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Update! I'm making progress. Early draft of my new travel blog can be found here: Curves&Levels - Mesoamerica
Last day in Puerto Morelos, tomorrow Belize via Chetumal. A few more photos of the area. I hope I can come up with a format and presentation strategy for a dedicated Mesoamerica blog while I'm riding the bus.
Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico. October 21, 2009.
Let's just say I had a window of opportunity. I ditched my apartment, bought a new camera and found a cheap flight to Cancun. The anxiety of getting all this to fall into place just so is now mostly gone; I'm at this moment under a palapa roof 30 meters from the green Caribbean Sea nursing a Pacifico. What a century!
Puerto Morelos is a half-hour drive south of Cancun's airport. I'm told it's the last community on the Mayan Riviera to succumb to the tourism boom. Yes, there are clusters of pink condominiums stretching up the coast and every third person seems to be a tour guide, but the town retains the laid-back feel of a Mexican fishing port and prices are geared to the budget-minded.
From here, without a strict itinerary, I'll be heading to Belize and into Guatemala, mostly by bus, with side trips to Honduras and El Salvador if conditions permit. Due to a packing disaster, my fancy road map and guide book wound up in a storage locker in Montreal, so I'm traveling blind. Maybe it was meant to be.
I setting up a new blog for this trip, not yet ready; this entry is meant as a link and intoduction. Until I get the design and format issues worked out, I'll post my early pictures here without much comment. You'll find them after the jump.
Bali, Indonesia. April, 2003.
We were well-travelled by now. About nine weeks for me and thirteen for my partner, collectively through Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and finally to Bali, where we had just left our "villa" in Ubud to spend the final ten days by the lengthy stretch of sand lining the west coast of the island's southern tip. This was Kuta Beach.
Kuta's probably not Bali's prettiest beach and it doesn't have the most awesome surf, but it's long curve is nicely situated between Denpasar city and the international airport. Meter-high waves roll in reliably and the tightly-packed sand is clean and safe for strolling, if not gleaming white as we heard it once was.
There's Mt. Agung, Bali's sacred volcano, looming over the daily sunset gathering.
Kuta's other great attraction is it's tourist scene: lodgings, bars, restaurants, night clubs are jammed into a highly concentrated urban grid just back from the shoreline. Surf shops, souvenir stands and crafts stores add to the mix. Out on the main boulevard, half a km. away, you'll find the same high-end brand boutiques as in Switzerland or Shanghai. Ho hum, right? The savvy shopper looks for knockoffs. (Hint: go south.)
The red flags warned of strong currents and undertows, and seemed to be universally ignored. One walks out for about a hundred meters into the shallow sea to find a very predictable surf rolling in at a 90 degree angle to the shore. The signs had more meaning to the surfers who ventured beyond the boogie-boarders.
Teams of nail and hair stylists patrol among the sunbathers, ready to swoop. Fresh pineapple, brought to your personal sun spot and chopped while you wait, had a booming trade along the beach.
Removed from the commerce, the flat tidal zone has an elemental appeal. Time slows down for weekenders from other Indonesian islands who come to join the afternoon throngs waiting for a dramatic sky.
Hinduism is Bali's majority religion and its devotees hold processions and celebrations along the beach, marking important occasions on the religious calendar.
To placate the deities, offerings of incense, flowers and even Indonesian paper currency are left on the sand just below the high tide mark. Gamelan musicians and dancers in gold finery gather under the palms between the road and the sand, awaiting their part in the carefully-rehearsed proceedings.
The low-rise commercial district back of the beach is divided by narrow passageways called gangs. These are fine for pedestrians, even those pulling hand carts. Here there is a pleasantly chaotic atmosphere of ready commerce.
Your sense of order and courtesy may be offended when you see taxis and SUVs attempting to negotiate the same thoroughfares. Be vigilant and prepare to be bumped on the the hip or the elbow by a passing side-mirror. The drivers seem impervious to pedestrian outrage.
At the time, we were only six months past the horrific bombing of October 12, 2002, that slaughtered 202 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed several building`s in Kuta`s core. The fenced-off wreckage zone became a memorial site for those wishing to leave condolences and offer messages of hope at the tragedy site.
And so concludes the recounting of our six-and-a-half-year-old Asian adventure. Happy traveling to all and if circumstances keep you close to home, take the time to enjoy your surroundings. Your neighborhood just may be someone else's exotic destination.
Southeast Asia, 2003, in chronological order:
Southern Thailand and Georgetown, Malaysia
