Sarah: Cancun, Mexico - Disneyland and Dicky bird

Trip Start Dec 27, 2007
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Trip End Dec 28, 2008


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Where I stayed
Hotel Pina, Quetzal Hostel, Hostal Haina!
(Cancun hotels)

Flag of Mexico  ,
Friday, February 15, 2008

Gosh, since I wrote from Palenque, weīve been through Guatemala (the El Peten jungle province) and that was fantastic. We stayed in this town on an island in the middle of the lake in the middle of the jungle. We would eat dinner in one of the restaurants over the lake (yes literally on stilts above the water) and watch the sunset behind the mountains. We went to Tikal and that was pretty cool - see Rayīs entry. From there we got a bus to Belize city, Belize. Most people go straight to the islands but we were only stopping briefly so we stayed in the city. Well, I can see why people donīt stay there. Not very nice or safe feeling. The day we left was election day, and several people had said to us that if the government wasnīt defeated and ousted there would be riots. Hence we decided to leave that day and not wait around. We found out later that the opposition, working class party did win.
 
We got to Cancun, the Queenstown of Mexico. But it was nothing like Qtown of course, it was really just like being in an American city. On the nicest section of beachfront (and my it was nice) were over 5km of 5 star hotels. Wow. We bought a couple of souvenir postcards BEFORE weīd been to the beach and water looked a surreal colour. You would think it had been photoshopped. However when we walked out on to the beach, the view was breathtaking! I have never seen water like that before and Iīve been to several pacific islands. It was the brightest blue - azure blue with a deep, almost teal tinge to it. It really was stunning. And the sand was not only white but it was so so fine. When you picked it up, it wasnīt granular like normal sand, but soft. It was sort of like dryish cookie dough, the way you could squash it and mould it, and when you tried to dust it off you it was like powder. 

The highlight of our trip was going to Pericos, which is like a Mexican "Disneylandish" theme parked restaurant. The cocktails were served in goblets the size of fruitbowls (needless to say Ray had to sample them all - pina colada, marguerita, tequila sunrise, stawberry daiquiri, long island ice tea . . . ) The drinks were brought to us by men dressed up as Pancho Villa who balanced the enormous cocktails on their head. They would get us up to dance, and at one stage they had all the guests up dancing to the tequila song, then we had to make a conga line and dance around the restaurant, out the side door, round the block and back in the front door we we had to do a tequila layback. The building was so colourful and vibrant with all the walls covered in murals that were mock-Rivera and Kahlo paintings.

Other than that Cancun was pretty boring, although we did meet some wonderful people. At the hostel there was a group of really cool people and we had a lot of cool times. One of the best moments of our trip was when the young argentinian couple invited everyone up to the dining room for a pasta dinner. There were about 8 of us - kiwis, argies, a few americans, and a couple of brits. It was such a special night, these people from all over the world having a simple dinner and enjoying each others company. Ray and I bought a $7 bottle of Tequila (Jose Cuervo, good stuff) and a $4 bottle of mexican-russian-polish vodka and everyone had such a lovely night.
 
There is someone I have to tell you all about - at the hostel we met a lovely lady called Dicky. her real name was Virginia but dicky was a childhood nickname that had stuck. When we asked her the same questions everyone first asks each other - where are you from, how long are you traveling? she replied that she was travelling for 20 years! She had been to 56 countries and had 150 to go.  She was a real hard case, we had a lot of talks and a lot of laughs and she gave us beans about our accent, particularly the vowels. we laughed about our different pronunciations of tin-tan-ten, and bed-bid-bad, each of which sounded like the other to her.  Dicky stayed up till the wee small hours of the morning with the rest of us and we became good friends. I thought she was in her mid 60s and I thought that was pretty cool to be wandering around the world on your own in your retirement, staying in dorm beds in hostels and meeting people from all over the world. However, another friend, Abdul, who had been speaking to her and had seen her driverīs license told us she was 82! We couldnīt believe it! Needless to say our respect for her only increased. When I told her I couldnīt believe her age, she said she was quite embarrassed to tell us, but I said, no way, you should be proud, thatīs so cool! An amazing lady. We just got an email from her and she said she went to the travel agent to ask about a flight to Guatemala and they thought she said Guadalajara, and that was going to be much cheaper so she went there instead.  Hats of to you Dicky! I have invited her to Nz and said we would look after her if she came. Iīm sure many of you would love to meet her. And backpacker of the week goes to....!
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