Add Mexico to the List
It could be that I’m such a laid-back, easy-to-please guy (let’s pause a moment to allow my wife to recover from the hysterical laughing fit she’s having as she reads this…wait…wait, she’s still laughing…ok) or it’s possible that we’ve been lucky when choosing our locations, but the list of places where we want to spend 6-12 months when we finally “slow down” a bit keeps getting longer and longer.
Now Mexico just made the list. Given, we haven’t seen much more than Cozumel and a teensy bit of Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and the roads in between, but so far we love it here. The weather is delightful, the people are fantastically friendly and welcoming, the food is delicious, internet connectivity is fast, and the cost of living is low.
Check Out – Some Numbers, or “Lisbon: How Many Custard Tarts Can You Smuggle Through Customs?”
It makes me want to explore more of Mexico, but since we have so much of 2018 planned out already it may be a while before we get back.
Our AirBnB condo is pretty sweet. It’s huge for three people, relatively modern, and the views are killer. The building and the apartment itself could use some love but it’s otherwise a great place to spend a couple of months.
As of this writing we’ve been here just shy of a month. Our first couple of weeks we laid low and took it easy because we knew we would soon be having visitors. We spent our time lounging by the pool, checking out the downtown area, grocery shopping at the huge Western-style supermarkets, and hitting the local gym, Genus CrossFit.
More Family Visits!
10 days ago my father and stepmother – also known as Papa and Grammie Blew – arrived, and we were thrilled to see family again. Braeden was over the moon because he adores all of his grandparents, and he spent every minute wanting to hold Grammie’s or Papa’s hand or asking to sit on their laps.
Check Out – Queen of the Coast: Positano
Once Grammie and Papa were with us, we immediately set out to explore the island a bit. The east coast, which we hadn’t yet seen, was wild and beautiful. It’s the windward side of the island, so the surf there was big and rough, the beaches deserted. We stopped at the beach club El Chen Rio, which was little more than a restaurant with tables in the sand, cold beer, and decent freshwater showers. We hung around for a few hours, enjoyed some lunch and the clear blue water, and had an ill-advised but spirited discussion about politics that ended with everyone professing their love for one another anyway.
We spent many days goofing around by the pool, letting Grammie and Papa get to know their grandson again.
One morning we took the early ferry to the mainland, rented a car in Playa del Carmen (PDC), and drove down to Tulum to visit the ruins there. We arrived pretty early so the crowds weren’t terribly big, but it was already getting hot. The ruins were amazing, even to eyes that had taken in the likes of Angkor Wat and the Colosseum. The views from the larger ruins, which were perched on rugged cliffs by the ocean, were stunning.
Braeden and I took a break from exploring, climbed the stairs down to one of the little beaches, and jumped into the surf. We laughed and played for a while as Grammie, Papa, and Juliann relaxed in the shade, and when we were finished we climbed back up and continued our tour.
After the ruins we sought out Taqueria Honorio, a highly recommended little restaurant in Tulum. The place was simple: a collection of picnic-style tables underneath a tent next to an outdoor kitchen. The food was cheap (75 cents a taco, $1.50 for a tortas, or sandwich) and delicious. I had a pork tortas that tasted so good I had to resist the urge to order another.
Taqueria Honorio. Check it out.
Then, tired and sweaty from our long morning, we climbed into the car and drove 10 minutes north to take a peek at Grand Cenote. Cenotes are collapsed caves created by underground rivers that have carved out large hollows in the limestone that underlies most of the Yucatan Peninsula. Some are very cavelike, with small holes in the ceiling that let in daylight, while others are wide craters in the ground hundreds of feet across.
The reason cenotes are popular, though, is because they are filled with cool, gin-clear water, making them some of the most delightful swimming holes in the world.
I had done a bit of research on the many, many cenotes between PDC and Tulum, and we settled on Grand Cenote. It turned out to be an excellent choice.
It wasn’t cheap to get in, around $9 USD per adult, but the facilities (shower and restrooms) were nice and clean and the cenote was large, lovely, and uncrowded.
The cenote itself was maybe 50 yards across and had a small island in the middle, probably left from the collapse many years ago. The owners of the cenote had built a very nice staircase that made it easy to get down to the water.
Ahhh, the water. It was clear as liquid glass, cold, and refreshing, and it was a shimmering turquoise that I haven’t seen before.
We stuffed our belongings in a locker ($1.50 USD) and jumped in. We hadn’t brought our masks and snorkels with us, which I immediately regretted, because although Braeden and I really enjoyed diving down and checking out the bottom of the cenote where we could (it was over 15 feet deep in some places and disappeared into inky blackness at the edges, where I can only assume there were some caves) we would have loved to be able to see clearly
The walls of the cenote and the surrounding jungle shaded us from the sun, so we were delighted to escape the harsh sun for a couple of hours.
When we tired of swimming and started getting a bit cold, we toweled off, got changed, and headed back to PDC where our ferry home awaited us.
Oh, yes, the ferry. About that.
Our trip to Tulum was just a couple of days before the arrival of Tropical Storm Nate. We had assured my father, who sometimes gets a bit seasick, that our ferry ride over when we first arrived in Mexico was smooth and comfortable.
On this particular day, however, the seas were rough. Really rough. Attendants-handing-out-barf-bags rough.
So my poor father spent the first couple of hours on the way to Tulum looking pasty green.
He wasn’t happy about taking the ferry back to Cozumel, so Juliann found him some Dramamine at a pharmacy in PDC, which seemed to help. The ride back strangely wasn’t as bad as the ride over, and we all disembarked in Cozumel at about 5pm no worse for the wear, and we headed over to our favorite restaurant, Crazy King Burrito, for some cold beers and a few tasty burritos.
Tropical Storm Nate visited the island the next day and was cause for a bit of excitement. Everyone closed their storm shutters or boarded up their windows, and our host provided us with extra water, candles, and a flashlight in the event we lost power.
Big, bad Nate turned away from Cozumel at the last minute, though, so all we saw of him was high winds and an amazing sunset.
Grammie and Papa visited us for 10 short days. We had so much fun with them, and by this time Braeden knows when family is leaving and tends to get a grim look on his face a few hours before the dreaded departure time.
We brought them to Cozumel Airport and had a few last laughs with them before we had to say goodbye. As always, I got choked up watching family go, and it got worse watching my son sadly and emphatically hug his grandparents goodbye. We’re going to see them again shortly after Thanksgiving, however, so at least this time we won’t be apart that long.
The three of us, though, will be here for a few more weeks, and more family is coming to visit!
Until then, Adios!
Welcome. Just wanted to share with you the best of Europes festivals over the past few months. I have visited most of these in the past and I can assure you that they are great fun. Find time to relish in life and attend one of these this year. Looking forward to some more interesting posts on the Marina de Bolnuevo blog (www.marinedebolnuevo.co.uk). Have a great day.