Blog

Well, we got scammed. We didn’t even see it coming. I guess I’ve always been a trusting soul, but I thought my street smarts were better than this. I just love the Mexican people so much – in all my travels to Mexico, I’ve found them to be nothing but kind and helpful and accommodating. And I still believe that most of them are! But just like everywhere in the world, there are some shady opportunists lurking around corners.

We stopped in a small park on our day in Merida. We found a shady bench and were looking at maps on our phones to figure out our location and where we were going next. A friendly local on the bench across from us start chatting us up – asking where we were from, how we like Merida, complimenting my Spanish, etc. Well, flattery will get you everything, I guess! As he was casually getting up to leave, he told us about this really great coop Mayan store just down the street that we have to check out! “Why buy from tourist shops filled with trinkets made in China when you can buy an authentic Mayan souvenir from a hardworking local?” And it’s a good thing we just happened to be there that particular day because starting the next day the store would be closing down for 2 weeks for major renovations! Lucky us!

I had actually just bought a beautiful and unique silver necklace from the Uxmal de Taxco, which is run by a third-generation silversmith named Miguel. Miguel’s shop is filled with all kinds of silver delights priced very reasonably. I highly recommend visiting his shop if you are in the market for silver in Merida. We actually don’t shop a lot when we travel, so we weren’t really in the market to buy anything else. But the guy in the park was so nice and it was right down the block, and it was SO HOT, and we were hoping to catch a little air conditioning, so we decided to walk down and check it out.

Upon walking in we were greeted by a man who was nice enough but proceeded to follow us around everywhere like a vulture. He would stay just far enough behind us to pretend like he wasn’t following us, but he clearly was. That SHOULD have been my 1st red flag! The shop is very big and quite beautiful. There are multiple floors and a brightly painted staircase taking you up to other levels. It was filled with many beautiful items, I almost felt like I was in a museum. I saw some cute painted hand soap dispensers and decided I’d buy one because I felt obligated to buy something at that point. It didn’t have a price on it (nothing did, hello red flag #2), but I assumed it couldn’t be that much – maybe around 40 US dollars or so. Then the man lured my husband into another “special” room that had some really cool t-shirts with Dia de los Muertos designs. My husband is somewhat of a t-shirt collector and rarely every buys himself anything on trips, so he picked one out.

We took our items up to pay, the man took our credit card and ran it (not showing the total first, 3rd red flag) and handed us the receipt and we were completely shocked when we saw we just paid $180 American for a t-shirt and a soap dispenser! I realize that this was our fault. We could have immediately demanded a refund and left the items. We should have asked the prices of these things before buying them. We knew that the items were not cheap crap made in another country and they’d be more pricey than other stores but, come on! The truth is it never crossed my mind that these things would cost so much! The most I might have guessed is maybe $50 each. Spending $100 on two seemingly well-made souvenirs made locally would have still been a lot to me, but I would have found it somewhat reasonable. But $180?! There was no itemized receipt, so I have no idea what cost what. We left there feeling in shock, but we justified by thinking “Well at least we’re helping out the Mayans financially.”

Later on, I started reading about this store and others like it and that’s when I learned that this is a thing. It was all a scam. The guy in the park was planted there to lure us into the store. They always say some kind of lie about how the store is about to close down or something of that sort. This was very disheartening to learn! Now, I don’t even trust that all this money we spent is even going to any Mayan people. Obviously, a chunk of it is going to these guys they plant around the city to schmooze you and get you into the store. It’s just a big ring of scammers.

So please beware of this when you’re traveling to Merida! Don’t get fooled like we did! Do go visit Miguel at Uxmal de Taxco. He is the real deal! But stay far, far away from Mercado Principal y Taller de Arte Maya – Hunab Ku. Or at the very least, please make sure you demand prices up front!

On our recent trip to Mexico, we stayed in a quiet little fishing village called Chuburna. It is located about 45 minutes from the capital city of Merida, 20 minutes from the cruise port town of Progreso, and 10 minutes from a slightly bigger fishing village called Chelem, where we stayed last time. Chuburna is the perfect “get away from it all” – literally IT ALL. There is not much of anything in town: a couple of Tienda Six’s, one or two tortillerias and a few restaurants that may or may not be open at any given time. We learned quickly to not rely on the hours listed on Google for any of the restaurants. So on our 1st night there, not having had a chance yet to hit the Soriana grocery store in Progreso, we realized we’ll have to drive all the way into Progreso for any hopes of finding an open restaurant. We had a great meal of aguachile shrimp and tamarind margaritas at Sol y Mar and met an American couple there. They chatted us up and invited us out for after dinner drinks. We had a pretty good time with them, despite the few attempts the woman made at trying to talk politics with me. I had to kindly tell her I wasn’t interested in discussing the subject, as our views were clearly not in-line. And anyways, I’m on vacation! I came to this remote Mexican town to get away from the ugliness and divisiveness of our national politics, the last thing I want to do is get in an argument with someone I barely know about Black Lives Matter while I’m on vacation.

Our night out on the town came to an end, and Bill started the drive back to Chuburna. I was feeling rather tipsy, which I think was heightened by the long day of traveling and the excitement-induced lack of sleep that always happens to me the night before a big trip. I felt almost serene. We passed through Chelem and a few minutes later we start coming into Chuburna Puerto – keep in mind this is only our 2nd time driving into this tiny town which, at that time, was still very unfamiliar to us. It is late at night and there are very few streetlights and no people to be seen anywhere. There is a dog sitting in the middle of the road. It makes no effort to move out of the way. I roll down my window and try to coax it out of the road as it runs up to our car and starts barking and chasing us. We finally get past it only to be greeted by another dog, just sitting there in the road. We honk the horn and once again try to coax it out of the way and once again the dog starts running up to the car, barking and chasing us. We get past that one and there is yet another dog sitting in the road, as if waiting for us. Same old story – dog runs up and barks and chases our car as we slowly try to go around it. All the while, still no people around, no signs of human life really, it felt strange and rather unsettling, almost like we were in a ghost town or in a canine version of the movie set for “Come Out and Play.” Finally, we get past the trio of dogs and make a right down our road.

It didn’t take long for us to really appreciate and enjoy the stillness and peacefulness of this sleepy little town. But that 1st night driving into it was eerie. The combination of the dark still night, desolate looking buildings, sandy roads and lack of people around felt truly bizarre. There are quite a few street dogs in these towns, and I do have to say that they seem different at night. It’s like they change into something else – not vicious, but guarded and untrusting. Another dog near our place would be friendly as can be during the day, but at night would follow you and bark at you in a way that made me nervous. Eventually, we learned to keep a few rocks in our pockets when walking around at night, which luckily, we never had to use.

I write about this in no way to fear-monger or discourage travel to the state of Yucatan – we love it and hope to live there one day. But just know if you travel here, it’s a different world. And hopefully that’s why you are traveling – to immerse yourself in unfamiliar places and experiences, even when they may at times feel uncomfortable. But why else travel, if not to witness and be a part of places and cultures unlike our own?

Next week I will be taking my 10th trip to beautiful Mexico! This will be our first real trip since the pandemic started. As I have one foot out the door already, I’m thinking about our last trip to this same part of Mexico we’ll be revisiting, Yucatan. And by that, I don’t just mean the peninsula, but the state of Yucatan. Many Americans are not so familiar with this area, which is one thing we like about it – a lot fewer tourists!

On our last trip we visited the stunning Yellow City of Izamal, the Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Dzibilchaltun, the capital city of Merida, and three cenotes. All of the cenotes were very different from each other. The Xlacah Cenote is in the middle of the Mayan ruins of Dzibilchaltun. It’s completely above ground and sits next to a Mayan temple ruin. It is used like a large public swimming pool where locals go to cool off. The middle is filled with lily pads and it’s very pretty but a bit too populated for our taste. The Chihuan Cenote is completely underground and almost pitch-dark. We found it after visiting the Yellow City, we headed off to find another cenote we’d read about. We drove through a few Mayan towns where the locals stood in intersections with bags of strange looking fruits for sale. It was getting late, and we didn’t think we’d find this cenote in time, so we decided to check out another one that we saw a sign for. We pulled up and were the only car in the parking lot. We paid the few dollars to get in and then took a tunnel down into this cenote that had no natural light coming down to it. There were a few artificial lights strung up, but it was still quite dark and there were ropes along the sides to guide you. The ceiling of the cenote was very low, I could float on my back and literally reach up to touch the stalactites. The length of the cenote was very long. I went pretty far back, so far that the little bit of light from the bulbs did not reach it. I was blissful in my secluded cenote cocoon far away from the rest of the world until I heard/felt a bat fly by. Okay that’s far enough! I paddled quickly back up to the illuminated part and stayed there for the rest of the time.

But it was the Kankirixche Cenote we visited on that trip that felt even more daring, at least the journey there did. After visiting Uxmal, we set out to find a cenote we’d read about in our guidebook. The section was labeled “Cenotes off the Beaten Path”. We turned off a main highway that stretched between Uxmal and Merida. At first, we were on a normal paved two-lane road. But the road started becoming more and more narrow as we drove through not Mayan towns, but small, sad, dumpy looking Mayan villages. Eventually the road turned into a one-lane gravel road. We finally see what was just a handmade wood sign nailed to a tree that said “Cenote” with an arrow pointing left. We turned down the thin dirt road which was very bumpy. It was stifling hot, smack in the middle of the day, and we are in a budget economy rental with no 4-wheel drive, no insurance, and no cell service. We kept having to stop for fear of hitting all the iguanas running across the road, and then get out to look and make sure they completed their crossing and were out of the way. We drive this way for about 20 minutes and start to wonder where the hell we are going. We contemplate trying to turn the car around. But then suddenly, in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, we see two men standing on the side of the road by a gate. And by “gate” I mean a rope they have pulled across what looks to be an entrance to something. We roll down the window. “Hablas Ingles?” I ask. “No, Mayan” one of the men replies. Shit. Now I can’t even use the little bit of Spanish I know. “Cenote?” I ask. The men nod their heads and hold up two fingers – as in two dollars. We hand over the money and they pull the rope back so we can enter. They point to a small wooden building which ended up being the changing room. We see one other car parked so we park next to it. I walk to the wood shack to put my swimsuit on. I have to say it was quite disgusting. It had a small dressing room in which I struggled to put my suit on while trying to balance on my flip flops and not step on the mucky floor. It smelled really bad and there were horseflies everywhere. I couldn’t get out of that place fast enough! Once I’m suited up, I walk down to Bill who’s looking around, unsure where to go. This is not a big popular cenote like Ik-Kil, there are no signs around, no tour guides to help you. We’re finally here, and yet we have no idea exactly where the cenote is. Finally, we see a person, surely the owner of the only other car. He’s dripping wet like he’s just been swimming. He was French, but like most Europeans, was fluent in English. We ask him where the cenote is, and he points to what looks like nothing more than a hole in the ground. We walk to the hole and look down at a janky old wooden staircase. But about halfway down, we stop in disbelief at the shocking beauty of this hidden cenote. There’s enough sunlight to show off the alluring azure blue of this natural swim hole. There were chirping birds flying in and out. It was peaceful and oh so beautiful. And after the hot stressful drive, diving into the cool water felt luxuriously delicious on our skin and our souls. There were a couple of people in it who must have been with the French guy, but they left soon enough, and we had this paradise all to ourselves. Part of the cenote was somewhat shallow, creating a lighter aqua blue color to the water, and the other part was really deep, which resulted in a darker sapphire blue. We could see clearly under the water’s surface, and I think that’s the first and only time I’ve seen stalactites under water. It was truly a magical place and experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

Now in less than a week, we’ll be heading back to this part of Mexico, and I can’t wait to immerse myself in all – the natural beauty, the history, the colorful and lively culture, the food! Hasta luego!

Travel has been different for us during the pandemic. We’ve not flown anywhere since before it started. Our first trip almost a year into it was 2 nights in Bryson City, North Carolina, where we stayed at an awesome secluded cabin with a jacuzzi. Other than a hike in the Great Smokies on the way back, we really didn’t do much besides relaxing and taking in the mountain air and scenery. A few months later, we drove down to St. Augustine for a few days. Oh wow, that sand felt so good underneath my feet! It’d been too long for a beach lover, like me, to miss out on that heavenly feeling. Every evening we had cocktails on the patio while I photographed traveling birds. That was always followed by a dinner out somewhere or another, and then a moonlit walk on the beach, still licking our lips from whatever delicious buttery seafood dish we’d been lucky enough to devour that night.

In September, we braved traveling with our dogs (both terriers so they’re a bit crazy) down to Savannah for a couple of nights. We stayed at the famous Thunderbird Inn, an animal-friendly motel with a total retro vibe. A “Moon Pies on your pillow” kind of place. Unfortunately, it rained a lot. But we made the most of our trip just lounging around with our dogs, watching TV and playing games. A month or 2 later, we took another long weekend trip to one of our favorite places, what’s quickly becoming our “home away from home”, Chattanooga. All we did there was eat, go to IMAX movies, eat some more, walk around some, eat some more, and then eat a little more. Need I mention that Chattanooga has really great restaurants?

So even though 2021 was not a year of big travel for us, I think we made out pretty well!