http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Dawn-and-Steve/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Dawn and Steve en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:22:43 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:22:43 +0000 We had a nice breakfast at the Hawood Inn one of the nicer hotels in town. Then we stop and grab a couple of sweet buns for later at the local bakery which is bustling with people getting coffees papers and bakery items to go. We are heading home and plan to take secondary and grid roads to see more of the countryside along the way. We take highway 263 AKA lsquothe scenic routersquo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Saskatchewan/blog-428740.html We hiked several trails today starting early in the day to see as much as we could. We started with Shady Lake trail billed as a ldquomoderate terrain 1.7 km looprdquo. Then there is a 1 km spur trail taking you to a lookout tower called Height of the Land. Sounded easy. Boy was I wrong I walk every day and this walk just about did me in It took us almost 2 hours from start to finis http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Saskatchewan/Prince-Albert-National-Park/blog-427933.html I have a week off of work and the weather is supposed to be cool and rainy all week so we decided to get in the car and go somewhere where it is sunny. It seems counterintuitive but the forecast says it will be nice and sunny in the north. So we have decided to head north. Waskesui Lake in Prince Albert National Park is a favorite summer vacation spot for lots of Saskatchewan folks. Neith http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Saskatchewan/Prince-Albert-National-Park/blog-427502.html Today we went to the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve for a birdwatching tour in kayaks. There were just Steve and I in one kayak and two other fellows in single kayaks along with our guide Miguel in his own kayak. We paddled past mangroves out into the lagoon which is the largest protected area in the Mexican Caribbean and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was windy from the side so we fou http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Riviera-Maya/blog-378305.html Akumal is a beach area between Tulum and Cancun where sea turtles nest from May to October and where the coral reef is fairly close to shore. Usually the turtles are gone by now but for some reason some of them are still around feeding on the sea grass in the area. We rented life jackets from the dive shop so we could swim farther and longer and were able to see and swim alongside some turtles http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Riviera-Maya/blog-378294.html We are already having taco withdrawal so we go shopping and buy a bunch of fresh veggies and peppers and make up some salsas. Next day we even go and buy masa flour and a tortilla press along with a bottle of tequila. This cold is crazy You can't even take in a deep breath without your lungs going into a spasm from the cold air. People down there asked us how we lived in such a cold place. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Saskatchewan/Regina/blog-377914.html We hopped an early bus bound for Cancun stopping in Playa del Carmen to stroll the busy and touristy 5th avenue for the last time. It doesn't seem so horrible now as we are accustomed to the vendors and hawkers and just ignore them. My Spanish is better now too so I feel comfortable looking in stores and telling them I don't want what they have without feeling afraid or intimidated. They rea http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Cancun/blog-377907.html Tulum is much smaller than Playa del Carmen with only one street about 10 blocks long or so of restaurants and vendors. The vendors still try to get you to come into their shop but they are not as agressive as the ones in Playa. We spent a lot of time walking around the rest of the town which is mostly very poor. The standard of living here is Mexico is much different than we are accusto http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Tulum/blog-377843.html We finally found paradise in Mexico Cozumel is what we were looking for in a beach vacation but hadnt known it. The main square around the ferry terminal is just the same as 5th ave in Playa crowded with tourists and vendors but we went towards the south part of the island about half way down the coast road to a little place called Playa Corona. You will see from the pictures that it i http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Cozumel/blog-375116.html Well our Caravan bus tour of ruins in the Yucatan is already over. Hard to believe. We would recommend this tour to anyone. It was well planned well run and our tour guide Pepe was very knowledgeable. We are looking forward to relaxing on a white sand beach though as we have been on the go for the past 8 days.So what can I say about Playa It is packed full of drunks wideeyed touris http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Playa-del-Carmen/blog-374723.html Lots of people dont come today to Chichen Itza......some because they dont feel well but many because they love Merida so much that they want to stay there and shop. It is a big modern sortof city with lots of Spanish Colonial architechture. It has traffic almost as bad as Mexico City and the noise and crowds of people on the streets is hard for me to manage. Still our new friends go wi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Campeche/blog-374639.html Another really long day of driving. We head north through the state of Campeche to the coast on the Gulf of Mexico. They grow sugarcane here and we see trucks full of it along the way. We stop for a midmorning break at a little place where a guy was busy in the back outside the building cutting up bags of oranges for fresh juice. He had two cages holding green parrots in the same space but http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Campeche/blog-374634.html The Mayan ruins at Palenque are amazing The day is hotter than I can even describe and the humidity makes it hard to breath by 9 in the morning. We learn to walk really slow stand in shade whenever possible and sip water constantly. It is hard to imagine how workers were able to constructed these huge buildings in this heat. And this is winter here the cool season This place is really http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/Palenque/blog-374630.html The wakeup call came at 530 this morning for a drive to Veracruz. We caught a local bus to go to one of the beaches which was scarey because we didnt know where to get off and nobody speaks English here. My Spanish is not enough to understand their answers even if they understand my questions. We finally find a beach. Not the one we were looking for but close enough. The wind and sur http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/blog-374611.html Up again at 530 for a daylong drive to Palenque. We stop at Villa Hermosa's La Venta Park which is where you can see giant Olmec heads carved from stone. The Olmec were the predecessors of the Maya and Aztec. This is the first time that we needed mosquito repellent but they didnt warn us before getting off the bus and once in the park we couldn't go back to the bus. Many of us got eate http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/Palenque/blog-374622.html The second day we went to Teotihuacan we really had to practice that for a long time before we could say it right a huge ruins site about 30 miles north of Mexico City. It took about 1 12 hours to get there because of the crazy traffic. Then we went to the museum of anthropology and the National Palace where Diego Riviera murals tell about precolombian indian history. Beautiful However http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Estado-de-Mexico/Teotihuac-n/blog-373695.html We made it into Cancun on Wednesday after spending the night in toronto airport. It was cloudy and windy but still warmer than home. Went to Isla Mujeres on Thursday. It was touristy......beaches were white and powdery sand but was too windy to swim. Had a margerita on the beach. Travelled on a lot of buses some very scarey The backpacks are heavier than we expected. Walked off lots of http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Distrito-Federal/Mexico-City/blog-371111.html Planning is half the fun It is 40 below with wind chill...........soon we will be in the warmth of Mexico We don't know how often we will find a computer but will post pictures whenever we can. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Yucat%E1n/blog-367395.html Day 7 We took a tour of the Black Hills today with Golden Circle Tours so that someone else could do the driving for a change. The fellow was very knowledgeable and made the trip even more interesting. There were 7 of us in total in a van so not a big group which was nice. Day 8 We toured Jewel Cave in the Black Hills. Then because I didn't see a bear in Yellowstone we drove through B http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/South-Dakota/Black-Hills-National-Forest/blog-321127.html Well we have a 9 hour drive ahead today so we get an early start. Another grey day but perfect for travelling. I try to cover up the tired bags under my eyes with makeup and Steve jokes I'll just eat my muffin while you're coloring. I call him a bad name.The park had big forest fires in the 1980's. Lodgepole pine makes up 80 percent of the trees here they are the ones that have the con http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/South-Dakota/Black-Hills-National-Forest/blog-321125.html