Cancun, Mexico—October 2006
Posted by Christa Umphrey on 10/11 at 10:03 PM
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October 6-10, 2006
After our adventure in the Yucatan we headed to Cancun. The area was beautiful and very strange. The beach area (or Hotel Zone) is a strip of land just a few hundred yards wide and about 15 miles long that is just lined with very posh hotels. The actual city of Cancun is fairly poor and still very Mexican (or non-touristy). We drove through it a few times in our rental car and then took the bus back down one afternoon to go to the market. Mercado 28 is just blocks and blocks of little shops and stands of all sorts of crafts and art and clothing and jewlery and leather and everything else you can think of. Much of it is the same things you would find in the hotel gifts shops but at about half the prices (or more or less--depending on your bargaining skills). There is still visible damage from last October’s Hurricane Wilma, which pretty much devasted the whole area, but it is pretty amazing how quickly they’ve rebuilt. I guess they hired some European company to pump all the sand back onto the beaches and there is still a lot of hotel construction and remodeling going on.
The first night we were there we stumbled on a group of about a dozen people on the beach very excited about something. We went to see what they were doing and there was one guy explaining to them how to release the turtles. He had a whole boxe of little sea turtles, so we all got to take one, name it, and release it back into the water. I guess if they survive in ten years they come back to the same beach they were born to have their babies. Dev’s turtle Major was very speedy so he thinks he’s tough and will make it back.
The view from our room of one of the pool areas and the beach in front of our hotel.
Christa enjoying the warm water and waves.
This is my birthday party.
Okay its not actually a party for me, but it was my birthday and it was quite a party. At the end of the Zone of hotels there is a whole section of huge clubs. This is inside Coco Bongo-the best club we went to in Cancun. Its a combination Circe de Soeil (sp?) show, bar, dance club, and Vegas style performance. People would do fancy rountines from ropes and things hanging from the ceiling, then eventually repell down into the middle of the chaos on the dance floor. Then the music and regular deejay with videos (on 2-story screens) would take over and everyone would be dancing on the tables and big bar in the middle of the floor for a few songs until an elaborate show (like Michael Jackson or Madonna or Usher impersonators with all backup dancers) would start up on the third story stage. After that the technical crew might have a light show or start doing crazy video tricks of all the people dancing, or a few hundred giant balloons might fly out from somewhere. There were also bubbles at times and more confettii than I think I’ve ever seen in my life. There were also things like Spiderman and Green Gobblin dropping from the ceiling and flying through the air fighting. (and Batman and the Mattrix people) Occasionally Beetlejiuce would also perform and then fly around and drop into the audience. So would his friend midget Beetlejuice. It was quite a spectacle.
On our last day in Mexico…