Saturday, May 8, 2010

Mexico Trip Report-Day 2

Mexico trip: Day 2


Morning:

Woke up pretty early for being on vacation…8am… looked out the window to see the view that we had missed the night before (it was dark when we arrived on the island).

Aurelio was now feeling those tequila shots from the night before…

We went to C&M’s “other” favorite place to eat. JAX Bar and Grill is an American Style Sports Bar right on the beachfront of North Beach. They serve more American Style food, all of the TV’s are in English, they show anything from News to Sports, and the owners are from TEXAS!!! We had amazing breakfast tacos (3 tacos, chips and quac, with a side of bacon for about 3 dollars). Wow!

After eating, we decided to walk to the beach and chill until the wedding started. Candace was in charge of doing the brides hair, so we were slightly limited on the extra things we could do that afternoon. We dropped the boys off at the beach and decided to walk to the grocery store for coffee creamer, beer and ice. We also needed to get a flower from town to put in the brides hair. We asked several people, “Donde estas la tienda de los flores”…. No one really pointed us in the right direction…actually, people looked rather confused. About the time we asked the forth or fifth person, we stumbled upon it ourselves. The only thing they had there was roses, carnations, and HUGE sunflowers…hmmmm, none of these would work for the bride, so we took the cheaper route and picked one of the tree in the middle of town.

(Pics from around town on our walk)
This picture is one of my favorites from the entire trip ...Cow Dog

Mopeds are the main transportation on the island. We saw a family of FIVE on a moped. It was an amazing sight...in a scary sort of way. I was too stunned to take a picture, so instead I have some of families of 2 and 3. At least everyone wears a helmet.
Thought this was cute... Naughty Beach....or....Nauti Beach?
This is the house nextdoor to our condos. Gorgeous!
While walking through town, locals would say, “Como te llamas” “What is your name” I said, “Shea”. (Shea is a VERY hard name to say to Spanish speakers. The Sh sound comes out Ch…so my name then becomes Chey). After several strange looks at the foreign word coming from my mouth when asked my name, I decided to revert back to my name that I used in Spanish class…Chabela. This really means Isabella, but this was the name my teacher gave me back in 6th grade, and it has stuck ever since.

Names while in Isla:

Shea-Chabela

Candace-Dulce (Dulce means Candy in English)

Aurelio-Aurelio ha ha ha, he keeps his complicated Spanish name!

Michael-Miguel

At the grocery store, I didn’t know just how hard it would be to pick out half and half for my coffee. First of all, the milk is in the middle isles, not the cold section. This really confused me. Then, of course, everything was in Spanish, so I couldn’t tell what was fat free milk, whole milk, condensed milk, or half and half. Great….I’ll just have to choose one. I went with what seemed logical… I chose the one with a picture of a family on the front and two kids playing soccer. None of the other milk choices had pictures of kids on them, so I figured this must be the whole milk. The other pictures to choose from were a cow showing off her utters, a few cows lined up in a field, cows dancing with humans, and a skinny cow...assuming this is the fat free milk. I picked up the warm carton of mystery milk and headed to the beer section…which WAS in the cold section (go figure). We paid the lady at the check-out and headed back to the beach. Candace and I were carrying two six packs of Sol, a bag of ice, and mystery milk…Quite a heavy load for a hot walk to the beach. While walking through town some of the locals were saying “Mas fuerte” which is “very strong” in Spanish.

Returning to the beach, we see the boys face down in a beach chair…asleep! Uh oh…wonder how long they have been asleep with NO umbrella? Candace and I were gone for over an hour, so this could be bad if they were sleeping the entire time. (We find out later that they DID sleep the entire time, because at bedtime, they were both little “langostas” or “lobsters”.)

The beach

You could walk FOREVER out to sea and still only be waist deep. There are a few spots that are about 4.5feet deep, but its mostly waist deep. The water was perfect...to quote Michael, "If I could pick the perfect temp for MY ocean, this would be it!"
Our Condos

Afternoon:

We said goodbye to Candace who was off to play beauty shop with the bride (Rachel) and the three of us headed Buho's for a drink, to the pool for a dip and then up to the condo to chill and get dressed for the wedding. Aurelio and Michael were dressed and out the door headed to the bar in under 20 min. Shea Mama, aka Chabela, needed more damn time than that, so I just told them I’d meet them at the wedding.

At Buho's Swing Bar
A little house next to Buho's.


This is the view from the brides hotel room.

Walking up to the wedding in a cute spaghetti strapped dress and a Mexican flower in my hair from the garden at the condo’s we were staying in… I see the wedding ceremony set-up. I stop for a min to take it in… It looked very similar to MY wedding in Mexico. White covered chairs, fabric blowing in the wind, and no other color but the milky white sand beaches, the turquoise water and beautiful blue sky. It really is breathtaking.

C’Mon Shea, this isn’t your wedding…snap out of it and go find the boys!

My hunt for the boys was unsuccessful. They were not where they said they’d be. (shocking). I grabbed a beer from the beach bar and headed across the street to JAX bar to see if the boys were upstairs….Bingo! Time was ticking, so we rushed over to the wedding area and sat down, waiting for the bride.

Clarification...I am the one wearing the flower in my hair, not Aurelio. Ha ha ha

The wedding party begins to come out single file…Then Rachel, the Bride! The most beautiful music was playing while everyone walked down the isle sprinkled with white rose petals. I was thinking to myself, “these bridesmaids better hurry the hell up…I don’t know how long this song is” As Rachel got half way down the isle, the loudest booty shaking music started playing!!! This was probably her worst nightmare coming true! Everyone in the audience began to laugh. I couldn’t even hold my laughter in…Following suit, Rachel chuckled as well. Someone finally fixed the iPod and it turned back to the beautiful music we heard at first. The rest of the ceremony went as planned and just like that, our friends Cory and Rachel were husband and wife.

(Every wedding that Aurelio and I attend, we hold hands. He is the sweetest husband ever, because during the wedding vows, he gives my hand a little rub or squeeze to show that he is listening to the vows word for word. I guess you could say that we have re-new’d our vows several times through all of our friends weddings)

Oh yeah, Rachel’s hair was GORGEOUS….Thanks to Candace!

While having cocktail hour before the reception, a lady comes behind me and says,
..."Excuse me ma'am, but I think you should move"
"Why?"
..."Well you have an uninvited guest about an inch from your foot"
I look down and see this little guy...awwww...

The reception was held at the hotel the wedding party was staying at, The Privilege Aluxes. This is one of the two all-inclusive places on the island. Not that this is a bad place to stay at, but we decided not stay there so we could get the true “Isla feel”. I totally agreed with her.



The reception was beautiful. There were several courses of food that seemed to never stop coming. There was a palate cleanser after every course which made it seem like a ton of food.
This little guy wanted to join the reception too....

Candace and I with the Bride and Groom.

Everyone started dancing and having a great time, but I was exhausted, so I excused myself and headed back to the condo.

Aurelio came a few hours later, and says I had a full conversation with him when he got to the condo. (For those who know me…I can have a very lengthy, detailed conversation with someone while being completely asleep…Hubby still forgets this from time to time) So in the morning, I fussed at him for not letting me know he arrived safe the night before…but apparently he did…I just wasn’t fully coherent. oops

Friday, May 7, 2010

Mexico Trip Report-Day 1

Mexico trip: Day 1


That morning: I woke up at 6:30am to help Trey off to school-I didn’t even cry! I got dressed and packed the last remaining things for the trip and Aurelio and I headed out the door for the bank, AT&T, breakfast and then headed over to my mom and Tim’s house so he could take us to the airport. We picked up Candace and Michael (aka: C&M) on the way (They were waiting outside on the curb, luggage and all). WE WERE READY!!!

In the airport: After going through all of the checkpoints, we headed to the Earl Campbell Lounge to wait… Aurelio and C&M had a beer, and I had some coffee. As we look to our right…Mack Brown and his wife were sitting next to us! We thought about asking him if he wanted to go to Mexico with us, but then we remembered he was headed to the football draft. We also thought about asking him for a pic, but decided against that as well. I’m sure he get s that all the time, and just cringes when someone asks him. Instead, we snuck a blurry pic with our iPhones and headed to the gate to wait for our plane. If you look closely...It looks as though his wife is snorting Dr.Pepper through her nose....Ha ha ha... She's not though.

At the gate, there was a woman doing the strangest stretches. Attention: We were about to get on a flight from Austin to Houston. That’s a 40 min flight! There is no need to do what this woman was doing!!! She started with some basic lunges. First the left, then the right, then down to the middle. Simple, right? Well this is when she started getting into it. She then squatted down, put her hands on her knees, popped her butt out J.Lo style, and began to bounce! I am not kidding!!! I thought she was rehearsing for a rap video. This is where the yoga in her kicked in. She did a pose I had never seen before. (This pose will be seen all over Mexico throughout my trip, so stay tuned). I took mental note, and also snapped some pictures with my trusty phone. (there is no zoom on my camera phone, so just think...I was really THIS close to her.) Laughing, we boarded the plane and headed to Houston.


Here is the FAMOUS yoga pose that I will duplicate through out the next 8 days.


On the plane: Aurelio says I “smother” him on planes, so here was his opportunity to sit with Michael and let Candace and I sit together. We looked at trash magazines and spoke about the trip. Before you knew it, we landed…. Hope our fellow yoga-stretcher didn't get a blood clot on our 40 min flight. LOL

Houston Airport: We had a 2 hour lay-over in Houston, so we decided to get some lunch. We went to the Fox Sports Bar….it SUCKED!!! Aurelio and I ordered some wings which weren’t too bad, and C&M ordered nachos. We didn’t think there was any way to screw up nachos in Texas, well my friends, in the Houston airport at the Fox Sports Bar….there IS a way. Those nachos came out with chips on bottom, an entire jar of Pace Picante Sauce poured over them, sprinkled with cheese and black olives. Huh? Even if it sounded good, trust us, it wasn’t!

On the plane: Headed to MEXICO!!! Woo hoo!!! Candace and I sat together again and we watched The Time Travelers Wife, and the boys sat 3 rows back and listened to their iPods. Not sure if they did anything else because their headphones were in their ears the entire time, but every time I looked back there, they would stick their tongue out at me, or make a funny face, so I guess they were having a good time.

Mexico Airport: The way that Mexico does their ”full searches” is very random. You and your luggage are in a line and you walk up to this button and press it. If the button turns green, then you go on through. If the button turns red, then you have to step to the side and get all of your things searched. Aurelio and I were trying to decide who was going to press the button. He insisted that he wanted to be the one to press it. RED!!!! Damnit! We step to the side and have all of our things looked through. Panties, swimsuits, clothes, everything is looked through. Of course we went through with nothing found, but it always sucks to have your luggage gone through. We get out of the airport and grab a beer for the ride to Cancun. From Cancun, we stopped at a little store by the ferry, withdrew pesos from the ATM and bought a 6 pack of beer for the ferry ride to Isla Mujeres! The ferry was about 80feet long and had an upper deck and also a closed area below where you could sit “wind free”. The ferry was much faster that I thought it would be. We were hitting waves from all over… tossing us about. The wind felt good and the air smelled wonderful! Can’t beat that beach smell.
On the windy ferry.
While on the boat ride, Aurelio says, “I wanna move here”.

C&M laughed and said, “You haven’t even seen the island yet silly.”

Aurelio, “I don’t even care. The things that I can see in the dark are good enough for me.”


Night 1:

With a bit of a buzz, we all got off the ferry and gave our luggage to an older man with a huge basket attached to a bicycle, and started walking to our condo/hotel for the week. The walk through the small town was amazing. There were little souvenir shops lining the beach front, fruit and pottery stands all around, and people walking everywhere. This town had a charm about it that we could all feel the second we got off the boat.

We arrived to the hotel only to drop off our luggage and head to the center of town…Hidalgo. Down this street, there are many bars, shops and restaurants. ALL of them have mostly outdoor seating with a few inside seats. They play a mixture of American music and Mexican music. It’s almost what you would think of West 6th street in Austin (the more up-scale area)….just not trashy and not a lot of teenage morons running around. As you walk around, you are greeted by all the locals. (Super nice). You will find all sorts of entertainment there, from fire juggling to mariachi bands to dancers. It makes for a fun atmosphere! They perform for tips so if you like it, give them a few pesos.

C&M have been to Isla 5 or 6 times, so they were our tour guides. They have been ranting and raving about a pizza place on Hidalgo called Rolandis Pizzeria. The specialty, as the name implies, is the stone baked pizza and also the garlic bread. That was the first stop of the night. We ordered a pizza each along with many beers. Oh My Goodness…it was AMAZING! From the garlic bread you dip into the oil and balsamic vinegar, to the most wonderful thin crusted pizza…Mmmmm…..

Sitting at Rolandis looking down Hidalgo Street.


We then headed to Fayne’s (pronounced “Fine-es”) which is a bar/restaurant with live music. Next door is a place called She Bar, it's very popular as well. You are in the middle of Hidalgo, so you can also see what is going on down the entire street. The band that was playing recognized C&M and invited them up on stage to sing a song.
A bucket of beer is 5 beers for 6 American dollars.

*As many of you know, C&M have a band in Austin that is called LeveL HiLL. They are wonderful! I am guessing that C&M have shared this information with several of the places on the island.

Candace decided to stay behind, but Michael got up there and sang Folsom Prison with one of the band members named Javi. Michael has an amazing voice…and with the band putting a different twang to the music…It sounded even more amazing! Great job Michael. As we were sitting out at Fayne’s, a guy named Sergio saw C&M, remembered them, and came and sat with us. Sergio works at a restaurant called Bamboo. He is about the same age as we all are, and was extremely nice and spoke very good English. The “nice thing to do” to welcome you or to just say “thanks” is to give you a shot of tequila. Aurelio ended up taking two shots that night, and I pretended to not hear their offer, so I didn’t take any….whew….

We finally called it a night around the 3:00am hour. Headed back to our hotel, Ixchel (prodounced “eee-shell”) which is on Hidalgo Street. Crawled into bed with sand on our feet, the dehumidifier on…and fell asleep.

Wonderful first impression of the Island! We are already in love with this place!

History of Isla Mujeres


Isla is about 4miles long and 1.5 miles wide (at the thickest part)
The triangle part at the top right is North Beach, this is where we stayed.


The TINY RED dot is Isla Mujeres
The Green shows Quintana Roo

The square is the condo we stayed in, Ixchel.
(Click this map to view bigger)

Isla Mujeres has a long and colorful history. In Mayan times Isla Mujeres was called Ekab, it was one of the four provinces or Mayan territories that formed what is today the State of Quintana Roo. The island served as the sanctuary for the goddess Ixchel, the Mayan Goddess of fertility, reason, medicine, happiness and the moon. The Temple was located at the South point of the island and was also used as the lighthouse. The light from torches was shown through holes in the walls, which could be seen by the navigators at sea. The Mayans also came to the island to harvest salt from the salt lagoons.

In March of the year 1517, Francisco Hernandez Cordova discovered the island. When the Spanish expedition landed, they found many female shaped idols representing the goddess Ixchel, thus Isla Mujeres got its name.

For the next three centuries Isla Mujeres was uninhabited. The only visitors were fisherman and pirates who used Isla as a refuge and left their women on the island "for safekeeping" while they sailed the high seas. Famous pirates like Henry Morgan and Jean Lafitte walked the shores of Isla and as legend goes, buried their stolen treasure under the white sands.

Fermin Anonio Mundaca y Marecheaga was born in October of the year 1825 in the village Bermeo of Santa Maria, Spain. After completing his studies he set out for the New World to make his fortune. He arrived on the shores of Isla in 1858 after acquiring his wealth selling captured Mayan slaves to Cuban plantations and some say pirating. Whether or not this is true, no one knows but Mundaca cultivated and enjoyed his reputation as a pirate.

Mundaca immediately set out building a large hacienda he named "Vista Alegre" (Happy View) which eventually covered over 40% of the island. There were areas for livestock, birds, vegetables gardens, fruit orchards and exotic plants that were brought from all over the world. A special garden called "The Rose of the Winds" was constructed which served as a sundial telling the time of the day by its shadows.

This is his empty grave he built himself.

In 1862 Martiniana (Prisca) Gomez Pantoja was born. She was one of five sisters and it has been said that she was a willowy woman with green eyes, white skin bronzed by the Caribbean sun and long, straight hair. Called "La Triguena" (the brunette), many men fell in love with her including Mundaca. The arches above the gates were dedicated to her, naming them "The Entrance of the Triguena" and "The Pass of the Triguena" in hopes his wealth and power would win the local beauty 37 years younger then himself. His dedication was in vain, she married a man closer to her own age and as legend tells it, Fermin Mundaca slowly went insane and died, alone in Merida. His empty tomb still awaits him in the Isla Mujeres cemetery. Carved by his own hands are the skull and cross bones, in memory of his pirating days and the words meant for his love, "As you are, I was. As I am, you will be".