Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts

Friday, July 23, 2010

Saltillo, Mexico - July 23 to 30, 2010

It has been a year since we left to travel. We were definitely due for a visit home! We took a couple weeks of holidays and spent a week in Mexico and a week in Canada. The flights were just as long as we remembered. Our round trip went Auckland-Los Angeles-Houston-Monterry then Monterrey-Dallas-Calgary and finally Edmonton-San Francisco-Auckland, covering over 30,000 Kms!!

A week is definitely not enough time to visit! We didn't have a minute to spare all week. We spent the first weekend out at the family ranch. Saturday night we partied with friends and then a barbeque with relatives on Sunday. During the week we visit as much family as we could squeeze in and made a trip out to a vineyard near Parras. Jesse had the honour of making empanadas with Carolina's grandma! We forgot to take pictures, but when it came to kneading the dough, she sure made Jesse look like a wimp!




Karaoke at the ranch:


"It took me two years to learn this song!"

If I really wanted to, I could dance with bottle on my head too...































Jesse almost sat on a mantis at lunch:


Friday, August 7, 2009

Mexico - July 26 - Aug 3, 2009

We spent last week in Cancun with Carolina's family. It was VERY hot and humid all week. It's rainy season right now, but fortunately we didn't see a drop of rain until the very last day. It was gorgeous and sunny out every day. Temperatures were in the mid to high 30s all week, but it felt a LOT hotter with the humidity.

Here's some of the stuff we did and checked out throughout the week:

Tulum Beach - Amazing white sand and unbelievably blue water. We spent the afternoon at the beach enjoying the weather.


Xcaret - This is an excellent excursion that I recommend to anyone that goes to Cancun. I can't remember exactly, but it was about an hour south of cancun. It's like a big mayan theme park. We started off the morning snorkeling through underground caves and rivers. We spent the entire afternoon exploring the area. We had a buffet dinner and watched an incredible show in the evening. The show walked through the rich history and culture of Mexico. I REALLY enjoyed the show. It was definitely one of the best parts of the trip.


Chichen Itza - We spent an afternoon exploring the old Mayan ruins. We had a great tour guide that was very knowledgable and charismatic so it really made it enjoyable. The guide only spoke spanish so I relied on Carolina and Ernesto to translate the parts I didn't understand. I would really recommend this day trip to any who vacations in the area as well. The architecture is amazing; it's hard to believe how advanced it is for being so old. There was so much detail. In the ... arena? the corridor was designed so when you clap it echoes exactly 7 times, once for each player on the team. If you clap near the main pyramid it actually transforms the echo to sound like one of the native birds in the area.


Xel-Ha - We spent a full day here. It is basically an all inclusive resort full of fun activities. You pay the admission and everything inside is included (even drinks and food). We started by cruising along a bike trail to where an underground river comes to surface. This area is very unique because it is where the fresh water (underground) meets the salty sea water. We grabbed some snorkel gear and rafts and floated down the river all the way to the beach. There was a ton of stuff to do here, cliff diving, tarzan ropes, jaguars, bike trails, several restaurants and a nice beach.



Coco Bongo - This is a nightclub in Cancun. You have to see it to believe it. It was a great time! We picked up cheaper tickets in the afternoon. These tickets got us in with no line and we got free tshirts too. You only need to pay the admission, once you are inside all the drinks are included. We got there around 11. They have a big stage above the bar and they put on shows throughout the entire evening. They did something like 20 different shows. We finally dragged ourselves out around 4:30, haha. I'm not sure if it was something we drank but both me and Ernesto ended up pretty sick the next day. Not the usual hang over, we both had really bad stomach aches and cold sweats. I was freezing cold but couldn't stop sweating. Luckily Perla knew just what to get us from the pharmacy and we were ready for more action by the afternoon, haha.