Welcome back

12 hours of travel and we're back in the United States of America. Didjah know what what we call "Mexico" is actually "The United States of México"? Now you do.

Would you like to see the pix from Campeche thru the last days of our big trip?

Of course you do, click here to see them.

There will be more photos later, and eventually, movies. Stay tuned, kids.

sprinting

I woke up early to watch the dawn break over the sea. The sand crabs begged me to stay, but Meighan won't let me.

The servants are packing our steamer trunks. Had we bought any more stuff on this trip, the only place we'd be able to keep it is right where it is now.

The sprint to the airport begins....

Back to the beach

Wow, our time in Campeche ran away from us. What a great place. Random citizens stopped us in the street to welcome up to their town. And such a beautiful town it is, too. Travelling through Mexico you inevitably are confronted with the different Mexicos, and this was very apparent here.

Campeche is on the coast and was one of the towns used for shipping gold and silver back to Spain. After a particularly harsh pirate raid the crown bit the bullet and had a wall built around the entire city, including around a small port, turning the place into a fortress. Sometime in the 70's the locals reclaimed a wide stretch of land from the coast, so now there's a strip of large modern buildings between the old city and the gulf of Mexico. We stayed in the Hotel Baluartes and crossing the two blocks between our hotel and the wall of the old city was also crossing two centuries.

Inside the city walls, it's as Spanish as the afternoon is hot. The resteraunts serve bread instead of tortillas (class war as food fight: upper class europeans ate wheat products, lower class natives ate corn products.) Tiles, arches, churches on every block. You have to remind yourself that you're in Mexico, not Spain. Yet it is definitely Mexico - new world faces, new world clothes. Bottles of cold Sol, guacamole, tortilla chips.

Step a couple blocks outside, and you are in back in Modern Mexico. Campeche afternoons are too hot for even mad dogs and gringos. We hid by the pool, relaxing and mentally grappling with the different Mexicos.

I got a good work out from two young brothers who gleefully roped me into throwing them around in the water. I had forgotten how much fun horsing around in the pool is. I can't remember the last time a child just walked up and started talking to me, let alone convinced me to play with them. I guess this just isn't allowed to happen in the US anymore.

We also watched the good friday procession from the church. You'll have to wait for the photos to see that.

On Easter we sadly piled into the car and headed back to Rancho Sak Ol. Two and a half days wasn't near enough time in Campeche. We'll be back.

Merida to Uxmal

Here's those photos of the journey from Mérida to Uxmal I promised:

click here

Uxmal to Campeche

Word to the wise - visit the ruins in the am, before it gets all Heatmizer on your buns. Holy cows, the ruined city of Uxmal knocked off our knickers. More on that later.

We´re in Campeche and we´re about to head out for the day to explore and otherwise terrorize the locals with our advanced tourist kung foo.

Mérida, day three

Howdy Travel fans,

It's late, and for a change, it's cool outside. OK, these days 78 degrees F feels cool, and also I've been in the pool. Las cervezas por el bebida maquina (vending machine. On the side of it is written "The Clicky Bar") are helping me recover from a hard day of touristing.

The highlight of my day? Haggling over dusty mexican LP's in a junk shop so crammed full of, well, junk that they had to clear things out of the way for me to squeeze sideways in to the record stacks. The poor guy manning the till had his hopes high on making a mint on a beat down 7" from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", but I wouldn't give him more than $5USD (50 pesos) for it. It was in so-so condition and it's not my particular obsession, so normally I wouldn't buy it unless it was like mebby a buck. I swear it upset him so much that he looked like he had just been told that his best friend had just died.

I think he's got some kind of emotional connection to that movie. Ah well, what can one do?

Our hotel is a sanctuary. Inside, it's as calm and relaxing as a meditation retreat. Outside it's the hussle of NYC with much smaller sidewalks. It's good to see that this is a vibrant lively city. What a strange mix, however, of affluent spanish-colonial and not-so-affluent mexican modern.

Unlike Spain, hardly anyone smokes here (tho smoking laws are more relaxed than the US) and nightlife closes down early. They are also much more serious about alcohol laws - no take-home sales after 10pm! On the other hand, people are quite friendly and not at all reserved about starting up a conversation with a gringo. Complete strangers wave and smile. Ya gotta like that.

Tomorrow we head out for Campeche. Stay tuned...

Mérida

We're in Mérida. Driving on the highways in Mexico isn't much harder than the USA, once you get used to watching out for the guys on pedal trikes and the speed bumps as you approach a town. The cities are a different matter. It's easier than Morocco, but perhaps a little harder than NYC, because this time I'm driving a tiny shiny car instead of a giant rusty truck that everyone is afraid of.

In our confusion on the way in, we did go the wrong way down a one way street and we did get hailed by a police officer and he did try to get a bribe out of us. However, he was so friendly about it and we were so naive and clueless that he let us go with a smile, and even gave us detailed directions to our hotel.

Perhaps he's just new at this cop thing.

It's hot and humid here. The streets loud and crowded. The people, generally friendly and helpful. You can tell it's the big city - people are in a hurry to do important things. We like our hotel. It's build along the Mexican standard - from the street you just see a big door, but it opens into a large airy courtyard, quiet and attractive. There's a pool, a/c, an internet computer (with American keyboard!) and even a vending machine con cerveza! It's very nice & $45/nite.

Hotel Dolores Alba

Lots to see and do here. More later.

pix

Howdy travel fans,

Here are the photos I promised:

click here to see 'm

Valliodad - Sunday night

Howdy Mexico Fans,

It´s our last night in Valliodad. Much, much nicer place than Chetumal. Beautiful buildings, good food, music. Yesterday we wandered around the town snacking, shopping and taking photos. There´s a cenote right in town here too... Last night there was a hot-rod show in the square. You shouldah seen all the crazy rigs. Bugs with gull-wing doors, in-dash DVD, muchos luzes y pumping base. Pretty fun.

Today we visited the ruins of a Mayan city known as Ek Balam (Black Jaguar). Very interesting stuff. Ate a picnic lunch of smoked pork & tortillas behind the ball court. Did you know that the captain of the winning team was sacrificed? Why, you might ask. It´s because to win was a great honor and due to the ceremonial nature of the game it meant you went straight to heaven, do not pass go, do not collect 2000 pesos. These Maya were very serious about religion.

Tomorrow we head to Merida.

This internet cafe won´t let me upload squat, so no photos for now. Hopefully in a few days.

we love a parade

We´re at an internet cafe in Chetumal. Chetumal isn´t much to write home about, but just now there was this terrific kiddie parade to celebrate spring, hundreds of small children and their parents in the street in costume. Awesome! This is the mexico that makes the heat and dirt worthwhile.

Yesterday we spent several hours at Konulich(sp?) terrific ruins, very fun. Then stopped for a cold drink at what turned out to be one of the fanciest places I´ve ever been. $8 margaritas (USD), but what luxury & what a nice view. I had been wondering what the poor were doing this season, and now I know. They have a small concrete room in Chetumal.

Today we´re off to Valliodad.

Photos & movies later...

What did we do today?

Well here, I'll show you.

Tomorrow we pack up and head South. Our rental car is named Miguel, and he's ready and rare'ing to roll. Tomorrow nite we'll probably be in Chetumal, and then later deeper into the interior.

More fun to come, stay tuned...

-- The Tiki:Mojo Crew

tuesday

Howdy kids!

Sorry for the late post, the town is doing some electrical upgrades & we were down from sun nite thru monday evening.

Saturday we went to Tulum and Cobá. Turns out I brought the wrong cable to transfer stills off my miniDV camera, so you'll have to wait for our pix (or google Tulum and Coba). Is it cool? It's pretty frickin' astoundingly cool. They figure some 60,000 people lived in Coba before a long drought wiped it out.

Two clues for you: go to Tulum as early as possible. It's swarmed with turistas. At Coba, take the rickshaw back to the entrance. It was fun.

Mexican buses are very nice and very cheap. I dunno what's wrong with Greyhound, Mexican buses are nicer, and a three hour round trip cost us about $30 for 4 people.

Playa de carmen is too crowded and developed for us. what a pleasure it was to return to this little quiet town.

Sunday we spent sleeping, eating and reading.

Today our rental car came. It's mucho tiny, some Ford that they don't sell in pale northern states. Shortly we're packing up and heading out to see "Croco-Cun" a nature preserve where they raise crocs for release into the wild. Meighan says it's much divertito!

fin de semana

What can I say? Sleep eat read sleep read sleep eat read eat sleep. Today we went to la supermercado. Lunch for 40 pesos instead of 200 pesos (10 pesos to the dollar). Prices for decent food in resteraunts here is a little cheaper than Portland. We've eaten for $6-12/person, but it's been adding up, so we've decided to cook for ourselves.

The store is fun. "What the heck do you think this is?" So many choices of fried pork rind. Bottles of sugar cane booze for two bux. We know enough Spanish to converse with the meat guy.

We learn the location of the tortilla bakery - Meighan comes back with a dozen wrapped in a piece of purple paper. 20 pesos, that is, about 20 cents. And they're still warm.

Tomorrow am we head to Tulum, Mayan ruins on the coast.

clue: don't get 100% DEET on anything other than mosquitos. I got some spray on the plastic of mi powerlibro viejo, and the anti-bug chemical left funny marks on the plastic. Kept the bug away, tho.

beach

beach

Arrival!

12 hours of travel later, we are here. Your bank account looks really big when the ATM gives your balance in pesos. Spring Breakers binge-drinking for hours in the airplanes and making questionable fashion choices.

It's quiet where we are though, the ocean breeze in the trees. Off to dinner.

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Meanwhile the preperation frenzy is well underway...

Very quiet in the village tonight

Ladies and gentlemen,

A moment of silence please, Martin Denny has passed away at the ripe old age of 92.

read about it here.

Martin, we raise our Tiki mugs to you!