Silly things on my blog instead

I could have titled this something like, "My first paid vacation!!" (considering this first year since graduating college has been full of firsts), but I mentioned in this entry that I would write "silly things on my blog instead" of going on my work email while on vacation, so here we are.

Rather than do a day by day report like what I did for my entry about Mexico City, I decided to divide this blog entry into thematic sections. Each will be quite loaded, so rather than delay by saying more in this little introduction, I will begin them now.

Mérida: an anthropological food tour 

Why did I decide to call this an anthropological food tour? Not sure. I think I just wanted to combine my love of food and love of anthropology, and also because this section of the blog entry will feature Mérida food and the city's anthropology museum. (Food will be mentioned throughout the rest of the entry, not just here, so don't think I'm done talking about it when you're done reading this section.)

Mérida, one of the largest cities in the Yucatán Peninsula, was our home base for the vacation. It has a Museo Regional de Antropología, which James and I visited. It was located on the Paseo Montejo, a major avenue (think Champs-Elysées in Paris) with a lot of mansions that have been converted into other kinds of buildings. One became a Starbucks, which we obviously also visited, and one became this museum. It focused on Mayan archaeology and had some cool artifacts.

While this is by no means a comprehensive representation of all the great food we ate, here are some stellar highlights of the meals we had, specifically for breakfast, lunch, then dinner.

BREAKFAST HIGHLIGHTS:

James and I are firm believers in dessert for breakfast. This is a brownie with cinnamon and coffee with a white chocolate drizzle. We had it at a chocolate specialty place called Ki'Xocolatl in the Parque Santa Lucia. 

Okay don't judge us for eating French toast in Mexico but this was absolutely delicious and very well presented. We had it at a place called Maíz, Canela, y Cilantro, conveniently located right next to our Airbnb. 

LUNCH HIGHLIGHTS:

This place called Maíz de lo Alto was recommended to us by a friend we made on our trip. She had written a guide, which I read, and when I saw this place and her mention of amazing fries with chipotle mayo (both of which I am a sucker for), I knew we had to go. The place had great ambiance, and almost as soon as we settled down, a song both James and I really like started playing, which was cheeringly serendipitous. We ordered the fries, I ordered a jamaica con miel, and James ordered some kind of cucumber tasting drink. For our main course, I ordered shrimp tacos in a blue corn tortilla, and James ordered chicken with mole sauce. The meal was divine.

I am an absolute fiend for sauce so I was excited at the variety that came with the fries (and the cilantro with cheese crumbles that seasoned the potatoes), but the chipotle mayo was the winner.

Having a real hard time getting over this meal.

DINNER HIGHLIGHTS:

The same friend that wrote the guide that led us to the lunch restaurant mentioned above also took us to a place called El Taco Árabe, a place far from any touristy center and where only people well acquainted with the city go. It served special tacos in pita rather than tortillas. I ordered one with cheese and one with rayas de chicharra. I did not know what the latter was, so I ordered it, and was not disappointed when it came with shaved chicharron. The appetizer we had was pita chips, which we devoured with the garlic sauce served in a little pot. It was heavenly! 

I was already quite full with two. A solid meal!

Another wonderful food experience that unfortunately didn't make it into my camera roll was the street food at the Parque de las Américas. Our last night in Mérida, James and I took a salsa class I booked on Airbnb, and we ended up being the only people who booked that evening so it was a private class. The instructors were great, and at the end, I asked them where we could get marquecitas, a traditional cheesy crepe the city is known for. They suggested the Parque de las Américas, so after the class, James and I headed there and sampled esquites, churros, and a marquecita. Mission accomplished! It was wonderful how lively the park was even on a weeknight, and James and I decided to walk home and enjoy the cool evening air.

Apart from the food, we also visited a few cafes. For future reference and for anyone who is as obsessed with cafes as I am, their names were Starbucks (lol), Bengala Kaffeehaus, and El Orden del Caos. All with great wifi and seating to get some work done or a little reading!

I am making a song reference here

For one of our vacation days, James and I took the bus to one of the most photogenic and adorable towns I have ever seen, Izamal. It was scorching hot that day, like it was for every single day we were there besides our first, and I was kinda dying. I relished being in the air conditioned souvenir shop that we found in the main convent. BUT I still had a great time! I will always complain about the heat no matter what. I was afraid the pictures we took would depict how sweaty and exhausted I was, but now that I am looking at them in a place where it is below 70ºF outside, I think I look okay. James looked fine, because he doesn't sweat like a pig like I do. 

The wall of a souvenir shop we went to, where James got a really nice shirt. 

Yes, I totally planned to wear that dress.

Looking like an academic. See the stingray shirt he got in the Philippines!

One of my coworkers who knows the Yucatán really well recommended we visit this town. The way she described it, I couldn't wait to see it, and I actually told myself not to look it up on Google Images for once so I could be surprised when I saw it in person. I'm really glad I didn't, and will probably try to avoid looking things up ahead again in the unexpected places I visit next!

Of ruins and little towns

Although James and I had our own space to ourselves at the Airbnb, it was part of a larger common space with another apartment, a pool with a patio, and the host's place downstairs. We became acquainted with the people staying in the apartment next door, Americans who were our age (one of them finishing her Fulbright year in the city, her brother, and her best friend). They invited us to join them exploring some ruins in a car they rented for a day, and we were thrilled to join them. It certainly beat taking buses and dealing with delays in the heat, plus it gave us lots of flexibility! The three ended up being fantastic travel buddies for the day, and we had tons of fun exploring two ruins and driving through little towns, pointing out every dog and iguana we passed by. Yes, it was hot, yet I somehow managed to convince myself to trek around and go up and down steep steps. Let's just say that despite missing Zumba, I managed to get a decent workout in on this trip. 

UXMAL: 

This is one of the major archaeological sites in the area around Mérida. Let the pictures say all. 

I'm finally as tall as James!!

LOVED seeing these critters everywhere.

MAYAPAN:

This was a smaller ruin than Uxmal. We arrived there at the end of the day after they accepted visitors, but the guard let us in anyway because he had just let a huge group of schoolchildren in. We also got deeply discounted tickets to enter (less than $1 USD per person!). We ended up climbing the large pyramid in the complex, and getting down was quite the adventure. But I felt super accomplished, especially knowing how clumsy and descent-averse I am!

Me giving you a look of disapproval after you remark that I wear this outfit literally all the time.

Climbing up with our hands...

...and scooting down with our butts

TICUL: 

Our Fulbright friend had wanted to go here because she heard that they sold lots of shoes. After seeing some zapaterías, we were all a bit disillusioned because the shoes didn't really look like anything specially crafted in the town–they were just normal shoes you could find anywhere, and there just happened to be a ton of zapaterías in the town for some weird reason. So we walked around the town, found a restaurant to eat at, and visited artisan handicraft shops instead. Still a successful stopover! 

Looks just like a little town in the Philippines! (Complete with a rosary in the rental car.)

The restaurant we went to was called El Mirador de Ticul, and it lived up to its name. We entered via steps (the climbing never ends) within a flower tunnel and were greeted by an expansive view of the countryside. There was pleasant music playing, and at one point a version of a bolero I really like came on. I sang the lyrics to myself a while, enjoying the company, the food, the breeze, and the view. It was one of the greatest moments of the trip!

Poc chuc, a traditional Yucatecan dish, which is accompanied by tortillas.

After the hearty meal, we headed to the ruta de las artesanías and visited a few shops where artisans made figures out of clay. We made sure to take a few figures for ourselves! 

This was the workshop section of one of the shops, where a lot of the pieces are created, baked in the kiln, and painted in bright colors. 

Along with reptiles, James and I also love frogs and got a few figurines for ourselves. We love having home decor with a story that reflects the wonderful places we've been to!

Of holes in the ground

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE water. Drinking it, looking at it, or swimming in it, I love it like I love reptiles and dogs and cafes and iced coffee. Maybe it's a result of growing up on an island. But anyway, when I researched what to do on the Yucatán Peninsula and saw these things called cenotes, I became intrigued. I think I had seen them in pictures before but had never actually experienced anything like them, so I knew we had to get to them. Since you can swim in cenotes, I also put them on high priority because I needed some kind of respite from the pounding heat.

We had no set agenda besides a day set aside to explore, so we took tips from our friend and headed to the Noreste bus terminal. Across the street from the entrance, there were combis (little van-buses) lined up, all headed to the town of Homún, a little town in the anillo de cenotes surrounded by the fantastic underground pools. We got into one of the combis, and one of the people idling there waiting for the combi to fill up, noticed that we were obviously tourists and asked us if we wanted to see the cenotes. We said yes, and he said great, he would show us around.  That was how we met our tour guide, Misael.

The combi ride took around an hour. We weren't really sure where to get off, but at one point the driver called out, "Hay alguien que va a los cenotes?" and I spoke up on our behalf. The driver stopped the combi, and Misael, James, and I got out. Misael went to get his little moto-taxi parked in front of his home, as well as his almost-10-year-old son Benjamin, his adventure companion. Lucky family to get to live close to such natural wonders! Benjamin accompanied us on the tour, and we went off to explore three different cenotes.

CANUNCHEN:

The first cenote was called Canunchen. This one had the biggest complex surrounding it, with hammocks and other places to lounge above ground. But that's not what we were interested in–we headed straight to the entrance to the cenote and were greeted with an otherworldly sight after descending down a ladder and a steep spiral staircase. Like I said, this region always finds a way to make you climb!

Photo credits here

This was a pretty large cenote and even included a rope swing. I made sure to swim around, though was a little bit intimidated by the dark abyss further away from the rocky shallows! The water in cenotes is pristinely clear, which makes being unable to see the bottom in the deeper parts even freakier. 

Us after a good swim in our first cenote. Misael explained that the álamo tree, seen behind us, is known as the "guardian of the cenotes" because it often marks the presence of a cenote. The roots extend deep underground, and you can actually see them as you go down into the cenote itself!

HOOL KOSOM: 

After we left Canunchen, Misael drove us to Hool Kosom. Unlike in Canunchen, this cenote had another crater through which sunlight would stream down directly into the pool of water. Whereas Canunchen had some artificial lighting, Hool Kosom was illuminated entirely by the sun above. It was ethereal. 

Again not my picture; photo credits here

Me swimming over to the sunlight in the middle

Check out how cavernous it is!

I spent some time floating around my back and looking above me. I peered into some of the holes in the stone and saw many bats roosted within them. While exploring underwater, I looked at the fish, which looked like black, shadowy specters against the light when I looked straight ahead underneath the surface. Misael told us that they were blind and moved around using their "whiskers," which James and I found endearing. Definitely a change from the colorful coral reef fish I'm used to seeing!

CHELPAK: 

Swimming and climbing is tiring, so we only felt like seeing one more cenote after the first two. This one was the smallest with the most precarious descent. There was only one crater through which you could enter, and since it was the darkest as well, sometimes the groundskeepers would put a mirror on a ladder stretched across it to reflect light back into the cavern. 

After a few minutes, James and I had this cenote to ourselves. Misael took all the amazing pictures of us, and here you can see the roots of the álamo tree at Cenote Chelpak's entrance to the left. Gnarly!

The water's so clear it looks like we're flying. 

Ready for some food after a satisfying swim! 

After the third cenote, Misael took us to an outdoor restaurant where we could eat and dry off. We ordered more Yucatecan food, and I had panuchos. (I could not finish them. Thankfully, the last one made a good little breakfast our last day in Mérida.) Afterwards, we took a picture with Misael and Benjamin.

James in Misael's moto taxi

Us in front of the restaurant

The cenotes are officially one of my favorite travel-nature-y experiences ever. They're definitely in the top three, along with the Salar de Uyuni and the Ugandan safari. Having Misael and Benjamin as company was part of what made them special, and I'm glad James and I both speak Spanish so that we could appreciate the tour Misael gave!

Just a little Cancún 

Since there are direct flights between Cancún and Minneapolis, James and I decided to spend our last night in Mexico in Cancún. Yes, the place where gross suburban gringos all go for spring break. We did see a lot of people with gross orange tans but anyway besides that, our last full day was a day where we had some travel hiccups.

Basically, the place we booked would only take cash as payment upon arrival. I didn't think this would be a problem, until I went to the ATM at the Mérida bus station and got rejected because my PIN was incorrect, which made me realize that I had no idea what my PIN was. I hadn't used my debit card for anything in months, and my PIN was one the bank assigned to me that I never changed, so it was a recipe for disaster. What's more, James had overdrawn his bank account and even when we did an emergency Venmo transfer, the ATMs in the Cancún bus terminal were rejecting his card. We were hungry, so before we figured out a game plan to see if we could even withdraw the amount of cash needed to go to the place we booked, we headed to the nearby McDonald's. They would certainly take credit card. I bought us our lunch, and somehow they didn't have any McFlurrys or ice cream desserts which was a bummer, but anyway, I talked to my mom because to me that is always the solution to my problems. We decided to just cancel our previous booking, and my mom would make a reservation online at a Sheraton since she would get points for it. (My mom always finds  away to make these situations benefit her too.)

Great! We just had to figure out a way to get there, since we didn't have cash to pay a taxi. Since we had used Uber in other parts of Mexico, I thought we could just call an Uber. So I ordered one, or at least I thought I did. The app loaded for a while, and then after an agonizing wait, it took us to a screen that said "No available drivers." Okay WHAT? I tried a few times, but there were never any available drivers in sight. At that point I decided to have a mini emotional breakdown in the McDonald's, wailing about not being able to go to the beach. Definitely one of my proudest moments. James kept calm but didn't know how to deal with me, so I let myself be melodramatic a bit and then heightened my resolve to do something about the dilemma. I said we should go back to the bus terminal, where a lot of taxis are, and ask if any of them could take dollars. James said we should just hail a taxi from closer to the McDonald's, which made sense, so that's what we did. I asked the driver if he would take USD, and he said yes. I was so relieved I overpaid him.

We made it to the hotel and checked in to a wonderful room with a king sized bed. My mom's reservation came through, and I paid with my credit card. James and I settled in our room. But I still wanted to go to the beach. So James called his bank to figure out the situation, spoke with an operator who was definitely Filipino in some call center, and they reimbursed him the unanticipated overdrawn fees. He went downstairs to the hotel lobby to see if he could withdraw money, and it worked! Relieved, we called a taxi and headed to the beach. We went to Playa Tortugas, one of the public beaches. James sat on the shore and read a book while I headed straight for the water and spent some time swimming around.

I saw lots of fish and lots of the infamous sargasso, though thankfully in water not so close to the shore. I even saw a barracuda about the size of my arm! Later in the evening, James and I headed for the hotel's rooftop pool, which we had all to ourselves.

After the fiasco of the day and a pretty packed week, we had a restful evening and slept well the night before our flight. I am now back in Minneapolis getting ready to start the work week. Our trip to the Yucatán was definitely a vacation to remember, and James and I are happy to have another adventure in the books! Until the next one...