Going To See It All: 2013-03-03

Cancun 3/1/13 - 3/7/13

Up early 6 a.m., drove car to lot and got to airport. There was amazing fish art on the walls and I had to take a few pictures. Flight seemed so short. We were just getting ready for a nap and the captain announced we were descending. Beyond great to fly from Miami for 2 hours, as opposed to the 6+ hour flight from Boise.

Great Fish Art at Miami Airport

Picked up by Henry, who is the landlord of the condo we rented. He drove us around a bit to show us where a few things were and that was greatly appreciated. We had to climb up 4 flights of stairs, but luckily Henry was so nice to carry our big suitcases. He's fit and recently just completed a triathlon and came in third. He showed us all around, how to turn things on and off, etc. Had a typed out list with phone numbers, some general info, and let us know that our next door neighbor speaks English which is nice to know just in case we need that help.

Henry - a blessing

Super good guy

John took a little nap and got his legs up. I hooked up computer and checked mail and Facebook. We went out to dinner before it got dark since we're unfamiliar with the neighborhood and didn't want to get lost. We walked over to the cute little Italian Restaurant. I had a pizza and John had lasagna. He liked his meal, I didn't like anything I tasted. I'm pretty picky. I'll probably do better to cook here. While Mexican food is my favorite and we're in Mexico, the Yucutan style doesn't for the most part appeal to me. I think I'm more Baja or Guadalajara style. Except I adore cochinita pibil which is 100% Yucatan. Nothing better.

Woke up to an e-mail from Henry inviting us to church. John was still asleep so I said that I would go. Henry and Margarita picked me up at 9:30. The church is in a meeting room in the La Quinta hotel. It is an English service called Cancun Christian Fellowship. The music was on the computer and we all sang along, and the service was via internet from Dallas, TX. Wonderful sermon called Little Faith relating to Jesus' walking on water. Very powerful. Very nice group, with visitors from Canada. Also met a newly married couple from India. The wife is a doctor and her husband is a medical student. They are young and so cute. Very nice morning and I appreciated the invitation so much.

Tom Martin - worship leader

Cancun Christian Fellowship

After church John and I donned our backpacks for a little shopping. We walked about 2 blocks to a mall and looked around a little bit. We stopped for lunch at a place that I thought was like a Taco Bell, but we were surprised when we were seated and given menus. We had a nice lunch of tacos, I had beef and John had chicken. Nice waiter. They have karaoke on Friday nights so maybe we'll head over later during our visit. We then headed over the Soriana a store that has food and many other items sort of like a Walmart. They had the most extensive bakery that I have ever seen and baked goods I haven't seen before. Luckily, we were full and didn't need any bakery items. I'm oh so sure we will be back.

Monday and time to get on the bus and go explore. We need to find the good beach areas. This trip is different since we're not staying at a hotel and won't have our own beach to just walk out to Ended up at Playa Langosta (lobster) where we have been there before since it is next door to where we stayed last time we were here. Nice beach and we were able to buy a few beers from the bar. Expensive, so next time we'll bring our own. Need to find a little cooler. After beach went to Wal Mart. Met a guy named Eric and we are going to see a time share tomorrow. We wanted to get phones for local calls and all the sales people at the counter only spoke Spanish. So we captured Eric to help us which was great and I don't know what we would have done without him. We took a cab home which was a challenge since we're not in a hotel, but luckily with some turns at Oxxo and the park we got here. We also bought a map of Cancun.

I put a notice on Couch Surfers that we are going to Dublin Irish Pub for St. Patrick's Day to celebrate our anniversary of meeting and I'm hoping some Cancun friends will come. I also heard from a little gal I met through CSers when I asked if anyone wanted to share cooking and recipes. We've been communicating for a few months so we will finally get together to cook/learn from each other. Ana has no stove, so we'll cook here.

Went on a presentation for some property today. We started at 8:30 to walk to store to meet and then spent our entire day. Drive was out to just outside Playa del Carmen to the most beautiful property I've ever seen. It was magnificent. We ate brunch out there and it was the best food I've had in Cancun. I had some mango passion fruit marmalade to die for and crepes vegetable in salsa poblano - heaven. They had everything you could want and everything was delicious. Had my first glass of watermelon juice and loved it. Toured and the long and short is that we traded our time share in Playa del Carmen for something here. I can't believe this is so beautiful. We got rid of our yearly timeshare maintenance fee and that makes us happy. We'll have more opportunities to travel to other places with our new association and we're glad this worked for us. As a gift, we got a bottle of tequila, two T shirts and a day trip on a catamaran to Isla Mujures with lunch, drinks, snorkeling. We're scheduled for that on Thursday.

Turquoise Water

Huge Pool with Lush Landscape

Day of rest. Walked around the corner and had lunch at Pollo Feliz (Happy Chicken). John had chicken tacos and I had quesadilla and an order of rice. The rice was out of this world delicious. Walked over to grocery store, got a few things and some of their bakery items. Biggest selection I have seen to date in Mexico. Came home, I did the wash and made John chicken mole for dinner. A little TV and to bed early.

Up early. John woke up with a weird knee, but said he could deal with it. Age just brings some funny conditions upon arising some mornings. You just never know what will have a kink, or be out of whack. And luckily there are the days all is perfect.

Got down the two blocks and caught our bus right away. It was packed with workers, students. Headed to Playa Linda, Embarcadero, to take our catamaran cruise to Isla Mujures. Huge boat that can hold up to 100. Drinks, snorkeling (we did not snorkel), shopping, lunch, drinks, drinks. A perfectly beautiful day. I am always amazed at the water color each time I see it - so teal in spots, beyond amazing.

What a color

A fun day in the sun

Sea Passion catamaran to Isla Mujures

Our cute souvenir

First $10 beer I ever had

Met some great people and I hope to hear from them since we gave them our card. We had some cards made and it has been fun to have them. Got the idea from fellow travelers Lenore and Rick.

Back around 5:30 p.m. and took a cab over to Parque de las Palapas for the CS get together at 7:00 p.m. We were hungry so got some cochinita pibil tacos and tamales. I was so, so happy to see churros for sale and the guy made me fresh, hot ones. That is how I love them. Waited and wasn't sure who was who, so I walked over to this guy and asked if he was a Couch Surfer and he said yes. He was with four other girls, two of them from Argentina. We visited a bit. They were going to go to a photography show, but we were so tired we said we'll catch you at the next event. Nice young folks. Got a cab and managed to get home again. Right to bed, exhausted.

Had to learn which bus to take

to get back to our condo

So the first week has been interesting, challenging and fun. This is different from the "hotel zone". You've got to figure out some things, especially about transportation. But so far we haven't been lost. I think it has been helpful that we have been in Cancun so many times so we do know where a lot of places are. We're enjoying this experience and the week went by so fast.

* borrowed photos

I've found some wonderful trees on our trek across this country (Bahamas and Mexico). I love trees and wanted to share my favorites in one place. Hope you enjoy. It is hard to do justice to the beauty of a tree with a photograph, but I did my best to capture the allure of trees.