mexico quick note

dec.2-sunday
arrived cancun at 3pm local time, took the bus to merida at 6pm, arrived merida at 10pm, checked in hostel at 10:30pm.

prices (change rate 1usd = 10peso)
shuttle from cancun airport to downtown bus station: 12 usd
1 liter bottle water: 9.5 peso
1 frozen hamburger at OXXO (24hr convinient store): 24 peso
1st class bus to Merida: 242 peso
1 bed in hostel per night: 85 peso (with breakfast: 4 piece of toast + 1 cup of coffe)
taxi from Merida bus station to hostel: 40 peso
nopal juice: 5.75 peso (250ml)
internet: 10 peso for 1 hour

BIG STUPID THING:
Left my debit card in the ATM of Carnegie Mellon University Center in the morning when I withdrawing some cash for this trip. XD

dec.3-monday
Took a guided tour to Uxmal. The guide speaks much better english than me, he speaks english so well that another member in the tour, who is a accountist in North Carolina kind of wants the guide works for him doing some business in Mexico. Uxmal is cool, the light and sound show at night is also awesome, espacially accompanying with the stary dark sky, it just takes a little too long for performing a story speaking in Spanish, but it worth a look.

Still working on suspending my lost card, since i don´t have my account number with me. that´s too bad.

Price (the exchange rate in the street booth is 10.75 pesos/usd)
a guided tour to Uxmal: 230 pesos
the entrance admission to Uxmal: 95 pesos
a bottle of coke in 7-11: 6 pesos
a mexican meal: 30 pesos
a meal in Uxmal: over than 100 pesos (very expensive)
a coke in Uxmal: 22 pesos (very expensive)
a phonecall to united states: guess about 5 pesos per minute


dec.4-tuseday
Have suspended my debit card! YA!
The daytime here is pretty hot (at least 30 degree celcius), I can't imagine how hot it is in the summer. But it's chilly at night (I felt cold because the hostel give people no blanket but only sheet). The guide yesterday said generally people here make about 5 usd a day. So the price of food here is actually pretty high (the price of food it almost the same or even higher than taiwan). This is a small city, but it is a city. And this is a happy city, there are events every night. People sing and dance in the Grande Plaza, the decorations for the Xmas are everywhere. Interesting.



prices:
1st class round-trip tickets to chichen itza: 184 pesos
a lunch meal in Izamal (including 350ml coke): 40 pesos
round-trip ticket (2nd class) to Izamal: 36 pesos (20 for one-way)
fill 1 liter of water in YH: 2 pesos
a bag of peeled orange (10): 10 pesos
a sandwich and a cup of latte in coffee shop: 70 pesos
(a glass bottle of beer: 9.5 pesos)

Back to YH early. YH has a salsa dance class every night at 7pm. Learned to dance a little bit, it´s really difficult to me. Met a Japanese boy Fumiyu and a Japanese girl Noriko arrived this afternoon. They alo traveled alone. Fumiyu is very young, only 20 years old, and he´s traveled several months, will travel for several months more, and head back to Japan next year. It will be a 10 months travel then, he will visit most of the countries in South America including Macho Piccho of Pero. Noriko works in a Japanese Travel Agency in Canada, she has visited her friend in Mexico City, will stay in Yucatan for couple days, after that she will go to Cuba for a month, then she will go bakc her hometown Sapporo, Hokkaido. And this will be her first time home in 3 years.

I also met a Australia man Dan, he is a finanical consultant, and come here for his 1 months vacation. He worked in Columbia for 2 years and improved his Spanish there, so he can speak Spanish pretty fluently. There is also a man in my room, who is from Spain, he has spent one month in Mexico, will stay here for one more month, and head to Guatemala for one month, then finish his 3 months vacation.

Comparing to them, I have a really short trip here, for only 1 week. I was nervous in the first day, and getting better and better (espacially when I solved the problem of lost card), now I can quite enjoy this trip. This is a place I would probably come back again. By the way, this YH is good, there also has a live music every night at 9pm.

dec.5-wendnesday

price:
a bag of melon pan (from OXXO): 9.5 pesos
sourvenirs(9 pieces): 375 pesos
entrance adimission to Chichen Itza: 95 pesos
juice: 20 pesos
a dinner meal with jouce: 70 pesos
a one-way ticket to Valladolid: 134 pesos

Went to Chichen Itza today. It´s about 2 hours ride from Merida. Chichen Itza is huge, as compared to Uxmal. Tourist Cars dump hundreds and thousands tourists into the park. When I left the ruin, I took a look of the counter on the gate, it´s more than 60000. Tourists now can not climb the highest pyramid El Castillo in the park now. That´s a good idea. I saw a group from China, a group from Japan, and most of the tourists are from U.S. and Europe. Here is a good place to buy some sourvenirs, I bet there must be over 100 small shops in the park. They would show the pieces on their hand say 'only one dollar', or 'almost free' to attract your attension, but it´s never possible so cheap. Pyramid here is magnificent, you can see eagles flying over the top of pyramids in the afternoon, it´s too bad that I don´t have a camera good enough to catch the scene.

Tomorrow, I will head to Valladolid, which is east of Merida, stay there for one night. There are several famous Cenotes (the underground water flow). And then the day after tomorrow I will take the bus to Tulum, and stay in Cancun for one night, and take the airplane to Pittsburgh (must be cold) afterthen.

dec.6-thursday
price
190ml corona beer: 4 pesos (cheap!)
1st class oneway ticket to Tulum: 68 pesos
Comida Corrida in Valladolid: 50 pesos
Fresh Orange Juice: 12 pesos
Coconut juice: 20 pesos (in Cenote Dzitnup)
Admission to Cenote Dzitnup: 25 pesos
Admission to Cenote Samula: 25 pesos
A room in Hotel Zaci for one night: 246 pesos
500ml Coke: 9.5 pesos
Rent a bicycle for one hour: 7 pesos

Arrived Valladolid. It´s about two hour ride by 1st bus from Merida. Valladolid is a small town (bigger than Izamal, much smaller than Merida). Many tourists on the street because Vallavolid is closer to Chichen Itza. There is only one hostel here, and I was planning to take a bed there tonight. But!! It is maintaining right now, so I have to stay in a HOTEL, by a price of about trice! Anyway the hotel I stay Hotel Zaci looks good, it even has a clean pool. This hotel is also working on some constructions, so I guess both the hostel and this hotel are preparing for the upcoming high season, the Xmas and New Yeark Vacations.

I talk to Fuyumi more last night, with some beer (I only drunk a botle of 190ml haha :b). He said he did some part-time work for two years after he graduated from the high school and saved about 2 million Japanese Yen for his dream to travel around the world. He paid about 500,000 yen for a round-the-world flight ticket (can stop in 16 destinations), and started his trip from south esatern asia. That´s really cool. He can speak only basic English, but he has no problem traveling by himself.

I rent a bicycle peddling 30 mins to Cenote Dzitnup and Cenote Samula (these two are close to each other). The water is clear, too bad my battery run out of power. Swimming in the Cenote should be good, maybe next time I will (if there is a next time XD). Don´t have enought time to take a look of flamingos, so I have to give up.

Tomorrow will take the bus to Tulum in the morning, and hope me camera battery can give me at least one more shot (if no luck, I may have to sketch by myself XD), stay in Cancun overnight, and then take the plane to Pittsburgh at noon. That means I can finally use Chinese to write something soon.

dec.7-friday
Price
One bed for one night in hostel: 120 pesos
Admission to Tulum Ruins: 45 peso
One bag of banana: 10 pesos
A one-way bus ticket from Tulum to Cancun: 76 pesos
A bottle of Don Julio (Tequila): 275 pesos
A meal in supermarket deli: 47 pesos
A 1.5L bottle water in supermarket: 5 pesos

Have arrived Cancun. The hostel I stayed here is good, has free internet (and free wireless internet, thought I did not bring my laptop), and it seems that I am the only one who stay in that 8 person dormitory room tonight. But there is a one big cons: it is a little far from the downtown Cancun. (10-15 mins walk)

Tulum is "People Mountain People Sea", amazing. The blue of Caribbean Sea is breath-taking, no wonder there are some many top end resorts in Zona Hotelera of Cancun and Playa del Carmen. The ruin itself in Tulum is not very impressive, no carvings on its buildings. BTW, my battery was totally out, so I took no pictures of Tulum. XD

Left Tulum early, so I have a little more time to see Cancun. Cancun has almost everything you can find in United States, Wal-Mart, Burgerking, McDonald, and many many others including all of the chain hotels. The food in the supermarket is expensive, for example a dozen of egg here costs you 18 pesos, it is about 1.8 usd, almost the same price in United States. Make people live in Cancun do make more money than other places of Yucatan.

Leaving tomorrow.