fruit of tulum

Hey there,

After an easy bus ride from Cancun I arrived in Tulum a couple of days ago. I hadn't booked any accommodation, but lucky for me directly across from the bus stop was a hostel. By far the easiest hostel search ever. I lucked out too, cause though the hostel isn't in the nicest, it has really great ammenities like a kitchen, free internet, awesome breakfast (yesterday they served us banana nutella crepes!!), and free use of their bikes. I liked it so much I decided to stay an extra night.

The first day I was there I immediately went to the beach and, once I found it, I was in heaven. It's the typical Carribean set up; white sand, turquoise water. The best thing about Tulum is that it's not overtly touristy here (yet), so there weren't any mega hotels to block the sun. In fact the only buildings i could really see were these grass shack looking beach cabanas that are right on the beach and a glimpse of the Tulum ruins.

The next morning I woke up early and went to the Tulum ruins right when it opened, so that I could avoid the hordes of tourists that show up later. The ruins themselves were not that impressive but the seaside setting was. The real highlight was when I almost stepped on an iguana and screamed when the rock I was about to step on moved. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach trying to figure out what my plan of action is. I'm trying to figure out where exactly i'll be for christmas, so that i don't get stuck in some deserted city with no where to stay. At this point I think that I'll be in Guatemala...somewhere.

Today was my last day in Tulum and I rode one of the hostel bikes 5km to see the Grand Cenotes, which are kind of caverns filled with water. It was really beautiful although I'm not sure there's enough there to be worth the $8 entrance fee. Luckily I've been saving money by eating pasta every night , and walking and biking everywhere.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I will be spending most of the day on buses en route to Belize. Even though it's not the most exciting way to spend my time, tomorrow I will give thanks that soon I will be in another tropical paradise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

xx,
gwen

Isla Mujeres? or really Isla Mosquitos?

Dear Readers,

Yesterday I went to the beautiful Isla Mujeres. The island is just a short ferry ride from Cancun, but it offers a welcome respite from the chaos of the city. This is truely a great little island that has the bright colors and the laid back feel of the carribean. Originally I was going to go and stay for a couple of days, but i cut my trip short because for some reason the bugs there love me and within an hour of arriving i received a dozen insect bites. Some people think that they are bed bug bites, but I´m not so sure.

Well, even though I was there for a short time I really crammed in a lot of activities. First, I spent a couple of hours lounging on the sandy white beaches as I gazed into the turquoise waters. On the beach I had a fine picnic of olives, animal crackers, and apple flavored soda.

Then in the afternoon I went on two SCUBA dives. In some ways it was not ideal to go so late in the afternoon because the sun was getting low and the visibility wasn´t as good. I had fun anyways because I got to test out the underwater housing i bought for my point and shoot. I saw tons of fishies and some delicious looking lobsters. The ride back to shore was a bit cold, but the beautiful sunset made it all worth it.

Later in the evening, the guys from the dive shop and a girl who i had met in the hostel in cancun, and i went to the central plaza. They were having a festival of carribean culture featuring singers and dancers from various islands. Although the entertainment was good the cheap food i bought from the vendors was even better. Seriously i don´t think it´s possible to get sick of Mexican food. Mmmmm....tacos.

Tomorrow I´m going to take a bus to Tulum, and from there it´s on to Belize.

xx,
gwen

did i mention i hate blogging?

dear friends,

finally the first blog. first let me preface everything with this. i don´t know how to type on these foreign keyboards, so if there are a lot of typos and missing punctuation bear with me.

right now i am sitting in a hostel in downtown cancun typing this blog. i could be at the beach or at office max trying to find a replacement for the important usb cable i left at home. but the internet at the hostel is free and nobody else is stupid enough to stay around, so i´ve decided to take advantage of the moment and save myself a couple of bucks.

at this point you might be wondering why i am still in cancun if i flew here a week ago. don´t worry i haven´t been here the whole time. i actually went to cuba for 5 days/4 nights. cuba turned out to be a really cool experience. by a twist of fate i was able to stay with some people in havana for free. i was standing at the luggage carousel in havana contemplating the fact that i had no idea how to get from the airport to havana, and that once i got there i had no idea where a good place to stay would be. i ended up approaching another girl who appeared to be travelling alone and asked her if she knew how to get to havana. luckily not only did she have a guide book but she spoke english. yay! we then decided to split a cab because it was rather expensive. when i told her that i didn´t have a place to stay she said i could stay where she was staying. at this time i assumed that she was staying at a casa particular, which is a private home with homes for rent. it wasn´t until later that night that i realized that i could stay there for free. at first i felt guilty about it, but the owner of the house was this cool Swiss-Turkish hippie guy and he didn´t seem to care. the other cool thing about staying there was that i was able to interact more freely with some local people and practice my spanish.

the good things about havana- the people are friendly, the architecture is beautiful, it´s not as dirty as most cities

the bad things about havana- the people are friendly, everything is falling apart, things are expensive

the people in havana are very friendly, but not always in a way that i appreciated. i didn´t really like that men were constantly trying to get your attention. sometimes it´s because they think you are attractive, sometimes it´s because they want to lead you somewhere where they can get a commission for bringing you there. i would have to say that almost any local who stops you on street to start a conversation for you is trying to get something for you. it´s not even necessarily in a malevolent way. it´s just that they are so poor that if there is any way they can make a couple of extra pesos they will. things are seriously expensive in havana. in cuba there are two systems of money, one for tourists and one for cubans. if you can buy something in cuban pesos it is quite cheap. unfortunately, there is almost nothing to buy in that currency; maybe some food on the street or, for the cubans, at a goverment store. practically everything else is sold in tourist money, and prices for those items are pretty much the same as they are in the us or even more expensive. when you find out that most cubans get paid in cuban pesos you can understand why they are always hassling you. even the few tourist pesos they might get don´t go very far. cubans who have relatives from abroad who send them money are also much better off. even if you have a lot of money there is almost nothing to buy here. there isn´t a lot of variety of goods and the shelves in most stores are empty or half empty.

walking around the city you feel like you are in a different time. practically all the buildings are pre 1960´s and most of them appear to be in disrepair. most of the city is falling apart at the seams. for tourists the layers or stucco and paint peeling away is a beautiful novelty. you could say that the whole city is rather shabby chic. but if you actually had to live there day in and day out it might really start to wear on you.

overall, i liked havana. it was truely a unique and interesting experience, which is what travelling is all about. since i didn´t make it out of havana this trip, i hope that one day in the future i can come back and really see the country. and hopefully at that time the US won´t have so many stupid restrictions on travel there.

hope you are all doing well!

xx,

gwen

p.s. my next stop is isla mujeres and then down to tulum.