[31/365] a little Mexican at home

I brought back a quite a few snacks from Cancun for everyone to try. I'm most excited to try the popcorn and the mix for churros and bunelos. I've had bunelos once at a Mexican restaurnant and they were so good! It's like cake mix but Mexican style!



RyBread and I love spicy food. I swear, he could add sriacha to every and anything.


How cool is that.

According to the guy who was selling tequila, Don Julio is way better than Patron... not that I actually enjoy any kind of tequila.

It's funny that I don't even like tequila, but brought back 3 bottles of it. They're soveniors though.


I wonder if the scorpion would be soggy or crunchy.


So I bought this thinking it was a mix between salsa and soy sauce. Perhaps it would be like soy sauce with a kick. Walking out of the store, I immediately realize that "salsa" must mean sauce! It is indeed just regular soy sauce.

[30/365] Adios

Our last sunrise on the beach. I could have cried.

[29/365] time flies

I wish we had time for parasailing. That would have been amazing!

Oat went scuba diving while I snorkelled. It's pretty cool that you can see all the bubbles divers make near the top. Seeing Oat's videos and photos of her dive make me want to get my license even more!

The last popsicle of the trip. It wasn't really that great because there was too much chile powder in it that it overpowered the fruit flavour.

[28/365] mi día favorito

Another beautiful sunrise.

Hidden Worlds is the perfect name for this cenote adventure park. It's jungle atmosphere and cenotes made for quite the day! We started off with sky cycling, which is pretty much like riding a reclined bike on a cable through the jungle. It wasn't really that great though, I got stuck a few times and since nobody was around to help me, I had to pull myself along the cable to reach the end. Next, was zip lining, which wasn't quite what I thought it'd be. I was expecting more speed... I didn't even hit the stopper at the end because I slowed down so much. The guide told me to eat more tacos at night.

We rappelled, ziplined, and snorkelled in a cenote as well. Our guides for the day (Julio and Edwin) genuinely enjoyed their jobs and found the outdoors fascinating. This made the tour even more enjoyable. They pointed out some plants that were used for things like bubble gum, rope, and traditional medicine while we rode on their "Mayan Hummer".

My favourite part of the whole day at Hidden Worlds was the snorkelling in Hilarios' Well. It wasn't part of our package and we went deeper into the cenote than a regular tour. Edwin dives in the cenote usually so knew all the nooks and crannies. THIS was what I was expecting prior to the trip when I thought of snorkelling in a cenote. So much of it seemed untouched and you really felt like you were in a hidden world afar from anything. You were surrounded by the stalactites and stalagmites. In certain parts, the stalactites were inches from our heads and the stalagmites just lightly grazing our legs as we snorkelled. At one point, we turned off all our flashlights and just listened. It was pitch black and very peaceful. Oat and I did bump our heads on some stalactites though, especially when Edwin told me to lead the way back (thank goodness there were strings to follow!).

We hadn't been having that much luck with the Mexican food in Cancun. It ranged from mediocre to crappy, but we finally had some amazing Mexican food... in none other than a food court!

Tacos al pastor = soft taco shells + pastor (marinated pork cooked on a vertical rotisserie) + cilantro + onions + pineapples. A-freaking-mazing.

McDonald's is a genius! Soft ice cream in an Oreo cone. It was the best ice cream cone I've ever eaten. I asked around when we came home to see if we had this, sadly, I was answered with no... but told that we have a cookies and cream pie.


I've wanted a boston terrier for quite sometime now. This little guy just stole my heart. Look at that sad little face, doesn't it just make you want to take him home? He would gently nibble on my fingers in a playful way and loved to be petted.

We went to the grocery store and picked up some Mexican baked goods to have breakfast on the beach the next morning. It was so much fun walking around the grocery store looking at all the things they have that we don't.

Although I was stuffed after the tacos and oreo cone, Oat and I had to make a stop at Paleteria Y Neveria. It's an ice cream shop  that has a wide array of homemade popsicles, ice cream, and jelly desserts. We'd already tried a couple popsicles there and was curious about this colourful jelly. It wasn't actually anything special because it was really just jello in a sweet milk (a cross between evaporated milk, condensed milk, and coconut milk), but I'm glad I tried it.

[27/365] a taste of Yucatan

Chichen Itza was one of the largest Mayan cities . It was amazing to see it for real. Oat and my favourite part of the ruins was the stone ball court, where the Mayans played a game that is not well understood. The goal of the game was to get the ball through these stone rings that were ridiculously high. The amazing thing is that in a version of the game, you were to use your hips hit the ball to score!









Ik Kil was the first cenote we swam in. It was so much more impressive than the murky green watered cenote at Chichen Itza! The cenote had a jungle feel to it with the vines, lush growth at the top, and waterfalls. I've never been one for diving from very high platforms but the cliff feeling of the ledge in the cenote had me intrigued. I had a different feeling about it as I was about to jump though... it seemed much higher from the top than looking up from the bottom! The drop down felt like time had slowed and I was never going to reach the water.


Xichen was a completely different feeling cenote. It was in a dark cave (lit with colour lights) with shallow water. It was beautiful in a different way.


Ek Balam was amazing, especially because we were able to climb it, unlike Chichen Itza. Although it was in Mexico, the crumbling steps  made me reminisce about climbing the Great Wall of China a couple years ago. Climbing the ruins made me feel as if I was part of something ancient and part of something filled with so much history and stories.




We thought that our last stop was Ek Balam, but Luis took us to Valladolid, the second largest city in Yucatan. We saw a church, a nunnery (no nuns live there), and Cenote Zaci. I love the beaches in Cancun, but I loved the culture that this city had so much more. Cancun is so contaminated with tourism that it seems like it's lost it's own culture. Valladolid seemed much more true to itself.


The best part about our short trip to Valladolid was trying the street food. We had plantains and sweet potatoes smothered in a sweet sauce. The food was kept warm in a metal trolley that had a large pipe that whistled to let people know it was close by. Kind of like how there's those ice cream trucks that have that jingling song.

[26/265] White Sand. Clear Blue Sea. Blue Skies.

I know people who go on these hot holidays with the white sand, clear blue sea, and blue skies always come back raving about how wonderful it was, but I'd never really understood... until now. It's so nice to have the sun beaming down on you with the ocean breeze cooling you off, especially when it's a less than 5 minute walk from your room. This said however, it takes me forever to tan and I really didn't get that dark by the end of the trip. I'm still translucent enough to see the veins in my arms.

The plan was to snorkel with sea turtles in Akumal Bay in the afternoon, but by the time we wanted to take the 2 hour trip, we would arrive way too late in the day to see any. Instead, we took the ferry to Isla Mujeres.

First on the list of things to do when we got to the island though, was to fill our bellies. What better to start off with than fresh coconuts? We also had a seafood platter filled with grilled octopus, lobster, and shrimp.

 

It was my first time snorkelling and I loved it! It was amazing swimming amongst the fish and coral. Sister Bear 1 and lent me a soft waterproof case for the trip so I could take some underwater photos. Next hot holiday, I am definitely buying a hard case so I could take advantage of all the settings on my camera.

[25/265] Cancun City

Imagine waking up to this every morning. Getting stand on our balcony with such a beautiful view was the best part of waking up. There was actually an extra charge for a room with an ocean view but Oat and I weaselled our way into getting it free for our stay.

We walked around in the shops around our hotel after a horrible Mexican breakfast (Oat's was the worst... it was a toasted bun with refried beans and melted cheese with some pico de gallo on the side). There's so many cute souvenirs to buy people, but honestly, what does somebody do with a sombrero or a little Mexican doll?

Online had said that there were bull fights in Cancun every Wednesday that were free to the public. When we arrived there was only a random local trying to tell us in Spanish that it's only every second Wednesday. He told us we could go take a look inside though. No bulls fighting... just a couple of Canadians. When we came out, he held out his hand and said "tip, tip". Funny that that was the only English word he knew.

    

We finished off the night with some more Mexican food at Carlos' n Charlie's and a disco/show at Coco Bongo. Carlos' n Charlie's was the most energetic restaurant I've been to. Every so often, staff would dance and try to get customers to join in and there were other staff going around with balloons and taking photos. There was also a guacamole cart that wheeled around making guacamole in front of the customers. Coco Bongo was an open bar club with awesome music and live performances of acrobats, dancers, and pop star impersonators. The whole area felt like Vegas with all the lights, bars, and energy.

[24/365] Houston

The title of this post could have been Cancun... or Mexico... or paradise. Instead, it is Houston. Oat and I were leaving behind the snow for white sandy beaches and clear blue water... but instead of arriving at 3:30pm, we didn't get there till past 11:00pm. We should have taken the first sign as a warning... Our Chicago to Houston flight was prolonged by 15 minutes because we had to take a detour around a storm. Then, when we got to the Houston airport, we ended up stranded on the plane for at least an hour because the ramp wasn't working. We watched the time ticking away as we knew we were missing our connection to Cancun.

 

It was very dark by the time we got to our hotel, but that didn't stop us from going for a dip in the water... which almost pushed us over because the waves were so big. There were cute huts along the beach that were illuminated with these lanterns. I couldn't wait to see everything during the day.

 

We were famished from a long, horrible experience in Houston. We went to Margaritaville for a bite... and of course, margaritas.

I'm a suck for fish tacos and that's all I could think about when I spotted it on the menu.