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Published: October 3rd 2006
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Akumal - turtle hatchlings
Me and some new hatchlings... Here is a very brief account of all the beautiful spots that Philip and I got to live in and visit while in Mexico.
I'll post a gallery of PHOTOS to accompany this blog entry. Look to the bottom of the post for them.
There’s so much I’m leaving out… But anyway, we first came to Akumal in June of 2004 to volunteer at an ecological center with nesting sea turtles. From there I first saw Tulum, to the south.
Later on, in the fall of 2004, we visited his parents in Calkini, Campeche. From there we visited a lot of Mayan ruins… Uxmal, Edzna, the Puuc route: Labna, Sayil, Kabah. We visited the Grutas de Oxktintok and Calketoc. Also another cave and cenote called (if I remember correctly) Xtacumbilxuna’an.. All in Campeche!
From Calkini we took a trip south into Chiapas. I believe we were there a little less than two weeks. We went with very little cash and hitched our first ride (together, at least). We saw the ruins of Palenque, and the very beautiful waterfalls of Aguas Azul just south along the road to Ocosingo. I still think the cascades there, and the view
Akumal - Me in the bay
In Akumal's Turtle Beach bay, in front of the turtle hatchery. from the top, are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Later we went further west into San Cristobal de las Casas… enjoyed the cafes, the markets, the churches, and took a few daytrips from there. One to a cloud forest nature reserve… we hiked a mountain I believe called Huitepec… and later to San Juan Chamula, a smaller village outside San Cristobal with a really interesting cathedral. Later Philip went back with his aunt Ann, and I included a picture he took of himself at Lagos de Montebello… love it. We were so interested in the Zapatistas…
Phil moved to Puerto Morelos in January 2005 and I joined him the following August after visiting him there for my spring break. There he started training for his divemaster at Dive Puerto Morelos and I worked first at a hotel and later for an Americana lawyer, for whom I still work.
After hurricane Wilma hit us in November of 2005, we took off for about a month… went out west!! Philip’s parents had moved to Aguascalientes, and we made it to their house on Thanksgiving Day, I believe. We hitchhiked almost the entire way there, and about halfway back.
I had so much faith in Philip… we made such a great team that trip… it was so exciting to be out on the road with him.
Anyway we were in new territory once we reached Oaxaca City, and from there we took a scary bus ride south to Puerto Escondido. I first saw the Pacific just northwest of there, at Playa Azul, where we camped near the beach. We continued north along Mexico’s west coast, going through Acapulco (ugh, we hiked for 3 hours uphill along the highway thinking we were leaving the city, when we reached the top of a hill and a sign that said “Welcome to Acapulco”… I’ll never forget the view into that dirty shithole). We ended up meeting Philip’s aunt Ann in Comala, Colima, a teeny state between Michoacan and Jalisco. There we spent Revolution Day, which was also Phil’s birthday. We visited a very special lady and her coffee plantation in Minatitlan, and then headed back to the beach in Barra de Navidad, just north of Manzanillo.
From there, Phil and I went in to Aguascalientes by way of Guadalajara, which happened to be the first and only time I’ve gotten
car sick… the mountains out west just aren’t as easy on the stomach as SWVA’s… And we spent a great… what was it… one week?….with Phil’s parents. We would have stayed longer had we not had to get back to Puerto by December. They took us around Aguascalientes and north to Zacatecas.
On our way back, we stopped in Morelia, Michoacan, to catch a bus to a little town called Angangueo. From there you can visit all the monarch butterfly reserves in Michoacan… it’s absolutely incredible. We went very early in the migration season… had we come a month later there would have been millions more butterflies. We camped at El Rosario, the butterfly reserve I had been familiar with from school… that was the coldest night of my life!! We were at 9,000 feet and had no real jackets or sleeping bags… thank goodness we had bought a wool blanket along the way… still, Phil ended up giving up on sleep and sitting next to the fire all night. I rotated between sleeping in the tent and sleeping on Phil outside next to the fire…
From there we booked it home to Puerto Morelos…
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Jamie
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Thanks for this; letting all of us see where you've been and your story. I don't know how you remembered all of that! I think the picture that stuck out the most is of Phil's dive shop. I had heard some about it, and it was good to put a picture to the place. I hope this is helping you, Carly, and we all appreciate it as well! Look forward t'more.