OK OK, I LAG BIG TIME - Puerto Morelos at X-mas

December 25th - December 30th
Puerto Morelos is a cool little place. I won't give the normal daily summary. I have been back for weeks now and the entire vacation has lapsed into that too-much-Dos Equis-haze as do all my Mexico vacations. Please excuse any ranting and long winded-ness. Work is terribly slow and I am tired of looking at my email and stocks. Here are the hi-lights of the trip I suppose.

- Hotel. So I am addicted to http://www.tripadvisor.com/. Everyone should use it to check out what others say about your potential hotel. What I have found is that the $60 a night place gets as highly reviewed as the $500 a night place. Plus I am cheap so maybe I am just deluding myself with the high I get from saving money....but I digress. I picked a hotel that got great reviews, www.http://www.www.caracol-hotel.com/. Cute place, owned by a Swiss couple. NO - when we got there the ownership has changed and two very unenthusiastic Italians were running the place. While the morning espresso rocked and the room and AC were good, there was none of the amazing service or fresh breads for breakfast that everyone raved about - whatever.

- More Hotel. We stayed the last night at Hotel Marviya http://www.marviya.com/. This was a great place. We had a kick ass balcony and view and the room was really big, see photo. Here is the weird thing, the hotel (and Puerto Morelos in general) the place is over-run with French Canadians (FC), all from Montreal. I have never met an FC in my life and here I was surrounded by them. I was so excited to practice my hideous French - at which time they immediately break into English, dammit I thought I sounded good. In any case, one of our Mexican waiters thought I was a Canuck and started speaking French to me. Knowing that he would never detect my heinous mispronunciation and no-conjugation, I spoke French back to him. I was screwed when he stared asking me how to say easy words like "fork" and "straw". I think he thought I was retarded until we told him we were American. He thought we were FCs because were were not overweight......can you believe that.

- Mosquitoes. There are mosquitoes that cover your entire body at exactly 4:30pm. What the hell. I have already experienced this phenomenon at Ilha Bella (see blog entry below for Wednesday, January 10, 2007) and found it to be largely unpleasant. I looked like I had scabies or something when I got home. Thank got for DEET, though the warnings on the bottle really freak you out http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/spring03hazards.html.

- Playa Del Carmen. I think it is HILARIOUS that all the Americans go to the gaudy fake-ness that is Cancun and all the Euros and Canadians go to Playa Del Carmen (PDC). PDC has cobbled streets, restaurants of all types, great cafes and stores - hardy a Mexican Mexico but charming nonetheless. It is filled with espresso drinking Euros looking just-so. Cancun is a walled off nightmare where if you can even find the exit to the street from your hotel you are lucky. Then, if you are lucky enough to make it out you can go to the Outback Steakhouse or Plant Hollywood for some craptastic food. Dave thinks that Cancun gets points for it's beaches. OK, I'll concede Cancun gets a few "luxury" points and "clean beaches" points but that's it.

- Diving & Snorkeling. Snorkeling is fantastic here, though I am not sure how much longer it will be fantastic with all the morons in the water. PET PEEVE PET PEEVE PET PEEVE! If I see one more doughebag touch or kick the coral while snorkeling, I am not responsible for my actions. At least in Cabo Pulmo our dive guy warned us, "you touch the coral and I kick your ass". I'm sorry but people in general are inconsiderate, annoying, and not smart. We did dive the Cenotes, which are cool underwater caves that are all over the Yucatan. I was less than enthused about the dive but Dave was paying and I am a supportive wife (generally, when it suits me). I got cold during the dive, can we please swim faster...... The Aquanauts Dive Shop rules though. Super friendly, good equipment.

Food. Tacos and beers tacos and beers tacos and beers! The rule of thumb holds, eat where the locals eat. It will be good and cheap. 10 tacos for $8 - NICE

- Meg and Mike. This is bad...... My sister and her husband stayed up the beach a bit at the luxury-resort-of-luxury-resorts, Excellence Maya Riviera. Check out the reviews at the link. WOW! All inclusive and super nice. So our hotel was about 2 miles from my sister's hotel. What's nice walk on the beach when there are free drinks to be had at the All-Inclusive. SO each evening we sneaked (snuck?) onto the property and tried to blend in. After a few Mojotos and a $40 tip for the bartenders Humberto and Roberto, were were in like Flynn for the entire week. Granted, we earned our cocktails because the only way to get to and from the resort was to walk on the beach, that's 4 miles everyday people. They sure as hell were not letting riff-raff like Dave and I in at the main security gates.

Puerto Morelos summary: OK beaches, good food, good location for outdoorsey activities, GREAT snorkeling, soon be over-run by over-fed American tourists that can take the easy shuttle from their safe hotel in Cancun.