Sea, Sun, Sand, Snorkel & "Chicken Pizza"

Sea,Sun,Sand,Snorkeling & "Chicken Pizza"

Paris in March did not look too good, cold and wet. So an instant change in destination brought us to Cancun, Mexico. 

Beats Paris at this time of the year!

The Cancun we visited 20 years ago has vanished. The reasonably priced condos and hotels have been demolished and posh,  expensive palaces has been built to house the god of tourism which showers goodies to the developers.  This is part of creating the "Mayan Riviera", from Belize to Cancun.

The shore is still as windy with red flags everywhere cautioning about swimming in the ocean. What we remember as the clear white sand has given way to a "sandy" colored one. In 2005 Hurricane Wilma caused the beaches to become slivers . So now we have re-furbished beaches. 

The charges on money change is huge. A $140 withdrawal becomes $154 charge on the account! Bring lot of cash, don't let them change it for you!

Trying to taste as many different cuisine as possible, we ate at the Elefanta Indian Cuisine.  Excellent tasty food and good service, a bit on the expensive side. We were seated on the shore of the lagoon there and Ashwin noted something moving in the water. Researching that, he feels that we may have seen  the endangered Morelet's crocodile.

How about some snorkeling?

Some cool guys on a snorkeling boat. 

More on the snorkeling boat.

Invasion of non-native species. It is not just people!

Non-native palm

Non-native flower surrounds planted palms on the road-side!

The coconut palms made you feel at "home" though. Yes, just like people there were many non-native flora too has invaded the land. On the road side these palms abound. And they have planted Thechi (Ixora Coccinea) which is common to Kerala! 

Cannot be all fun. Off to "Chicken Pizza" to learn history and culture. (Somebody has to keep track bird life too.)

So who were killed in these ball fields after the "game"? The winners or the losers?  The answer is a mystery since all the books available was burnt by a Catholic Priest to "purify" & "civilize" the pagans! All Mexicans are purified and civilized now!

Our Mayan guide Elias. He said there are about 5 million Mayans left, mostly in Chiapas province. There are over 23 dialects in Mayan, linguistically close to East Asian language, but none are taught  in schools. You have to learn your dialect at home. A very good way to preserve heritage without official corruption?

More sun and sea.

It did not make much time after we returned , for the Minnesota weather to do its trick on us!

Note: Sorry if we confused you, Akshay came up with "Chicken Pizza" for Chichen Itza and we had fun with that.