Mexico . . . and Home???
Christian July 6th, 2008
Well after a 13 hour ferry/van/bus trip from Belize we finally made it to Playa del Carmen Mexico. Our hotel that we reserved was pretty nice. It had a pool and air conditioning, what more could you ask for? We spent 5 nights relaxing on the beach working on our tans. It was almost like being home. In Playa del Carmen there is everything. From Starbucks to McDonalds to Diesel to Walmart, everything was right at our fingertips.
We even went Scuba Diving in the Playa del Carmen. It was one of the best dives we had on the entire trip. The first dive was a wreck dive to an old three deck fishing boat. It was sank at around 100 feet. We swam around each level of the boat, and did a penetration into the wreck on the second level. We saw a sea turtle, a lobster, tons of fish, and some of the largest barracudas we have ever saw. The second dive was a drift dive. It was amazing. We saw tons of marine life including multiple sea turtles, huge barracudas, an octopus, lobsters, rays, among with many others. It was great.
After a week in the Playa del Carmen, we made our way to an all inclusive resort, the Grand Pallidium. It was a super nice resort, which we even got a free upgrade to a junior suite. It was luxury for us, and felt unnecessary. However, we did enjoy the 24 hour food and drink and the pool for four nights. It was almost anticlimatic after all we had seen in central and south america.
We had made the decision a few weeks back to fly home for a bit. We decided to do this for a few reasons, one being airfare and the other being worn out. We found it was cheaper to fly home first, then fly from JFK airport to Europe. Also from traveling so quickly we were getting pretty worn out by always having to find the next bus every couple of days and on the go for five months. So we are taking a short break and will be on the road again in mid to late August. We are going to enjoy a couple of weeks of summer without the worry of a full time job, get reorganized and restocked and prepared for the next leg of our journey. I hope that you all have enjoyed reading about our trip so far, there are many stories to come in the future.
- Mexico
- Comments(2)
Smart move guys. Looks like you’ve been covering a lot of ground and could use a breather. We’re on our last month of a 13 month trip, and although it’s always great to be traveling, it’s also great to be home. There’s only so much sightseeing, overnight buses and hostels one can handle. Some suggestions:
- Your itinerary looks quite ambitious, not to mention spread out. We have friends who have been traveling for 2 1/2 years and haven’t even hit all of the places you have listed! We’ve found that limiting our route and staying put in a place that we like for a few weeks or more is a great way to get to know an area and get a break from the packing and unpacking.
- I’d get out of Europe as fast as you can. It’s too expensive and too much like home. We’ve enjoyed the “culture shock” countries a lot more than the Westernized ones.
- Spend more time in the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa if you can afford it. 3 weeks in Africa is waaaaayyyyy too short. Maybe save it for another time. You’ll want to spend a lot longer there. It was our favorite part of the trip.
The hardest thing to learn is to slow down and not feel like you need to see everything. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your trip. I’m sure you’ll figure out what works best for you.
Howdy!
I’ve been lurking on your site for a bit now
Sounds like you guys have had some great times
I 2nd the notion of heading home for a break. It will be nice to crash on your bed/couch and not have to worry about where you are going for the next few weeks.
Although Europe is expensive it’s is so amazing! I hope you have fun there!!