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Published: September 13th 2008
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I won't lie to you, my first two days in Isla de Mujeres the weather was shitty. We were getting some of the ends of Hurricane Ike. It stunk. The days were rainy and windy. No swimming weather for my time in Isla. However, I didn't let this bring me down. My friend Javier and I managed to meet at the island after traveling separately for a few weeks. We got to the hostel about 5 minutes apart. We got settled and started the party. We cruised the popular strip on Hidalgo street which consists of restaurants and bars where every host tries to persuade you to eat at their restaurant. Food wasn't cheap here. A bit overpriced if you asked me. We were able to find the more homey feeling eateries that had reasonable prices. We ordered our food and of course, got our drink on. Dos Equis was the drink of choice. Most places offered 2 for 1 specials on beers, so me and Javier took full advantage of that. Sticking it to you restaurant owners!
We told our travel stories to one another and talked about how we both had near death experiences, me almost drowning when
Isla de Mujeres
Pic of the southern coast of the island. rafting in a raging river and Javier falling about 50 feet off a tree at the El Pachan jungle in Palenque. Surprisingly he didn't have any broken bones, but he still had several visible bruises. Ok, so I think he won our near death contest since he looked more beat up than I did. We drank for a bit and called it a night.
The next day we decided to rent an awesome golf cart in order to cruise around the entire island. It was a cool little ride. We called it our "'08" (2008 model) and cruised the island as if we were in a Dodge Viper. "Waz up ladies?!" Uhm....yeah, we were unsuccessful in picking up some ladies in it. Probably cause there were 1,000 other carts around town driven by goofy-looking American tourists. Anyway, we made the best of it with our ride. I was the first to drive the '08. I decided not to wear my prescription glasses cause I didn't want to look like a dork. Problem was that the island is full of speed bumps that aren't painted. Due to my blindness, I didn't see some of these on the road as I
Yo
Me on the eastern most point of Mexico. I look pretty f*in cool. drove, and took the bumps at full golf cart speed (about 60 miles per hour....ok, exaggerating.....more like 20 miles per hour). We'd bounce violently in the '08. It was funny as hell! Javier was hating me though cause he still hadn't fully recovered from his fall and the violent bouncing wasn't helping his bruised body. We drove south to check out the Mayan ruins. Not much are left of the small temple. It looked like only a wall was left. The cool thing about where it's placed though is that it is located on the eastern most part of Mexico. A sign at the sight says it, so it must be true. So, I have been on the eastern most part of Mexico. After we checked out the ruins and some art sculptures that are also located at the site, it started to pour. It sucked! We ran into a local bar and decided it was late enough for a beer. It was about 11:00am.
After the brews, we decided to cruise back up north through the other side of the island. It was nice. There were some cool looking pads. A few were for sale. This time Javier
Sign
See! The sign says so! decided to drive. He had enough of me launching ourselves over 3 foot high speed bumps. At night we headed back to the strip to get a bite to eat. As we were walking, this American girl came up to Javier and asked if she could take a picture of him because he looked so much like one of her friends back home. I asked where home was, her response? Austin, TX. What??! Yeah, we ran into a fellow Austinite. Her name was Brandy (like the alcohol). We asked her if she wanted to join us for some brews. She was alone and happily agreed. She actually turned out to be a pretty cool chick. Most Austinites are. As we got to talking, turns out she's in the punk rock scene and knew people that I knew. Pretty cool. After a few drinks, we told her about how awesome our '08 was and we decided to take her for a ride. She was impressed with it. She probably thought me and Javier were loaded for driving such and advanced piece of machinery. We cruised the south part of the island looking for a party. After driving through random dark lit
Art
Modern art at the Mayan site. neighborhoods and having no success, we decided to head back to town. We bought some beers at a local convenience store (where we think we were over charged) and headed back to Brandy's hotel. We went up to the roof, hung out, talked some more, and watched the increadible lightning show that was taking place out in the ocean (see video). It was a good night.
The next day Javier decided to join me on spending the day in Cancun. Since I'm planning on going to South America, I needed to get the yellow fever vaccine. I had no success finding the vaccine in Merida, so I figured Cancun should have it for sure. Let me begin by saying that I hate Cancun. Ok, hate is such a strong word. Let's say strongly dislike. (No offense Dave, I know you got married there.) If you want to immerse yourself in Mexican culture, DON'T go to Cancun. The city sort of looks like Las Vegas' Mexican cousin. There were giant hotels, cheesy malls, gift shops with crappy stuff, WAY overpriced restaurants, fat goofy-looking Americans, and expensive taxis. After taking a $10 cab ride to a private hospital, we had no
Mayan Ruins
What's left of the Mayan ruins on the island. success finding the vaccine there. However, the receptionist was a sweetheart and called clinics all over town to see if anyone had it. One did and it was in the hood. I guess people in the hood are more susceptible to contracting yellow fever than rich assholes that go to private hospitals. By the way, I'm not rich nor an asshole, I'm referring to the other jerk-offs. We took a cab to the hood (cost $5), got my shots (they offered me other free vaccines so I took 'em as well), and headed back to hotel alley in Cancun. Since we were in America (pretty much) we figured we try to catch the new Batman movie at the Cinemark. They didn't have it, they had some other crap we've never heard of! We blew them off. I gave in to some Starbucks and we hung out there for a little while, then headed back to Isla. I couldn't drink that night because of the vaccines, so we had a bite to eat and called it an early night. Overall, it was a good trip.
Now I'm headed to Cozumel. The weather improved, so looks like I'll get to swim
The '08
Javier posing with the '08. in the Mexican Caribbean. I know.....l suck.
love ya!
alex
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