Blogs from Mexico, North America - page 646

It's hard to believe but the time for departure is almost here. We leave on Monday bound for Mexico City, Panama and then Quito. It's been quite the process getting to this point and it's easy to forget the incredible amount of organization required to do a trip of this kind. We discovered only a few days ago that my Mexican husband would need a special VISA to get into Ecuador. This important factoid was not mentioned in my ever trusty new copy of Lonely Planet so I was quite surprised to learn it was true. It just said "most nationalities don't need a Visa" but was very non-specific, so when my husband called the Ecuadorian embassy in Mexico City to learn he in fact DID need one, the paper chase was on! It was ... read more

So I finally arrived in Monterrey after getting zero sleep the night before, but thats what I get for leaving all my packing and prep for the last minute! The rush of finally arriving to Mexico by far exceeded my sleepless night and I felt a high like no other- no place to sleep, I stick out like a sore thumb as not many tourists pass through this city that is only a 1 hour flight from Houston. Everywhere I go the music stops and people stare at the half gringo/half latin dude walking around the city- but hey thats part of the experience. As soon as I arrived to Monterrey I knew I wouldnt stay long, the city is perhaps the most Americanized of all Mexican cities with Home Depots, Burger Kings and all ... read more

Perhaps my musical selection as I write is a sign of a sort of unconscious nostalgia for Mexico, which we're sailing away from and towards new and certainly unexpected adventures in Panama. Silvestre Revueltas' bold orchestral work La Noche de los Mayas is a must-listen for the entire human race, and oddly enough, I recognized strains of it in one of the exhibit halls at Mexico City's most famous museum, the Museo Nacional de (la?) Antropología played over the sound system there. Right country, but wrong time period, as we were still a millennium or so away from the bulk of the artifacts from the Maya in the museum's holdings. *Note - not as many photos as I would like to include...upload times are quite slow, but I tried to pick the best/most interesting!* We ... read more

We left the hotel at 8am, and after a rest stop, we arrived at the Tulum ruins a bit after 11am. After Lisa got our tickets and my video pass for a fee of 35 Pesos, we had about an hour and a half to stroll around the ruins of Tulum and the gift shops before we'd have to reboard the bus for our lunch stop. Tulum wasn't as large as Tikal or as elaborate as Copan, but it had it's own beauty being on the ocean and of course, the iguanas! The buildings were fairly simple and the site wasn't very large, so we had little problem seeing pretty much the whole thing in the time allotted. You can swim in a small lagoon right there at the ruins, but it was fairly crowded ... read more

Currently my ship is off the coast of Costa Rica. We left Mexico on Sunday night, and are now on our way to Panama. My last 2 days in Acapulco were not as busy as my first two, but they were still amazing. On Saturday a group of friends and I headed downtown to the bungee tower. I jumped as well as two others. The tower is awesome for two reasons. First it is right on the beach; the view is gorgeous. Second, it is over a pool, so when you jump you actually can get dunked. It was so much fun! Don’t worry Mom, Dad, I got the DVD of it! After the bungee jumping we decided to walk back to the ship via beach. And it would have been a lovely walk except ... read more