The Phantom Tope and Shrimp Taco Tour 09

[lazydog]

Day 1: Flew out of Vancouver. It doesn’t snow a lot here and it is very unusual to get snow in March, we woke up to snow. Yipppeeee. I didn’t have to stay to scrape the ice of my window…..I am going to Mexico. Why is there such joy in knowing that everyone else is going to be left to deal with the cold?

We flew a charter line that we have flown before three years ago. Three years ago it was a nightmare so we were dreading the worst. Skyservice Charter Airlines…..aaaaahhhh. But this trip wasn’t so bad. You have to pay if you want to pre-select your seats so we forked out the cash and pre-selected our seats. Smart right? Nope………. we managed to pay for the only seats on the plane without a window.

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That is my daughter um....er...in the window seat? My sister up front. I didn't care, I always take the aisle seat. Off we go.

The first night we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. Basically it is a Marriott Courtyard but in Cancun. It has a pool and a hot tub and standard rooms, the restaurant was pretty good. It had a free business center. The big perks to staying in the Marriott Courtyard if you have a late night flight would be that it has a free shuttle to and from the airport up until 11 pm and that it is the easiest hotel in the world to drive to Tulum from!!!

I asked the front desk for directions on how to get on the 307 to drive to Tulum from the hotel, he first of all explained to me that only tourists call it "the 307", the real name for the highway is "The Road to the Riviera Maya", not and he repeated..... not the 307. All right I asked him how do I get to "The Road to the Riviera Maya?" Turn right. Yup, the hotel is on the highway so all you do is turn right and drive until Tulum.

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Pretty standard room. Free wifi in the room. Most of the other guests were airline staff. Our pilot and attendants ate at the tables next to us for dinner and breakfast.

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We went for a late night swim.

Called Easyway next morning. I did some very last minute emails back and forth and we got this VW Sport Van for $600 for two weeks with all the insurances etc.

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I am sure I could have done better with some more negotiating between the different companies but this car turned out fine. My idea of a van is slightly different. We did keep on making jokes that one day we would like to be rich enough to have a Dodge Caravan. Aaaah, the Dodge Caravan.

Said good by to the parents who were going to take the night bus to Palenque and hit the road. One stop at the Sonaria Grocery/Department store right at the end of Playa. That is an easy location to get into and out. Grabbed the ice and beer and off to Tulum.

First stop......Urge Tacos. How to find it? At the first topes in Tulum, turn right.

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First set of topes before Tulum centro.

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The only time we received an english menu was days later when we went with my parents. This time we received the spanish menu, ordered up our snack so that when we hit the beach we could relax.

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Two shrimp and one fish.

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The yummy salsa bar. Watch out for the habanero. Personally I love habanero.

And almost like magic you get yummmmmmmy!!!

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[minniemex]

Too funny Lazydog!! Keep it coming!! Beachreader only has 3 days before she leaves!! LOL

[Tranquilo Tomas]

Great job with photos of how to find Urge Tacos :eat-drink:. . . you're going to make some people on this board very happy. Man, I can just taste those tacos de camerones y pescado! I'll be chompin' down a few in May!
Looking forward to the remainder of your trip report Lazydog. The colors on your plate simply vibrate off my monitor!!

[letele]

Ohhhhh those tacos look great! Keep it comin'!

[beachreader]

Mouth watering, keep it coming! Somehow I will make this yogurt taste like fried shrimp! I will!

And thanks so much for doing your report so quickly! :eat-drink:

How much were your rooms at the Couryard, or did you use points after all?

[Lynnette]

I just LOVE the shrimp tacos at Urge....great start!!

[TnTWalter]

Love it...hurry up. LOL...

:beerchug:

[lazydog]

Nothing tasted better than those shrimp tacos that first day! BR, we did use points, kind of a waste but...too lazy to plan anything else so just booked the room the night before. On to Tulum.

[lazydog]

Tulum……..

After our taco feast we easily found Playa Mambo. We were greeted by Javier, Miguel and the rest of the gang. We were shown to our Naranja cabana. There were three beachfront cabanas, Naranja, Penthouse and Verde. Ours was on the right looking from the beach. It looked to be the smallest from the outside and would turn out to be so the next day I toured the two empty beachfront cabanas.

Until the day we left the other beachfront cabanas sat empty. We could not figure out why at first. I think it is because they do not take a deposit. People probably made reservations and did not cancel them. On our last day, a family was shown Verde and they took it and some younger people moved into Penthouse. All the back cabanas seem to be full the three nights we were there.

I asked other guests if they were hot in the back and they said no. They had electrical fans but were not using them. One couple said they could hear a generator from next door but it didn’t bother them too much. Walking by the rooms, they all looked unique and nice.

Only the three beach front cabanas had decks to sit on. We kind of felt spoilt, also having the only outdoor chairs to sit on. I would stay in the back cabanas if they had a deck area. I like privacy and having my own outdoor area. But Playa Mambo has a nice restaurant/sitting area by the road where you can play games, read etc. and it wasn’t very hot. And of course they have the beach area to sit at!!!!

Someone had posted that Playa Mambo had no beds or chairs etc. There were four beds, two hammocks, chairs, loungers etc. Probably just the right amount for a full house.


View from Naranja.

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Looking at Naranja


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Bed (this was on our last day so not too tidy). This bed by far was the most comfortable of our entire trip. I would learn to miss this bed.

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A gazillion tables to put stuff on, which we did.

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Up to the loft, my sister stayed up there. She is a saint. She left the window open each night and said her face never felt so exfoliated in her life. I think she looks ten years younger. It was a very expensive fine sand facial, available only in Tulum.

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View out the door.

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Shelves and hangers to put stuff….like beer and such.

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My sister waking up in the morning. She said she felt as happy and glowing as that photo shows. She had had a great nights sleep.

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Front deck where we sat and read and served coffee each morning.

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.

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Loungers and such.

Bikini boot camp people running on the beach while I was being served coffee on my deck by Miguel. Crazy fools.

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[heenan]

Liked the Tulum sand exfoliating story!
Good thing your sister had the beach breeze to avoid the mosquitos!

Hey don't knock boot camp; my wife and I do a variation of our boot camp routine most mornings on the beach when we are there. We get some funny comments about some of the exercises, but doing it allows for one extra margarita or Sol a day! :beer:

[beachreader]

Nice porch--that one post looks like a Brontosaurus bone!

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What is that huge building right next door?

Looking at my (admittedly dated) map, I thought there was an empty lot between Mambo and La Zebra?

So your sister was a saint for living up in the loft, does that mean it's not a nice place to sleep? Sand blowing in her face sounds like it's not too spiffy... Did you have three of you in that room, you, your daughter and your sister? Was the downstairs bed comfortable for the two of you? It almost looks like two twins pushed together, so pretty large?

[lazydog]

heenan, I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether I was jealous or not of the constant exercise going on two lots down. Still can't decide, part of me would probably enjoy it and need it!

BR, don't know what the huge building is, only heard a couple of voices a couple of times. There are two lots I think between Playa Mambo and La Zebra. The one you see and then a really run down place with tents, or maybe it's the other way around....hmmm. Maybe the really run down place was next door. I don't know. Darn I thought I was taking tons of photos!

They actually suggested to not leave the window open at night. She did. It didn't seem to bother her too much. I guess the fact that the other two beachfront cabanas that were sitting empty and renting for the same price (I peeked at their little note book on the last day) which would have been better suited for us sat unused. Verde or Penthouse would have accomodated three much better. Don't get it. Okay, I'll post the photos of the other two beach front and you'll see what I mean.

It was two twins pushed together and it was a very comfortable mattress. And yes my daughter and I were in the downstairs. The upstairs had no net and there was no way my daughter was going up there with no net.

Hey want to see some bathroom photos. Only took two.

[lazydog]

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Well the chances of me doing a 14 day by day trip report is not likely so I will go off by a day here.

My daughter is a bit of a nut when it comes to bugs and stuff. I am always used to her flipping out over the smallest stuff, a spider, a fly….whatever. This is the kid that flipped out half way up the Coba pyramid because a fly landed on her.

Laying out the second night in the hammock right in front our cabana, I was half asleep and just chilling. All of a sudden my daughter came running up breathless, “mom” “mom” she could barely speak. “In the there” “in there” “there’s something in the cabana”. Meanwhile she is jumping up and down. I sighed, a fly? A spider?

Then she looked at me and said “it has a tail this big” and held out her hands a foot. Hmmmm. A tail about a foot or so long. Hmmm, that could be real. Jumped up to take a look, sure enough we had a critter in the cabana. No way am I getting that out. Spider sure, cockroach sure. This guy, no way. Off to find a staff. Found Javier and he came over to see what the excitement was about.


We all scrambled up to the loft except Javier, me holding our umbrella in my hand as a weapon as Javier went to oust our unwanted guest. Our guest for the evening was in the bathroom, I of course threw Javier the camera. Had to get a photo.

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Javier managed to scoot him out with the towel. I don’t think he actually touched the critter with the towel but we never used the towels again. We kept on calling them the opossum towels. “is that the opossum towel?” "I don't know, is it the opossum towel?" It turned out to be a Tla Cuache.

Javier reminded us to keep the door closed after that. Actually every time he saw us after that he reminded us to keep the door closed. I guess there's no danger pay at Playa Mambo.

[minniemex]

Ok, I tried to "google" it (tia cuache) and came up with nothing of real substance.

What was that creature?? Mouse, rat, opossum?? He did look kinda cute.......

Great story!! Of course it would be your daughter who found the creature! LOL

[beachreader]

Wow, that's my first mammal sighting in a cabana, other than cats and dogs, I mean. I'm thinking we'll be keeping the doors closed!

Can't wait for the rest!

[lazydog]

I know! I think we just won the biggest critter in the cabana award! I found a link it's a El Tlacuache. Supposedly it's an endangered animal and also a mythical animal. Here is a link to a page I found. Kind of cool.

http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://sepiensa.org.mx/contenidos/tlacuache/tlacua_1.htm&ei=4NrMSfmjMYKOsQPj9Z2hCg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtlacuache%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefo x-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official

[letele]

Aw, cute lil opossum! Too funny!

[HAWKEYE]

Great start!!
Waiting for more.
Craig.;)

[lazydog]

Here are photos of Penthouse and Verde, the other two beach front cabanas.

Penthouse on left and Verde on right.

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Space separating rooms.

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Verde King Bed, viewing down from loft.
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Verde loft, bigger than Naranja and easier to get into.

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More Verde.
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Penthouse photos. Penthouse has a single bed/couch downstairs with bathroom, upstairs there is another single bed/couch and a king size bed. Quite a large area upstairs and a great private deck on second floor. This suite would have been great for three people or more.

View as you walk in the door. Bed couch thing and bathroom to back.
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Interesting sink.

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Pretty shower.
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Single bed upstairs to left of King bed.

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King bed.

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Layout of second floor, looking from deck.

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Photos of private second floor deck.


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Real stairs in this place, no ladder rungs.

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Playa Mambo has electricity 24 hours so that was a nice plus. Could leave your outside light on at night and easily go for a walk and find your way back.

[minniemex]

Wow, great reporting!! I love the place!! Will have to check them out when I am ready to go again!! Gracias........

[tcarter]

Love the pics Lazy Dog! The suites look great. I am staying in the Penthouse and I notice from your pictures the deck up there does not have the palapa roof/shade over it. It probably gets brutally hot up there with out shade sitting in the sunlight.

[lazydog]

Probably true, but it would a great place to sit first thing in the morning with coffee or a glass of wine at night. I would love to sit out there either time. During the hot day you can sit down at the beach. I've got some more on Playa Mambo coming up, that you might be interested in.

[lazydog]

We wandered over to Om one day for lunch. We had Carlos for our waiter and he spent quite a bit of time with us. My sister was impressed as he cleared our plates and replaced all cutlery with fresh etc. We talked to him about where he was from, how quiet the summers get and of course Vancouver etc. how cold it is in Canada. (we really just have weather like Seattle but....if people want to keep on thinking we are wearing snowshoes everyday that is okay)

From some reason I just love a pizza with egg so we got the Om pizza - bacon and egg. It was not breakfast bacon but prosciutto or something like that. It was pretty yummy. We also got the ceviche, too boring for my taste so he brought out a bowl of lime, in it were chopped up habaneros and salt. Yummy, I put it all over my pizza. My two new favorite condiments from this trip where chilies and red onion chopped up together and the lime, habanero and salt combo.

My daughter go the fish sandwich and she enjoyed it. The margaritas were strong and we sat and enjoyed ourselves for awhile. He made us a couple of critters from some palm leaves and we had quite a nice lunch. The drink my daughter had was quite nice, it was some sort of Shirley Temple except it had mango puree in it. She loved it.

Om pizza

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Fish sandwich

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The mango drink, not a great photo but great drink for the kids or non drinkers.

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Carlos making us grasshoppers and birds.

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Very sociable Carlos, hope your not wanted or anything cause your photos on here now.
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Our new pets having the last piece of pizza.
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And for desert we had the nutella pizza, prettytasty.

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[lazydog]

Taco Paco's is located in the strip mall on the side of the highway at the entrance to Puerto Adventuras. I had heard a couple of people on this site and others mention it. He had shut down for awhile and was open again. On our way to PDC to get groceries we decided to try it out. First off all it should be called Taco Deiters.

The tamarind sauce ws pretty good but I found the shrimp and fish to be over battered and we all ended up picking off the batter so we could eat them. The salad bar was pretty empty also. My mom asked if there was anymore cabbage coming and they said no. There were no limes either, although they did replace those right as we finished eating, those are two things I really like with my tacos. I should note that right before we got there some tourist 17 year olds had shown up and loaded their plates with the cabbage salad. They were going to make a full meal out of their 15 peso tacos I guess.

Would I go again, nope. Maybe it was a bad oil or batter day, I don't know.

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Batter graveyard.

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His salsa bar.

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I should note also that there was only one shrimp in each batter. The way they are done is the same way they make prawn tempura in really cheap all you can eat sushi places where they split the shrimp in half and then flip it up so it looks like it is a bigger shrimp. At Urge tacos there were usually three full shrimp in each batter.

[Lynnette]

Interesting shrimp taco comparisons. While I liked Urge, I really preferred the single battered jumbo shrimp at Pacos, similar to Lucy's & La Floresta. Unless Paco has changed since he re-opened, I think you might have hit an off day.

[minniemex]

Love the new avitar!! Too cute!!

Great pictures!! My mouth is hungry for that pizza!! Never had an egg on one!!

[Toni]

This is such a fun report, detailed the way I like 'em. And your pics are great! I love it!

[pocweb]

We had Carlos wait on us twice at OM on our last trip. He's very attentive and social. It made for a nice meal to have such a nice waiter.

[letele]

Even with the mounds of discarded batter, those tacos look good to me! Maybe it's just because it's lunchtime...

[TheWindyCity]

Nice reporting and pics....keep em coming.

[lazydog]

Thanks guys! I am enjoying writing my report this year.

Lynette, didn't like Lucy's either. Weird because I loved them last year. Maybe it was me! Too many habaneros must have killed my taste buds.

[TheWindyCity]

You ain't gonna tease me on the Huevos Moltulenos, are you? Can't wait for that part of your trip! Must have been the highlight?

[lazydog]

On two days we had rainy weather. One day we went to PDC the second day we went to Punta Laguna Monkey Reserve. Basically you head to Coba, when you get to the roundabout take the first exit, not the second one to Coba. It will say Cancun and I think it said Timizin on the sign. (we eventually made it to Timizin, that is the only reason I remember).

It's just over an hour from Tulum. You know you are in Punta Laguna when you see this sign.

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And the entrance to the reserve.

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I don't remember how much we paid, my sister paid this one. We took turns on activities.

Our guide was pretty good. He told us that his town tries to protect the monkies from other towns who come in and poach them so they can sell them to tourists in Cancun. We did go mid-day when they were supposed to be sleeping but we saw some anyways.

Hey, cute spider monkey.

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They were quite cute.

When we first drove into the town, my eagle eye daughter noticed that one of the homes had a monkey on a rope. At the end of the tour I asked our guide about it. He said nope, not in his town, must be in another town. I said no, in your town. He said no, couldn't be. Must be another town. I told him I would take him there and show him the monkey on the rope. Ohhhhh, that monkey on the rope! Ya, that's my uncles monkey.. that monkey won't go away but we feed him like crazy and he is so happy.

It was so weird, he went from not knowing about the monkey to it being his uncles. It was kind of funny.

[minniemex]

Love the monkey story!! Too too funny!! Typical Mexican. I really enjoyed the Monkey Preserve, especially being in the jungle and seeing the foliage and flowers. Especially the orchids. They could have left out the skeeters though.

[Grasshopper]

Batter Graveyard - Cute! Still looks good though, cause I am here in Michigan and not there eating shrimp tacos! Good or Bad batter - I would go now just to try it for myself! HEE HEE - loving your report!

[lazydog]

You ain't gonna tease me on the Huevos Moltulenos, are you? Can't wait for that part of your trip! Must have been the highlight?


It was pretty good, my next trip might be the Huevos Moltulenos Tour!

[lazydog]

I guess I have jumped around a lot on this trip report. My real reason for this has been that I have been having a hard time uploading to photobucket. It seems as though if I am lucky enough to get some photos uploaded then I post about it.

After our four days in Tulum and seven in Akumal, we hit the road with no reservations or plans. Last summer after I had planned 11 days in Italy I decided that we would leave the last three days to whatever we wanted. If we wanted to hit a city we would, if we wanted to find some beach we would. It worked out perfectly. We had a great three days and ended up spending two at them at gorgeous Lake Garda in Northern Italy. It was then that I decided to leave some time in every trip open for whatever. All trips will always be this way from now on.

It worked again on this trip. I didn't really like Akumal last year and didn't love it again this year. I just don't feel like I am in a foreign country when I am there. But due to the fact that others had requests and so on I had booked what they wanted, a three bed three bed condo. Actually I should quit whining, it was pretty nice. We spent seven days, sunning, swimming, snorkeling, drinking, biking and eating.

We all decided the day before check out that we wanted to see the Equinox at Chichen Itza. Packed up our stuff and hit the road. Five of us in our supposed sport van.

Good thing I was driving and not in the back!

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Bags at the feet, no where to move.. Those others should really learn to drive standard!

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We ended up at Hotel El Mason del Marques in Vallalodid

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The hotel was fine, it's the number one tourist hotel in Vallalodid so it was a bit touristy, but nothing like PDC or Cancun. I am still trying to upload my photos of this town! Arg.

So after getting our rooms, dropping off our luggage and such, convincing my moms other half that we had no time for lunch we hit the road for Chichen Itza. We actually got to C.I. at 3:30. Who gets to Chichen Itza at three thirty? The place closes at five!

First of all the place was packed. We drove to a parking lot to take a free bus to the actual site. It was crazy busy. Stood in a long line to get in and the second we got in....there were about a thousand people all sitting down on the grass staring at a pyramid. We knew we were going for the equinox, we just didn't know what it would be like.

It was so much fun. I don't know if my crappy writing could ever explain what we as tourists walked into. It was the energy and the crowd that made it fun. I guess people had been sitting there all day waiting for the perfect view and time to see the snake slide down to the ground on the pyramid. As new people would come they would try to go to the front. The whole crowd, in Spanish would start jeering them until they left. These one tourists put up such a fight so they could stay up front, but the locals were not letting them stay up. They jeered them and taunted them until they left. I was all in good humor though.

On this day it was about 80 percent Mexican locales and 20 percent tourists. So we sat with the crowd and waited and everytime the snake came out the crowd would cheer and then the clouds would come again and it would be quiet. We sat there for awhile until the sun was about to go down. Our small group left to go and check out some of the site. About ten minutes after we left the sun came out and it was the perfect equinox, the snake came down the pyramid. At that exact moment it also starting to rain. The sun was shining on the pyramid but pouring on our heads. The crowds cheered and it was beautiful. We took some photos.

Girl in yellow dress getting moved to the back.

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Waiting for the snake. Although this photo shows how much we were able to sneak to the front without getting in trouble! Phew!

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The crowds.

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Almost the perfect snake.
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Pretty perfect here but I don't have the bottom, the head of the snake. If you don't know what the snake is, twice a year at solstice and equinox when the sun and shadow hit the pyramid at a certain way it looks as though there is a snake going down the left side of the pyramid. It's better seen with the head but that was a hard shot to get due to the crowds and so.

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I guess that Steve O was there also. Maybe he has some full shots.

Right after the Equinox ended we went to look at the rest of the site, they kicked us out. That's right, we saw nothing else of Chichen Itza. And I really wanted to see the cenote where Jeff Bridges threw the body of the football player that he killed after the football player had caught him and Rachael Ward having sex in the ruins in the movie,"Against All Odds". This is history we are talking about. So that was Chichen Itza.

[TnTWalter]

Enjoying the report.

Love Against all Adds...how dare they kick you out! LOL.

:beerchug:

[TheWindyCity]

That was cool that you still got the photo of the shadow joining the snake head. It must have been awesome to see that, with the sun AND rain and all that crowd emotion. Great trip!

[Stephanie]

LD, it is so cool that you got to see that. That is on my list of must-do-before-I-die.:)

[lazydog]

While staying in Valladolid, (gosh I hate spelling that place as much as I hate saying it!) we headed off to Rio Lagartos. It is about 100 km. north of Valladolid. Vie ya doe lid I think is how you pronounce it. Anyone one who wants to correct me, please do.

This turned out to be everyone's favorite excursion of the trip. I think it took about 1 1/2 hours from Valladolid to get to Rio Lagartos. I had not done much research on this trip so we had no idea about prices or what to expect. It was that "whim" part of our trip that was so fun.

We drove through many small towns to get to Rio Lagartos and I know that a lot of people have mentioned the new army station on the beach road. Well every town that we drove through had a police station as you arrived into town and a police station as you left. They would peak their heads up, look into our cars and um...that's it. Safe little towns.

As we first drove into the town there was a tope of course with a local selling stuff at it. The nationals in the car before us got a flyer, we got an escorted bike ride right to the marina. We parked the car and the man showed us to the "visitor information center". I think this place offered us something like, $1050 peso for the full tour or $750 for the short tour. I just got bad vibes, the rest of the family I think were willing to take it. I told him we would think about it as we needed to eat. He told us we would miss everything if we ate. I told him we wouldn't enjoy ourselves if we didn't eat first. He seemed really stressed and told us to get some chips from the corner store and eat after. The more he did this, the more I just felt something was up. These trips are two hours, you can't go on one for two hours and be starving. He then started walking down the road with us, like a guard. I kind of rudely asked him if he was the boss of the street. He looked at me quite insulted and said no. Well stop acting like you are!

Right at this point another man called to us and said $400 peso for the full trip. They then had a moment where each guide called each other crazy and blah, blah. Albert told us that they are supposed to work together and it is okay. I told this new guide Albert that we needed to eat, no problem he said of course you need to eat. Albert is our man. Went off and found some lifejackets for us as we requested and we went on to have a very yummy meal. Why is that you always have to drive long roads in Mexico to get the best meals?

First they brought us out three little bowls of different ceviche. One was tuna, the other two shrimp, one spicy one not. Didn't get any photos, we were hungry!

My yummy fish.

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I ate it all.

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Bringing in dinner for the night on the scooter.

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Wish that had of been on my plate, would have eaten that too.

Can recommend this place, I believe the beers were 10 peso. Quite a deal!!!

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So off we went. It was fun right from the beginning. The speed of the boat whipping along, we all had smiles on our faces.

If you are a birder this is the place for you. Albert was a great guide also, almost too good. If we pointed at something or even indicated we were touching that camera he would stop. I think we must have seen over thirty different birds.

I am too lazy to figure out what they are. If you like birds you'll know what they are.

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Iquana on a termites nest. Nice suntanning spot.

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Albert telling us a story about how one time he took some tourists out for a night crocodile trip, I guess they trapped the crocodile in such a position that he had no other way out other than to jump in the boat. It was a great story. After he got the crocodile out of the boat he asked the guests if they still wanted to look for more, they told him no, they had had enough. It was very cute.

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Hey crocodile.

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Albert also told us that he was taking English classes from some Canadians who lived there, they had just bought a place for $20,000. Cute town. Nice people. Lucky Canadians.
I think that's why he went by Albert, it's probably his Canadian name. And my crappy grammar and spelling, well that's Canadian also.

I'm going to post now so it doesn't time out.

[lazydog]

Albert worked very hard to find us that crocodile by the way. At one point he was half way in the water, I was hanging over the side of the boat, he flipping his shoe in the water. I can't believe I had such little fear. Weird.

Kids fishing and hanging out ten feet away from crocodile. Hope they didn't go swimming.

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I didn't upload all the pictures. The flamingos were gorgeous. Next up, flamingos.

[TheWindyCity]

Great day trip and stories. I give you a lot of credit for taking this adventure, and for trusting your gut feeling with the rude tour hawker.

[lazydog]

Thanks Windy!

The flamingos were gorgeous. There were not gazillions of them as I think they the big crowds come later in the spring and summer. But the color was beautiful.

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[lazydog]

Albert then took us to a salt lake where we jumped in. I could have actually floated in there all day, it was very cool. I have never swam in a lake with such high salinity. I don't think we could have drowned it was so floaty.

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Then Albert dug out some of the salt clay and we had our spa treatment. We also took some bags of the clay home with us. It's actually wonderful stuff, I've been doing face masks with it and my skin looks great!

Albert digging out the clay.

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Us posing in all our glory.

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These were pretty.

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The ride back. I love being the trip poster, no way would you see a photo of me like this on here! This is my mom and sister, what they don't know can't hurt them right?

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Actually my sister is following this so......hi sister! Umm...sorry?

At the end he took us to a little lagoon that had a fresh water river running into it and we washed off.

Back to Rio Lagartos.

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It was a wonderful day. Quiet, beautiful and full of new fun stuff. Wish we could of stayed longer but we needed to drive back to Valladolid.

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The drive back was interesting. My moms partner drove as I have terrible night vision. At one point half the car was going to Merida and the other half to Valladolid. The roads are not really great for night driving. No markers, people who know the roads well speeding all around. But we made it back to Valladolid happy and content.

Was very happy with this part of our trip and next year would like to explore more of the Yucatan.

[TnTWalter]

Awesome!!

[minniemex]

It is a good thing that these girls are unrecognizible ~ too too funny!!

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[beachreader]

I am loving this trip report! What a great adventure you had, glad you stuck it out with the tour guy and ended up with Albert. I love flamingoes, so cool. I think flamingoes and panda bears are the two most fake-looking real animals going, and I love them for that.

[susan]

great trip- are there any hotels in Rio Lagartos?

[lazydog]

Susan, I had heard that there are not. I did not see any. On TA others mention staying in San Felipe. It is well worth the trip to go.

BR, I didn't realize that they would be that coral color, I always thought they were cotton candy pink just like the fake plastic pink ones. I did.

Minnie, one of those "girls" is me. Thanks for calling me a girl by the way, it's been awhile!

Thanks TNT!

Couple more reports then I am done. I'll do a report on Valladolid and some other little things we did, like eat Huevos Moltenos!!

[beachreader]

BR, I didn't realize that they would be that coral color, I always thought they were cotton candy pink just like the fake plastic pink ones. I did.


Their coloring depends on what they eat, and can change when the food source changes. The ones we saw in Africa were definitely pink.

[lazydog]

That would explain it! I knew their color was somehow related to what they ate I just could not put the whole picture together. Oh well.....anyways they were pretty.:rolleyes:

[HAWKEYE]

Loving your report and pic's.
Craig.;)

[letele]

Love it love it love it. That last picture you posted of the sunset in Rio Lagartos with the birds flying all around is awesome!

[crazydog]

The Punta Laguna Monkey Reserve was $500 pesos for 5 people which includes the guide.

[lazydog]

Hey crazydog! You can put your two cents in too! (Crazydog is my good traveling sister)

[crazydog]

I had the best time on this trip (unflattering pictures aside). You are an awesome travel planner.

It was the perfect mix of doing nothing, doing something, drinking margaritas, reading books and climbing pyramids.

My only disapointment was no sting rays - I like the sting of terror when I'm snorkeling - and not enough Chichen Itza.

My only criticism is that I have realised that I am now too well trained - I never unpack my luggage until you've taken a picture of the room and I never start my meal until you've taken a picture of my meal.

[minniemex]

My only criticism is that I have realised that I am now too well trained - I never unpack my luggage until you've taken a picture of the room and I never start my meal until you've taken a picture of my meal.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k83/Minniemex/A1/welcome.gif to the board crazydog!! You and your sister are too too funny!! I am happy to hear you learn quickly!! We love our pictures of food!

[lazydog]

We saw a sting ray at Xel-Ha. Remember because I hate them and started freaking out and swimming away.

I'll finish up the trip report tonight. I still have Valladolid to do.

[graceland]

Lazy & Crazy - Loving your report ( and Crazy chimming in!)..pics are great, stories so interesting.
Thanks for sharing:beerchug:

Gracie

[Lynnette]

Lovin' your adventures and that mud treatment photo is priceless!!! I have to admit to being anal about pics of a clean room and uneaten food too. It drives my husband crazy that I make him wait to eat until I get the shot. He cooperates most of the time. :D

[beachreader]

I'm bad about the room pics, I always forget to take them when the room is clean. Heck, I even post pictures of hotel rooms with other people's stuff in them! :D

It was funny though, on our trip with four trip-report veterans, when the food was served, we all sat back until photos were taken. It was like taking a pause for a prayer or something.

Welcome, Crazydog! Love your avatar; you guys are definitely the Possum Sisters!

[PhyllisB]

Hey, I had to remind you a few times to take those food photos! Oh, I could hear the outrage if we had forgotten!

Lazydog, I always love your reports. What a great trip! I've been suffering too much Post-Tulum Depression Disorder to read the most recent batch of reports, but I had to read this one. Now I understand the possum avatar! :D

Now I'd better go work on my part of our report!

[beachreader]

Hey, I had to remind you a few times to take those food photos! Oh, I could hear the outrage if we had forgotten!



Well, "outrage" might be a bit strong, but I did appreciate the reminders! :D

[Lynnette]

It was funny though, on our trip with four trip-report veterans, when the food was served, we all sat back until photos were taken. It was like taking a pause for a prayer or something.


I think it's called the foodie's prayer!!! :D

[lazydog]

Thanks Gracie, Letele,and Hawkeye!

Lynette, I actually took a lot of food photos but I will admit that a lot of them were those half eaten ones. When you get back and look at the photos you wonder to yourself, why would anyone want to see basically the remnants of my meal??? I do need to get my act together on that one!

I can only imagine the four of you together and the pressure of "The Trip Report".Better be a good one by the way!!! I mean no pressure or anything.

[minniemex]

I put the camera right on the table where I can see it before the food comes. Unfortunately I don't see the camera until the food is gone.

[lazydog]

As I stated before we stayed in Valladolid. We stayed at the Mesón de Marqués. Our hotel was right on the main square, zocalo. Our hotel was fine. It seemed that other tourists would stay in other hotels but come here to eat. It is supposed to be a big tour bus hotel and although we saw the buses I didn't really notice anything out of the norm for a hotel.

Across the zocala is the Cathedral of San Gervasio. Is is said that about ten thousand birds live in the zocala, let me tell you it sure sounds like it in your hotel room at 5:30 am. Wow, is all I can say. Supposedly the church was desecrated by violence by the spanish and was torn down and rebuilt. Because of this it's main doors face north instead of west. It's a simple church but pretty on the outside.

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After all our beach days going a Colonial city felt kind of like a different trip. A second part to our holiday, getting some city culture instead of beer and beach culture.

The lighter colored building up front with the brown signs was our hotel.

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The restaurant. I wish I had taken photos of all the lighting fixtures. They were incredible. There were about 15 different chandeliers, incredibly big, unique and I would to have love to have anyone of them. I couldn't decide which one was my favorite. If anyone goes, look up. Nice.

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The pool area.

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There are sections of this town that are quite beautiful. I even found a thrift store where I picked up some really cool stuff for cheap prices. My daughter and I had a moment in there where we could have bought mostly everything. There were old street markers, old crosses, animal horns, metal tools and lots of religious photos. Fun. I bought some stuff I have no idea where to put. Guess I’ll have to go and buy some old funky character house to put it in! I also bought some great purses, my daughter bought some shoes. The prices were so much cheaper here compared to the Mayan Riviera. But almost none of the street vendors spoke English. I really wished I had of brushed up on my Spanish numbers before I left. Good thing everyone had a pen and paper.

Hey, want to get your hair cut?
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I am having such a hard time uploading photos! Hopefully I finish this trip report before we go again next year!

[beachreader]

Where was the cool thrift shop vis-a-vis the church?

And that's an awesome photo of the barbershop. I love that you can't get your hair cut if you're drunk! At least, that's what I think that sign says.

[minniemex]

Or is that a warning if you are drunk no service??

[susan]

I just absolutely love your trip i may have to copy it:)

[lazydog]

Thanks Susan, it was a great trip. BR the thrift store was about five blocks away from the church. We found it walking to the convent which I will post about once the darn photos upload. My mom also found some wind chimes for $100 pesos. In Tulum Peublo they wanted some crazy price of $350 pesos for the wind chimes. Good thing she found them in Valladolid because I was the one that talked her out of buying them in Tulum. Phew.

I babelfished the sign. "Prohibited Adviso the service to people alcohol is you accept". Uh, does that help? Geez, I would think you have to be drunk to get your hair cut in that place it was soooo dirty!!!

[minniemex]

Geez, I would think you have to be drunk to get your hair cut in that place it was soooo dirty!!!

I think that is what the sign reads then ~ drink before you enter. :D

[lazydog]

The day we went to Rio Lagartos we also stopped in at Ek Balam. We have been to the Tulum ruins, Coba, Chichen Itza, some smaller ones and my parents to Palenque and we all liked Ek Balam the best. Maybe it is the size that makes it so pretty, I don't know but it is nice.

Oval Palace.

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This open area is almost at the top of the pyramid, wonder what that hole is for? Kind of amazing.
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You can acutally go inside the pyramid here and check out the living spaces.
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We had to get to Rio Lagartos so we were not able to see the cenote there, but I have heard it is cheap and pretty.

There was a sign for a hotel in Ek Balam pueblo, no reports on TA but I think worth a try.

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I really felt at Ek Balam that we got a sense of a city, of a life. And not to mention that the fact that it is a very quiet ruin. Just very small groups of people all looking, chatting, relaxing. Just a different vibe than many of the more frequented ruins. You can walk to the top of the pyramid of Tomb of Ukit Kan Le'k Tok. And in one living space we looked into a small little opening and saw some stairs going down, which was probably leading to his tomb. Very worth a stop if you get the chance.

[minniemex]

Love your pictures of Ek Balam!!

Your comment about the Cenote ~ "cheap and pretty" made me laugh.

[beachreader]

Ek Balam looks awesome! I need to get up there.

As for this "what's that hole for" question, however, did you ever read the book The Ruins? :eek:



This open area is almost at the top of the pyramid, wonder what that hole is for? Kind of amazing.
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[TheWindyCity]

Wow...what a great, fun trip. Really like the photo of the birds taking off from the dock!

Hey...where's the Barbicide in that salon?

[lazydog]

Minnie, ya I wondered when I wrote cheap and pretty but.....got call it like I heard it.

Windy, not stopping in for your next haircut I guess?

BR, I actually did hear a cell phone ring a couple of times. Damn vines.

[beachreader]

BR, I actually did hear a cell phone ring a couple of times. Damn vines.


:eek::eek::eek:

[susan]

ok great you guys now I can never go there.