rob was here.

Well, My girlfriend and I returned back to Newfoundland last night before midnight. I had a short 1-day stopover in Halifax when I returned from Mexico this last saterday. Overall the trip was really fun, I got to see and do lots of things which I have never experienced before.

I have lots of pictures of it all, but I haven't dropped them onto my computer yet. I'm thinking about setting up a flickr account to start hosting large arrays of photographs. I'm behind on the times with that.

Overall, Mexico was a nice place to visit. The weather was about the same as Cuba this time last year; that is high twenties and low thirties. Although this might not seem high, it's feels amplified by the thick air and the constant bombardment from the sun. We spent a lot of time beaching it up drinking resort favorites like daiquiris and coco-bananas.

It was my first time swimming in the Caribbean. I emphasized swimming because I don't really know how to swim that well. It's better to say that I spent a fair amount of time out bobbing around out there. I have to say that, sadly, with all my logged Caribbean time, I have seen zero pirates. I assume this has a lot to do with global warming.

We also did some different stuff outside the resort this time around. Like we hiked and climbed some Maya ruins, went kayaking, repelling, and zip-lineing. We also spent a day roaming the streets of Playa del Carmen, which was an interesting city to say the least.

Here are some Mexico and travel related thoughts:

1. Airport Hawks

One major thing to be aware of when visiting a tourism based country are airport hawks. These are people who gather outside an airport and will grab your bags from you (sometimes forcefully). They play the roll of a bellboy and drag your luggage the 20 to 30 meters to the bus area. They then demand payment. We managed to escape these people last year in Cuba by keeping a fierce death grip on our stuff, but we got tricked this time. There was a guy outside holding a sign with the company's name (Sunquest) whom we booked our trip with. We approached him, hoping to just get some information on which bus we need to get onto in order to get to our destination. He promptly snatched one of our bags and darted for a bus. We followed.

He put our luggage aboard and promptly said something which sounded garbled to me. I was like "?". He repeated. He was saying something along the lines of "tip for poor man". Sigh. We tipped the man. Afterwards I noticed:

A) he had an ipod, a nicer one that mine.

B) he brought us to the wrong bus.

C) he put the sunquest sign (which he used to bait us) on the busses window, and grabbed a different companies sign off a different bus and went back to the airport door to repeat his tourist trap. He was in no way related to any travel company. Duped.

2. Tacos are a North American Illusion

Not to be stereotypical of the Mexican culture, but I expected to see a taco down there.

On the Mexican resort, in the Mexican based restaurant.... no tacos.
In Playa del Carmen, in street restaurant menus I've read.... no tacos.

I believe tacos are a North-American creation of another cultures food. Sort of like how deep fried chicken balls and rice are considered regular Chinese food in North America. Mexican food was good, however, although I didn't know what I was eating for the most part. A lot of thick breads and beans.

Bottom line, If you want authentic Mexican tacos, don't go to Mexico.

3. Hat of Haggling +5 to Charisma

Im not a great haggler by any means, but this trip I've begun to refine my hagglin' skills. I'm sure this is an asset which will be greatly valued throughout life. Some good techniques for getting the price of an item down:

• Look for things which can be passed as defects. We were buying an obsidian frog from a vendor, and we noticed it had a smudge of dirt below one of the eyes. I convinced the man that it was a scratch and got another few dollars off.

• Walk away. If you demand a price and they will not meet it at all, just begin to walk away. If they want to sale they will either stop you and agree to the price, or at least make a counter-offer. If they don't stop you at all, then you probably asked for something below their profit point. You can always come back and renegotiate at a slightly higher price.

• Shop around. 80% of the items I've seen down there appear in 80% of the stores. You can find similar stuff everywhere. Play the prices off each other to try to get the price knocked down even further.