Cancun, Mexico April 2009 blue water, sex on the beach, and margaritas

Mexico was a beautiful place to visit. She has the bluest water I've ever seen and clear skies as far as we could see. We flew American Airlines on an afternoon flight. We had breakfast before and thought we'd have some of those free peanuts on the plane, we'd land, go the hotel and relax, and then head out to dinner. Well there were no free peanuts on the plane! Everything I mean EVERYTHING other than water, OJ and coffee you need to pay for and its like ridiculous prices, like 5 dollars for a bag of peanuts or something like that. While it was a nice safe flight, by the time we landed, we were both starving. We landed and a nice woman took us to a man who was supposed to help us with getting to our hotel safely with transportation. While we spoke to him, he told us about Cancun and then after about 10 minutes, proposed an option to come to a timeshare presentation and he would give us a free trip to swim with dolphins. Well Martin and I had been to those presentations before, and I don't know if you have, but it is the equivalent of spending time in a shark pool. The sellers are hungry, starving usually and they will give you just about anything if you buy their timeshare. Martin realized what he was selling and told the man we had to run, but then the man threw in free spa treatments! He knew right where to get me! I looked at Martin hesitently and Martin told the man we were starving and had to go, so no free spa treatments for me in Mexico:( We finally found a shuttle car service. They took us right to our hotel for 300 pesos. Everything in Mexico is pesos (they do also accept the dollar though). Little kids yell at you on the street - 50 peso! 50 peso! to buy their little bracelets. Store owners stand outside and yell - Do you want a tour!? only 500 peso! After a week of that we were happy to not have to listen to 50 peso! 500 peso! When we arrived at our hotel called the Fiesta Americana, like I said before, we were STARVING. We checked in as fast as we possibly humanly could, threw our bags upstairs and ran out to the hotel restaurant on the water. This was my first experience with Mexico's handmade corn (yes corn) tortillas. They are out of this world not like any other chip I've ever tasted. Its crunchy but at the same time chewy, and mixed with their salsa (which consisted of chopped white onion, tomatos, cilantro, green peppers and lime juice) it was sooo yummy. I'm usually pretty healthy but this was just so good, I think we ate them every day! Here are a few pics of the hotel and the restaurant outside and the beach outside the hotel.

After we ate we took a walk down the beach, alittle too far down because we started to run into abandoned buidings on the water. Apparentely in Cancun there is one way you can go where there are stores and people and life and the other, is just abandoned buildings where couples have sex on the beach in plain daylight. Yes you heard that right! While we were walking, I look ahead and see this couple sitting together and it kind of looks like their cuddling and I say to Martin - o My God! their having sex! - and he just laughed and just kept walking by so I kept walking by. So I say to him - Aren't they worried about getting burnt!? (it was still sunny and warm out) - and Martin says they must be on something, so I agree and we just keep walking, now thinking that there is probably nothing to be afraid because they are just two kids high making love. We just kept walking but I couldn't avoid just looking over and taking a peek! So they were both really tan and the girl was sitting on the ground with her legs around him and the guy was sitting on the ground kind of under her. And they were both TOTALLY naked. That was really my first impression of Mexico, naked people having wild and crazy sex on the beach:) The next day we decided to start off the vacation with a massage (since I missed the free one we went to this little massage place opposite the hotel). I don't have the name but if you end up in Cancun walk to the Fiesta Americana and it is the only spa place on the street opposite it. We had a couples rock stone massage, it was very relaxing but it was exactly like the ones we've had in the US where the masseuse actually palpates muscles, it was more like they were just rubbing which felt nice but I think they might've not been licensed (which would make sense since we were in a third world country! lol). I had the best margaritas in Mexico. One night we went to dinner at a restaurant called Mexicana y Marijuana (there was no marijuana involved I swear!). We had the nicest waiter, his name is Memo and he goes to the university in Mexico City (he has the site for this blog so if your reading this Memo, you are awesome and we hope you and your family are doing okay with all this swine flu going around!) If you are in Mexico and you want a kick ass margarita, with chicken nachos and amazing enchiladas, go to this restaurant. It is in the heart of Cancun, if you ask anyone they will tell you where it is. It is also the first place where I had beef in 15 years, (I had to try one of Martins and it was delicious and I didn't even get sick!) Here is a picture.

After a few days of lounging and laying out and drinking margaritas by the clear blue water that felt like a bath every time I got in it (and I don't always go in the water because of sharks but here you could literally see straight through), we decided to go to Isla Mujeres. We wandered around Cancun and found a tourist agency Xcaret where they charged us 18 dollars for a ferry to and from the island. This island was what we thought Mexico would look like. It was colorful and noisy and people singing everywhere. We just walked through the whole place, some people rented golf carts but there really wasn't any need to as long as you can walk. Here are a few pics of the gorgeous island -

On the island we found this really cool bar called Argentina Grill. Martin decided to face death and do a shot of tequila with scorpians in it! The waitress told us how she takes the scorpians (alive) and puts them in the tequila and (this is really sad actually) the scorpian stings the liquid and shoots its venom out as its dying. Its really sad to think about. I wouldn't do it but Martin insisted that they were dead anyways and to come face to face with this crazy drink.

Here are some pics (I was worried afterwards that he might fall over or something, but he seemed pretty much sane:))

By the time we got home we were so tired we just sacked out and watched some Spanish tv. o btw all tv in Mexico except like two channels is in Spanish. The next day we ventured out again to the Xcaret and booked a trip to Chichen Itza pyramids. The trip totalled 140 for the two of us, which wasn't bad considering it included round trip bus, a buffet lunch stop, a stop at the cenote (aka the womb of the earth), and entrance into Chichen Itza with a tourguide. My advice, if you do this tour, is to bring a snack for the bus ride. I was really hungry by the time we got there! I guess from all the travelling? Here is a picture of our bus -

Our first stop was to the Cenote. A cenote is a deep cave with water filling it that has come from inside the earth. This one was naturally occuring and felt so unbelievably fresh to jump into. It was not to warm, not to cold, it was just cool, and it felt alittle thick for some reason. The Mexicans believe this is the womb or uterus of the earth. I could've swam longer but there were fresh water fish in there that started to freak me out alittle.

Next we went to eat at a little farm place. I don't know if I was just hungry by the time we got there but the food was sooo good! There were those nachos again, fish, chicken, (no beef this time), flan, rice, and salad. We filled up and watched the girls dance with beer bottles on their heads.

Next stop - Chichen Itza. Here we had a tour guide who told us so much interesting information that I can't retell all on this blog. But very interesting about the Mayans and how they were so brilliant for so long and how for some reason, all of their intelligence left when the Spaniards came and took over. He talked about 2012 and how on Dec 21 the calendar officially ends and how the Mayans believed that snakes were symbols of fertility and how when the Spaniards came, they believed those symbols were the devil (I guess Adam and Eve kind of thing) and destroyed almost all of the sculptures. Here are some pictures: Here is the place that was believed to be where the Mayans played a game with a ball and bounced it off their hips into a very high hole and died if they lost.

(the pyramid above with 365 steps to equal the days of the yr) this pyramid was so cool because if you stand at one based of the steps and clap your hands, a sound of a bird chirp resonates, its pretty amazing.

I didn't get sick until my last night, we went to Hooters because I wanted wings and I had a glass of ice with a bottle of water (I figured, I've had a dozen margaritas by now, what could this ice hurt?) well it did hurt, all night from about 12-4 in the morning I was throwing it all up. Felt better by the morning through whew.
One our trip Martin and I stopped into this hotel RIU to get a few margaritas. We didn't realize it was all inclusuve until the waiter told us after we drank our drinks, so he gave them to us for free! We tipped him well but it was so nice! (this was before I got very tan:))

Here is a nice pic of the beach outside the hotel.

A guy who must've had too many the night before hehe:)

My FAV place to go for breakfast!!! When the bill came to 180 I had a mini freak out until I realized it was pesos.

And some more pictures of beautiful Mexico.

Hope you enjoyed our trip to Cancun!