Leaving on a Jet Plane

Left Edmonton yesterday morning headed for Cancun on the first leg of our journey to Progreso. The West Jet flight left on time and was full of smiling faces, a lot of families on board heading down for New Years.

We arrived in Cancun on time, made our way to Hostal Queztal and took a breath. The owner, Monica, remembered us and we were greeted with a hug. She has expanded the place since we last stayed there so we had a king size private room with a nice patio and a garden view. As usual we enjoyed our stay there as we always meet such interesting travellers. Last night as we all had supper together I counted over 50 people staying there. I think we outaged (?) most of them by 30 years! But we got great travel tips!




Don's first cervaza, a Victoria, on our patio at the hostel.




The hostel extension...private rooms.




The new garden view from our room.

As soon as we got off the bus from the airport and started walking we were quickly reminded of the sights, sounds and smells of Mexico. The air was warm and humid, everyone was out enjoying the night and the restaurants were setting up for the evening.




A stall selling colourful lamps




There are piñatas everywhere





Street stalls are busy with many customers.




The streets are full of buses and policia.


We took the bus to Merida today, cost us around 30 dollars for two for the four hour bus ride on a very nice bus. Made our way to Hotel Marionetas which is a few streets from the center of the city. The hotel where we usually stay was booked so this was one of the few I could find with a vacancy, however it is quite nice.
Beautiful courtyard and small pool.


View from our room




The breakfast area...Mexico has the best courtyards!

We went out in search of something to eat but since it is New Years Eve a lot of restaurants were set up for private parties. So we enjoyed our walk and eventually found a place that serves my favourtite Yucatan food...cochinita pibil with warm tortillas.





The streets of Merida were full of tourists and locals enjoying the warm evening. We were looking for New Years celebrations but were told that here in the Yucatan it is a family affair with families gathering at home for special meals, fireworks and in Merida for the New Year most families create an effigy of an old man stuffed with firecrackers symbolizing the old year. At exactly midnight they put ablaze the effigy of the old man in the middle of the streets which is very symbolic of burning the old year. As the effigy is being burnt to ashes there are thunderous sounds of the firecrackers from the entire neighborhood filling the air. As I write this the firecrackers are starting around me.




A store bought old man




There were lots of light displays around town.




People enjoying some snacks




Marquesitas with Nutella...YUM!





Tourists and a Nun




Reading the paper in the Square




Another street scene... a Mayan seller and her baby
( apologize for the quality of some of these night pics, I was walking and taking pics at the same time. I just love pics that capture the lives of ordinary people )




Finally a toast of tequila and Feliz Ano!


Tomorrow we will take the bus to Progreso to check into our rental for the next couple of months. Looking forward to getting to a place that we can unpack and put our heads down for a longer time. I was counting today that we have slept in seven different beds since we left home on Nov 13 so it is time to settle for awhile.


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Location:Cancun, Mexico