Trips, Tours and other stuff

So as well as looking at all the details of flights, accommodation and everything else we have also been checking out things that we would like to do while we are away. We have about 400 ideas however we only have 3 and a half weeks so we have to somewhat limit our choices.

So far we have a few must do's, some probably do's and some maybes.

On our must do list is;

Swimming with Whale Sharks in Isla Holbox. Pretty much self explanatory. We would either make our way or organise a tour which would get us to Chiquila which is about 90 minutes North of where we will be staying then catch a ferry over to Isla Holbox. From there we jump into another boat that takes 2 hours offshore where hopefully we will get to see as well as swim with the largest living fish species in the world.

Here is a pic to give an idea of the size of these creatures.





Next on our list are the many ruins in the area. The only problem is deciding which ones we will make it to and which ones we will have to leave for our next visit. I am pretty sure that we will make it to Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba. However we might not have enough time when we are in Mexico City to make it to Teotihuacan. On my first visit Paul and I saw Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan so this time I am hoping to see a couple that I haven't seen before.

Chichen Itza                                                            

Coba

                                                                       Tulum 

There is a long list of water activities that we are looking into besides swimming with the Whale Sharks. Puerto Morelos is renowned for the snorkeling on the Mesoamerican Reef which is a few hundred metres offshore from our hotel room. They say you should head into town and hire a guide to take you out in a boat rather than swim out from the shore. 

Plus there is also an extensive series of Cenotes in the area. Cenotes are sinkholes or wells formed naturally through the limestone found throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. Not far from Puerto Morelos is La Ruta De Los Cenotes, the route of the Cenotes, a series of secondary roads which you can use to travel from cenote to cenote throughout the region. There are many tours that you can do which involve snorkeling in the cenotes amongst stalactites and stalagmites some are even full of fish.  Here are a few pictures to give some idea of what they can look like.

Apart from all the water and ruins we are also hoping to spend a half day at the Little Mexican cooking school. Little Mexican Cooking School As well as the recipes that you learn on the day of the class you also get a comprehensive Mexican cookbook to take away.

When we get to Mexico City we want, and by we I mean me me me, to go to the Friday night Lucha Libre. Mexican masked wrestling  

Paul and i didn't make it last time so it is on my must do list this time.

Also in Mexico City on Sunday mornings they close down the 8 lane Paseo de la Reforma in the heart of the city and let people ride bikes freely up and down the road for 6 hours.

   

We leave Sunday evening so we might have to get up earlyish for this one to make sure that we can still make out flight without having to rush. 

Quick Update

Haven't had a lot to report on recently.

Now that we have most of it organised we are in the stage where we are just waiting, waiting, waiting.

We did recently organise our travel insurance which can be a bit of a hassle for someone with a dodgy ticker, but that is all sorted now which is a relief.

The next things we need to look at are what if any immunisations we need to get, do we need malaria meds, tetanus, etc etc etc.
After that we will have to decide on at least a couple of the tours we want to do and book them in. The main one is the trip to swim with the Whale Sharks most of the others we can organise once we get into town.

Habla Espanol?

No, lo siento.

Soooooooo we start Spanish lessons tomorrow night. An hour and a half every Wednesday night for about the next 16 weeks. Dannii received a voucher for Christmas and we figured out after a few emails back and forth that we would need to start in the first week of February in order for us to be finished 2 levels prior to leaving in June.

The goal or hope is to at least be able to ask rudimentary questions while we are away and be able to understand the answers. I doubt that we will be in any sort of position to carry on a lengthy conversation but hopefully we will be able to go about our day to day activities with relative ease.

The anti-bargain!!!

Well it seems that in all the excitement surrounding getting our awesome airfares from L.A to Mexico and back again someone made a few keystroke errors that proved kind of costly.

Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention when I was finalising our bookings online. Not only did I only include 1 letter from my surname I also managed to invert Dannii's first name and surname.

On any other occasion I guess this would have been an easy fix. Just make a call somebody on the other end makes a few keystrokes and it is all sorted. Well yes maybe if this didn't involve plane tickets! Now I know why when you go to a travel agent they ask you to check the names and how they are spelled several times before they lock it in and print the ticket.

To get both tickets corrected cost roughly $10 for each letter I failed to put in or I put in the wrong place. $300US! That was a fair kick in the pants, although in terms of the relief that I felt after we got it all sorted out it was probably worth it. Trying to explain that I was actually "Mr C" and the plane ticket wasn't for the father from Happy Days to a customs official in Mexico City was not something that I was looking forward to. It was just lucky that the day we booked the tickets we ended up getting them $300US cheaper than we were expecting to pay so that is probably some sort of Karmic intervention evening it all out.

It was an expensive lesson that wont be needed to be taught again.