To My Pen, Forgive Me For Typing…

Below – the dress I wore to go horseback riding. No, I don’t know what I was thinking when I got dressed that morning long ago.

I also wore my brown winter boots which I personally thought looked like riding boots but the husband said looked ridiculous. And yes, I admit my feet were hot… very hot… ridiculously hot. I hate when my feet are hot but who wears flip-flops to ride? I only had flip-flops and the winter boots I had arrived in, so boots it was.  

Inspired by the scenic hill views and ride through the forest in Costa Rica and also inspired by a friend we met on that same trip, we decided to go horseback riding in Mexico, this time on a tree-lined pathway under the hot sun to a rewarding destination – a secluded beach.

There was not a soul in sight, just us and the seaweed growing along the shore (which became my fascination when I discovered tiny fishies swimming among the green). 

On my top 10 qualifications for the perfect beach post, I mentioned that we visited a beach that was abnormally quiet. This is Maroma beach, a large beach that stretched on forever and with only one (very expensive) spa resort on it. After riding the horses to the beach and back to our starting point, we spent our an afternoon here where the waters were more green than turquoise.  

The beach was beautiful and natural. However, after the novelty of being alone on the beach wore off, (and Vicky had done about 50 handstands and was walking around the beach on his hands because that’s something anyone must do if nobody else is around) I began thinking, what if someone came out here and killed us? Nobody would even know. I don’t know why I think stuff like that, not a very romantic thought, but maybe one suitable for a Canadian traveller in Mexico? :D

Even in areas like this:

and this:

where you kinda have beach “furniture,” there was nobody!

In 2007, the New 7 Wonders of the World list was put together. It was a project to update the old list with places in the world that still exist to this day. Chichen Itza, located in the centre of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula is on that new list.

Compared to Tulum, the site of Chichen Itza is a lot larger. Chichen Itza was also much further away and we spent an entire day there, leaving early in the morning and returning to our resort at night. If you’re going to the Mayan Riviera I really do recommend visiting at least one of these places to make your trip more meaningful and to understand the civilizations that existed here before. While Tulum is like the pretty little sister with its perfect beach and stunning views, Chichen Itza draws its visitors in with its size and… stories. Think Apocalypto - one would have no problem standing in front of main attraction “El Castillo“ and imagining it being a site of human sacrifice.

“El Castillo” the castle:

From each side it was pretty impressive and the photos don’t capture the size of the structure.

Fun: if you clap your hands at a certain point in front of the structure the sound sharply echoes. We did this a lot. Everyone did.

Interesting: tourists used to be able to climb the steps to the top until an American tourist slipped and fell to her death in 2005. Since then, climbing the steps is forbidden.

The serpents at the bottom of El Castillo create a shadow during the equinoxes that make it seem like the snakes are slithering and apparently a lot of people come to see this, so many so that the whole park area is filled, which was hard to believe since it was so empty when we went (because of the heat).   

While El Castillo is definitely the major site of significance here, the other ruins were interesting to see too:

the Ball Court – any game where the captain of the winning team is the one who is sacrificed is not a fun game for me… yup, that’s how it works!

Sacred Cenote – A lot of gold was thrown in here, including human sacrifices…

1000 Columns –

Walls with carvings -

More ruins – I forget what these were but here’s Vicky taking on a warrior pose:

We had fun copying the Japanese tourists, they always have the best poses

Guys it was a really really hot day. We were dying in the direct sun. These Mayans selling their crafts at the site were smart to set up in the shade:

We were really kicking ourselves though because on our way to Chichen Itza we had stopped at some touristy souvenir places and purchased a few odd things, then here the exact same things were practically half the price! When does that ever happen? We thought we were being smart by purchasing away from the location. Usually products at the location are always marked up!

There was one thing that bugged me a little bit… you know besides the whole sacrifice thing which made me feel uneasy to begin with and that seems like such a waste, like really who was the first guy to think human sacrifice would please anyone?! Anyways, what made me feel sad was a little Mayan boy, barefoot in the heat and going around and begging for money. He was like maybe 4 years old and there were tons of children begging actually which you don’t see in any of my pictures but were certainly the focus of other tourists’ photos. The kids were very cute but dressed in rags and many tourists were taking pictures of them and not paying them anything which I found quite inappropriate because I mean if you’re going to take a photo at least give them something, they’re not animals at a zoo! But this one little boy, he was just so cute and reminded me of my brother when he was younger. And it made me feel really sorry for these people whose lands had been taken over a long time ago and are still living in poverty.

If you’re planning to visit:

1. Buy your souvenirs from the Mayans and not from tourist stores

2. Take change and give it to the begging children

3. Dress for the heat. Like I said, it was really hot there. We were only 3 hours away from our resort and it felt like we were in Morocco

Okay, so two World Wonders checked off (the first being the Colosseum in Rome), let’s try to aim for seeing one more, God-willing, in the next 5 years?

Have you seen any World Wonders? If not, which would you like to see most?

My dear readers (or whoever still hangs around here and cares, thank you very much) – I’m going away for 2 weeks, when I’m back I’ll finish my Mexico posts, blog about my recent business trip to Florida, yes you read that correctly, my first BUSINESS trip (hopefully the first of many to come) and then I’ll blog about California (San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego) … and Hawaii (Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island). And, come to think of it, I never did blog about Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Chicago, Washington, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec… man… I really am behind. At least I have enough material to last me for a while

In my last post I listed 10 requirements for a perfect beach and rated the Mayan Riviera on those 10. But one thing was missing from that list. And that one thing is super important when considering what makes a beach perfect.

That one thing is…

DRAMA

Drama is having a beach backed by high cliffs, mountains, or bordering on tropical rainforests… it could be a secluded beach that you just happen to stumble upon out of the wilderness or a beach where the impressive skyline of a large city towers in the background… or maybe it’s a beach on an island only accessible by boat… or a beach with hidden caves where you could hide for months and nobody would find you.

For example, Bora Bora’s huts over the water is dramatic and serene. But a perfect beach doesn’t have to be a secluded, it can be incredibly crowded like some of the beaches in Brazil or the Greek islands where whitewashed houses create an impressive site. No, I haven’t been to any of the above places! The most dramatic beach we had previously been to before this was in Costa Rica… with the rainforest bordering it and monkeys in the trees, you can’t beat the drama in that.   

There needs to be this dramatic aspect to the scenery, otherwise the beach could be like any other, and it’s true, many of the beaches in Mexico were too similar to the beaches in the Bahamas, and I would expect are the same as elsewhere in the Caribbean… with the exception of Tulum.

Tulum’s drama can be broken down into two major reasons:

1. It has ruins

2. It has cliffs

Together, the historical ruins on the cliffs create the most breathtaking site over the clear waters and white sand and coupled with the 10 requirements from my previous post, this beach definitely fits into the category of a perfect beach. It’s dramatically stunning.

I’m sorry, I had to put a watermark on my photo, it’s probably one of my favourite pictures. No colours have been adjusted, those are the EXACT colours of the water and sand. See the ancient temple(?) in the centre.

Remember those Incas, Aztecs and Mayans we learned about in grade 5? Well the ruins at Tulum are part of a pre-Columbian Mayan city enclosed by rock walls and a favourite tourist spot because of their location overlooking the ocean. We arrived early in the morning but the place quickly filled up by the afternoon.

On the pathway leading up to the small brick entrance to of the city, we spotted the smallest geckos, lizards and larger iguanas just sitting in the hot sun and it became like a game of I-spy to see who could spot the next one. Unless you’re blind, you should be able to see what I’ve zoomed into on the wall:

Once inside the city walls, we could see how large the area really was. It’s maintained really well with the grass cut and flowers and plants strategically placed beside ruins to look appealing (I really don’t think the ancient Mayans had tree-lined streets). To learn more, we did a tour of the area from building to building under the hot sun and I was just dying even though I was wearing a flowy dress. Okay – so the Mayans chose a good spot, but some shade here would have been equally appreciated.   

The way this city remains, reminded me a bit of the Roman forum in Rome, well minus all the grass and the tempting glimpses of the turquoise water we’d see between buildings. What I mean is that you could really imagine this being a city in the past filled with people.

Many of the buildings were positioned in ways that reflect the Mayans worship of the sun and were meant as observatories for tracking the sun’s movements across the sky. There was also a lot of stuff ment for measuring shadows, telling time or calendar dates etc.

And then finally we got to the best part, the part that this post is supposed to be all about – the perfect beach…

It begins with a descent down a tall wooden staircase that adds to the drama:

click HERE - my own staircase pics didn’t turn out too well

Here’s a closer look of the ruins overlooking the beach:

And just so you know, I had to stand in the water to take the photo, and almost dropped the camera when a wave knocked into me…

We did go swimming in the water afterwards. I left my camera with the friendly really ugly iguana you see in the image below (can you spot him? he’s a bit camouflaged here) and off we went.

The water was warm and the sand just melted under our toes. But it was the colours and the dramatic views that really just get you. It seemed like the rocks had just been placed there on purpose for someone’s photo. I got out of the water early to take more pictures of the area and I took more here in Tulum than anywhere else on our trip.

Can you spot Vick’s head bobbing in the second pic above?

And finally we end with this super long palm tree hanging dramatically out over the water, looking like it might snap at any moment.

Now that’s a beach with drama!

Next post: Chichen Itza – World Wonder (or more ruins)

1. Sparkling clear turquoise water (the colour should take your breath away) – 10/10

(above – I think Vicky is singing, what do you think?)

2. Soft white sandy beach that feels like powder under your feet – 10/10

3. Park land – palm trees for shade + beach cabanas/chairs for relaxing (hammocks a bonus) – 10/10

4. Waves. What’s an ocean without some action crashing against the shore? 10/10

5. Sunsets over and into the water – (nooo, it was set off to the side we lost points here) 5/10

6. Privacy – 8/10

We went during a good time so avoided the whole spring break vacation crowd, however I don’t like completely secluded beaches because it’s a bit scary not having anyone else around – this we experienced two days later at another beach in the area which at first we thought was really great but after a while we were like… um… really, where is everyone?!

7. Random unbroken shells – (honestly this would have had a higher rating had I not just come back 2 weeks ago from the best place ever for shells – more on that later) 6.5/10

8. Beautiful weather (hence warm ocean water) – 10/10

9. Tropical plants, flowers and maybe even creatures – 9/10

(I apologize for the photo I’ve selected here, I know dead fish aren’t too appealing but I wanted to use this picture for something!)

10.  A wedding (if you see people getting married on the beach, you know it’s a good beach and there were many weddings!) - 10/10

 What makes your ideal beach? 

I can’t justify spending so much money just to hang out at a resort (no matter how palace-like that resort is). So everyday we left our perfect slice of beachfront and explored the history, culture and sites before coming back to enjoy the sand and water in the evening when the air was cooler and the sunset created stunning colours in the sky… the kind of colours oil paint gets very very close to achieving, but never matches exactly. Nothing beats the way God paints the sky over our heads.  

Maybe my checklist makes this sound like the perfect beach… and the Cancun coast and Mayan Riviera is definitely one gorgeous stretch of beach after beach after beach after beach after beach, BUT THERE’S SOMETHING MISSING – what’s missing??? To find out, read my next post on Tulum – which really is, the most perfect beach.

Next Post: Tulum

The hotel we stayed in was a palace, the Riu Palace Mexico to be exact.

 <– I tried to fit the whole word in.

Riu is a brand of all-inclusive resorts mostly in the Carribbean. We had stayed at a Riu previously on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and had loved the direct location overlooking the ocean, the large clean rooms, and most importantly, the food – the food being THE super most important thing when it comes to being an all-inclusive vacation. Because of our good experience first time round, we jumped at the chance to stay at a Riu again and this time chose the one of the largest resorts because we found a great deal. Click HERE for a view of the entire property to see just how large it was.   

 <– View from hallway outside the room.

The room: I don’t quite understand the interest in tacky towel art, however each day we came back to our room and were greeted with strange-looking friends and other gifts, such as fresh flowers, chocolate, and even once souvenir magnets – all quite nice, and made me think maybe they thought we were on our honeymoon, which wasn’t the case but who’s arguing?! The room was very large and consisted of a living room area and huge sleeping area. The washroom was clean and large and we also had a balcony. Outside the room the hallway was open to the air outside and we walked past gardens on our way to eat. They really know how to make things look nice.

 <– we ate dinner outside more than once.

 <– we danced out here with some old people.

Above: Posing for the camera to highlight the pretty resort hehe…

Location: The beautiful Mayan Riviera, RIGHT ON THE BEACH. The location was perfect, however because the resort was so big, it took at least 5 minutes to get from our room to the beach. That’s okay though, you walk past fountains and flowers and see all the decor so it kinda sets up your expectations for the gorgeous beach. Our Riu was also situated near several other Rius and we had access to all the other resorts for meals and entertainment. Because we were more than satisfied with all of our meals, we only visited the other resorts to check out their facilities and entertainment.

The entertainment: Your standard resort fare – one night there was a Michael Jackson show, the next night, Mamma Mia. Talent shows, trivia etc. I like all this family friendly entertainment, reminds me of oh I don’t know, maybe a school assembly, I am a teacher  :) 

The Food: I’ve saved the best for last and don’t know where to start. If you’ve been to an all-inclusive you might understand, everything is included so you make sure you eat well… to get your money’s worth I guess… and boy did we eat well. My absolute favourite item was a fresh banana smoothie that I drank every morning. It was the yummiest thing ever and I drank that over and over leaving little room to experience other food at breakfast. Lunches and dinners had too many options to choose from and the best thing anyone can do at an all-inclusive is to eat a little bit of everything. Desert time was just as wonderful. And let’s not forget the snacks available 24/7. Let’s just say there was never a time when we were hungry, but our tummies were constantly full.

I wish I had a picture of the restaurants, or even of my banana smoothie to share with you…

Our resort had a swimming pool which we didn’t use one bit because… there was a beach right in front of it! I don’t quite understand why people spend money to vacation at a resort on the beach and then like to sit in the pool and stare at the ocean rather than just going down to the beach. The salty water, the soft sand, the palm trees and shells… come on, isn’t that why one comes here?!

Overall, the Riu Palace Mexico was just great, definitely one of the top places we’ve stayed at, I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a romantic getaway for a few days. Feel free to ask me questions about our stay.

Above, the fountains lit up at night.

Next post: The beach – and that’s what it’s all about.

2 Canadians = Vicky and ‘liya
Mexico = a dangerous vacation place for Canadians (as the media makes it out to be)

HOWEVER… we were there quite recently (well recently as in 5 months ago since quite obviously I’m behind in my blogging), but honestly this was maybe the only place we’ve travelled to where we didn’t have a single problem… like nothing AT ALL.

You know how usually when you go somewhere you maybe get crazy lost (ahem…Marrakesh, Morocco), or you lose something brand new OR suspect it’s been stolen (i.e. sunglasses in southern Spain), or you miss your expensive paid train transportation by like half a second (France!), well we didn’t have any problems in Mexico… like NONE at all. We weren’t even harassed by time share sellers.

This doesn’t mean that I’m encouraging anyone to visit Mexico. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s well-being! All I’m saying is that we went, and we were absolutely fine. But we did read a lot of horror stories before going, and even on the plane other passengers joked that we might not all make our returning flight out in one peice. The day we left, apparently someone was bit by a shark – but how do you control that?!

Every winter hundreds of Canadians flock to the sunny Caribbean. Cuba is the cheapest destination, the Dominican Republic is another popular choice, higher up on the scale are islands like Jamaica, St. Lucia, and the Bahamas, and then towards the top you have places like Aruba. There’s so many places to choose in the Caribbean, so why did we choose Mexico? We’d already been to the Bahamas so we already know how pretty the islands are, but Vick had always wanted to go to the Mayan Riviera since he heard it was really nice. My interest in going was to see wonder of the world, Chichen Itza. And that my friends was the winning point, because you can get beautiful beaches anywhere in the Caribbean, all beaches will have soft white sand and sparkling turquoisey-green waters, but Mexico came with a history that I was curious to see for myself. You all know how much I love ancient ruins

So off we went despite warnings from friends and family. And it was one of the best trips EVER (ok I think I say that about everywhere we go … but you know what I mean )

Next Post: The best thing about all-inclusive resorts is…

Certain countries aren’t about their cities. Costa Rica is one of those places where everything else except for its major city is what it’s all about. San Jose was crowded, dirty, falling apart and generally not very visually appealing. Most people don’t visit Costa Rica to see San Jose, but the way things were arranged were so our tour began and ended in this city. But every city has its hidden gems. And we visited the Gold and Jade Museum, the Central Park square, viewed the nice exterior of some theatre, a cathedral and some other similar old-ish looking buildings. And then we found this huge expanse of pedestrian only streets and we got TOTALLY lost there and walked 45 minutes back to our hotel (which should only have been a 15 minute walk but we were going in circles). We also unexpectedly stumbled upon a halal restaurant in the middle of the city and ended up having dinner there on our first night. On our last night we had Chinese of all things. 

However, the absolute best part of San Jose was our hotel. We stayed at a 5 star hotel that included a huge breakfast buffet. The rooms were fabulous and overlooking the city some volcano. Now, the reason I mention the hotel is because compared to all the other eco-friendly places on the trip…well, you just can’t compare them, that’s the thing. The eco-friendly places we stayed at were definitely our most unusual living spaces. The rooms were probably the tiniest we had ever stayed in and there were actually restrictions on what could be thrown away or used etc. There were also lots of bugs (which yes I understand comes naturally with being in the rainforest and all) but San Jose was none of that. San Jose was comfort and style. The eco-friendly places were interesting but I think take a certain kind of person to deal with. I’m not used to sleeping in a room with a window covered only with a net! Another hotel had paper-thin walls and you could hear absolutely everything in the neighbouring rooms! And before you think I’m just a being a baby, well let’s just say the bathrooms in these tiny places didn’t even have a place for us to rest out toothbrushes because there were NO countertops. But all this comes with the experience of trying out something new, and that made it seem like an adventure.      

So what have I forgotten to include in my Costa Rica posts? I guess I didn’t mention the food. The food, called “typical food” by everyone, is beans and rice with salad, and since I grew up eating pretty much that same thing, I felt right at home. One time I had a really yummy soup with avocado in it and another time I had the yummiest fresh fish and shrimps. The food was always very good.

One day we went  to a frog museum and saw every kind of frog imaginable. Including once again that creepy glass looking one that we had seen in the rainforest at night.

Another day we went to this big marketplace in San Jose and it stunk horribly of fish and I wanted badly to leave but V insisted we find souvenirs there at discount prices because that’s where the locals shop.

Somewhere between cities we stopped at a really nice gift store overlooking the hills and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We got probably the nicest magnet out of collection of magnets from there and for the rest of the trip I had to carry around the fragile thing in a little box because I didn’t want it to break.

Oh – that reminds me, we bought bug spray and it leaked in my bag. But we didn’t get any mosquito bites at all. And we were out late at night A LOT.

We caught the glimpse of some fireworks around Christmas but it was hard to tell when it really was because we lost count of the days.

One night we went dancing and V showed everyone all his moves. You should see ME dance… I can’t.

There’s always a lot of vultures flying around.

We met a couple from Israel who had gone Volcano surfing in Nicaragua and the girl had broken a bone in her body but still was going ziplining.

We met a couple from Australia who had driven around in their rental car for days, lost, and then we felt good about having someone take us around.

We kept running into an American mom with her bratty daughter.

We went shopping in the gift stores along the beach and saw some really odd-looking statues. What’s with some places and creepy looking nude statues that are supposed to humourous but aren’t, I mean who would even buy this stuff?!

And I know I’m forgetting some important stuff but that’s okay, it’s time to end my Costa Rica posts I think I’ve said everything I’ve had to about it being green, the views, the animals and wildlife and not to mention all the dangerous activities we took part in (ahem, I don’t think I’ll ever do white water rafting again knowing how I could have smashed my head upon some rocks). Costa Rica was amazing, a totally different experience for us and overall a REAL adventure

The rainforest and nature are the main reason why people visit Costa Rica… so why did I leave this post for last? Well… I have like 100+ pics of trees and they all look the same – I know at the time I must have thought each tree/plant/growth of some kind must have looked unusual and photo-worthy, however on the computer they really all look the same and it’s frustrating to flip through them and wonder what the hell I saw in the camera lens at the time.

One morning in Monteverde, we went on an early hike throughout the forest.

Costa Rica is one of the greenest countries in the world and it certainly looks it.

So off we went trampling through the forest on muddy pathways wearing ridiculous looking ponchos (thank you Niagara Falls!), and feeling the constant mist on our faces. It wasn’t raining and it wasn’t muggy, it was cool and misty. We didn’t see any animals but we did see lots of lush plant life. Oh, and we did see a lot of birds… but birds are boring, they fly away too fast to capture in a photograph and you aren’t sure whether you saw what you think you saw… except for hummingbirds – gotta love those! We saw tons of hummingbirds and I took hundreds of pictures of them and guess what – all you see in the pics is a blur. So much for that.

I spy…humans!

That’s us above, and you can see just how thick and dense it was – now remember, this is just a tiny section – the forests are huge.

It’s incredible how things just grow on top of each other, one plant consuming the other, it’s like a fight for space.

You don’t see this wild kinda growth in our Canadian forests. And the vines that hang… it makes the forest look like Tarzan’s playground:

Below:

Mr. Beetle “Quick put your shell back on, this is an invasion of privacy!”

Mrs. Beetle “Oh my! How embarrassing!”

What’s this? It looks like some cancerous plant growth:

Strange plant formation that looks like a creepy hand:

And this thing:

To illustrate the way things grow on each other:

The following leaf is the same size as me:

Another huge plant:

Spiderweb:

I spy some colour:

I wouldn’t eat that if I were you:

Are you sick of green yet?

The next evening – actually night - the sun had already well set – we did a night hike through the forest, THAT’S when we saw the animals! But guess what guys, I have NO pictures of the night walk because I didn’t take the camera. And let me tell you why I purposefully didn’t take the camera – it’s ’cause I was so scared something would attack me that I knew I had to have my hands ready to protect my face (I don’t know why I always think animals are going to go for my eyes). 

Walking through the forest at night is not the easiest thing to do. I was gripping V’s arm like there’s no tomorrow and was feeling especially antsy not sure what was going to climb up my leg. We were given flashlights and armed with our binoculars we set out. This is where our binoculars came in really handy and we ended up sharing them with everyone (yay cheap Home Hardware at Cloverdale Mall!). We saw everything from poisonous snakes hanging from tree branches to glass frogs (called “glass” because the skin is so translucent you can see its internal organs), to tarantulas (yuck!) to more sloths. Everything is so camouflaged, but our guide was so obsessed with finding things that she had us walking all over the forest and back a few times and she did her job so well, I have no idea how she was able to spot so many things, I mean it was DARK out.

My absolute favourite thing were the leaf cutter ants. I’m not a big bug fan but these were the coolest little crawly creatures ever. Have you seen the movie Antz? They really do carry leafs around like this and they do this on the ground, up and down trees, in and out of their anthills, man it’s just crazy watching them, I could be fascinated by them for hours! I think the leaf cutter ants were the cutest thing because everything else I was just plain scared would land on my head.