EchelonFive
Henry Joined: March 4th 2006
Logged in: February 9th 2012
Logged in: February 9th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
Fence Post
While in Playa del Carmen, we also took a daytrip to Tulum. Tulum is just about an hour bus ride from Playa del Carmen, so it was an easy trip... or at least it should have been. :) We ended up going into the city of Tulum after missing the bus stop for the Tulum ruins. This was good and bad. The good was that we were able to walk around and see the city. The bad was we ended up walking about five miles (at least) to the ruins. You may ask "Why didn't you take a taxi?". Well, my handy-dandy Tulum map was not drawn to scale and, so, the distance from the city to the coast was three or four miles but appeared a short walk away on the map. By the time ... read more
XPLOR - 4
People-Watching People-watching in Playa is outstanding; they come from all over the world to Playa del Carmen. Granted, most are probably from the U.S., Canada, and other parts of Mexico. But on any given walk down Quinta Avenida, if you listen, you are almost guaranteed to hear plenty of people speaking something other than English or Spanish. A block east of Quinta Avenida, there is, of course, an awesome beach that is lined with with restaurants and hotels. To the west within a few blocks is the non-touristy part of town... with more regular restaurants, shops, parks, etc. This gives a better view of what typical Mexico is like. There is also a Wal-Mart, a Mega, and a mall that we made many trips to. We even saw the movie 2012 in a nice, modern movie ... read more
IH Riviera Maya - Spanish School - 6
"'You the good pilot up there, what do you really want... you want to go very fast in the wrong direction or slowly in the good direction?'" - Betrand Piccard - a question posed to him by a weatherman during his balloon flight around the world. People ask me a lot why I'm learning Spanish. Reasonable question. It comes down to many things... dreams, goals, interests. Prior to this, besides self-studying Spanish, I dipped my feet in for about four weeks on two trips to Ecuador a couple of years ago, of which I also wrote about. However, I've never been committed to it... emotionally, it was a goal that I had sitting in front of me and it was like I was looking at it earnestly wondering if this is something I *really* want to ... read more
Playa del Carmen
I've decided to become fluent in Spanish. To accomplish this I'm planning to study quite a bit in various countries. The first stop was at the IH Riviera Maya Spanish school in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. My mom is also studying Spanish, and she was able to make this trip, as well. Of the five weeks in Mexico, we spent three weeks taking classes. The reason we picked the Cancun/Playa del Carmen area was mainly because American Airlines had a fare sale to Cancun. However, it was a wonderful and beautiful place to study Spanish. The water is blue, the beaches white, there are plenty of activities (scuba, zip-lining, visiting ruins, hiking, the beach, etc.), and the food and drinks are excellent and fresh. ----------------------------------------- I flew from Springfield, MO to ... read more
Exit/Entry Point
Note: I'm woefully behind on my travel blog entries, but I will catch them up over the next few months (I still haven't written about the rest of the NZ trip, Thailand, Cambodia, or Japan). What an awesome weekend! Though, it was another weekend in a plane... except for the big difference that instead of in a plane in the air I was in one *submerged*! :) A few weeks ago I took the plunge and signed up for the NAUI Advanced Diver Course at Sub-Aquatic Sports & Services located in Battle Creek, MI. For the course, last week we had two nights (Tuesday & Thursday) of class time. Then for the weekend we had a schedule of six dives. ------------------------------------------ After a half-day at work last Friday, I drove home, took care of a few ... read more
Sailing - 1
We arrived in Te Anau, driving from Queenstown, the evening before. Te Anau is quiet and small... even with it being the height of tourist season and everything booked up, it was still calm. I guess they only have a very limited capacity of hotel rooms. Te Anau is at the edge of Fiordland National Park (the largest national park in NZ and one of the largest in the world) and next to Lake Te Anau. It is a favorite spot to stay before heading into Fiordland. In the morning, we were picked up by a large van by Fiordland Wilderness Experience for a sea kayak tour of Milford Sound. I think we were the last ones to be picked up and I ended up sitting in the middle front seat between our two guides (made ... read more
Hand Statue
Day 7: We started out the day in Wanaka with breakfast at a cafe with a good view of the Laka Wanaka and the surrounding mountains. It was sunny with a light breeze. After breakfast we walked around a bit and along the shore. Wanaka is similar to Queenstown in that it is by a lake and has great views of mountains. And Wanaka and Queenstown are about an hour drive apart. We then started our drive to Queenstown. Along the way, Vanessa decided to take her first turn driving; in NZ driving is on the left-hand side of the road, so this was a big event. Where we started, the road wasn't that curvy. However, shortly after she took the wheel, the road quickly became curvy in the mountains with many hairpin curves... not ideal ... read more
Hiking on the Glacier
Another early rise... we packed up at the hostel and were on our way to Fox Glacier. It was raining for most of the drive, which made it more difficult to see the scenery. We were concerned that our hike up the glacier might be cancelled. Nevertheless, the drive was scenic, though, the road was (as in much of NZ) very curvy and hilly. This was one of the day's that Robert planned and he planned it well. We arrived early enough to grab some food and get checked in for our scheduled hike. The hike was still a go despite the rain. Apparently, in a "rainforest" it rains a lot (light sarcasm)... so the tour company was well prepared for this day's precipitation (as many, if not most, of their hikes are in the rain ... read more
Pancake Rocks - 2
Christmas! The idea was that the coastal towns of Greymouth and (the nearby) Punakaiki would be the perfect place to relax while we celebrated Christmas. And stay, relatively, in one place. After getting ready, we headed up the coast about an hour to Punakaiki. Punakaiki is mostly known for its pancake rocks and blowholes. Its coast, in general, is beautiful, as well. To get to the pancake rocks (see photos to see where they get their name), we had a wonderful hike through some low-lying vegetation to get to Dolomite Point (location of pancake rocks and the blowholes). We spent quite a bit of time watching for water shooting out of the blowholes (didn't see much) and the waves come crashing in underneath us (the walkway goes over arched rock where the water flows under) and ... read more
Braided River
Our fourth day fell on Christmas Eve and was one of relative rest; the first three days were a whirlwind of activity. When we were planning the trip, we knew that by the end of the third day we would be spent, so for the fourth day taking a scenic train through the mountains from coast to coast seemed to fit well. The TranzAlpine travels from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast. In between are some plains, lots of mountains, and some rivers. We got up early, went to the train station, checked in, waited, and then boarded the train. One of the many cool things about the trip is that one of my co-workers from the project in Sydney and her friend were also taking the same train; we knew ... read more
