Mexico round up!

Ceviche at Ana y Jose on the beach in Telum.

Can you see the color of the water in the background? Amazing.

You didn't think I'd stop posing did you?

Hola Señor Frosty!

Located on the west side of the main highway near Puerto Aventuras (by the Pemex gas station). This is the bargain bonanza for good food at low, low prices. Stop by for no-frills dining and enjoy the delicious food and hearty portions. Choose from fish or shrimp tacos, then visit the taco bar for toppings of your choice and a variety of salads.

Check out the prices at Taco Paco. $1.60 for a shrimp taco. $1.60 for a fish taco. $2.40 for chili relleno and for an entire shrimp cocktail - $5.50. Oh and these taco have enough in them to split them into two tacos which makes them really about 80¢ a taco.

Then you haul you soon to not be little bottom over to the condiment bar. All the traditional things are there including many, many salsas. But what I enjoyed was putting mayonnaise and pickled cucumber on my fish taco as if it were fish and chips in a tortilla.

There was also a peanut sauce that I paired up with the shrimp taco and it gave it a lovely Thai feel. All the food there was DELICIOUS.

This is not sunset over Akumal Bay. This is sunrise. I got this photo from the nuttiest person I know on a vacation, Brad. He kept telling me that he was up for sunrise every day of our vacation. He would have his coffee, watch the sun come up and then go for a stroll on the beach. I told him to take a picture for me because there was no way in hell I was going to be up early enough to see that. Thanks for the photo Brad, it's gorgeous!

Coba, Coba, Coba...

The same day that we went to Telum, we also went to Coba.

This now much more do-able than it used to be as they are updating and upgrading all the roads in the area. For instance as we drove into Coba we had to stay to the left on the old road as they worked on creating a new double lane road on the right. I remarked, "Wow, the next time you come here this could be a four lane road." As we left, we drove on the new road and the work crew had already torn up the road we drove in on which prompted me to say, "If we had stayed two more hours this would already BE a four lane road!"

Coba is an archaeological site that features a number of Mayan ruins. In years past you could climb many of them, but now to preserve as much as possible you can only climb one. From what I am told there are many more ruins like Coba and Chichen Itza but they have yet to be uncovered, literally. When these temples and the surroundings were abandoned, the jungle took them back. Now they sit out in the distance, little lumps in the otherwise flat landscape waiting to be discovered.

As we toured through the grounds we found that the climbable pyramid was about 4 kilometers down a path. That would be fine, we are young and hearty. Except we did already do our whole tour of Telum that morning. And it really as "down" a path which meant that the return trip would be "up" a path. And we would have climbed to the top of pyramid in between.

Then I saw the bicycles you could rent. Which led Lyle to see the pedi-cabs with drivers you could rent. How much? About $20. SOLD! And off we went into the jungle.

We arrived very fresh and smug at the pyramid.
Uh, people? It's tall. There is a rope down the center of the steps to help you if you need it.

Of course we did not use it. We are young strapping hearty men who just made some poor souls pedal us here so we could save our strength.

About halfway up. As you can see the steps are tall and rather narrow. As you get closer to the top they become more narrow and taller. This results in a net effect of forcing you to bow to the gods at the top of the pyramid.


The view from the top... Just between Lyle and Brad's shoulder you can see the other pyramid that has been uncovered on the Coba grounds. And if not for being uncovered, you can also see how the jungle could obliterate the discovery of these temples.

After our hike in the jungle, we stopped at the lake in front and paid a young man a dollar for each of us to have him throw chicken bits into the lake and feed the resident alligators. They freaked me out but here is good photo. I kept begging Lyle to not dangle his hand over the railing.
This was the pier. Made completely of medium sized sticks. Weathered and old. I kept shouting at Lyle and Brad, "DO NOT STEP ON THE SAME STICK AS I AM STANDING ON!"

And then we drove home.

Telum Me All About It...

As our little trip wound down towards the end, we decided it was time to grab a few quick moments and get some sightseeing in. Since we were only about 15 minutes from Telum we started there.

Telum is an ancient Mayan city. We did the required things of parking up by the shopping area then hiking down to the entrance (or you could take a fake train - actually a trailer with seats towed by a tractor all covered in fake train pieces) where we got in what appeared to be a short line.

The line got longer behind us and somehow in front of us as well. It did not move. Lyle went and spoke with someone about taking a guided tour. For about $10 more for our entire group of three, we grabbed a guide and jumped out of the ticket queue. Have money will travel.This is the ancient money dispenser of Telum. They were so advanced for their times.

Our guide was quite knowledgeable and I was completely uninterested. I have a problem that after about 10 minutes of lecture it all just starts to mash together and I can't take any more in. Imagine how difficult it was for me to remember all those cooking class instructions from the beginning of the trip. Luckily we had a handout at class. But here in Telum there was no handout. Not to worry, You can go here and read a very brief history of the location.

The beautiful part about Telum is that it is on the water. The location is drop dead gorgeous. And as our guide began to explain in great gory detail, many of the Mayans who lived in Telum did die in Telum. And that is when I started standing a little further away and let Lyle and Brad listen to the guide and I just took photos.

A face is carved into the corner of the temple. One half on each side.

Sunny, but not scorching. Perfect touring weather.

Just us three... and about 500 other tourists.

This photo makes me want to go back right now...

Excuse me, Mr Italian Tourist? I know those shorts are boxer shorts. I know you are just wearing your underwear out in public. I also know that that shirt clashes with your shorts. But I guess you don't know that I am secretly taking your photo...

What is it with people and their clothing choices?

The ruins started to get to me. I know I said I didn't listen to our guide (who was very knowledgeable and appreciated) but I did hear just enough to be creeped out by the scary human sacrifice vibe that just seemed to permeate the grounds. I was getting the creepy crawleys and wanted to leave. I had my photos. I was done.

As we walked back to our car we saw :

Which then became:

Featuring men in traditional costume:

And it was quite impressive.

Playing in Playa Del Carmen

Thursday we drove in to the big city of Playa Del Carmen. They have a steak place that we had heard about we were eager to see some other sites. This would be the small place people go when they wanted to get away from all the hustle and bustle of Cancun. After dinner we went for a stroll on Paseo Del Carmen, the main drag shopping/dining/tourist street. It felt like Times Square compared to where we'd been.
This shrine to the Virgin Mary was in the front porch of a house down the street from where we ate. All this. At the end of a tiled entryway. Visible from the street. I guess that way Mary can find it easier from her taxi.

This is our extravagant dining experience. On a side street off a the main busy street through town. Nothing else around unless you count that wild pack of dogs that was running around at the corner. Total lack of glamor.

Super Carnes HC de Monterrey, on 1st South between 20th and 25th Avenues. 984/803-0488 (open from noon to midnight). They are a hole in the wall restaurant but for $100 pesos you can have "arrachera nacional" (steak), baked potato, 1/2 avocado, hot sauce, tortillas and a soft drink.

In case you don't know what you came for, it's steak. Specifically Arrachera. This is the Mexican term for skirt steak. This place is famous for it. They use some secret marinade (and from what I gathered, it really is a secret as the locals have been trying for years to discover it and not been successful). But here is a suggestion from a cooking site - marinate for about an hour in a paste made of white onion, lime and salt and then throw on a very hot grill approx one minute per side. Flank is not the same but often substituted when skirt is not available.

At Super Carnes you order by the kilo. One Kilo of meat is about 2.2 lbs. There were 8 of us so we ordered 3 kilos. Or about a pound of steak a person.

It was bigger than my head and filled the whole plate!

This was ONE baked potato. It also covered my whole plate.

Brad & Jim are still feeling less than great.

Lyle & Ricky are feeling no pain.

This structure was in front of an expensive department store on Paseo Del Carmen. I didn't go in, but I would love to have this in my front yard for Christmas... or any time.

Ah-Akumal

This is the first photo I took in Akumal. I quite like it. Lyle is looking out across the inlet. The water is fairly calm as there is a coral reef out a ways that stops the giant waves from pounding the beach. I took this photo and then went back to bed. I had that stomach thing in full swing on the first day there.
This would be the second day. I claim I am feeling better. All I want is a hamburger. I am totally faking it for the camera right here. This is the bar/restaurant at Lol-Ha. Across the street inland is a body of water that connects the sea via an underground passage. We are probably sitting above it in this photo.

The beach at Akumal.

We went for dinner one night at the local hotspot La Buena Vida. I think it was Wednesday. That was the "big" night as Jungle Bob brings in his Karaoke machine. La Buena Vida is famous for it's Swing seat at the bar. There is a restaurant upstairs. From what I gathered, the chef has changed recently and the menu is all new. Some people were not too thrilled with the all new menu. However, I had the fresh fish fillet sauteed in butter (my stomach was still a little off) and it was good.

Brad and Monica at La Buena Vida.

Ricky is a swinger!

This photo took every once of strength I had to look like I was having the best time of my life.

The hostess with the mostest kicked off our evening's entertainment with her very own serenade of "Love Shack".

Brave, brave Ricky joined in later for a little duet. I only wished I was feeling well enough to do a little number, but alas, there was no way I was feeling well enough to fit into my Kylie Showgirl outfit.

Another day we stopped for pizza in the "town" of Akumal (opposite side of the highway from the beach village of Akumal) because we were very hungry and I couldn't face any corn tortillas. The pizza was not very good.

In fact, it was so bad that when Lyle threw his end piece of pizza crust to this dog on the sidewalk, he wouldn't even sniff it let alone eat it.

Though I don't have any photos taken there, I can recommend dining at the Turtle Bay Cafe in Akumal. In particular I can recommend the Key Lime Pie. I had two.

I also suggest a little shopping. I enjoyed Mexic Arte just across the street from Turtle Bay Cafe. I found some lovely Christmas decorations!

Corn? I don't remember having corn...

It wasn't until I was posting photos here for the blog that I think I solved a mystery.

Just after our arrival in Akumal, Brad and I each got a little upset tummy. And that is the polite way to phrase it.

It just didn't make sense. First off, of the four of us traveling, Brad and I have the iron horse constitutions. Nothing gets to us. Everything gets to Lyle and Ricky. Lyle spent three days in a hotel in Shanghai surviving on 1 piece of toast (for all three days). Ricky lost it when he smelled the garbage outside of Howard Johnson's in Manhattan on a hot summer day.

Everything we ate, we ate together. Every meal we had the table sampled each other's food. We ordered communal appetizers. We sipped each other's drinks. We slurped soup together. No one person had anything that the other three didn't also try.

It just didn't add up. But there we were, Brad and I. Down for the count. Way down.

And then I discovered THE photo. And I started to do the math.

Corn - consumed on Sunday at approximately 1 pm.

Food poisoning can some on suddenly (within 48 hours) of consuming a contaminated food or drink. Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea.
I was going to say that neither of us had any problems on Monday. But I remember just having soup Sunday night. I said I was "done with food." "Too full." "Needed something light." I said the same thing the next day when we stopped in Valladolid. "Soup please. Something light." And then it hit us and both of us were sick by 6 am Tuesday, well within the 48 hour window.

Traveler's Diarrhea (or "Montezuma’s revenge") can be defined as 3 or more unformed stools in a 24-hour period (yes, we all needed to know that). Travelers at risk: Those going from industrialized countries to developing countries. High-risk areas: Mexico

Then I saw it, the photo that solved what had happened:

Only Brad I ate the corn.

Valladolid Girl, like, fer sure

We left Merida in the morning. We were crossing back towards the water side below Cancun. After gorging myself all weekend in the big city, my stomach was a little rumbley tumbley. In fact I felt just like this lovely lady above. Fat and bloated and wishing I had a ruffled skirt to hide it all. Oh joy, instead I was headed to the beach and I only brought small squarecut swim costumes.

Halfway, we stopped in Valladolid for lunch. Yeah, I totally needed more food.

Since I was a little off, I ordered jugo de papaya, papaya juice. Papaya juice has natural enzymes to help settle your stomach. This stuff was AMAZINGLY FRESH. I've never seen juice so just scooped out and blended for me and me alone.

I ordered the soupa de limo, lime soup. I just wanted something light. Nothing heavy. I no longer wanted food but clearly if I didn't put something in I would waste away to nothingness.

We did a little tour of the main square...

Evita showed up.

There is a beautiful old church that we couldn't go into because we had on shorts.

Ricky bought some handcrafted bags from these ladies. We knew they were handcrafted as we saw them weaving them on the square. Actually they were also using their toes.

And then we headed for Akumal. Our relaxing, beach loving, sun tanning, blissful portion of our vacation was about to begin... or was it?