After three fannnntastic weeks spent south of the border with Elliot, I’m back to New York. I’m not sure I could sum up our entire trip in one journal entry, but I can certainly try.

We flew into Cancun, Mexico from Newark on the 26th of July. Our 6 p.m. flight took off at 10 p.m. because of an ill-timed 20-minute thunderstorm. Yes, a 20-minute storm caused a delay of four hours. The joys of Newark Airport know no bounds.

We got into Cancun without a place to stay, and found a cheap (and sweltering) place in downtown Cancun for $40 or so. We got on a ferry to Isla Mujeres the next day, where we stayed for 3 nights. It’s a beautiful little island with a less tourist-y feel than Cancun. The water’s warm and turquoise blue, the town still has (somewhat) of a local feel–aka everyone still speaks Spanish, instead of English.

After 3 days there beach-bumming, we headed to Tulum, where we spent one night in a beachside cabana. It was a beautiful beach, but not as calm and relaxing as the waters of Mujeres. Plus, the place that we stayed at had a decidedly isolated (and weird) feeling about it. Elliot and I agreed we felt sort of separated from society there. And not in a good way. Sort of in a creepy Lord of the Flies way.

Next day took us to Belize City, Belize (after a night in Chetumal, Mexico), where we got on the Ferry to Caye Caulker. Words will never be able to describe the three days we spent in Caye Caulker. Over those three days we A) met half of the local population–all of who recognized us later and continued to say hi B) almost died twice at sea (once when we got caught in a thunderstorm on a kayak, another when we got caught in a thunderstorm on a sailboat with a bunch of rastas) and C) fell in love with everything about the place–from the reggae bars to the fresh banana shakes to the whole “go slow” mentality. It may sound like I’m describing any Carribean island, and I might be. I’ve never really been to anywhere in the Carribean (minus a day in Nassau, Bahamas), but there was something so decidely laid-back and genuine about the place, I think it must be a true anomoly. Even though it’s a tourist destination, at least half, probably more, of the population still lives in very simple conditions (read: third-world). Most of the local economy is still fishing based.

Ok–since I’m falling asleep while writing this (it’s 2:30 a.m. and I couldn’t sleep), I’ll leave the rest to be written tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have enough energy to also touch on this ludicrous ‘right-wingers-bringing-guns-to-health-care-debates-where-Obama-is-speaking’ issue too. Always too much to write about, and too little time.

G’night!

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