The Gray Family

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Cancun artisan market

A quick visit to the artisan market tonight--the recession and low season are making for a rough time; we couldn't walk more than 5 feet without hearing "lady! passele! now it's your turn to come to my store!"

On the left: muffin with fruit loops. In the middle, muffin with cocoa crispies. And on the right, muffin with cornflakes. What a truly beautiful ethnic appropriation of a few American staples.

Out and about in Cancun

Kristin and I painted ceramics at the resort this morning...

I found Sawyer like this during his nap:

We lost one of Sawyer's sandals somewhere in the city...here he is being fitted with nuevos zapatos.

The great corn husking of 2009:

Playing on a local playground...

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Isla Mujeres

On Tuesday we made our way to Isla Mujeres. Ever seeking to experience things the local way, we skipped the overpriced ferry that left straight from the zona hotelera, and instead took a local bus downtown, where we caught a "collectivo" (informal van-shuttle that runs longer routes and charges less than a bus) to a ferry dock further up the coast, with the shortest, cheapest and most frequent departures to Isla Mujeres. I was transported back to Africa during this ride in the collectivo--if only you could see how many people were actually crammed in this van...notice that Noel is sitting on Kristin's lap.

Here's a shot of the port as we leave Cancun for Isla:

The boats are very luxurious--an airconditioned cabin inside, with comfy seats, TV and a full bar.

Up top is a deck where you can enjoy the beautiful views during the 15 minute crossing.

Looking out over the water en route to Isla...

And here's the dock as we approach the island:

We spent the first half of the day wandering the charming streets--very peaceful and low-key compared to Cancun, though the hard sell on the snorkeling adventures at the ferry dock does remind you where and who you are. While wandering we stumbled upon this beautiful cemetery.

Turns out the best way to get around the island is to rent a golf cart--about $35 for the day. We toodled around on that sucker all afternoon, and were able to see pretty much the whole island.

Here is Sawyer giving a kiss to his first-ever vacation souvenir:

A beach shot taken from the cart while cruising the strip:

Of course the main destination was Garrafon, for snorkeling. We paid a little to get into this excellent beach club, which provided the usual amenities, and access to a great snorkeling spot. We saw much multi-colored sealife, including one creature I dubbed 'snakeskin fish.'

Noel shows us how it's done:

In addition to a Barracuda ("ooooh, Barracuda!"), Chris found this starfish:

On the boat ride home this guy came to serenade the passengers. For a minute I thougt I was in the Paris metro.

Playa del Carmen

On Monday we made an excursion to Playa del Carmen, where we strolled the beautiful waterfront, oggled the turquoise waters and sweated out every last drop of moisture from our parched bodies. I think we're all a little surprised just how hot it is.

After lunch (tacos, tacos, tacos--what else is there worth eating?), the boys took off for a subterranean snorkeling adventure near the ruins at Tulum--hopefully we'll get a few pics from the underwater camera up here before too long. In the meantime, Kristin, Sawyer and I strolled the beautiful streets of Playa, and fell in love with this amazing textile shop--especially Sawyer; he insisted that I buy three scarves.

Cancun date night

On Sunday night Noel and Kristen were kind enough to watch Sawyer for us so we could go out for a date night (oh rare, rare opportunity!). Various resort employees recommended a place further down the strip called "La Isla"--a huge new mall with tons of restaurants and shops, a total hub for nocturnal activity. I'm still trying to believe that we actually went to the mall for a date. The whole place is kind of a cross, design-wise, between a Venice-shaped amusement park and the Denver airport. Chris managed to get a few beautiful shots that, when we look back at them, almost make us believe we went to Italy instead of Cancun.

One of the activities available to mall-goers is this aqua-hamsterball. We watched this kid for about five minutes--he looked totally exhausted and frustrated most of the time.

After dinner and a movie (we saw 'The Hangover,' or, in Spanish, 'What happened yesterday??'), we walked along the strip until we got the the spring break-iest portion, where all the debauchery goes down. September is apparently the lowest of the low seasons--there is practically no one here. So it was kind of funny to see coyote ugly girls dancing on the bar in empty clubs.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

First bits on Mexico

We began our journey yesterday at 6am, en route to DIA. Once there, lines were long, the luggage conveyer belt was broken, and the airline employees were typing furiously at their computers for 15 or more minutes per customer with no explanation. In our case, they somehow couldn’t find a way to indicate on our boarding passes that Sawyer was in fact our kid, and that we were traveling together—we flashed his adorable little passport many times during the day. It took so long that someone escorted us through security like celebrities, but then we got stalled out at the gate with the same problem—I’ve never had flight attendants glare at me like that before, but we really did appear to be the ones holding up the whole planeful of people. Short flight to Dallas, Sawyer was a gem. We had the same problem at the gate there though: got glared at again by the flight attendants as the last people boarding, but then sat on the ground for about 20 minutes until the pilot came on and told us that that particular aircraft had hit a bird with its landing gear during the descent into Dallas. The mechanics were checking it out, probably nothing. He came on 20 minutes after that to announce that said mechanics had determined that the bird guts in the brakes were potentially dangerous, and that they’d need an hour to put a new brake system in. This is where things started to go downhill. Sawyer is no longer a little baby who will contentedly fall asleep in mama’s arms with a little rocking. I think we got a foretaste of what the flight to Paris will be like this winter…

Finally got into Cancun despite malfunctioning flaps. It probably took us an hour to get through customs—I don’t know if that’s normal or not. Once out we were bombarded by hard-sell tourist agents who said crazy things like, “Are you over 30? You qualify for our promotion!” We barely escaped getting roped into a 90-minute presentation in exchange for “free” tickets to some nature park. Being the A) cheap and B) adventurous travelers that we are, we skipped the various shuttles and hotel taxis, and took local transit all the way to our resort. Sawyer is in LOVE with all the big buses and how often we’re getting to ride them. Thank goodness for friendly locals—we would have had a hard time getting here without them.

This morning was our first excursion—Sawyer woke up early, we had positively no food in the condo, so we decided to go into town in search of victuals. There’s a bus that goes straight to the Walmart, but I wanted to try to find an open market, or at least something local. So we headed to the bus terminal and started asking around. We did find the open market, but most of the stalls were still closed—because it was 7am or because it’s Sunday, I don’t know which. It looked like a great place, though; we’ll definitely be going back. We eventually found a local supermarket where Sawyer made a lot of friends, including an old man who picked him up and pointed out all the meats and cheeses in the deli case. Speaking of the deli case, a semi-strange adventure was had there, while in search of sliced lunchmeat. Preface: my Spanish is really rusty. I didn’t recognize a lot of the names for the different meats, so I just told the woman that my husband didn’t like ham, to see if she had any other suggestions. “something something something turkey?” she asked. “Esta bien,” I said. “Do you want to try it?” “Ok.” She handed me what turned out to be a really fat hot dog. Sawyer loved it. “Mmm, really good. But I’m looking for….meat (pantomime slicing), cut, for sandwich.” “Oh, something something something, over here, look.” She then directed me to a package of flat hotdogs. I didn’t know that such a thing existed, but now, when I’m looking to make hot dog on rye sandwiches, I’ll know just where to go.

I approached the same man that showed Sawyer the meats and cheeses when I wanted a papaya. “Do you know how to pick out a good papaya?” I asked. “To eat today?” “Yes.” He handled a few, handed one to me and said it was perfect. When we got back to the condo—sweaty as heck and really exhausted (I don’t recommend carrying five grocery bags and a kid who is capable of walking but just doesn’t feel like it on public transit and all around a hot and humid foreign city), I started to make the most luscious tropical fruit shake, until I discovered that my “papaya” was in fact……a honkin’ avocado. So either that guy was deaf, or…..I definitely said “papaya,” so I don’t know what went wrong.

When everyone was up and ready, we made our first trip out to the beach, where I finally got the camera out and took a few pics. Here’s the little dock and swimming area right out the back door of the resort:

Our friends Noel and Kristen who joined us for this adventure.

Sawyer’s getting suited up for some major sand-play.

I could NOT get that sucker to look up from his work.

We got the great idea to bury Chris and turn him into an ear of corn, but I accidently did the husk upside down, and then Sawyer stomped all over it, and now he just looks like some creepy merman.

This old lady thought it was such a hoot—she wanted to take a picture of Sawyer patting Chris’ sand body for the Royal Resort monthly magazine.