Traveling Cat

David and I had a great time zooming around Mexico’s Yucatan, but I never found time to post. I’m now already prepping for my next trip, so figured I should at least get a super short recap up! One fun thing to note… it turns out that David and I can spend 24/7 together for a week and not drive each other crazy… that’s always a good thing! Pictures will have to come some other day…

Cancun:
Dinner at Carlos & Charlies – cheesy, touristy, entertaining
Stay with Suzan and Jeremy who were in town at the same time from Chicago!

Merida:
Los Arcos Hotel ($12/day) – gorgeous courtyard, nice small place
Lunch at El Trapiche
Dinner at Café Amaro (with live music!)
Breakfast at Hotel San Jose
Drive to Mayapan ruins – empty site, fun to climb all over!
Happy hour and breakfast at Las Vigas
A lovely dinner Casa Frieda
Breakfast at Hotel San Jose
Free Dali exhibit at the town art center
Free music, mariachi performances, and WIFI in the main plaza
Great time wandering the town market, seeing David get a hair cut, eating yummy food

Ruins at Chitzen Nitza with guided tour – one of the biggest sites for ruins!

Tulum:
El Capitan – great dinner and amazing ceviche
Casa Hostal (not fancy, but not bad. nice courtyard, decent private rooms) $20?
Ruins at Tulum – gorgeous beachfront ruins and swimming!
Eat lunch at hammocks at local taco stand
Swimming in caves at Grand Cenote
El Capitan – another amazing meal, with more margaritas and more ceviche!
Zamas Hotel on waterfront for drinks and dinner
Gelato at Zamas – yum!
Bar 307 in town with lots of expats, friends of Savitha’s
Spent one decadent night at Hotel Zamas with hammocks, fancy shower for $75
Tacos for breakfast at street side stand

Rental car for the week from Payless. Seemed like a sketchy company, but our tiny car worked great! Words of advice: don’t pay for gas with credit card. People tried to scam us both times. Pay cash whenever possible. Flew home though Mexico City and DFW to SeaTac. We were only gone 8 days, but it was a terrific eight days of warm weather, awesome sun, good adventures, great food, and one very sweet boy.

I recently made a short vacation to Mexico. :) It was my first trip out of the country in over a year (since biking across Vietnam!), and it was most needed and much too short. It was a good time though, and I’ll try to post some pics here.

WHERE: Merida and Tulum, the Yucatan, Mexico

WHEN: February 2010

WHY: I picked Mexico, and the Yucatan specifically, because I was going to do the trip with my boyfriend David. He’s been to three countries in Europe, but otherwise hasn’t traveled much, so I thought Mexico would be a good intro to Latin America and developing countries in general. (He said he’s a “level 3 traveler” and that I’m a “level 15 traveler,” and asked me to go easy on him). Silly boy… I’m just excited to go adventure… it doesn’t have to be something crazy. So Mexcico seemed good – a new language, new culture, less developed, but still easy to navigate, close to home/short flight, similar time zone, some familiar foods, etc. I think it was a lovely choice! I also opted to rent a car in the Tucatan because of its versatility…. if we were feeling lazy, we could just lay on a beautiful beach and drink margaritas. If we were feeling more adventurous, we could drive out to ruins and climb around, explore cenotes (underwater caves), and maybe hit towns that were decidedly more Mexican and less tourist. Also, escaping cold, rainy Seattle in February to a warm sunny place sounded delightful. And as an added bonus, I learned a little Spanish when I was 14 in high school, so it would help us get by when out of the touristy areas. :)

At Mayapan ruins near Merida