Mexico with a Bang!
Feliz Año!
After Christmas Charlie met up with Lisa and I in Belize City on route to Playa del Carmen. We decided to stay the night there and Charlie got us a room at the Princess Hotel (appropriate, no?) for a Christmas present. It was great. The hotel also had the city’s only movie theatre (we saw A Shark’s Tale, complete with pop, popcorn and peanut M&M’s), casino, pool and restaurant inside.
The movie got out around 5 pm and we ran into Charlie in the lobby which was a surprise because he was driving in from Guatemala City. We didn’t expect him until much later in the evening. It was then that we shared our experiences of the Belizean people which is definitely different than anywhere else in Latin America. The funniest was when Charlie pulled over to fill up his car with gas a woman came up to him and said, “Why are you driving a black car, White?” Where “white” in this case was Charlie.
After a great night rest we were off to Mexico which took us about two hours to get to the Mexico-Belize border passing through Chetumal. We pulled into Playa del Carmen around 4 pm after a pretty boring car ride. We were glad to be here and checked into Hostel Playa, where we lucked out and had a private room for the three of us costing $15 dollars a day per person. A welcomed change from the 24-bed room that we thought we had to stay in since we made our reservations at the last minute.
After checking in, we unpacked and decided to check out the town. It was a bit of culture shock for Lisa and I since we have been living in Guatemala for so long. Playa del Carmen felt more like the US than Mexico complete with TGI Friday’s, 3 Häagen Daiz, and designer clothing, jewelry and sunglass stores. The prices also took some adjusting since one meal could cost as much as a whole day in Guatemala.
However, the place is very beautiful especially the beaches. The sand is like white powder it is so fine and the water turquoise blue. We spent most of our days there, getting up around 9 or 10 am, having breakfast and coffee, then off to the beach for at least four hours. It was perfect and just the thing to really get that sought after bronzed tan.
We treated ourselves to some great meals and drinks in the evenings. It was usually something like this: Finish the beach around 4 pm, come home for a nap getting up around 7 pm. We would take a shower and be ready around 9 pm for dinner. Then off to drinks until…? Since unlike Guatemala, Mexico doesn’t really stop serving drinks until the bars close well into the wee morning hours. One of our favorite spots was the bar on top of Hotel Deseo which is similar to Sky Bar in LA.
During the day we would do some shopping and look at all the various boutique shops. There are some great stuff to buy and see, especially with the locals calling out to you to come in and buy something from them. Most of the lines are in Spanish with things like “Hey why don’t you buy something for your girl” to “What are you looking for?” But a few were also in English and my favorite was when Lisa and I were walking down 5th Street, Playa del Carmen’s main street, this guy calls out to Lisa and says, “Hey, you look like “Push” Spice.” Ha ha… Being that there is no Push Spice, but Posh Spice is funny enough, but Lisa doesn’t look like Posh Spice, but Scary Spice which makes it even funnier.
Our schedule was a little thrown off because we lost a day. I guess that happens to people who don’t work J I didn’t know what day of the week it was or what the date was, but I thought that New Year’s Eve was on Saturday. This is a conversation by me and another girl in the hostel on Thursday:
EMMA: Tomorrow a bunch of us are getting together for lunch here to eat and have drinks. We thought it would be fun to get an early start and you should come.
ME: An early start for what?
EMMA: For New Year’s Eve.
ME: But New Year’s Eve isn’t until Saturday.
EMMA: No it’s tomorrow.
ME: How is that possible if today is the 29th of December?
EMMA: Today is the 30th.
ME: Oh….???
A good thing that she said something because we needed to get our plans locked down for the evening. We ended up staying at the hostel for the early part of the night, drinking and playing card games. We brought in the New Year with champagne, 12 grapes, laughter and friends. It was a perfect night and a great way to bring in the New Year.
Afterwards, we decided to go out dancing at Santanera one of the local club/bars. It is a really cool space with a big open bar at the top where Charlie decided to order a $200 bottle of Champagne. After which we went downstairs where the dance floor is and proceeded to drink and dance until around 5 am. It was then when Lisa and I decided that we needed a pizza break and grabbed something to eat. After we got back to the club we danced a bit more and then left returning back to the hostel around 7 in the morning.
Around 9 am I decided to go to the beach with some friends from the hostel and sleep/lay out in the sun while Lisa and Charlie slept. Later in the afternoon we caught another movie “The Incredibles” which was in Spanish, but since it was a cartoon it was pretty easy for me to understand most of it. We grabbed some food and went to bed pretty early. The next day we ate and got some coffee before driving to Belize City.
We stayed the night there at The Great House Inn (“an inn of distinction” so the sign boasted), a cute white cottage and ate dinner in the restaurant. The next morning we were off to Rio Dulce where we stayed the night at Mansion del Rio right on the river. The room included a boat tour of the river and a stop at “Castillo de San Felipe” a fort built by the Spaniards to protect the goods of import/exports coming in and out of the region by the pirates.
The following day we made our way back to Guatemala City and shared our last night with Lisa. Sad. She flew to Ecuador to finish her last part of her trip in South America before returning to the States. I have been staying at Charlie’s house, sleeping in and watching TV all day which has been wonderful. We have been going to dinner parties and will go to Antigua tomorrow for brunch with friends. After this weekend Charlie and I are driving to El Salvador for a few days and then off to Honduras. Charlie will leave me behind and I will be traveling alone from that point onward. I am a bit nervous, but excited to see some new countries.
After Christmas Charlie met up with Lisa and I in Belize City on route to Playa del Carmen. We decided to stay the night there and Charlie got us a room at the Princess Hotel (appropriate, no?) for a Christmas present. It was great. The hotel also had the city’s only movie theatre (we saw A Shark’s Tale, complete with pop, popcorn and peanut M&M’s), casino, pool and restaurant inside.
The movie got out around 5 pm and we ran into Charlie in the lobby which was a surprise because he was driving in from Guatemala City. We didn’t expect him until much later in the evening. It was then that we shared our experiences of the Belizean people which is definitely different than anywhere else in Latin America. The funniest was when Charlie pulled over to fill up his car with gas a woman came up to him and said, “Why are you driving a black car, White?” Where “white” in this case was Charlie.
After a great night rest we were off to Mexico which took us about two hours to get to the Mexico-Belize border passing through Chetumal. We pulled into Playa del Carmen around 4 pm after a pretty boring car ride. We were glad to be here and checked into Hostel Playa, where we lucked out and had a private room for the three of us costing $15 dollars a day per person. A welcomed change from the 24-bed room that we thought we had to stay in since we made our reservations at the last minute.
After checking in, we unpacked and decided to check out the town. It was a bit of culture shock for Lisa and I since we have been living in Guatemala for so long. Playa del Carmen felt more like the US than Mexico complete with TGI Friday’s, 3 Häagen Daiz, and designer clothing, jewelry and sunglass stores. The prices also took some adjusting since one meal could cost as much as a whole day in Guatemala.
However, the place is very beautiful especially the beaches. The sand is like white powder it is so fine and the water turquoise blue. We spent most of our days there, getting up around 9 or 10 am, having breakfast and coffee, then off to the beach for at least four hours. It was perfect and just the thing to really get that sought after bronzed tan.
We treated ourselves to some great meals and drinks in the evenings. It was usually something like this: Finish the beach around 4 pm, come home for a nap getting up around 7 pm. We would take a shower and be ready around 9 pm for dinner. Then off to drinks until…? Since unlike Guatemala, Mexico doesn’t really stop serving drinks until the bars close well into the wee morning hours. One of our favorite spots was the bar on top of Hotel Deseo which is similar to Sky Bar in LA.
During the day we would do some shopping and look at all the various boutique shops. There are some great stuff to buy and see, especially with the locals calling out to you to come in and buy something from them. Most of the lines are in Spanish with things like “Hey why don’t you buy something for your girl” to “What are you looking for?” But a few were also in English and my favorite was when Lisa and I were walking down 5th Street, Playa del Carmen’s main street, this guy calls out to Lisa and says, “Hey, you look like “Push” Spice.” Ha ha… Being that there is no Push Spice, but Posh Spice is funny enough, but Lisa doesn’t look like Posh Spice, but Scary Spice which makes it even funnier.
Our schedule was a little thrown off because we lost a day. I guess that happens to people who don’t work J I didn’t know what day of the week it was or what the date was, but I thought that New Year’s Eve was on Saturday. This is a conversation by me and another girl in the hostel on Thursday:
EMMA: Tomorrow a bunch of us are getting together for lunch here to eat and have drinks. We thought it would be fun to get an early start and you should come.
ME: An early start for what?
EMMA: For New Year’s Eve.
ME: But New Year’s Eve isn’t until Saturday.
EMMA: No it’s tomorrow.
ME: How is that possible if today is the 29th of December?
EMMA: Today is the 30th.
ME: Oh….???
A good thing that she said something because we needed to get our plans locked down for the evening. We ended up staying at the hostel for the early part of the night, drinking and playing card games. We brought in the New Year with champagne, 12 grapes, laughter and friends. It was a perfect night and a great way to bring in the New Year.
Afterwards, we decided to go out dancing at Santanera one of the local club/bars. It is a really cool space with a big open bar at the top where Charlie decided to order a $200 bottle of Champagne. After which we went downstairs where the dance floor is and proceeded to drink and dance until around 5 am. It was then when Lisa and I decided that we needed a pizza break and grabbed something to eat. After we got back to the club we danced a bit more and then left returning back to the hostel around 7 in the morning.
Around 9 am I decided to go to the beach with some friends from the hostel and sleep/lay out in the sun while Lisa and Charlie slept. Later in the afternoon we caught another movie “The Incredibles” which was in Spanish, but since it was a cartoon it was pretty easy for me to understand most of it. We grabbed some food and went to bed pretty early. The next day we ate and got some coffee before driving to Belize City.
We stayed the night there at The Great House Inn (“an inn of distinction” so the sign boasted), a cute white cottage and ate dinner in the restaurant. The next morning we were off to Rio Dulce where we stayed the night at Mansion del Rio right on the river. The room included a boat tour of the river and a stop at “Castillo de San Felipe” a fort built by the Spaniards to protect the goods of import/exports coming in and out of the region by the pirates.
The following day we made our way back to Guatemala City and shared our last night with Lisa. Sad. She flew to Ecuador to finish her last part of her trip in South America before returning to the States. I have been staying at Charlie’s house, sleeping in and watching TV all day which has been wonderful. We have been going to dinner parties and will go to Antigua tomorrow for brunch with friends. After this weekend Charlie and I are driving to El Salvador for a few days and then off to Honduras. Charlie will leave me behind and I will be traveling alone from that point onward. I am a bit nervous, but excited to see some new countries.
posted by Unknown at 6:27 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Craig,
What an amazing trip, I envy you.
Have done similar adventures in Mexico, one down the Baha and another in the Yucatan to the border of Guatamala during the early 80's before tourism had touched the shores. Memories of sitting on top of the Palenque temple at midnight watching the fireflies and taking shots with my old Pentax of the whole site by the flashes of the electric storm! Amazing. Not a soul there. Discovering many other temples hidden in the jungle that were not tourist spots. Being the sole swimmer bathing beneath the beautiful site of Tulum. Incredible! have also been fortunate enough to steer my career in the direction of travel in order to see the world.
Being a graphic designer, I moved fast into the world of art directing fashion photography and this allowed me to choose a location . Great!
My photoshoot trips became more like treking adventures! It was a great way to see these virtually untouched real places. Meeting the people and
experiencing living in their way. Wish I could do it all over again but sadly a lot of these places have now
been ruined by tourism.
Wondered if you could help me.
I now supply vintage textiles to major fashion designers and was researching a technique and design similar to that used in the costume of the Koona Tribe in Panama.
Would you know anyone from your travels in Panama that may be able to help me in this quest?
Would appreciate some info if you have it.
Many thanks and keep travelling!
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