Cancun update

It's hotter than hell here... something like 98 degrees with 80%
humidity. It is a jungle after all.

There are people that are good on tours, and people that don't enjoy
guided tours at all. I have to admit, I'm the latter. I hate being
led around by the nose and told when and where to be... I was really
just hoping to book transportation the 200 km or so to the Mayan
ruins at Chichen Itza but we decided to book this tour. What should
have been 2 hours or so there, turned in 6 hours by the time we
picked up all the rest of the people going along, and stopped at the
shopping centers that our tour guide, Jorge, got a commission
from... then we stopped at one of the 'cenotes' at Ik Kil today...
they are giant sinkholes, basically the roof of a cavern over an
underground river that has collapsed on itself. There were lots of
people swimming and jumping in from a high platform carved into the
wall. And after a rather unappetizing buffet lunch, we FINALLY made
it to the site.

Our guide was very knowledgeable about the site, though we had to
hear every fact at least three times, usually because he repeated
himself twice, and then some moron would ask him to answer a question
that he had just answered. Makes me absolutely crazy... and you know
there always has to be at least one mother on the bus that complains
about everything, and asks people to move so she can have a more
comfortable seat, and then blabs the entire trip... she sat a couple
of rows behind us.

UncleMonkeyBoi says that he had waited 20 years to go to Chichen
Itza, and had read everything he could about it in high school. He
was very excited about getting to go. After a lengthy lesson from
Jorge, Michael and I climbed that gigantic pyramid whose narrow steps
are almost completely straight up. That nearly killed me in the
heat... and THEN... we decided to go inside the pyramid, which
involved climbing up these EXTREMELY narrow stairs in a VERY SMALL
hallway. It was like climbing into a coffin attic. If you ever find
yourself there, I recommend avoiding the inside staircase. Though
our tour guide told us that at the end of the month they will be
closing the Kukulcan temple to the public and it's likely you won't
have that problem.

The site is over run with monitor lizards and grey iguanas. It was
really quite amusing to see them running free everywhere. I played
with one in a tree while Jorge was rambling on. There was a
relatively cute guy on our tour with his girlfriend who turned out to
be quite skittish when I pointed out the bats that were hanging in
the ceiling of one of the ruins. She gave a nice startled screech and
ran out... her doting boyfriend right behind her. I think they are
actually staying in the Flamingo Hotel with us, but we hadn't seen
them before or since. They weren't exactly friendly, so whatever.

I will be putting pictures up once I get home and can properly edit
these posts. I'm sending everything via email at the moment because
access to webpages is rather spotty. We have booked ourselves on
another tour (oh boy) to Xel-Ha and Tulum for first thing in the
morning. This should be a bit more up my alley, because we get to go
snorkeling in an underground river, and we are promised more wildlife.

Until next time.

Things I Learned on Our First Day in Cancun

Correo seguro, verificado por Xtreme Solutions del Caribe, SA de CV.

1. UncleMonkeyBoi gets very cranky when forced to go 12 hours without
a cigarette.
2. A screaming kid will always stop screaming just in time for the
final descent.
3. A screaming kid is not only effective birth control, it is also
quite likely a leading cause of alcoholism.
4. Having a Manhattan at 6:30AM will not kill you. It will in fact,
make you drunk.
5. Being drunk on an airplane is not as much fun as you might think.
6. Taxi drivers are the same everywhere. Crazy.
7. It pays to request early check in... our room was ready and a
lobby full of people had to wait for theirs.
8. A lobby full of tourists is loud.
9. Spray on sunscreen is good in theory.
10. Spray on sunscreen reality: it leaves you with a blotchy sunburn.
11. Jimmy Buffett is a smart man. He makes shitty food, but his
restaurants are everywhere I want to go.
12. Not having internet access in your hotel room sucks.

Cancun Day 2

Correo seguro, verificado por Xtreme Solutions del Caribe, SA de CV.

We still haven't found an internet cafe yet. I will ask in the lobby
tomorrow. Hopefully they won't charge me extra for advice. Seems
everything here has a price. We tried to pick up some suntan lotion
that wasn't SPF 30 like the stuff we brought. I also wanted some
aloe to soothe the patchy sunburn (see yesterday's entry) that I got.
Grand total for the two small bottles. $42.00 US. I said forget it.
We're not buying anything in the hotel shop from here on out.

The hotel is quite nice... they put us in an ocean view room on a
corner. We're on the 4th floor and have a great view. I'll be sure
to post some pictures when I get internet access. The room is
comfortable... king size bed, large bathroom etc. But they will not
allow us to bring in any outside food or beverages... so no ordering
a pizza, or going to the liquor store across the street and bringing
beer up to the room. We're stuck buying beer from room service, or
going down to the bar and paying roughly 4.00 for a small cup of Dos
Equix.

Another thing I find a bit limiting about this place is the
security... while I"m sure it's a good thing, but if you were to meet
some friends who were staying at another hotel (or make new friends)
you could not invite them up to your room because they are not
wearing this intrusive little arm bracelet. We got tagged, like birds.

We walked around the hotel zone today, and found the shopping malls.
Everything here is very tourist-centric. The stores carried clothing
from Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabanna, Versace etc. I fell in love with a
shirt in the window, only to discover that they wanted over $300USD
for it. I don't think I've ever paid 300 for an entire outfit, let
alone a cute white linen shirt with a large orange flower on the
shoulder.

I'm hoping to do some wandering around the downtown area and finding
the places that the natives shop. I've seen guys walking around in
the coolest linen pants, and I must have a pair to go home in.

We managed to make it out to one of the gay clubs in Cancun,
Picante. It was much smaller than I was lead to believe on the
website. Nearly empty when we arrived, but filled up around 1am. A
guy named Diego who insisted on talking to me while I was trying to
pee, informed me that there are two better clubs to go to: Carumba
and Glow. We'll check them out later this week.

We slept like 15 hours yesterday between the nap on the beach, the
nap in the room, and then sleeping after our nap. We're going to turn
in now, and try to go to Tulum and Xel-Ha tomorrow maybe.

More later!

PostSecret

Amazing.

PostSecret