Cozumel!!

I had this huge desire to go back to Mexico and try my hand at snorkeling.  I really never had any hobbies when I went traveling so I figured we should pick this one up.  After researching different places in Mexico, I decided that the best place was Cozumel.  I searched Expedia for about 2 months looking for the best fares from Calgary to Cancun (direct flights to Cozumel are waaay to expensive!!) and in May I booked 2 round trip tickets to Cancun for $1200!  Our flight left on Dec 30th and returned Jan 7.  Pretty good price for the high season, right?  The secret is booking well in advance, people always told me to do the last minute deals but I wanted to go to Cozumel specifically.  The next step was to find great accommodations for a reasonable price.  I hate all inclusives.  Boring food, stupid shows in the evening and fat ignorant people left and right.  First stop, TripAdvisor!  Since this was my first real kick at the can booking a relatively cheap vacation, I really didn't know where to look, but TripAdvisor rang true.  I looked and found a place called AMARANTO BED & BREAKFAST    http://tamarindoamaranto.com/

 

This guy named Jorge designed and built it with the emphasis on the traditional Spanish style, thatched roofs, great stone work.  It was a great place and the staff (Jorge plus his dog and cook) were excellent! They helped us out with snorkeling put ins, restaurants and general questions.  We booked 7 nights for under $500!! Total trip so far...$1700 for 2 people.  Great price, all we have to worry about is the food and booze.  First, we needed to get from Cancun to Cozumel...we split a cab (no buses for 3 hours after we landed) it cost us $50 plus we need to board the ferry over to Cozumel, that was $20 too.  Not bad so far.

You would think that because it Mexico, you'd be able to get food and booze for cheap.  Beer is about the same price or maybe just a little cheaper and food...well the restaurants were waaay to expensive for what we got.  Our first foray into the Cozumel restaurant scene was a little Taco restaurant called LOS OTATES
it doesn't have a website but you just ask the locals, and you can find it.  What a gold mine!!  We had 6 tacos and 2 Dos Equis and it only cost us $10!!  If you're all about 4 star restaurants, this is NOT the place for you. But damn, they were the best Tacos el pastoor you'll ever have, and the price...
Too bad almost every other restaurant we went to paled in comparison to the quality, freshness, service and the price...I know, I know, I keep rambling about the price, but when you're a budget traveler, that's all that matters.

Here's the run down of all the other restaurants we tried:
Playa Azul beach Club - 2 beers, 1 pineapple rum & 1 pina colada = $25  too much
Wet Wendys -  we spent our new years here! Great people and theeee best Margarita/Pina Colada's on the island, but for $7.50 a pop....meh.
Coffee Express - Great Omelettes and coffee = $5.00
Pancho's Backyard - They advertise the best margarita's but they lie.  Bad service and $9.00 Margs... go elsewhere.
La Cocay - The swankiest place on the island.  This is where we spent our New Years Dinner.  Crap food, crap drinks but great service and the backyard is a romantic setting.  Guess what? That's what you pay for.  With tip our bill ran to $250.  OUCH.  AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!!
Dorados De Villa - 2 for 1 Caronas, 8 Tacos 1 bottle of watter, chips and guacomole = $30  Meh.
Especias - THEEE best "high end " restaurant in town. Great Food, great service and a good private outside patio (if you can score it) We had Onion soup, bread & oil, 4 zucchini boats, chorizo plate, 1 Margarita, 2 Sol's, shrimp and bacon and 2 shots of this liquorice tequila for $50 with a generous tip. YOU GOTTA GO HERE!!
EL FOCO - The same kind of food as Los Otates, but for triple the price.

Long story, short...if you want to find great local food at great prices, stay away from the downtown core. Go up north of the core and hang with the locals.

OK, now for the snorkeling experience.  Our first snorkel was at Palancar beach.  It's free admission but the shore snorkeling is crap.  You gotta go out and hit up the reef to see stuff.  We did the tour and it cost us $30 per person, but I think it was worth it.  We saw spotted eagle rays, turtles, tons of bermuda jacks and a few others I really couldn't put my finger on.

Palancar beach

We didn't have an underwater camera, so no pics...sorry.

Dzul Ha - Great shore snorkeling!! Lots of stuff to see and the best thing its FREEE!!!

Playa Azul  - Poor visibility and an overprice bar but it was a lovely beach.

Chakanaab Parque - WAAY TOO EXPENSIVE!! It's for dumb tourists and unfortunately, we got sucked in.  $21 per person entrance fee, great snorkeling as it's a national park but the food is overpriced and the booze is too. AVOID AVOID AVOID.






The low down on Cozumel is this: If you want a cheap vacation go here and do what we did but don't do what we did. learn from our mistakes.  Plus the taxis will suck the money out of you here.  Anywhere you wanna go is going to cost you $20.  Then when you need to get back, don't be surprised if the say it's $25-30.  Jorge called them the "Taxi Mafia"  So True.

Belize!

After we married in Playa del Carmen, my wife and I decided to go a little further south into the unspoiled land of Belize!!  After researching flights to Belize, we decided to hire a van & driver to pick us up from our hotel in Playa and make the 5 hour journey across the border to Belize.  We were fortunate enough to find this guy: http://www.gettransfers.com/    his name is George and their operation is small but efficient and the drivers were super rad! I think it cost us $250 each way (he drove us back into Mexico and up to Cancun Airport!)

Corozal, Belize  main street

They picked us up at our hotel, drove us down to Chetumal on the Mexico/Belize border, helped us get over the border and dropped us off in Corozal, Belize where we had our first Belikan beer.  Lemme tell you, it wasn't the last!!  After our beers, we were off to the airstrip where we were to board our plane service by Tropic Air:

http://www.tropicair.com/

Maya Island Air transport to San Pedro

 OR  Maya Island Air http://www.mayaregional.com/ which cost us about $150.
They flew us from Corozal, Belize to the island of Ambergris Caye, San Pedro Belize.  There we started our honeymoon at the number 1 resort on the Island called Xanadu Island Resort.

Living Room unit 2 Xanadu Island Resort 

Bedroom 1

View from our deck at Xanadu Island Resort

http://www.xanaduresort-belize.com/






This is a great resort!!  The staff were so helpful and friendly, you can use the kayaks, there's a pool, they have a little bar and on top of the full kitchen, you have a beach BBQ!!  they even helped us book our tour to Lamanai.
During our stay in San Pedro we ate at some of the best restaurants I've ever been to.  I love seafood and while you're on the island, you're going to eat it!  Best cerviche I've ever had...ooooh and the conch fritters!! Damn!!  Here are some of the restaurants we dined at:




Celi's Restaurant      Ramon's Village     Crazy Canuck's Bar     Blue Iguana Grille  
Ruby's Cafe             


But my favorite place by far was THE JAMBEL JERK PIT.  

Our bus.  The driver loved Bob Marley.

While we were in San Pedro, we decided to keep exploring the Mayan Ruins.  We've seen Chichen Itza, Coba and  Tuluum, so our next adventure was to see the ruin of Lamanai which means "submerged crocodile".  We went over  to Belize city by boat and took another boat upriver.  We stopped at a few villages along the way and even had to be transported by bus to get to the next boat!

Small bats on a tree!

Crocodile hanging out.

In all it was a great tour, our guides knew just about everything about the river and the wildlife that lives on it.

When we got the the site of Lamanai, we were surprised to have it all to ourselves.We spent hours just searching through the ruins. We saw howler monkeys, tarantulas and apparently there is a boa constrictor that hangs out there but alas, we never saw him.

After we spent our time, had our lunch and walked through the little museum it was time to go.  Back on our boat to search for wildlife, drink some Beliken and high tail it back to our hotel!!

Our last expedition in San Pedro was to visit the tiny Caye Caulker.  It's a small little island that was almost destroyed by a hurricane a few years ago and you can still see where it ripped through the island on aerial shots.  After we discovered Caye Caulker, we decided that the next time we come to Belize, we're hopping the Cayes all the way down to Palencia!!  If you wanna do some Caye hopping, here is a link:

http://raggamuffintours.com/overnight-sailing-2/

Couple shot on Caye Caulker

Sailboat on Caye Caulker

An introduction.

For years I have been obsessed with Punk Rock!  I fell in love with it and decided to open a record store called
EVOLUTION RECORDS.  After that I joined a band called ALLSTAR ASSASSINS, where we traveled across Canada playing over 250 shows.  I've gone from coast to coast, witnessing the best and worst of places. Some of my favorite places in Canada include: Victoria, BC - Jasper, AB - Sault Ste. Marie, ONT - Montreal, QC - Charlottetown, PEI.  Do I like these places because of the scenery, people or venues?  Well, I must say that it's a combo of everything.  Have we played great shows outside of these places? Yup!  Best show ever...Anytime we played North Bay, ONT.  Great people, great shows...kind of a shithole though.  Anyways, how did we do it?  We (Ants of TRD and myself) booked the show ourselves.  We knew where we wanted to go, we just needed an X to mark the spot, and we just went.

Touring with ASA made me fall in love with travel.  I've been through almost every major town or city from Tofino to PEI, and the crap in between.  Sure I've been to Mexico all inclusives with my buddies, blacked out, threw up and kept going.   That's Not TRAVELING!  Since I've been with my wife, we have these huge plans to see the world.  I still love music, but it's kind of taken a back seat to my new passion.  Along the way I've met some great people and discovered great tidbits of info, and I'd love to share them!!