mexico!

Oh, Mexico. Our trip was--apart from two little hiccups--amazing. We switched hotels on the first day because the hotel we had booked had construction going on next door, and I couldn't stand the thought of lounging on the beach to the sound of a chain saw... But once we were settled at our new jungle cabana at La Zebra, all was well. I mean, just look at that row of comfy beach chairs and palm frond umbrellas! We spent many happy days lying in those chairs in the shade, reading books, playing travel Scrabble, walking the beach, and swimming.



The restaurant at La Zebra served amazing beach drinks, which we took happy advantage of. I had fresh fruit smoothies every day, and Dan munched on fresh stalks of sugar cane in his mojitos. Plus, every day around noon, the waiters came by our beach chairs with this deliciously refreshing mint lime water and a small bowl of fresh fruit, as a complimentary little snack.

Tulum is an interesting place because it's completely off the grid. There's no electricity, so most hotels run a generator for a couple hours a day, or have solar or wind power, like La Zebra. Because of this, the restaurants have incredibly romantic atmosphere. Our favorite place was on the jungle (rather than beach) side of the road, and had little mismatched wooden tables scattered among their gorgeous gardens lit by candlelight. The food was cooked by two older Mexican women in an open-air kitchen and was so delicious that we ate there three nights. The food was awesome in Tulum, especially considering that the restaurants are mostly small little cabana huts on the beach.

In addition to beautiful beaches, Tulum has Mayan ruins; it was a major port over 1,000 years ago. We spent an afternoon touring this beautiful site, which is also a popular swimming spot.




We also took a little day trip to the famous ruins at Chichen Itza, which is one of the seven wonders of the world! The ruins were phenomenal - we couldn't believe the scale of the pyramid and the ballcourt. There are also several cenotes, which are sort of like huge holes naturally carved out of soft limestone and filled with fresh water. The Mayans threw sacrifical items into the cenotes, like clay pots, precious metals... and virgins.

The grounds are huge and overrun with vendors trying to hawk you souvenirs. This could be annoying but we actually found it kind of amusing. We heard over and over again: "Cheaper than K-mart!" Their typical strategy is to lower their price as you walk away, and one guy cracked us up by revealing how much it truly sucks to hawk souvenirs. He started us off with "1 for 10 pesos" then "2 for 10" then "4 for 10" and we kept shaking our heads and walking. Finally he says "For free!" and as we walked away, we heard him mutter to himself, "oh my god" as in "I can't even give this crap away!"




The second little trip hiccup came on the last day, driving back to the Cancun airport, when we got pulled over by the police and shaken down for all our pesos, which didn't amount to very much, but was a little upsetting. We learned later that this isn't all that uncommon, it's known as a mordida or a "little bite."

Anyway, despite this unfortunate last impression of Mexico, we had a very happy babymoon!