I had noticed when I booked the room at La Candelaria that there was a notice to advise them if you would be arriving after 16:00, so without a clear arrival time in mind, I dropped them an email. I have to say, the rapidity of their response was quite refreshing, considering the budget level I am traveling at - I can't say you'd get faster response from a chain hotel on the Mayan Riviera, that's for certain. And I was equally impressed that there will be a small package of travel options for me when I get there on how best to see the sights I want to see in the area! Now that is service!
In Search of a Sunrise
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Booked into Valladolid!
Well, I've booked two nights in tranquil Valladolid at La Candelaria. Opted to take a private room rather than do the dorm thing. Seems like a better idea for the initial leg of the trip, considering the amount of running around I am going to be doing in the area. I'm going to be exhausted by days end, and I don't think sharing a room with 13 other people will afford me much sleep. Downside is that in order to have that private room, you have to pay for two people's stay. Still... $40 Canadian for a private double bed room for two nights is something I can more than live with. Now all that remains is figuring out how to get to Valladolid from Cancun ~ LoL! It is easy enough really, its just that I can't book bus tickets online, so have to go to the main terminal and buy them direct.
Chichen Itza, here I come!
I've also found the place I want to stay at in Tulum as well ~ seems nice enough and it's a 10 minute walk to the ruins and the beaches. So, on the Sunday, I'll have to figure out how to get to Tulum from Valladolid and that gives me like, 4 days there to explore Coba, Punta Laguna, Tulum, etc...
And as cool as all of that sounds, and it is, but I'm really jazzed for all of the food! :)
Chichen Itza, here I come!
I've also found the place I want to stay at in Tulum as well ~ seems nice enough and it's a 10 minute walk to the ruins and the beaches. So, on the Sunday, I'll have to figure out how to get to Tulum from Valladolid and that gives me like, 4 days there to explore Coba, Punta Laguna, Tulum, etc...
And as cool as all of that sounds, and it is, but I'm really jazzed for all of the food! :)
Thursday, January 12, 2012
New Snorkeling Gear
Just to be prepared for Tulum and because it was still available to purchase at MEC, I went and grabbed my snorkeling gear today. The flipper design is kind of radical ~ love it!
With this is hand, I cannot wait to hit the beaches down south! Six weeks to go today! Yahoo!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
To get in the mood...
Been feeling slightly ambivalent the last few days; life just seems to go that way sometimes. Up, down, up, down, ad naseum. Plotting the route I want to take has been like sitting on a fence not knowing which way to tumble. Finally I am just going to go with my gut and head into Valladolid (pronounced Vaya-doh-leed) and do the ruins as I said I would. Thought about going to Tulum first, but really, I want the chill stuff at the end of the run, not the start.
Changed the banner for the blog today to one of Tulum - India was great when it was about India, but now it's on to other things and other places. Wish I could change the joer2india thing... gonna look into it.
Decided on my first guest house in Valladolid today, called La Candelaria - the image below will tell you all you need to know on why I want this for days one and two.
Its about $10 a night for a room which is alright - its not India, but it'll do! There's showers (hot), laundry, free internet, breakfast included (please, please, please include churros). Looking forward to it!
Changed the banner for the blog today to one of Tulum - India was great when it was about India, but now it's on to other things and other places. Wish I could change the joer2india thing... gonna look into it.
Decided on my first guest house in Valladolid today, called La Candelaria - the image below will tell you all you need to know on why I want this for days one and two.
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| Hammocks at La Candelaria, Valladolid, Mexico |
Its about $10 a night for a room which is alright - its not India, but it'll do! There's showers (hot), laundry, free internet, breakfast included (please, please, please include churros). Looking forward to it!
Monday, January 9, 2012
It's on!
Got approved for my time off today and came right home and bought my tickets! I'll only be there for 8 days but the distances between sites I want to visit are so small, it'll be nothing like India was. Basing myself out of Valladolid for the first few days will chop more than half of my desired site visits from the list. From there, I can access Ek Balam, Chichen Itza and the surrounding cenotes. I'm super pumped about visiting the local markets too ~ grasshopper pizzas with cheese, here I come (quesadillas de chapulines con queso)!!!
From Valladolid, it's a simple bus ride south to Coba, Punta Laguna Monkey Sanctuary, which is like a day's visit and then south again to Tulum for a day or two at the ruins, the beaches and diving the reefs.
Time permitting, Isla Mujeres off the coast of Cancun. My goal is to stay far away from Cancun though, as its not the sort of place I want to be at. Too commercialized.
Anyways, more to follow... gotta do some digging bus routes, hostels, etc...
From Valladolid, it's a simple bus ride south to Coba, Punta Laguna Monkey Sanctuary, which is like a day's visit and then south again to Tulum for a day or two at the ruins, the beaches and diving the reefs.
Time permitting, Isla Mujeres off the coast of Cancun. My goal is to stay far away from Cancun though, as its not the sort of place I want to be at. Too commercialized.
Anyways, more to follow... gotta do some digging bus routes, hostels, etc...
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Quintana Roo, Mexico 2012
Put in my request for time off today for the end of February to go backpacking the ruins of the Yucatan. Found a couple lesser known places that I'm really keen on seeing, based around the town of Valladolid, namely El Bakam, Chichen Itza (obviously) and a few cenotes around Valladolid like Dzitnup, which really has my goat at the moment.
From Valladolid, I'll make my way southeast towards Coba and Tulum where I'll spend a few days being Indiana Joe in the Jungle and of course soaking up some rays on the playas in Tulum. From there, back up to Cancun to head over to Isla Mujeres to do some reef diving and visit a sea turtle sanctuary.
Pretty excited! Hope I get the time off ~ flights are fairly reasonable at the moment and would hate to wait and have them climb too high. More to follow...
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| Dzitnup Cenote - 10 minutes outside Valladolid |
From Valladolid, I'll make my way southeast towards Coba and Tulum where I'll spend a few days being Indiana Joe in the Jungle and of course soaking up some rays on the playas in Tulum. From there, back up to Cancun to head over to Isla Mujeres to do some reef diving and visit a sea turtle sanctuary.
Pretty excited! Hope I get the time off ~ flights are fairly reasonable at the moment and would hate to wait and have them climb too high. More to follow...
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
India (In a nutshell) - Part Nine (Jodhpur)
They call Jodhpur "The Blue City", because of the high concentration of homes that are painted Brahman blue (pastel, sky-blue). And it is very blue, but it is also very polluted - at least on the days that I was there. The haze was so bad at times, that the blue of the buildings appeared gray instead. The eighth stop on the whirlwind trip around India would be the weirdest yet! And even though I'd left the Ellies far behind in Bikaner, they are still a part of the story, but I'm guessing they don't know about that yet, because I haven't heard a thing about it...
Jodhpur, Rajasthan : February 4, 2011 - February 6, 2011
In saying that this city was the weirdest is an unfair classification for it. That being said, there was an aspect of it that just went above and beyond my experience in dealing with a specific type of person. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as I usually seem to do when I have something that I want to say.
I was still recovering from the food poisoning I had suffered in Jaisalmer, at least the tail-end of it. The constant worry of a re-occurrence was keeping my diet to the bare minimum as it was and in Jodhpur, there was no exception. Finding the clock tower market was a God-send! Here, amidst the hawkers selling every imaginable trinket, vegetable, fruit and spices, was the best vendor of lassis I would find on my whole trip. They were fresh, cold and came in any flavour combination you could ask for. My preference was for banana, coconut-pineapple and a cardamon one. Since I was only here for two days, you kind of get the idea of how often I was consuming these things - yogurt is the best thing to reset your probiotics though after an illness.
I stayed at a rather nice hotel, called the Kuku Guest House. And while the hotel was nice, the owner was a little too much to deal with - likely the one reason alone that I didn't stay longer in Jodhpur. He was the epitome of paranoia, and to tell the whole story verbatim would take forever and a day. Suffice it to say, that he didn't believe anything that was told to him. And this is where the Ellie's come back into the story. When I told him about my stay in Bikaner with his uncle (Prakesh), and how I was with two Australian girls there who'd continued on to Pushkar, he didn't believe me. And this is the funniest part of all - he actually called the hotel in Pushkar that I'd mentioned the girls were going to stay at (the Lotus I think it was) to verify if they actually had gone there. Whatever the hotel was Id mentioned, they confirmed that two girls from Australia had indeed checked in. Like seriously? And he even admitted it to me, as if to say, "Hey, I didn't believe you, so I checked up on your story". He did and said many other things that just increased my concern over his mental health.
If you plan to go to Jodhpur, do NOT stay at the Kuku Guest House. It may be clean and it may be centrally located to some amazing markets and the Jodhpur fort, but the owner is nuts, with a capital N.
Speaking of the Jodhpur Fort (Mehrangarh), it is without a doubt one of the more impressive structures I saw on my travels. Standing sentinel over the city below, Mehrangarh is a mighty palatial fortress whose walls are lined, to this day, with the cannons that once defended it from invaders. It's main road is a steep incline, with many sharp turns, each with a spike-studded gate, which in old times, prevented charging elephants from getting enough speed to break down the doors. What once was the palace for the rulers of the region, now stands a museum, donated and maintained by the royal family. Each accessible chamber is lined with displays of just about every sort of antiquity you would have seen in times long past, when the fort was very much still in use for what it was built for. Included in the cost of admittance is an audio tour (300 rupees), which has very detailed information about each section of the fort you are walking through. You really do get a sense of the history of the fort, and of each room you pass through. And the views from the ramparts of the city below are breath-takingly beautiful.
It was here in Jodhpur that I met my first Quebecers, two girls from Sherbrooke. We passed an hour or so over a meal discussing India, home and everything inbetween. And the food at the Havali was fantastic - I ate an Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower in a yellow curry), white rice and two chipatis (gotta have bread to soak up the curry). All told the meal was about 100 rupees, or around $2.20 CDN. A little expensive for Indian standards, but it was on a rooftop Havali that was rated at 4 stars, so I can excuse the slightly inflated costs.
Thats one of the things to be careful of when packpacking India really, the more somewhere caters to the white tourist, the more it is going to cost - and there is no guarantee that the food will be better than from a vendor on the street who will see the same meal for 1/4 of the price. Usually, the food is better on the street anyways, for any number of reasons, not the least of all being that it is made to order, usually, and you are there watching it be made. So, they take extra care in the preparation. That said, there were times when the restaurant equivalent of street food was to die for, which it was at the aforementioned havali.
On the last afternoon I would spend in Joghpur, I ventured deep into the heart of the city, and came across a parade of sorts, that was literally a sea of varied colours, all vibrant and full of life. I never did figure out what the festivities were about, although I did some deduction and settled on believing it was something to do with the ancient past for this area of Rajasthan - each celebrant on the truck-beds was dressed ritually and barbarically - some looked kind of like Fred Flintstone to be honest. It was an incredible photo-fest to be sure - everyone wanted their photos taken by me, assuming I was some sort of photo journalist or something. At one point, a float full of women even tried to cajole me into mounting the truck with them to dance; I declined of course, I didn't want to seem like I was making a mockery of their festive event. It was highly crowded though, and full of music and singing and dancing! It was likely one of the more memorable moments of witnessing Indian celebrations that I witnessed on my travels, to be sure!
But alas, because my innkeeper was such a freak, I decided it best to get under way and on the road to Udaipur, to see the Lake Palace Hotel in the middle of Lake Pichola. I even took a hookup from my innkeeper for a family run hotel in Udaipur, with promises of a great price, rooftop view of the lake and all the bells and whistles that I'd gotten accustomed to on my travels. You'll find out how well that turned out later...
Boarding an early morning bus, I departed Jodhpur at 7:00am and had one of the wildest rides of my life! More on that later too! Even though the guy running my hotel was crazy as hell, Jodhpur is definitely a place I would like to return to again, if for no other reason than to stand atop Mehrangarh one more time...
Jodhpur, Rajasthan : February 4, 2011 - February 6, 2011
In saying that this city was the weirdest is an unfair classification for it. That being said, there was an aspect of it that just went above and beyond my experience in dealing with a specific type of person. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as I usually seem to do when I have something that I want to say.
I was still recovering from the food poisoning I had suffered in Jaisalmer, at least the tail-end of it. The constant worry of a re-occurrence was keeping my diet to the bare minimum as it was and in Jodhpur, there was no exception. Finding the clock tower market was a God-send! Here, amidst the hawkers selling every imaginable trinket, vegetable, fruit and spices, was the best vendor of lassis I would find on my whole trip. They were fresh, cold and came in any flavour combination you could ask for. My preference was for banana, coconut-pineapple and a cardamon one. Since I was only here for two days, you kind of get the idea of how often I was consuming these things - yogurt is the best thing to reset your probiotics though after an illness.
I stayed at a rather nice hotel, called the Kuku Guest House. And while the hotel was nice, the owner was a little too much to deal with - likely the one reason alone that I didn't stay longer in Jodhpur. He was the epitome of paranoia, and to tell the whole story verbatim would take forever and a day. Suffice it to say, that he didn't believe anything that was told to him. And this is where the Ellie's come back into the story. When I told him about my stay in Bikaner with his uncle (Prakesh), and how I was with two Australian girls there who'd continued on to Pushkar, he didn't believe me. And this is the funniest part of all - he actually called the hotel in Pushkar that I'd mentioned the girls were going to stay at (the Lotus I think it was) to verify if they actually had gone there. Whatever the hotel was Id mentioned, they confirmed that two girls from Australia had indeed checked in. Like seriously? And he even admitted it to me, as if to say, "Hey, I didn't believe you, so I checked up on your story". He did and said many other things that just increased my concern over his mental health.
If you plan to go to Jodhpur, do NOT stay at the Kuku Guest House. It may be clean and it may be centrally located to some amazing markets and the Jodhpur fort, but the owner is nuts, with a capital N.
Speaking of the Jodhpur Fort (Mehrangarh), it is without a doubt one of the more impressive structures I saw on my travels. Standing sentinel over the city below, Mehrangarh is a mighty palatial fortress whose walls are lined, to this day, with the cannons that once defended it from invaders. It's main road is a steep incline, with many sharp turns, each with a spike-studded gate, which in old times, prevented charging elephants from getting enough speed to break down the doors. What once was the palace for the rulers of the region, now stands a museum, donated and maintained by the royal family. Each accessible chamber is lined with displays of just about every sort of antiquity you would have seen in times long past, when the fort was very much still in use for what it was built for. Included in the cost of admittance is an audio tour (300 rupees), which has very detailed information about each section of the fort you are walking through. You really do get a sense of the history of the fort, and of each room you pass through. And the views from the ramparts of the city below are breath-takingly beautiful.
It was here in Jodhpur that I met my first Quebecers, two girls from Sherbrooke. We passed an hour or so over a meal discussing India, home and everything inbetween. And the food at the Havali was fantastic - I ate an Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower in a yellow curry), white rice and two chipatis (gotta have bread to soak up the curry). All told the meal was about 100 rupees, or around $2.20 CDN. A little expensive for Indian standards, but it was on a rooftop Havali that was rated at 4 stars, so I can excuse the slightly inflated costs.
Thats one of the things to be careful of when packpacking India really, the more somewhere caters to the white tourist, the more it is going to cost - and there is no guarantee that the food will be better than from a vendor on the street who will see the same meal for 1/4 of the price. Usually, the food is better on the street anyways, for any number of reasons, not the least of all being that it is made to order, usually, and you are there watching it be made. So, they take extra care in the preparation. That said, there were times when the restaurant equivalent of street food was to die for, which it was at the aforementioned havali.
On the last afternoon I would spend in Joghpur, I ventured deep into the heart of the city, and came across a parade of sorts, that was literally a sea of varied colours, all vibrant and full of life. I never did figure out what the festivities were about, although I did some deduction and settled on believing it was something to do with the ancient past for this area of Rajasthan - each celebrant on the truck-beds was dressed ritually and barbarically - some looked kind of like Fred Flintstone to be honest. It was an incredible photo-fest to be sure - everyone wanted their photos taken by me, assuming I was some sort of photo journalist or something. At one point, a float full of women even tried to cajole me into mounting the truck with them to dance; I declined of course, I didn't want to seem like I was making a mockery of their festive event. It was highly crowded though, and full of music and singing and dancing! It was likely one of the more memorable moments of witnessing Indian celebrations that I witnessed on my travels, to be sure!
But alas, because my innkeeper was such a freak, I decided it best to get under way and on the road to Udaipur, to see the Lake Palace Hotel in the middle of Lake Pichola. I even took a hookup from my innkeeper for a family run hotel in Udaipur, with promises of a great price, rooftop view of the lake and all the bells and whistles that I'd gotten accustomed to on my travels. You'll find out how well that turned out later...
Boarding an early morning bus, I departed Jodhpur at 7:00am and had one of the wildest rides of my life! More on that later too! Even though the guy running my hotel was crazy as hell, Jodhpur is definitely a place I would like to return to again, if for no other reason than to stand atop Mehrangarh one more time...
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