The Joneses Visit Mexico: Arrival and Shopping

On Sunday, September 21st, we took a family trip to Cancun, Mexico with the Jones siblings and Dad. Only Mark and Kathy couldn't make it. I've always thought of Cancun as a "sit on a beach" place, but it was much, much more exciting than that. Kent and Kim have been here a few times, and highly recommended it. Cancun did not disappoint.

We left Billings around 7:30 am, and after meeting up with the Davis's and changing planes, arrived in Cancun early evening. There's only an hour difference between Billings time and Cancun time, which was nice.

The entrance to our hotel was interesting: two large trees growing overhead with roots coming out the bottom. Now I know those roots don't go with those trees, but it's a cool effect.

 

We stayed at the Occidental in Cancun/Riveria area (say that ten times fast). Other than the rooms, the hotel areas were open to the outdoors and there were plenty of flying birds and crawling reptiles around inside.

 

 

 They even had dozens of Macaws strategically perched around the lobby.

Here's a view of the outside of our hotel. The complex is huge-there were more than 20 three story buildings, with maybe 20 rooms on each level. We were there on off-season, which was nice. I can't imagine how many people there would be if the place was full.

This is the view from our balcony.

These little lizards were everywhere.  Can you see him? He's that dark little thing in the center of the picture. They are quick as a wink, and impossible to catch.

Not that I was planning on catching one....

Cancun is a lovely place to stop and smell the flowers.

 

There's a small beach area next to the hotel restaurant we ate in.

 

The meals could be eaten buffet (or "boo-fay" as the locals say) style. The food was good. Evening meals could also be eaten at a specialty restaurant you needed reservations for, and that food was delicious. We soon learned the importance of beans, squash, and corn in the local diet. Those three things were served in some form at nearly every meal, including breakfast.

The desserts were plentiful and pretty, but fortunately, they were pretty tasteless. It kept me from eating too much sugar. Sort of.

 

 

There were always a few new, previously unknown foods to try, like this. Did we decide it was guava?

 

This area has plenty of iguanas, which practice sitting so still you wonder if they are real or a very good plastic copy.

We also saw these all over the place. They walked around like they own the place, completely unconcerned by humans. They are  related to raccoons and the adults are about the size of a large cat-maybe 15+ lbs.

They are coatis and they walk around with their tails up like a friendly cat, often in groups.

We saw one on a day trip, sitting on the counter next to our ticket-taker, who appeared to be a pet. Our guide told me people often keep them as pets, that they are omnivores, they can be litter box trained, and that despite their docile appearance, they can be vicious and one should be cautious around them.

Yep, that sounds like the perfect pet for those who don't value fingers.....

We soon discovered there are ruins EVERYWHERE. You can see the top of a ruin, just yards from the restaurant.

We went to investigate,

and found this cute little house. The doorway is about 4 1/2 feet high and the house has a....

....beautiful ocean view.

The inside is small, with dirt floors and several bats snoozing on the ceiling.

Despite the sparse, unadorned smallness inside, the outside was pretty fancy with its rounded details.

It makes me wonder how they managed such interesting details without the use of modern machinery.

On Monday (and again on our last full day, Saturday) we took a trip into town. Here's the harbor. This *lovely* harbor gate had no explanation, but it was huge. 

 Same statue, looking back into town from the other side.

The town itself was full of tiny little shops. I quickly became tired of being chased down by vendors, wanting to give me a special deal of a lifetime on their wares. They start bargaining by giving you  ridiculously exorbitant prices which you then countered until you both agreed upon an amount. You had to be careful not to glance at a store as this was taken as a sign of interest and the vendor would become even more excited and aggressive.
Shopping is definitely last on my list of things to do in Mexico, especially in this tourist haven.

Every shop had virtually the same merchandise,

 Can someone tell me what that sign means? I think it's a convoluted way of saying "no cash refunds, just exchanges".

I was really puzzled by all of the skulls.  I understood after I saw the ruins the next day.

There were also street performers, although not exactly like the ones you see in New York or San Francisco.

We saw this one in a couple of places: These traditionally dressed performers climb the pole, and one sits on top playing a flute while the others swing around by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin. Or feet.

We also ran into this guy, who offered to do damage to my spouse if he didn't find me ice cream. At least that's how I'm choosing to interpret it.

Fortunately for Stan, there were lots and lots of Haagen-Dazs stores,

and even better, lots and lots of Aldo's gelato.

We both got a lovely bowl of coconut and pistachio gelato. It cost around $7 a bowl. Yikes! It was soooo good, I managed to enjoy it without thinking about how much less it would cost in Europe.

We follow up with a small purchase at the local McDonalds for the privilege of using a clean bathroom

Nearly all of the roofs in Cancun are thatched, and Mickey Dee's is no different.

I love the colorful buildings of Mexico.

Next up: Chicken Pizza