, we've eaten lobster twice and had pina coladas every night, but please: feel sorry for us.
we're off for another day of diving (no chumming?) tomorrow, so fingers crossed. we're probably headed back to mexico monday on the fast ferry to chetumal (no more days on buses, please) then to tulum, maybe isla mujares, maybe holbox, we're not sure. all i know is len just checked BNN and saw the stocks are crashing and we can't afford belize anymore, but we'll miss it.
ok - so, still in belize and we're sad about the thought of leaving. we've gotten into the caye caulker groove here (having a beach front cabin on stilts with a hammock helps) and though we're in bed by 9, we're up with the sun.
it's been windy as hell, which has been a blessing and a curse.
blessing:
no bugs
breezy nights
can't hear the people in the cabin 3 feet from ours
curse: no diving
that's right, we were shut OUT yesterday. after spending some time pouting and wandering about the island, we decided to reminisce about all the great things we saw on our snorkelling trip. len's highlight was being chased by a moray eel - one that our guide had made come out with some noises and i smartly left alone because i could tell it was PISSED. len is not as intuitive as i, and got pretty close. it chased him for about 5 feet. silly len. mine was probably seeing a little turtle go swimming away. so cute.
we wandered down to the "public beach" - this tiny little area free of sea grass with a destroyed concrete pier to sit on (in places where it's not sunk) and some sand. it's beautiful because it looks over through "the split", which was cut by hurricane hattie in the early 60s. the north part of the island is largely uninhabited as there's no electricity and such, so you see what this island looked like before the development (and it's mild compared to other places). tons of mangroves and palms, very little sandy beach.
we had some down time in the hammock/chair on our lovely balcony then went for a walk down a mystery path to the south end - turns out there's some private (unoccupied) homes and a lot of bush. we saw more wildlife in that short walk than the previous days here on the island. tons of little lizards, iguana, wicked birds, a giant moth and the biggest, grossest spider that you can imagine (well, maybe you can probably imagine worse, but it ended up in my nightmares). we watched sunset on a nice private dock, then ran the mosquito gauntlet back to the "town" for dinner. fish kebabs. mmmmmmmmmm. they were out of pina coladas at our favorite place, rose's grill. we've eaten there every night.
then: the wind stopped.
blessing: we could go diving.
curse: hot as hell
mosquitoes and sand flies
you could hear the neighbor fart in the next cabin.
now, our cabins are not deluxe, but they ARE $25 a night. we have half a bathroom door, which has made for some interesting new breaking of barriers, but it's colorful and wonderful and we love it. but. you can hear EVERYTHING without that wind, and man, is it stifling. nothing dries out so everything is kind of dank but still: we love it.
this morning we were up bright and earliesh and headed to the dive shop. yesterday we were told we couldn't dive because it was too windy. today the guy said "oh, we can't dive, it's too sunny!" and that's when len murdered him and i'm blogging for bail money.
we headed out towards the reef on nice, calm turquoise water. i was happy. life was good. our diving group consisted of me, len and knutz, this norweigan guy who we keep running into (he was on our bus/ferry here). we slowed down before the reef, i saw the giant waves crashing up on it, and thought "man, i'm glad we're on THIS side of the reef." then, daniel the boat driver switched with cas the dive instructor (giant, looks like wesley snipes), and i thought "whoa, what's going on here?"
he revved the engine. i was worried. he floored it, and we broke over the waves. what. the. hell.
i guess it explained why they moved us to the back of the boat, but man, we were breaking over HUGE waves (against them) and this one, giant one was coming. we hit it hard and went practically vertical, then i heard knutz utter the english words i'm sure we were all thinking:
"holy FUCK."
i actually thought we might flip over and die. good times.
we headed out on open water and bounced our way to ambergris key. we saw some flying fish (fan-tastic) and it was perfection. we found our spot, jumped in and descended on our first dive.
now, i've dived in mexico, thailand and canada. this - this was incredible. the visibility wasn't super great, and the coral was a bit dull but the things we saw?
big ass turtle
nurse sharks (up to 6,7 at a time)
spotted eagle ray
i knew by the time we saw the ray that today was the greatest day EVER. the ray was gorgeous, gliding through the water like it was flying, it was absolutely incredible. we floated around and then ascended to choppy open ocean waters. my stomach was not happy with this and i had nightmares of a repeat of diving with dax and chad in playa a few years before. all three of us ended up barfing off the side of the boat. oh god - no.
so, we needed some surface time and floored it into san pedro, where we docked, i took a bonamine and had some water and crackers and we relaxed. then - we headed back out for dive #2. oh dive #2. not so successful for either of us, really.
we got there and my guts were NOT happy. at all. i hurried as fast as i could to get geared up, flipped backwards off the boat and a: got water in my mask and b: blew a clip on my BC. len was in too and came to help me, and that's when it happened. "go away. GO AWAY" i said. pushing him away.
"uh oh." he said. "she's gonna be sick."
wesley snipes was in with us by this time and said "just do it. puke. you'll feel better and we'll go under." it was great to have support, so, i went ahead and chummed away.
holy god it was bad. but better than doing it off of the boat. some fish came up and had some lunch and len was yelling "do it again tasha! we want to see more fish! they're hungry!" so, i obliged. once i felt better, len and i descended and met the others at the bottom. well, i descended, len floated because he FORGOT HIS WEIGHT BELT. that's right, Mr. Diver jumped in WITHOUT HIS WEIGHT BELT.
to be fair: we got in there pretty quickly. probably a lot hinged on the fact that i was going to barf. he needn't have hurried because i barfed anyway, but in his haste, forgot his weight belt. he popped up and got it and we carried on. so we drifted around, checked out corals, then i looked around to see Mr. Diver Len flailing in the water, pointing at wesley snipes. i swam over and surely saved len's life, pointed to len and he went to help - len's BC valve was screwed and was filling up with air, making him super bouyant and sending him to the surface. whoops. the two smartie pants divers figured it out and we carried on - again. len's highlight was the nurse sharks, especially when there was a bunch of them and extra especially when wesley snipes wrestled with one. he held it like a big puppy, it was unbelievable.
we finished our dive and came back to the surface, which i was dreading, especially because at our safety stop the current was whipping us around a bit. i mentally prepared myself for round 2 with the chumming. we got up, i got near the boat, kicked away and promptly started yakking all over again. it was great, more fish came up for everyone (but me) to enjoy and i tried to stay as far away as possible. i'm glad though, because i felt much better. i popped up and wesley snipes said "hey - rinse your face - your brains are coming out of your nose." ahhh. the class.
so - between the bad tacos, the half a bathroom door and my ralphing my guts out into the ocean 4 feet away, len and i have certainly learned a lot about each other this past week.
we spent the rest of the day kicking around in hammocks, reading books and napping and deciding we like caye caulker more than we thought we would. it's breaking the bank though, ice cream cost us $8US, so send money via paypal, please. of course, we've eaten lobster twice and had pina coladas every night, but please: feel sorry for us.
we're off for another day of diving (no chumming?) tomorrow, so fingers crossed. we're probably headed back to mexico monday on the fast ferry to chetumal (no more days on buses, please) then to tulum, maybe isla mujares, maybe holbox, we're not sure. all i know is len just checked BNN and saw the stocks are crashing and we can't afford belize anymore, but we'll miss it.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
do you like pina coladas? (we do - belizian pina coladas!)
ok - i'm recovered from what certainly was sun stroke from which i nearly died (or heat exhaustion which made me feel like crap - probably the latter). i forgot to mention one thing - len and his spanish. he's very proud of it (bless his heart) and actually not bad, but where he needs to work on his skills is his ordering of food. at breakfast we only got one yogurt/granola/fruit and and lunch we ended up with two huge, full sized meals - each. he did manage to use his spanish to get it packed up though, so yay len.
so: we left tulum (we love tulum, and we loved the secret garden) on a lovely, air conditioned ADO bus to chetumal. chetumal is crazy - it's really clean and clearly very rich - there was even a mall. apparently belizians come over to shop all the time (much like canadians who live close to the US border) so the shopping is unlike the rest of mexico, and certainly tulum. (the town, not the ruins.) we had to make a decision at the bus station whether or not we take a 3 hour bus to belize city and try to catch the last ferry to caye caulker, or catch a 30 minute bus to corazol and take a ferry to ambergris caye but you'd have to spend the night in corazol. we opted to risk the belize city bus, and hopped on a much less plush, much less air conditioned bus to belize, but not before consuming 8 very delicious little tacos from a street stand across from the bus station where we certainly paid tourist prices.
we crossed the border and were the only bus going across, with only about 12 of us. honestly - where the hell is everyone? and there were really only 5 other tourists, a couple of mennonites and a bunch of belizians. it's weird to see the mennonites here in their little denim shirts and hats. and tons of chinese food restaurants. i feel like i'm in manitoba except tropical. crazy.
anyway, belize: very different from mexico. i mean, for one - everything is in english. or in their native tongue which is this:
good morning: guuud mahnin!
how are you: how aaah yuuuuuu!
i'm not kidding. it's awesome.
the buildings are a lot more wood, a lot less concrete. very bright colors and very tidy. the lawns are cut short, there's very little garbage in the yards and everyone seems to really take pride in their property. it's so totally different than mexico, but we both agree we love the spanish culture in mexico and kind of miss it already.
we arrived in belize city in the nick of time, literally, to catch the last ferry. the bus driver dropped us off closer to the marine terminal, where taxis were waiting for us. by "taxis" i mean joe blow belizian in his 1982 dodge caravan. we ended up in an old grand prix with a guy and his chubby little kid copilot who yelled "YO!" to all his friends as he passed by and rasta blared out of the speakers. it also had no shocks which was extra fun on the belize city roads, but he drove like a crazy man and got us there no problem (for $10). i had no change so a "porter" from the water taxi, in his rasta accent, ran around, got us change, loaded up our bags and got us set. we jumped on the water taxi at 5:30 and were on our way to paradise.
we got onto caye calker last night and wandered around the "streets" looking for a place to stay. the streets are just really sandy paths where golf carts go (the main mode of transportation here). we decided to just find something for the night and find something better this morning and ended up at the China Town Hotel. it was just like being in asia - bright plastic everywhere and cartoon characters on the walls. and dirty. oh god, someone killed a bloody mosquito at some point (probably in 2002) and it's still stuck to the wall. we went out for a fantastic dinner of freshly caught snapper and giant pina coladas, then headed to bed. some spanish girls were partying it up on the rooftop upstairs, and we had to go ask them to not jump up and down on the tables because it sounded like they honest to god might crash right through our roof. they probably would have. i was nice and of course they were nice back and invited us up to party, but we were bagged. and len: well, len didn't live on my dad's spaghetti, that's for sure.
my dad's spaghetti is responsible for giving me Guts of Steel. it's delicious, but the secret of starting it in the morning then leaving it out all day not only makes it tastier but probably less food safe. then the fact that we ate it for a week afterwards probably added more lining to the Guts of Steel. as such, i had no problems from our taco fest in chetumal. i wish i could say the same for len.
let's just say: the frosted glass door to the bathrooms (with cartoon dolphins!) didn't provide len much privacy, and my hysterical laughing didn't provide him with any comfort. 9 pepto bismols and 4 immodium later and he's all better. which is good, because our new place only has 1/2 a bathroom door. that's right: half.
we moved immediately this morning to Ignacio's Cabanas, these fantastic, rustic cabins on 12' stilts on the beach. well, by beach i mean more of mangrove swamp, but there's some sand. the beaches on caye caulker are certainly not tulum, but we're not here for the beaches, we're here for the diving. our place is bright blue and has holes in the floor that are duct taped, but it's awesome and it's clean. the shower isn't connected to anything, which some poor kid learned when len had a shower and the kid got a shower down below. all i heard was a kid start wailing, an adult yelling "it's 14! 14!) (our cabin number) and some poor dog sitting there, abandoned on a leash while the adult tended to the screaming kid. we thought it was hilarious. at least the toilet is connected to a pipe.
we spent the afternoon on a snorkel tour in the caye caulker marine reserve, which was pretty cool but not spectacular. we did 3 snorkel stops, the 2nd being at the channel that cuts through the reef, so it was pretty choppy and pretty deep but we saw big schools of fish, a moray eel and a turtle. the third dive -amber and ben, -prepare for this - was stingray alley, this fantastic area where all these stingrays come in (um, yeah. they feed them) and swim all around you. it was unreal (len was scared), they were everywhere. good times.
now, we're off to eat lobster and drink more pina coladas. we wish you were all here (no we don't) and miss you greatly (i'm such a liar.)
tasha and len.
so: we left tulum (we love tulum, and we loved the secret garden) on a lovely, air conditioned ADO bus to chetumal. chetumal is crazy - it's really clean and clearly very rich - there was even a mall. apparently belizians come over to shop all the time (much like canadians who live close to the US border) so the shopping is unlike the rest of mexico, and certainly tulum. (the town, not the ruins.) we had to make a decision at the bus station whether or not we take a 3 hour bus to belize city and try to catch the last ferry to caye caulker, or catch a 30 minute bus to corazol and take a ferry to ambergris caye but you'd have to spend the night in corazol. we opted to risk the belize city bus, and hopped on a much less plush, much less air conditioned bus to belize, but not before consuming 8 very delicious little tacos from a street stand across from the bus station where we certainly paid tourist prices.
we crossed the border and were the only bus going across, with only about 12 of us. honestly - where the hell is everyone? and there were really only 5 other tourists, a couple of mennonites and a bunch of belizians. it's weird to see the mennonites here in their little denim shirts and hats. and tons of chinese food restaurants. i feel like i'm in manitoba except tropical. crazy.
anyway, belize: very different from mexico. i mean, for one - everything is in english. or in their native tongue which is this:
good morning: guuud mahnin!
how are you: how aaah yuuuuuu!
i'm not kidding. it's awesome.
the buildings are a lot more wood, a lot less concrete. very bright colors and very tidy. the lawns are cut short, there's very little garbage in the yards and everyone seems to really take pride in their property. it's so totally different than mexico, but we both agree we love the spanish culture in mexico and kind of miss it already.
we arrived in belize city in the nick of time, literally, to catch the last ferry. the bus driver dropped us off closer to the marine terminal, where taxis were waiting for us. by "taxis" i mean joe blow belizian in his 1982 dodge caravan. we ended up in an old grand prix with a guy and his chubby little kid copilot who yelled "YO!" to all his friends as he passed by and rasta blared out of the speakers. it also had no shocks which was extra fun on the belize city roads, but he drove like a crazy man and got us there no problem (for $10). i had no change so a "porter" from the water taxi, in his rasta accent, ran around, got us change, loaded up our bags and got us set. we jumped on the water taxi at 5:30 and were on our way to paradise.
we got onto caye calker last night and wandered around the "streets" looking for a place to stay. the streets are just really sandy paths where golf carts go (the main mode of transportation here). we decided to just find something for the night and find something better this morning and ended up at the China Town Hotel. it was just like being in asia - bright plastic everywhere and cartoon characters on the walls. and dirty. oh god, someone killed a bloody mosquito at some point (probably in 2002) and it's still stuck to the wall. we went out for a fantastic dinner of freshly caught snapper and giant pina coladas, then headed to bed. some spanish girls were partying it up on the rooftop upstairs, and we had to go ask them to not jump up and down on the tables because it sounded like they honest to god might crash right through our roof. they probably would have. i was nice and of course they were nice back and invited us up to party, but we were bagged. and len: well, len didn't live on my dad's spaghetti, that's for sure.
my dad's spaghetti is responsible for giving me Guts of Steel. it's delicious, but the secret of starting it in the morning then leaving it out all day not only makes it tastier but probably less food safe. then the fact that we ate it for a week afterwards probably added more lining to the Guts of Steel. as such, i had no problems from our taco fest in chetumal. i wish i could say the same for len.
let's just say: the frosted glass door to the bathrooms (with cartoon dolphins!) didn't provide len much privacy, and my hysterical laughing didn't provide him with any comfort. 9 pepto bismols and 4 immodium later and he's all better. which is good, because our new place only has 1/2 a bathroom door. that's right: half.
we moved immediately this morning to Ignacio's Cabanas, these fantastic, rustic cabins on 12' stilts on the beach. well, by beach i mean more of mangrove swamp, but there's some sand. the beaches on caye caulker are certainly not tulum, but we're not here for the beaches, we're here for the diving. our place is bright blue and has holes in the floor that are duct taped, but it's awesome and it's clean. the shower isn't connected to anything, which some poor kid learned when len had a shower and the kid got a shower down below. all i heard was a kid start wailing, an adult yelling "it's 14! 14!) (our cabin number) and some poor dog sitting there, abandoned on a leash while the adult tended to the screaming kid. we thought it was hilarious. at least the toilet is connected to a pipe.
we spent the afternoon on a snorkel tour in the caye caulker marine reserve, which was pretty cool but not spectacular. we did 3 snorkel stops, the 2nd being at the channel that cuts through the reef, so it was pretty choppy and pretty deep but we saw big schools of fish, a moray eel and a turtle. the third dive -amber and ben, -prepare for this - was stingray alley, this fantastic area where all these stingrays come in (um, yeah. they feed them) and swim all around you. it was unreal (len was scared), they were everywhere. good times.
now, we're off to eat lobster and drink more pina coladas. we wish you were all here (no we don't) and miss you greatly (i'm such a liar.)
tasha and len.
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Monday, January 18, 2010
we´re alive. sunburned too.
so, day 3 already. although day 1 doesn´t count because we were on a plane. but i´ll recap them all anyway.
first of all, i didn´t miss the bus friday, which is something i was paranoid about. it was jam packed and i ate smoked salmon, which i´m sure made me extra popular, but there were several people who smelled like worse things, so too bad, so sad. len picked me up and we dragged our tired butts to his sister´s place for a very, very short sleep. 3am comes early. very early.
our flights were uneventful, so i won´t bore you with those, but we DID see the giant hollywood sign flying into LAX, and that excited me, but i´m sad to tell you i could not spot disneyland. very disappointing. we celebrated leg1 of our travel day being over with a $12 margarita at El Cholos at 10am, which made me fairly drunk by 10:43am. this was good because i could then fall asleep easily on the LAX to cancun leg, which was over 3 quarters empty (thanks, recession!) so we could lay out over 3 seats and nappy nap.
we arrived in cancun just after sunset but it was already dark because of the cloudy, grey skies. uh oh. we managed to clear customs no problem (YAY green light!) and upon leaving the secure area, you walk into a school of tourism guys. i say school because they reminded me of big grey sharks, coming after you with a million questions (instead of teeth, which i guess is better). at first i was afraid, i was petrified ' then i remembered they were actually really helpful the last time i came into cancun 8 hours after i told my brother i was getting there and therefore had no ride to the resort with the name i could not remember. but that´s another story. they asked us where we were going and how we were going to get there, and gave us options. of course, they start with the expensive (cab) and go down to shuttle, but THEN, they pulled out the gold and told us about the ADO $5 bus to downtown cancun. and sold us our tickets. the moral of this story: the tourism sharks in grey clothes are actually really, really helpful.
so we headed into downtown cancun. len has been here before and had many good things to say, which is good because my previous cancun experience was the hotel zone and it was terrible. outback steakhouse, denny´s restaurant, no thanks. but downtown cancun? fantastic. really really fantastic. little shops and restaurants down nice little side streets, churro carts (yum) and pubs ' but no people. where are all the tourists? or people in general? i guess it´s a kind of down time but clearly the recession has affected it here too. we had a fabulous dinner then went back to our great little hotel, the soberanis hotel, which, for $30 a night US was a wicked deal. even better when we figured out how to work the air conditioning. both of us had puzzled and puzzled over how to turn it on, all the knobs had been ripped off. we were resigned to sleeping in the humid, hot room when i noticed this weird thing on the wall ' it was a key hole. on the wall. then i remembered the mystery key on our chain and how it clearly wásn´t for the safe as the safe had no lock (how safe!) so i popped it in there and voila! a-c.
we got up bright and early and enjoyed our free breakfast of frosted flakes and orange juice. i felt like i was 10. then we walked over to the ADO bus station and bought our tickets to tulum ($8 US each). the bus station in cancun is beautiful, way nicer than the smelly shitholes called Greyhound in BC anyway. seriously ' google it. so nice. we sat down in the waiting area, realized my watch was actually an hour ahead so we´d just gained an hour, then realized that meant our bus was leaving immediately. oops. we ran out and got hustled on the bus, where we watched the same bizarre love connection movie we´d watched the night before on the way in from the airport. that keener len watched it all to `pick up some more spanish ' i listened to some flaming lips and watched the scenery go by. then freaky friday (the lindsay lohan version, sadly) was on, dubbed, so i figured i´d watch too. mostly i just sat there wondering how lindsay lohan got so messed up.
we arrived in tulum - grey, cloudy tulum - at about noon and checked into our hotel, secret garden. it´s run by a guy from texas and a guy from mexico and it´s fantastic. and super secret as it would seem we´re the only guests right now. since it was kind of grey and crappy, we just wandered around tulum town site and drank a few margaritas. len had his very first margarita, and he was a fan. way to go, len. we wandered a bit more, then decided to have a beer. mostly, we just decided to drink whenever we had to pee, because there aren´t any public bathrooms around here. it was a lazy, relaxing day ended by laying in hammocks in our courtyard making big plans in case the weather sucked today.
guess what? it didn´t suck. at all. today we woke up to sun sun sun. after a fantastic breakfast of yogurt, granola and fruit, which only I got because len ordered in spanish and messed up (but i gave him my papaya, which i think tastes like vomit. aren´t i nice?) and a giant, giant orange juice, we headed to tulum beach.
ok.
you have not been in paradise until you´re on soft, powdery pinky white beaches next to a brilliant azure blue ocean beneath ruins that are thousands of years old. honestly. and so few other people. it was incredible. we went straight for the water, where we floated and swam, and len dunked me, tackled me and otherwise beat me into the surf. i felt my breakfast coming up so i headed in to get some sun. get some sun is what we did - we are so, so sunburned. i used sunscreen, but clearly needed to reapply more. len ' well, he sunscreened a little late. after a few hours we headed to this little beach restaurant to have a beer-margarita (i have no idea where the slash is on this keyboard. it´s spanish. but look, i can make these! ñññ). we went back to our resort, grabbed our snorkel gear and headed to gran cenote, this fantastic, well, cenote. (look it up). we snorkeled around with these cool little fish dove down around the stalagatites and watched brave divers end their cave dives. len wowed me with his exceptional underwater acrobatic skills. we chilled out inside a big cave in the water while bats flew around our heads. it was incredible.
so now, we´re tired. and burned. and full of tamales from the dad of the resort owner´s girlfriend (got that?) so ' this blog could be wittier and funnier but holy crap we´re tired-full-sunburned and need to go to bed. tomorrow we´re heading to belize bright and early, so we´ll update you once we´re settled.
so far:
margaritas: 5
tacos: 9
cervasas: too many to count
tamales: 2
good times.
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Thursday, January 14, 2010
2 more sleeps.
i looked at the forecast for saturday in cancun: 30 degrees C, thundershowers and cloudy. uh oh. don't tell len - he might not go. it looks good for later though! i swear, len. we'll just lay around in a hammock under a palm frond roof eating tamales and drinking dos equis, i'm ok with that.
i picked up my malarone yesterday. $5.00 a pill, and you need 1 a day for 2 days prior, all the time you're in a malaria zone (belize) and a week afterwards. for $5.00 a pill, i fully expect to have super powers. i want to be able to zap mosquitoes with my thoughts and deliver fruity, tropical drinks to my side with just a blink of an eye. i guess i'll have to just settle for not getting malaria. seems like kind of a bum deal.
len is bragging that his tiny backpack is barely half full. how, then, is my big backpack almost entirely full? i don't understand. i really restrained myself in the clothing department, but i guess considering i have a pharmacy and possibly a library in there, i shouldn't be surprised. i'll just make him carry my bag instead.
i'm really struggling with the traveller's cheque thing. everyone mocks me and says "just use your bank card! it's easy!" call me old fashioned, but i kind of like the peace of mind that comes with traveller's cheques. even if they get stolen - you don't lose your money! genius. but i'm taking the advice of someone (i can't remember who to give you proper credit, sorry.) and carrying a wallet with an old bank card and about $50 cash so if we DO get robbed (which happens in mexico...right brother dearest?) at least i can hand something over that might let us live to eat another tamale.
as you can tell....i'm excited about the tamales.
i picked up my malarone yesterday. $5.00 a pill, and you need 1 a day for 2 days prior, all the time you're in a malaria zone (belize) and a week afterwards. for $5.00 a pill, i fully expect to have super powers. i want to be able to zap mosquitoes with my thoughts and deliver fruity, tropical drinks to my side with just a blink of an eye. i guess i'll have to just settle for not getting malaria. seems like kind of a bum deal.
len is bragging that his tiny backpack is barely half full. how, then, is my big backpack almost entirely full? i don't understand. i really restrained myself in the clothing department, but i guess considering i have a pharmacy and possibly a library in there, i shouldn't be surprised. i'll just make him carry my bag instead.
i'm really struggling with the traveller's cheque thing. everyone mocks me and says "just use your bank card! it's easy!" call me old fashioned, but i kind of like the peace of mind that comes with traveller's cheques. even if they get stolen - you don't lose your money! genius. but i'm taking the advice of someone (i can't remember who to give you proper credit, sorry.) and carrying a wallet with an old bank card and about $50 cash so if we DO get robbed (which happens in mexico...right brother dearest?) at least i can hand something over that might let us live to eat another tamale.
as you can tell....i'm excited about the tamales.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
9 more sleeps.
i just got back from visiting my newest buddy kathy at the travel health clinic. after a few tsk tsk tsks for leaving it so late, i ended up leaving with exactly what i thought i would, which was just my typhoid vaccination. suck it kathy, i did my homework. she almost has me convinced to do the malaria drugs though...still thinking about it, but the last thing i want is to a: feel like shit or b: murder len in my sleep because i'm having night terrors. i do suppose getting malaria would be WORSE (dead-len might disagree)...but she assured me that there's a drug (a very EXPENSIVE drug) out there that has pretty much no side effects. kathy was awesome though, and tapped into my love of finding a bargain. she suggested picking them up (and the cipro) at a mexican pharmacia since belize is the place we need them and we have to start 1-2 days before entering the country. oooooh yeah. i love mexican pharmacias, it's all legal and over the counter. i'll take orders via email, + 90% admin fee.
i've managed to score a yucatan lonely plant (thanks leanne!) which is good because apparently i checked one out of the library at the beginning of december. i don't a: remember doing that at all or b: know where the hell it is but now it's overdue, whoops. we're still waiting for the guatemala/belize/yucatan book to arrive at len's place, but either stupid canada post or stupid US postal service is taking its sweet-ass time. i have one from the library - i wonder how they'd feel getting it back filled with sand and stained with tequila spills. hmmm.
our rooms are booked for the first three days - 1 night in cancun (downtown, old cancun), 2 in tulum city, then we're going to just figure it out. it's really the only way to travel, a la "seat of ones pants". i will hopefully use my charms (my strength) to find travellers who have rented a car who want the company of two adventurous canadians for some day trips, or use len's water treatment skills (his strength) for a bunch of treated water and less risk of wasting a perfectly nice beach day doubled over on the toilet. i spent 4 days that way in thailand (on squat toilets no less) so i can appreciate the clean water and think it's worth at least 1 day trip to coba.
i've managed to score a yucatan lonely plant (thanks leanne!) which is good because apparently i checked one out of the library at the beginning of december. i don't a: remember doing that at all or b: know where the hell it is but now it's overdue, whoops. we're still waiting for the guatemala/belize/yucatan book to arrive at len's place, but either stupid canada post or stupid US postal service is taking its sweet-ass time. i have one from the library - i wonder how they'd feel getting it back filled with sand and stained with tequila spills. hmmm.
our rooms are booked for the first three days - 1 night in cancun (downtown, old cancun), 2 in tulum city, then we're going to just figure it out. it's really the only way to travel, a la "seat of ones pants". i will hopefully use my charms (my strength) to find travellers who have rented a car who want the company of two adventurous canadians for some day trips, or use len's water treatment skills (his strength) for a bunch of treated water and less risk of wasting a perfectly nice beach day doubled over on the toilet. i spent 4 days that way in thailand (on squat toilets no less) so i can appreciate the clean water and think it's worth at least 1 day trip to coba.
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