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Mexico 2009 Part 2 - From airport to resort
2009-07-14 23:59:14 | 6 Comments
Continuing on from Part 1. Finally out of the airport, and on to the street. Holy freaking crap its hot! Then again, what else was I expecting?
Really what's killing everything isn't the temperature, but rather the humidity. Even at 25 degrees, with 90% humidity, it feels like its 50. I mean take a look at Las Vegas - there its an almost constant 40 degrees, but given that the humidity is only around 15% most of the time, you barely feel the heat.
But at least all the plants are enjoying the extreme weather.
Really like this airport, very clean and well organized. In the distance, someone being picked up in a Lincoln Navigator.
I wait to be picked up under the big 25...
...and what comes for me is a Toyota Hiace van. At least I get shotgun! :p
One last look back at the airport.
And we're off!
'My' driver.
On the road to the resort. Actually is a pretty nice street, but there are speed bumps every mile or so. Gets a bit annoying since you get small traffic jams at each one.
Just during the hour or so it took to get from the airport to the resort, I saw more of these bugs then I saw in all my previous life. They seem to be pretty popular around those parts.
A SEAT Cordoba. Shame these aren't sold in the States, really are pretty decent little cars. Not exactly the most reliable vehicles, but for the price, they're no worse their anything else out there. At least some of the models look quite pretty.
Passing by some small town. All the cars are waiting to get over the speed bump. The speed bumps are absolutely vicious. Really you can only go over them at maybe 3mph. Anything more and you'll leave your wheels separated from the car. Oh and don't even try to get over them in any low-riding sports car, you'll just leave half of your body on the pavement.
My feelings towards Mexico are a bit split. One one hand, you get the glamorous and shiny Mexico which revolves around tourism. But then on the other hand, you have the real Mexico, which is honestly, a little depressing to look at at times. What makes it even weirder is that talking to the local residents who live in the real Mexico... its not even that they're proud of it, but they don't really mind it all. I guess to them its just the norm.
While looking at the traffic reports,I noticed I have quite a bit of visitors from all over Mexico - from Cancun, to Tijuana, to Puerto Vallarta, to Monterrey - all over the map really. So if I may ask, what do you guys, who live in Mexico think of it as a country. I mean that in the sense of do you enjoy living there, what if anything would you like to see changed... I really am curious about your honest thoughts on the subject. Please leave them in the comments area at the bottom of this post. Thanks a bunch.
After quite a bit of driving, finally arrive at the resort.
The resort that I went to is called 'Grand Palladium'. Quite a nice place really, but like any other resort, soon the vacationing just gets painfully boring and you just have to go out somewhere.
Almost at the lobby. Quite interesting how almost all the roofs are made of wood and straw. After talking to some of the employees for a bit what I came to find out is that almost every single year, around September time, during the hurricane season, most of the roofs get blown away and have to be rebuilt. If the damage is severe enough, the resort basically just closes down for a little while until all the repairs are taking place.
Throughout the resort there are a few small ponds which are full of pink flamingoes. Gonna post a photo of them in a few days - I just prefer keeping all the photos in a chronological order.
A tank! Well, ok, to be fair, they are damn comfy, but the MPG is just ever so horrendous. :(
To put it simply, the resort is absolutely beautiful. A ton of palms and other tropical trees and shrubs everywhere, everything is spotless and so on.
Inside of the lobby. The floors are very very shiny. From what I saw, they're being buffed every single night.
The entire lobby, and really the entire resort, is very open. On the positive note, fresh air everywhere, on the negative, there is no place to hide from the scorching weather.
A bunch of couches and seats everywhere. Can't even count how much times I fell asleep on them... ^_^;
And now waiting to be checked in! Yay! Part 3 (aka the very pretty photos) coming tomorrow!
Smithy
Normal that you'd see the real VW Beetle a lot in Mexico, they were actually still manufactured in Puebla, Mexico until mid 2003. ^^
Amazing car, used to have an classic '73 oldtimer one when I was younger, it's a unique driving pleasure.
Michael Flux
@Smithy, Well... "pleasure" :p -- as cute as it is, I would personally never get it -_^
Heferkimbo
Hmm.... i enjoy living in Puerto Vallarta, compared to Cancun, this city is really nice. all cancun has are amazingly beautiful beaches. But the small towns surrounding the touristic area is poor, all the people living there works at the big hotels, malls and stores.... its like a stage, a shiny beautiful cancun in one hand, and the poor neighborhoods in the other.
I cant tell you Puerto Vallarta isn't like that, but vallarta has one single image, and that image is what foreigners like, thats why we have a 10-15% permanent foreigner residents, and another 20% that just lives 6 months each year (when its cold in their countries).
As for mexico..... hmmm, tough question, it isn't as bad as the media in your countries makes you think, sure, we have a very big DRUG problem, the mexican government is fighting like never before the "cartels", and the way the drug lords fight back is by attacking like coward on police station, like trowing grenades and stuff, but that is until last week or so, they must be very afraid or have no more option than to fight like that. I personally think it is a war they are loosing, and im glad. And most of the times the people who gets killed and found dead somewhere on the countryside, and member of different drug organizations that are fighting for control, they can kill each other.
But seriously, i have been to cancun many times.. but i find it a little artificial.... i like a lot more MERIDA, and the small towns in yucatan and Quintana Roo, they have far more personality than Can-Cun, and prices are not in dollars. Grrrrrrrr!!.
Hey guys, if you find i make no sense, please, understand that spanish is my first language. :P.
Jamaipanese
another great photo set. Can't wait to see the "pretty" photos"
Michael Flux
@Jamaipanese, Here ya go! http://michaelflux.com/mexico-2009-part-3-day-1 ^_^
hotel tuerkei
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