Mexico... the first 3 days of our holiday... and the quest for WIFI andInternet Access!

I’m very fortunate to have been on holiday in many places in the past 5 years, up mountains in Nepal over 2500m high, in remote parts of India in a Feudal Lord’s homestay, and have always managed to get online pretty successfully.  When we booked to come to Mexico and Cuba back in March and chose relatively “upmarket” hotels, I complacently assumed that internet access wouldn’t be an issue and pictured myself and Alan watching Netflix after a busy day of sightseeing in the hotel room.

The reality has been somewhat different.  

We could buy internet access in the hotel in Mexico, but for extortionate amounts, so we purchased some roaming data instead for our phones (which was also pretty pricey) and we were able to be online most of the time we were in Mexico…Cuba however has been entirely different and I’ll come onto that in a later post.  Needless to say that the digital detox has been at the same time frustrating and freeing - being totally unable to check work emails for the first time in 5 years when on holiday has been quite relaxing and refreshing.

We arrived in Mexico on the 8th November after a very relaxing flight.  Alan had upgraded our seats to extra legroom as he’s 6”4 tall and it was totally unnecessary for my little legs, but made for a very pleasant 10-hour flight.  During the flight, I managed to watch the David Brent film, Absolutely Fabulous and a very odd coming of age type film called “Goat” that was apparently critically acclaimed, but in reality, was just a lot of examples of “hazing” for people to get into an American frat house, if there was any deeper meaning to it, it was certainly lost on me.  We collected our luggage…eventually as Alan’s was literally the last case off the belt, in fact he had to climb onto the belt to grab it as the belt had just stopped!

Our transfer was smooth to our resort – Occidental and we checked in and got our bags into the room before venturing out first to try and book some excursions as we knew we only had 5 days in Mexico, but unfortunately they were closed, so we took some leaflets and headed down to the beach club for our first buffet experience.  The air was warm and humid and the resort had familiar tropical plant type smells that I remember from being on holiday in place like Bali and there was a buzz of crickets as we walked along the lantern lit paths down to the beach club.  I’d spotted some small lizards on the walls as we’d walked to our room.

I’d had a slightly nauseous flight and this had continued once I was off the plane and I probably should have taken it a bit easier on the buffet, but I managed to tuck into various salads, meats, cheeses and plenty of dessert!  We wandered around the huge resort and jumped on a little golf type train back to where our room was and by this point it was probably the equivalent of around 3am UK time and so we had an early night at around 10pm. 

After around 5 hours at 2am Mexican time we were both aware that we were both awake and that the room next door was playing extremely loud Mexican music through the TV – Alan went to reception to ask to be moved, and I could hear their telephone ringing (I don’t think they answered) and then a security guard managed to knock at their door and got them to turn down the music and we managed to get back to sleep.

We woke up at around 8am and decided to head down to book our excursions.  We booked for Xel Ha a waterpark with natural rivers and caves to explore that Alan’s brother had recommended and for Xichen Itzu which was the main reason that I’d wanted to go to Mexico.  

We met some Scarlet Macaws that were in Lobby area and looked like a cute couple grooming each other and squawking.  We then headed for breakfast at the buffet which had been temporarily moved to the Beach Club and we feasted on a whole range of continental and Mexican breakfast food as well as the mythical “breakfast pudding” where I sampled some lovely hot chocolate with croissants to dip in.  Buffets are never a good idea for me as I love to try everything which usually means even if I only put a tiny portion of each thing on my plate, I end up massively overeating. 

We then we exploring the Occidental resort and started nearby where we had eaten breakfast which was the saltwater swimming pool and were delighted that there were Sergeant Major fish and even a puffer fish swimming around our feet and nibbling our toes!  We relaxed on some sun loungers and I read a little more of one of the books that I had brought on holiday “The Art of Travel” by Alain De Botton and we got to enjoy some of the “all inclusive” perks by getting some cocktails brought to us.  It then started to spot with rain, and then it rained a bit more so we decided to head back towards the room.  We took a quick look at the gym and the spa and ended up booking for 4.30pm a relaxing “Moon and Stars” couples massage…as the name suggests it should have been outside, but in the end due to the torrential tropical rain, it was in one of the very nice treatment rooms and included a bottle of wine.

We headed down for our massage and got to enjoy half an hour in the hot tub and drink some mint water before we went in for our treatment.  The massage we booked was 80 minutes long and enjoyed a very relaxing time and I was delighted that my back (which had been sore before we travelled anywhere and had been made worse by all the flights) felt much better.  After the massage finished we put on our robes and went into a room to drink our wine and it was very cute that there was a heart made from tealights and rose petals on the floor.  We drank the wine and then headed back to our room in theory for a rest before dinner, but ended up falling asleep and waking up at 10pm!  So we decided to just carry on sleeping – we must have been very relaxed indeed!

The following morning was an early start for us as we were going to Xel Ha!  The frustration was that breakfast didn’t start until 7am, but our pick up for the excursion was 7.15am!  We managed to find a small coffee stand that wasn’t in the “all inclusive” part of the deal and bought some coffee and pastries and made our way to the pick-up point where we were given our wrist bands for the day.  The coach didn’t take too long to Xel Ha, what took the most time were the multiple pick up points at the Hard Rock hotel. 

We arrived at Xel Ha and followed our guides instructions to one of the larger changing points “Brown” and I put my neoprene socks on as well as my swimming costume.   Xel Ha is like a natural water park and we saw beautiful trees and greenery surrounded by turquoise water.  We walked up to the bottom of the river and jumped on some bike to cycle around 1km up to the top of the river.  As we walked to the bikes, Alan nearly tripped over a huge Gecko lizard at the side of the path!  The bike ride was about 1km and I made sure to track it on Strava, the forest was humid and smelled of a fresh jungle smell and it was a refreshing ride with a bit of a breeze as we cycled and swerved to avoid trees.

We got to the top of the river and took the option of jumping in an “inner tube” rubber ring and putting on some life vests to float down the river and we let the very gentle current pull us along the mangrove section of the river and spotted a few points of interest like the “Cliff of Courage”.  

We got to a section where we got off the rubber ring and climbed up some “Ninja Warrior” type ropes and tried to cross from one platform to another – I gave up quickly and just jumped back into the water.  Alan managed to get across the whole of the rope bridge in one go, I gave up when my arms felt like I was having to stretch them out of their sockets to reach the rope.   

Jumping back in the inner tube, we continued to the “end” of the river signified by a checkered flag and jumped onto the zip line which was one of my favourite bits of the day.

By 11am we were pretty peckish and I was keen to try out the Mexican buffet, but after we’d wandered up there it wasn’t open until 11.30am so we walked over the floating bridge to the other side of the inlet to use up some time.  The bridge was very wobbly and it was if you were drunk trying to cross it!  Around Xel Ha there are lots of points where you can scan a bar code on your wrist band and then look at the nearby camera for a photo and so we spent some time swimming in a cave and trying to get photos, but managing to look the wrong way! 

Back at the Mexican buffet we were first in the queue and I took full advantage to sample as many different Mexican dishes as possible including some Mexican coffee with Churros to dip in and lots of Guacamole! 

After restocking our energy levels we biked back up to the start of the river and picked up some snorkel equipment and this time we snorkeled along the river and clipped our life jackets together so we could point out different fish to each other.  We saw parrot fish, scholes of little neon tetra, more seargeant major fish and some huge deep blue coloured fishes.  When we got to the “Cliff of Courage” again we decided to investigate whether we had enough courage to jump off.  We got out of flippers and snorkles and walked over a bridge up to the jump off point.  It was probably around 4m high, but looked much higher when you go there.  Alan went first and then I quickly scanned my wrist band and jumped getting loads of saltwater up my nose! 


         

After swimming back to the end of the river and dropping off our snorkel equipment we had a couple of drinks and then booked to go on the “Zip Bikes” that were not included in the “All Inclusive” price and walked up to the start of the Zip Bike tour.  The Zip Bikes were sit down bike on a wire that took you on a tour around the forest canopy and down and through some caves, all powered by your pedal power!  The pedaling was harder than I anticipated at times, but it was some amazing views and we got to go quite high up above some of the mangroves and then down into the caves.   There was a wonderful moist rainforest smell as we pedaled away. 

It was nearly time to head back to the bus to get taken back to the hotel so we got changed and walked back past the dolphin area.  We had debated swimming with dolphins, but I wasn’t convinced that it was right and kind for them, from a quick google it didn’t seem like most felt it was good for them and the enclosures looked a bit small, so we decided that it was best not to.  I’m still not sure whether in general it’s good for them to be swimming with humans, more research will be needed.  We bought the photos that we’d taken around the park and look forward to downloading them later.

My stomach had not been well all day, and so we opted for a trip to “Pacos Tacos” for tea and Alan had a spicey taco dish and I had a very simple, but really nice pizza to hopefully be kinder to my stomach than all of the buffet deliciousness!

Shopping and coffee drinking Ubud style

It's easy to forget sometimes as you are walking around Ubud just how pretty everything is as there is so much beauty everywhere.  A simple shop will have a beautiful floral decoration outside or a pile of offerings carefully crafted with many coloured flowers displayed.  Even the shops have their wares presented beautifully - all brightly coloured items either clashing in a very attractive way, or clothes arranged as per the colours of the rainbow.  I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy this as I've yet to come across another British tourist - Dutch, German, Australian and American yes, but no Brits at all - where are they all?

Rachel came by after breakfast and we went out for a wander looking in some of the funky shops and also stopping off for a few coffees and drinks along the way.  First of all we went to Tutmak Coffee Shop where Rach had breakfast and I had a couple of iced coffees and a lemongrass and ginger drink and Kiran had....a very long nap on the comfy cushions.  

We then wandered past Hibiscus Bar which isn't a bar anymore and is actually a cushion shop

If your image of Ubud streets is purely based on Eat Pray Love, you'll be amazed at how much more chaotic everything is - there are *loads* of motorbikes everywhere, loads of offerings all over the place including the floor, random dogs and lots of people offering Taxis and in a way that makes it sound dirty "Nice massage very good price".  Here is a typical picture of the street

I like the chaos and the noise and the random blend of smells - rubbish and litter, incense, spicy cooking, a different blend of incense, and the general smell of tropical vegetation.  

There is loads of art everywhere in Ubud which is really interesting to look at - here is Rachel outside an art shop along with some slightly more random examples!  She's also wearing a slightly different baby carrier - Kiran seemed very comfortable and did quite a lot of sleeping whilst we were walking around.

We walked around a few more shops including a very plush shop with awesome, but very expensive children's clothes - it had some bird boxes outside.

Then it was off to Bar Luna for lunch which had some comfy cushions which helpfully were transformed into a soft baby prison for Kiran to stop him crawling off and falling onto the floor!

And of course we needed dessert so we stopped for some very reasonable sorbet at an icecream shop about £1 per scoop.  Rachel (and Kiran!) had passionfruit sorbet and I had lime sorbet.

We walked back in a circuit and past BAWA which is a sort of RSPCA equivalent.  Rachel adopted her cat Queenie from them, but she told me a rather worrying story where she reported a dog that had lots of puppies, and then another litter and they came to take photos of it and then instead of taking it away, came back and dropped off some more puppies for it to be a surrogate mother to!

We then walked past Monkey Forest and saw a couple that had "escaped" (Rachel is a bit immune to them as she sees them a lot - they probably seem a bit like squirrels to her!)

After all the walking around we were all hot and bothered so decided to go back to the hotel to cool off with a dip in the pool.  It was also a chance to give Kiran his first swimming lesson!  Maya apparently howled the first time she was in a swimming pool, but Kiran loved it!  He splashed around, smiling and laughing and even splashed other people in the pool!

So here is what I managed to spend some money on in the course of our shopping trip:  A lovely dress/long top and some aromatherapy spray - very refreshing in such a hot climate.

So Rachel then was picked up about 4.30pm and I went for a nap and then headed back to Bar Luna for dinner - apparently it's supposed to be a fairly social place for travelers  but at the moment, I'm the only one here and have been since the 4 people telling stories of getting drunk in Bankok and dropped off at a police station by a taxi driver left about 30 mins ago...I have to say though, I am enjoying my own company for a change and it's nice to be able to slow down and enjoy just doing very simple things like eating and drinking - slowly....  Bar Luna is famous for "literary" stuff and they do readings etc and so their menu is peppered with references to literature and so it's only right that for my dinner I had a "Graham Greene Salad" (I didn't even eat the bread - I'd be a rake if I lived here permanently!