mexico

It was wonderful. So hot; so tropical; so beautiful. Whiter sand than I've seen in any place I've traveled! We stayed in a condo on what I refer to as "the Corona Beach". Have you seen those commercials where a couple is lying on a beach under a palapa and a woman walks by, the man watches her, and his honey squirts her lime at his face? Well that was the very beach we were on. No really, we sat and drank Coronas and even replicated the commercials. Well, no.

One evening my sister and I decided we'd take a taxi to the "pueblo" down the highway where we heard that you could get a great chicken meal for really cheap. We had tried enough restaurants in the tourist community we were staying in to satisfy us for the time being, and so decided that we'd go for a cheap, and hopefully delicious meal from a true Mexican grill.

We got into the taxi and told the driver what we were in search of, and he drove us there, letting us know that it was a little late and we may be out of luck. We left our complex, tore down the highway, and then turned down a roughly paved lane with rough-looking shops on either side, then progressing into homes. Lines hung along the road and through the single-room structures with cloths and clothes of different sizes and shapes drying in the sun. The Mexicans loitered in the lanes, watching as we drove by, and tittered and clucked when we stopped at a chicken vendor. He was closed. We drove on, thankful that the taxi driver knew what he was doing. We tried another place, and it also was closed. As we were about to give up, the late afternoon heat beating down on the windows of the car, we spotted a grill with some fresh chicken on it. Our driver rolled down his window and yelled for someone to come out of the one-room house attached. After a couple hollers and whistles, out of the door walked a pregnant woman who nodded when asked if she had chicken. We asked for enough to feed 4 people, and she proceeded to whip out bags and load it up. Not only did she supply us with chicken, but bean paste, tortillas, tomato sauce, and Mexican rice. All for about 8 bucks. As she was getting our food packed up, her son, about 4 years old, wandered around playing with a lighter. He stopped and stood staring at us. "Hola", we said and smiled, but we got nothing. He stood, a blank expression on his face, and stared for a minute more, then wandered back into the house.

I followed him with my eyes and saw the dirt floor, hammocks and heard the din of a tv. A man sat, relaxing, watching, and an older boy sat in the shadows further back. We paid for our dinner, thanked the woman, and were on our way.

What a different world we were in. It left us feeling a rather gloomy about being the rich tourists staying in a beautiful apartment and lounging on the well-groomed Corona beach. It was an amazing place to stay, but our experience in the pueblo sparked a lot of conversation about really being able to connect with a culture when you visit it, as opposed to visiting the Mexico that's portrayed in Club Med ads.

So we decided to spend our last day in Mexico in search of some caves - not on a touristy tour, but just the 6 of us trying to enjoy the beauty of the land we were visiting. We chatted with a Canadian guy we met in the streets, and he told us of a Mexican guy named "Jerry" who owned a property with some caves on it. He'd charge us a decent price to take us out into the jungle and lead us into his caves, one of which was a "wet cave", meaning you could swim in it. We thought that sounded great, even though when I think about that description now - some guy driving us 3 kms into the jungle and taking us and the babies into underground caves - it sounds rather unsafe....but we trusted our new Canadian acquaintance and signed up.

(the road into the jungle)

Jerry was a warm and friendly Mexican man who bore a striking resemblance to Antonio Banderas, and happily showed us around his domain. We spent the most interesting day with Jerry and his two children relaxing in a hut in the jungle and swimming in the wet cave. It was amazing to experience such an oasis in the midst of the heat!!














(a dip in the kids' pool)















(swimming in the cave)















(relaxing in the hut)















(sleepy girls)


Mexico was great - and hot!! We're ever so thankful to RAINER AND VICKI for drawing our name and giving us a free trip! What a gift!! We've returned to Canada with tans that Jerry couldn't see, babies that stayed well out of the sun, stomachs that managed to not get sick, and a whole new world of excitement surrounding a future travel plan through South America.

The holiday is over, but my mind still lingers in Mexico.... Yariba!!!