Valledolid Weekend

You can bet in Mexico every month there is some kind of vacation...March 21st is one, I think they celebrate the beginning of Spring...well after a long cold winter it is normal (!) . Anyway they move the holiday to a Monday so that the well off population of Mexico can take a long weekend.

So here we are en route to Valledolid that we visited 10 years ago when the kids were still in the "planet of the non-born kids". Very charming colonial town about 2 1/2 hours away from Playa. We get, I think, the best room of the hotel with full view on the square just accross the street from the main church. The hotel "Meson del marques" is an old colonial building with a great internal courtyard.

Next day we went to visit the ruins of Ek-Balam...great archeological site with the pyramids almost attached to each other and in the middle of the jungle. We also climb up the main Pyramid with the kids, they stopped 3/4 of the way and we go up to the top (not both at the same time!) the view from up is spectacular...this Maya knew what they were doing.

We proceed to Tizimin, really just because the guide said there is a great pizza place (to make sure the kids would eat), but forgot to mention that the pizza is prepared only at night. So out of desespoir, we buy incredible fresh bread and other cakes and we go to the local park and do what the Tiziminian do: take a stroll, let the kids run at the playground and look a the sorry looking animals in very little cages. The best part been the cement slide and for Oscar borrowing the skateboard of a kid and almost breaking his neck.

Next day, we were not planning it, but we decided to revisit Chichen-Itza and then you realize how much your memory fades over the years. I remembered the main pyramid but I had not really recollection of all the other structures around to the point hat I think there were not open to the public. (To be checked)

Even if hyper-touristic it is totally worthed. The trick is too get there early so to avoid the crowd. We don't really get tired to see ruins, it is not like back in NY we will get the chance to see archeological site! Plus it is great exercise for the legs, next day you really feel it.

For the kids the highlight of the trip was renting the battery powered cars in Velledolid square and go around like crazy trying to avoid any human being that had the bad idea to come their way.

We can not go without going to see the two cenotes recommended, not impressive but still nice to take a look.

We are back in Playa with our new buildings everywhere..it was good to breath a little history.

Playa Society

Alain likes to say that in Playa there are : the high society wannabes and the help, and I should mention the tourists which is the reason why the two previous mentioned groups are here. So when you go to an event you see the same people to the previous event, and everybody is so conforted by the fact they have been invited.

It is not about meeting new people it is about seeing the same people!

On the top of it your picture get printed on the paper and there you are a playa celebrity or better someone in the "inner" circle.

After 8 months in Playa I realize I could not go somewhere without meeting someone that I know and that knows of me...how could people manage to have extra-marital affair???

Well I guess they go to Colosio (the poor neighbourhood), at least the men, and before they know they have impregnated a 20 years old that hopes to get married to the well-off guy and move to the nice neighbourhood!

It is strange to see how this fishing village where people would move to for a different type of life it is becoming this little bourgeois enclave.

The kids have to follow the trend, going to the right school, right after-school activities and right friends. Well all you want is that are not showing up with a Colosio partner....let me tell you very little chance that it is going to happen!

The "help" comes mainly from Chiapas, they need to leave their ID at the gate of Playacar when they come and clean houses and attend kids. They speak and incomprensible Spanish to me, they are mainly nice and sometimes have no idea how to clean and sometimes they don't show up but there is nothing to argue or to say, they work for little money and they retain the freedom of having little and needing little! I don't think they have mortgages to pay...

The rule of thumb is the whiter you are the richer you are...only 8% of the population is white in Mexico and they are all in government, in business, and in parties!

In Playa they are the foreigners which make it a little confusing but basically they are a bunch of people as my grandfather used to say : they want to fart higher than their behind (loosly translated from French).

Having said that we are glad to have come here, to have a winter with no cold and a time to think about where we went to be, and above all show the kids that we are in our 40s but still adventurous and fun (expecially me!).

Merida and around

Believe or not after 6 months we made it outside the borders of Quintana Roo and went for an "adventure" to Yucatan State. Merida is the kind of city you want to visit in the winter with 80 degrees but with little humidity vs. in summer 90 degrees with 200% humidity.
So here we go in direction to the colonial city, we got in a hotel in the center that was recommanded but not really our taste: a once to be grand hotel that was suffering a lack of renovation. We stayed the first night and then we moved to this incredibly charming convent restored in a hotel.
We spent our first day in Merida visiting the Centenial Park, where there is a zoo and all kind of "small people" attractions. The was a large variety of animals confined in small spaces, the only good part is that M & O got to see the zebra and giraffe very close. We were not trying to be politically correct here!
Next day, we went to Celestun crossing little forgotten towns with "Big Yellow Station" (very important detail for O). Celestun is kind of forgotten too if it were not for the natural reserve close by where entire community of pink flamingo and pelicans are waiting for the visitors. I should not forget to mention that Alain got stuck litteraly in the mud in the dead forest in the reserve.
In this democratically family of ours: the first day was dedicated to the kids, second day a choice for everybody, third day was supposed to be for us. We got to see all there is to see in Merida which is basically around the Central Square. The Cathedral, the Museum, another building with paintings representing the history of Mexico and the house of Montejo that has become a bank!
Then there is the famouse Montejo Avenue with beautiful villas, it is a mini-Champs Elysees without the charm.
The saturday night is very lively for people that don't have 5 years old following asleep normally at 8. But in our way to the hotel, carrying the two animals, there were bands and people dancing in the streets.
We also voted Cafe Cabana the best capuccino in town and the waffle discovery for the kids.
Lunch and dinner were a little thougher except in Celestun were the fish was delicious.
It is Monday already so on our way back Home we stopped at Izamal, the yellow city, where the oldest convent in Mexico is situated and the city is all painted in yellow. Very picturesque!