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Published: August 29th 2007
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clucking from inside the wall, scratching the aircon from within, and cockle-doodle-dooing us back to life every morning was deano the chicken. We were terrified to turn the air conditioning on. And the first time we did, a pile of feathers went flying towards us. We panicked, rushing towards the off switch with murderers guilt. But thank the man upstairs we could still here the little guy pecking away as soon as we shut it down. I think that to be honest he had more character and strength than a certain other dean. (bit of a coincidence that). Hurricane Dean whimping out as soon as he reaches a bit of dry land...lazy. We had geared ourselves up all week for it. It was a fun storm but not quite the "THIRD STRONGEST HURRICANE EVER" that CNN had promised us. Mind you they don´t half talk a lot of... no I won´t finish that sentence.
valliadolid was where we stayed, we became big players in the town. It was great to feel like we had a home for a while. We even got a bit more excitement being right there for a hold up at the bank. Proper Mexican bandito style.
Those canadians eh!
dinner in our local restaurant with Ross and Pritzy And it was a cool base, sitting really close to many mayan ruins, cenote's and restaurants with interesting vegetarian options. I like to call them Chicken surprise. Charlotte (being a vege) sure was surprised to see the chicken on her plate. "What was that?" she would shout. "a mushroom, a mushroom, honestly" I always grabbed in time don't worry she'll never know.
Our favourite was also our first successful piece of bribary. "The ruins are closed today, is not possible la policia..."
No they can´t be we thought. "NO NO hurrican hurrican, we are closed for the day." But we knew where this was going. And so us along with a couple more crazy mexicanos (like us) offered some peso´s to the gentle but still machetie yielding old mayan wiseman. Or 'the customer' as the other still friendly but rounder looking men had said.
It was definately worth it. We were given a private tour of Ek Balam. It was deserted, no hoards of tourists needed to be kicked out of our paths. And the temple was huge, we were able to go right into where they kept a tomb. I cant tell you who's it was.
But vallidolid became our home, we wanted to go to campeche and Belize. But I guess fate or Dean just really wanted us to stay there. We spent many a fun night by the pool with Ross and Pritzy. Our friends from Isla Mujeres. We still have the scars from that hurricane fuelled marco polo. (cough... bleeding nose cough, It wasn't me cough.) We visited many other towns but mainly just slowed down. So slow we pretty much stopped.
It has been great to get back to the beach. To feel the sun on our backs as we bury our heads in the golden sands.
It has been a sharp shock getting back to the resorts for our flight. It feels like we left our favourite bit of mexico behind. Walking down the road past the souvenir shops you feel like one of a herd of wilderbeasts; desperately trying to cross that river full of crocodiles. "hey honeymooners, come in my shop, I give you good price Come here amigo amigo" And you know they always catch one, drag them in off the streets under the water and drowning them in tat. Then they eat them. No were not
mayan ruins at tulum
Our own little beach sure about that last bit. And actually these are all the same guys we rode the bus into town with that morning.
Our flight back to new york was from Cozumel which was also our first carribean island. even after the hurricane the water was so clear and calm. We snorkelled where a bridge had blown out to sea two years ago during a hurricane. It was like a mini Atlantis.
The journey back was like hell in the making. I managed to get myself refused entry to the country. "WE NEED A POLICE ESCORT OVER HERE PLEASE" great. They did it vindictively. I did nothing but shoot at a couple of policemen. I didn't even hit them and I was wearing a hoodie. I thought that was fine. Those evil rednecked Bushites making that poor innocent boy rott in a cell and leaving Charlotte to finish the blog... Kidding they did let me go eventually. When they decided they had wasted enough time to miss our flight.
This means arriving at midnight in NYC with no place to go, this meant sleeping on a couch in a hostel basement in Harlem. But it always works out alright
our very own ruins of ek balam
We had the whole place to ourselves. This was the guy showing us around. I would have liked to get a good shot of the mayan man with the machete but I thought better of it. because we saved a nights rent and got a nights worth of free pool in the end. It all works out because now we have a wad of cash. (Charlotte has cash I have coins.) And so, we're of to the city to hit the shops. It all works out in the end...
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