A Side of Sweet

Beautiful Food, Travel & Design

Tulum, Mexico

We stopped for a few days in Tulum, Mexico to meet up with Francesco’s friend, Lou.  Francesco had been raving about the beautiful beach in Tulum so I knew I would love it!  Tulum is about 2 hours south of Cancun and is known for it’s ruins that are right on the cliff overlooking the ocean.  We explored the ruins in the morning, which were definitely not as impressive as Copan or Tikal but still pretty awesome given their amazing location!

There were also huge iguanas everywhere!  I don’t know what was more fun, running into these huge lizards sunning themselves or watching the tourists go crazy taking pictures of them!  Given it’s proximity to Cancun, there were busloads of tourists checking out Tulum.  There were lines of tourists taking pictures of iguanas on the cliggs that made me think of Disney World of tourists.

The afternoon was spent snorkeling and laying on the beautiful beach.  Tulum is lined by part of the second longest reef in the world and the sand on the beach is amazing!  It is very powdery and doesn’t get hot in the sun.

We celebrated our last night together with a few Sol beers at a restaurant in Tulum.  Instead of bar stools it had swings!  I also indulged in one last plate of tacos.  There were 7 different options on the menu, so I ordered one of each!  It was a ton of food but I cleaned my plate.  Good thing I’m going to be working out a ton when I get back to the States!

The boys did some shopping and then for some reason needed a second dinner!  Pizza!?  Given that I ate twice the number of tacos than they did at dinner I definitely wasn’t hungry.

Tomorrow I’m off to Cancun to catch my flight home and Lou and Francesco are going to spend a week checking out the Yucatan Peninsula.  I can’t believe I’m about to head back to cold Wisconsin!

On the Road Again

Even though I was enjoying being in one place (even one country!) for a few days in a row, it was soon time to get back on the road to Mexico for my flight home.

We caught the morning ferry back to La Ceiba.  It was still a rough ride, but this time the crew came around with the little puke bags before we got started.  Luckily this time I didn’t need one!

We took almost the same route back to Mexico, minus the detour to Copan,  but this time the trip went much quicker.  Instead of trying to explain it all over again, I created a map to illustrate our journey:

You can see it bigger by clicking on it!  It’s funny how hours and hours of time on a public bus can look so short on a map!

Every time a bus stopped, local women would come up to the windows and sell pretty much any food you could dream of.  I saw hot plates of chicken and rice, cheese sandwiches, soda, fresh squeezed juice, fruit, and desserts, just to name a few.

My favorite funky-looking treat was Rambutan, or Mamón Chino as it is called in Central America.  You bite off one side, squeeze out the fruit, pop it in your mouth and then pop out the pit when you’re done.  It’s tart and tastes a little bit like a grape.  Delicious and interesting!

The first night we made it all the way to Guatemala, where we spent the night in Puerto Barrios.

The next night was spent in Corozal, on the border of Belize and Mexico.  In the morning we had time to explore the town a bit.  We checked out the market and took a walk along the ocean.

It always makes me happy to run into a public health campaign when I’m traveling!

At one of the stops in Mexico the women were selling platters of tacos for 7 pesos ($.55) a piece.  We were starving by this point and they definitely hit the spot!

Cancún

Other than an extra trip back to the airport and a lot of time making long distance cell phone calls to US Airways trying to locate my luggage, we didn’t spend much time in Cancún.  The biggest highlight for me was hanging out in the park near our hostel.  There were hot rods for rent and all the cool kids were taking them out for a spin:

I tried to contain my excitement, but then this girl whizzed by and I knew I had to try one for myself:

Super awesome, right?

Although it was tempting, we avoided the Casa del Whopper and instead settled on eating some delicious tacos at a small comedor.  (A restaurant that serves traditional cuisine.  They are all over Central America, think cheap, no frills dining.)

And of course, reminders that the holidays were approaching were everywhere:

More Bumps in the Road

Due to a complicated American Airlines/United/US Airways flight combo, my luggage hasn’t made it to Cancún yet. I´ve been in the same outfit for the past 48 hours…this includes one night sleeping in the Charlotte airport on a bench.

I’ve spent hours on the phone with all three airlines and none of them are claiming responsibility for this mess. Ultimately, since US Airways was the airline I booked the flight with, they are the ones who are trying to track my bag. Unfortunately, they are still backed up from tracking luggage from the East Coast storm last week and it takes almost 40 minutes on hold at any given time to get a human to ask about my bag status. I have no clothes, no toiletries, no running stuff, swimsuit – nothing – and no idea when I will be reunited with said items. It’s basically been a waste of two days of vacation.

Francesco and I went back to the airport this morning to try to get a straight answer and were told that as soon as my bag arrives it will be sent to me. However, we have to get on a bus tonight to get to Belize tomorrow in order to catch a ferry from Plasensia, Belize that only leaves on Fridays. The ferry is the quickest way to get into Honduras. Sound complicated? Trust me, it is.

It also means we don’t have time to wait around for US Airways to fix their screw up and find my luggage. I went to a shopping mall today and spent the day buying the necessities I need for the next 4-5 days, possibly the whole trip because I’m assuming I’ll never see my luggage again. On the off chance it does show up, it will be over-nighted to me wherever I am in the world at that moment. Something tells me that won’t be until Madison, WI 3 weeks from now, but even then only if a miracle occurs.

US Airways told me I get $25 to cover my expenses for now, until my luggage is recovered or until they give up and declare it lost. $25 basically covered some toiletries and some underwear. Good thing for credit cards, right?

I’m looking forward to getting out of Cancún. Outside of the all-inclusive resorts that we are avoiding like the plague, there´s not much to do here. I have scuba diving, running, and beach time to look forward to upon arrival to Honduras. Getting to Honduras will also mean the first shower in 5 days . Trust me, I’ll need it!

A small miracle in all of this? I went into a running store here and they had one lone pair of Brooks running shoes in one lone size – mine!  I still get to run in Brooks while I´m here!

And I’m Off!

I’ll be updating sporadically from Mexico/Belize/wherever else I end up in the next few weeks.  I’m going to be taking lots of photos so I’ll add those to my posts once I get home.  Feel free to drop me an email while I’m gone, I’ll be checking it sporadically!

Change of Plans

I’ve had a winter break ticket booked to the Caribbean planned for months.  However, all it took was one phone call to derail to whole trip!  My friend Francesco called from Cancún and told me all flights to meet me were booked AND that he got robbed leaving him without cash of credit cards for the rest of his trip!  I immediately called the airline company and managed to change my flight to meet him in Cancún.  No sense in being stuck in the Bahamas alone for three weeks!  His family is over-nighting me some stuff to bring to him to get him through the rest of hist trip.

I was extremely lucky to get a reasonable deal on a last minute flight, but of course it comes with a catch!  I’m spending the night in the airport both on the way there and the way back!  I’m not worried though, it won’t be the first cheap flight that leaves me sleeping on an airport bench!

Now I’m leaving Monday to spend two and a half weeks in the Yucatán Peninsula and Belize!  Not a bad change of plans really!  I still get out of Wisconsin and head to a place where I can run and spend time in the sun!

This little bump in the road is just one more reason I don’t make a detailed itinerary for any of my travels!  It’s much more fun to plan as you go!

Stay tuned for updates from paradise!