Chichen Itza

As promised, here are some of my photos from our Mexico trip. I realized that they are all of Chichen Itza, which makes sense, I guess.

















The last picture documents pretty much the only real Mexican food that we ate during the whole trip. We stopped by a small restaurant outside of the site for a late lunch, and our driver recommended "panuchos" and "salbutes" as the local Yucutan specialties. They were both basically like fried tacos; the panuchos (pictured above) had bean paste spread between two tortillas fried together, and the salbutes were fluffier and doughier with no bean paste. I liked the salbutes better.

refreshing

D and I spent the long weekend in Cancun with some of my coworkers. We stayed at the all-inclusive Dreams Resort Cancun, which meant we spent most of the weekend ordering our mixed drinks with extra shots on the side. D also loved the 24-hour unlimited free room service.

On Sunday, we all took a day trip to Chichen Itza. It was more impressive than I'd expected, and we spent several hours roaming around the area while dodging souvenir hawkers. At some point I'll try and post some photos.

I quite enjoyed being abroad for V-day; we were nearly finished with our (completely unromantic, table-of-seven) dinner when we remembered what day it was. I'm thinking we just might have to make a habit of escaping the madness by leaving the country. Yes, I hate pink. :-p

the girls visit Los Cabos

I just got back yesterday from a 4-day + 3-night girls getaway in Los Cabos. Ironically, given Cabo's party reputation, we spent the long weekend doing pretty much everything except clubbing, which was exactly the way we wanted it.

The Los Cabos area (aka Cabo) consists of Cabo San Lucas (more touristy), San Jose del Cabo (more authentic), and the 18-mile corridor in between:


We stayed at the Casa Dorada hotel in Cabo San Lucas, which is a pretty new place overlooking the Playa el Medano, one of the few swimmable beaches in Cabo. We had a two-bedroom suite (complete with two bathrooms, two kitchens, two balconies, and a jacuzzi) overlooking the beach. It was great waking up every morning to this view:


The first day was pretty chill; after checking into the hotel, we stood in line to get money from an ATM (unfortunately it was July 31st, aka payday), went to the grocery store, where we bought the first of many delicious mangoes. Then we walked around Cabo San Lucas a bit, had dinner at a local seafood place, checked out the Puerto Paraiso shopping mall, and went back to the hotel for some relaxing and card games.

The next day, we went to a glassblowing factory, where some of us (including me) actually got to blow glass! It was actually harder than I expected; for awhile nothing was happening, and then all of a sudden the bubble came out really fast. The guy kept telling me "more, more!" so I blew until the glass bubble exploded, and he gave me a piece as a souvenir. Some of us picked up some trinkets from the gift shop:


For lunch, we ate at Gardenia's Tacos, on Paseo Pescadores. The tacos were amazing; I had shrimp and BBQ pork, and the shrimp was fresh and nicely fried, and the BBQ pork was just the right degree of spicy. On the table were generous servings of cabbage, onions & cilantro, two kinds of salsa, guacamole, and lime, so we could add the condiments ourselves.


I also had a really good mango margarita there, and afterwards we decided to go and buy some of the tequila they had used (Jose Cuervo Traditionale). We ended up at a Costco-like place (day pass $2), complete with food samples and huge warehouse decor, and bought four liters to take home.

After hanging out back at the hotel for a bit, we headed to San Jose del Cabo by local bus. The bellboys tried to scare us into renting a car instead ("There's dog poo on the ground! And people holding chickens!") but we were skeptical so we took it anyway. It turned out to be perfectly fine; the bus driver was sweet and let us flag down the bus in the middle of the street, the bus itself was at least as nice as Muni, and at least one fellow passenger spoke decent English and helped us figure out when to get off. The best part was, the trip cost 23 pesos per person (about $2.30 USD) instead of $80 for a cab.

It was nice walking around in San Jose; in general things were much more chill than in San Lucas. Store owners would help us when asked, but they were pretty low pressure. We found prices in the stores were somewhat cheaper and more flexible, as well. The town square was cute and there were local kids running around, and overall it just felt less touristy, although not as rustic as the town we visited near Zihua, where they had apparently never seen Asian people. A few photos from near the town square:



For dinner, we went to the very sleek "C" by Charlie Trotter, inside the One & Only Palmilla resort. Compared to Chicago's version, "C" was actually prettier to look at, with gorgeous ocean views, and the food was more Asian-influenced. The resort itself was lovely as well (and had very good security):


My favorite dish was a "bento box" appetizer, which came with five small dishes; kobe beef which could be cooked on a small hot stone, tuna tartare, two pieces of rolled sushi, ceviche, and fried shrimp. Here's a photo of the presentation:


The kurobuta pork entree was so-so, but the beef shortrib cannelloni was yummy, and the desserts were good as well. We really liked their specialty cocktails; there was a cucumber margarita that was very refreshing, a virgin mojito-style drink, and I had a watermelon margarita.

Day three started bright and early with a kayaking trip at 8am. We took Baja Wild's "Three Bay Crusade" tour, which took us from Twin Dolphin Bay to Santa Maria and then to Chileno Beach. We first kayaked the mile between Twin Dolphin and Santa Maria, then snorkeled for awhile at Santa Maria, and then continued on another two miles to Chileno, where we snorkeled some more, until a tour boat full of snorkelers descended on us in the last few minutes before we were going to leave. The three-mile distance was the longest I'd ever gone by kayak, and the snorkeling was fun too, especially at Santa Maria where the beach was practically deserted and the fish were plentiful (and really close to shore). We also saw lots of pelicans and there was one sighting of a small ray, but I missed it. One person had a waterproof casing for her camera and was able to get lots of photos:




Due to some excellent scheduling, we were booked for spa appointments at the Esperanza resort that afternoon, which was perfect, as we were pretty tired from the kayaking. After getting cleaned up and making some mango smoothies back in our suite, we headed over to the spa early to take advantage of the hot tubs and steam room, before having our spa treatments.

The Esperanza was recently rated as the world's third-best spa by Conde Nast Traveller, and it was definitely the nicest spa I've ever been to, both in terms of decor and quality of services:



One of the girls (apparently knowing our group *very well*) had the foresight to order a huge tray of post-spa snacks for us to enjoy as we hung out in the common area, which we promptly demolished:


We were still able to eat our fair share a few hours later when we went to Nick-San for dinner, and we even had dessert at Haagen-Dazs while waiting out a late night thunderstorm before heading back to the hotel to play Bang! until 3am.

The last day was pretty short; we woke up late, got packed, ate more mangoes and smoothies, and headed to the airport. There was a fun incident where the taxi driver took us to the domestic terminal and we had to find a shuttle to get to the international terminal, but things went pretty smoothly after that.

Anyway, it was a great trip! I really enjoyed the tons of yummy food (upscale as well as basic local staples like mangoes and chips/salsa), lots of different fun activities, and of course, the excellent company. I'm thinking we'll have to plan a reunion trip sometime.

Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo

We got back almost a week ago now, but it's been an eventful few days. I was all proud of myself for not getting sick in Mexico, and then precisely 24 hours after landing, I came down with a horrible stomachache that practically paralyzed me for a day.

Things that I noticed:
- In Mexico, kids do real jobs. We rode on these water taxis between Ixtapa Island, Playa Madera, and Playa Las Gatas, and our drivers were usually teenagers. One boy couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 years old.
- There aren't very many American tourists in the Ixtapa/Zihua area, but there are a lot of Mexican tourists. However, I was surprised by the number of people who spoke at least some English, and the staff at our hotel (Las Brisas Ixtapa) in particular spoke excellent English.
- There is a very large difference between sitting in the sun and sitting in the shade. The first full day, we spent a lot of time lounging on the beach under a palapa, and we felt great. The next day, we took a side trip to Petatlan, and we could barely walk three blocks in the sun without stopping for a drink.

Things that happened:
- We went snorkelling and had an accident with a coral reef that involved lots of scrapes, several bruises, and an incident with a sea urchin. Lesson: Don't chase the fish blindly.
- We didn't drink the water, but even so, something in the food in Mexico does not agree with American-bred (or even Asia-bred) stomachs. Either that, or we got sunstroke from our day in Petatlan. Two people threw up, and two other people were mildly sick.
- I got sick of chips and salsa. Never thought that would happen.

Things that I enjoyed:
- We had our first night's dinner on the Playa La Ropa, at a restaurant called La Perla. The food was good, the beach was beautiful, and I discovered a new drink: limonada, or limeade with club soda.
- Part of Zihua does look like the fishing village that I imagined (the other part is a bit more like rural Taiwan than I would have liked). The good part is fairly picturesque, with lots of fishing boats, a market of fishermen selling their day's catch, and many small seafood restaurants by the pier.
- Ixtapa is not as touristy as I had thought it would be. In fact, it's still fairly small by resort standards, and the downtown area is nice to walk around.
- As is our habit, we went to a local supermarket on the first day to stock up on water and snack/breakfast-type foods. The store we went to turned out to be a huge Walmart-like place called Comercial Mexicana which sold everything from clothes to tires to food to beach towels and toiletries. We had a great time people-watching, marveling at the cheap and delicious fruit, eating soft-serve, and buying fresh churros for 10 pesos a bag.
- It was nice having a private beach for our hotel (accessible only by boat for others). Although it wasn't large, there were only a few other guests there, and there were lots of chairs, umbrellas, and towel service. Although it was a bit rough the day we went down there, we made sand castles and had fun wave chasing anyway.
- I had quite a good experience at our hotel. As I mentioned before, the staff spoke excellent English, and they provided great service as well. The front desk actually called a neighboring hotel and had a pair of tweezers sent over, after we requested one. The restaurants were good, and not expensive by American standards (although they were pricey by Mexican standards), and the beach and pool area were both well maintained. The rooms themselves were interesting; not luxurious in the normal way, but creatively decorated with a local flavor, and each with a private balcony and hammock overlooking the water.
- Before and after the coral reef episode, we had a great time snorkelling; there were tons of fish, and the ocean wasn't too crowded. At Ixtapa Island especially, the water was super salty, so it was practically effortless to float.

Overall, it was a good trip, although perhaps a bit more exciting than ideally. It was fun to experience Mexican culture, eat authentic food, and hang out at the beach every other day.

post of the month

Wow, I've been pretty bad about posting recently. Looks like it's been almost a month. Let's see, what's been going on recently?

Well, I've been seeing an abnormally high number of movies: The DaVinci Code (ugh), MI3 (eh) and X3 (ugh again). I also saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which a (Republican) friend calls the "liberal propaganda movie". It was good for a documentary, but I don't particularly enjoy paying $10 to hear a lecture. Maybe I should go back to not watching movies.

The Memorial Day holiday was pretty busy; I had houseguests for a couple of days, and then there was a wedding in Marin and another in Monterey (I chose Marin). I went with my family to Farallon to celebrate my brother's birthday (belatedly) and the food was good, but I'm not a fan of noisy-trendy restaurants.

There were several other birthday parties over the past few weeks, which meant many dinners, as well as a mini-golf outing. I also managed to finish watching the last few episodes of Lost, which means I no longer have to avoid entertainment magazines.

Just yesterday I got back from a wedding in Seattle (first time I've been there since I was about 10). Generally I am not a huge fan of weddings (it's nice to see people, but there seems to be a lot of unnecessary pomp and ceremony), but this one was actually really fun. There was maybe 100 people at the reception; at least 25 were people that I had known in school, most of whom I hadn't seen for about five years. We hung out at Jillian's, caught up at the wedding itself, and spent the day after driving around Seattle, hitting various touristy spots.

Next up, six of us are headed to Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo for the 4th of July. It'll be my first tropical vacation since high school, when my parents took us on a (surprisingly boring) cruise in the Bahamas. I should really write a post about cruises at some point, but suffice to say they don't agree with me. Anyway, I look forward to several days of snorkeling and sand castles!