Time to Catch Up on our Blog!! -- Cancun and New York

Jonathan: Wow, it has been way too long since we've last wrote but when things are hectic and you cover 7 countries in 6 weeks, sometimes it feels almost impossible to find time for blogging :).  So I don't know if we mentioned Cancun or not but here's the skinny :)

Michelle: Cancun, the land of powdery white sandy, azul beaches, sunshine, all inclusive resorts, american tourists, 2% mexican culture and hundredes of expensive tourist traps! Mmm paradise... almost. If it weren't for the lack of anything to do with Mexico, it would be wonderful! The beach is stunning, no arguments, but the rest is up for debate. We flew from Guadalajara to Puebla, gathered up our belongings, got off the tiny little plane, collected our luggage and turned around to load up on the exact same plane for our connection to Cancun- the hostess was rather amused. So while the budget only allowed for a basic hotel room with no view in an average hotel, it was a great reward when we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom mini suite on the 9th floor with perfect views of the ocean and overlooking the pool. We enjoyed 2 glorious days of weather (though of course those were the days we caught up on alot of missed sleep and we could barely face the humidity so we spent most of the time in our air conditioned room). So once we were reved and ready to explore, we got 1 afternoon in the sun (turns out that was more than enough for the two of us) and then the grey clouds came and rained heavily on our parade and turned "paradise" into soggy wetlands.

Sadly while in Cancun, I received the news that my Grandmother had passed away. It was not unexpected news but it was very difficult to deal with and heartbreaking as it felt like the distance between Mexico and Australia had increased x100. I felt sooo far away from my family and completely helpless, the worst part was not even being able to give my Dad a hug. I'm never very good with death but it does serve as a reminder of how fickle and fragile this life really is. So the thoughts played on my mind that I was 'lucky' I had the chance to say my goodbyes to Grandma, and she is better off now, but I'm sure glad I had Jon around to lean on and give my hug-o-meter a boost! Keep your loved ones close, tell them you love them, that you appreciate them and that you're thankful that they are in your life. Don't wait until their funeral and it's too late for them to hear your words and feel your love!! The time is now, grasp it with 2 hands and don't let go! Don't let the mundane cares of life drag you down and spoil the joy you could have, or cause you to fight with your loved ones. The worst nightmare I could have would be #1 something happening to Jonathan or my family and friends and #2 if the parting had been bitter and there was conflict in the air and all the love was left unsaid, could I forgive myself or live forever with regrets?. Forgive. Love freely.

Jonathan: I got the worst sunburn I have ever had in my entire life in Cancun.  4 months in Guadalajara ... no sunburn.  Day 3 in Cancun, I got roasted beyond belief, and I was only out for 2 hours.  My skin turned a shade of purple before my entire upper back blistered.  I have never felt so horrible and gross in my entire life, not to mention the insane pain.  Then my entire torso peeled and it was like having cornflakes under my shirt.  After that, once the skin healed and the nerve endings were recovering, the itching was so intense that I wanted to claw my skin off my back with a fork!

After Cancun was New York.  We spent a couple of days in Manhattan.  New York is an interesting city to visit I guess, loads of high rises.  If you want to look at buildings, New York is the place to be, although central park was pretty nice.  But everything in NY is pretty expensive, so after a couple of days, that was enough for me.

Michelle: New York was a slight shock to the system, after living with the Mexican Peso, it was hard to adjust back to most things costing an arm and a leg in dollars and the first day we walked around with eyebrows raised at the cost of everything. We generally don't like cities much because the pace of life is so busy. However, as far as cities go, it is beautiful and there's lots to see. We did a mad dash around Manhatten trying to see all the major features in only 2 days, I think we walked for at least 10 hours each day. We couldn't make ourselves stand in line for 3 hours just to see the Statue of Liberty, so we looked at her across the water, she was just a speck in the distance. We were staying at a hostel right near the heart of Manhatten and there was a really awesome group of travellers that we had a good time with. The Korean's took us to enjoy our first genuine Korean cuisine, which was delicious (yes even for Miss Picky-Eater-Me). Times Square was pretty cool and I got a hug from Elmo and we saw 2 stand up comedy performances, they were really funny. I even crossed the no-go barrier that keeps me from being just another dumb tourist to being a traveller, and became one of the millions to buy an I LOVE NY t.shirt. Not because I like to buy tacky tourist t.shirts but because it would make a comfy travel top, for all those hours upon hours we spend on planes, trains and buses. Of course we also rode in a yellow taxi, made so famous through movies, ate New York style pizza and we got some amusement walking around Central Park and noting the ridiculous amount of money spent on dog clothes and baby strollers

After the jostle of the city, we had a visit to the country, hosted by our friend Jess and her family. It was a welcome refuge before the craziness of the following weeks. We had a lovely time, we went to some waterfalls, enjoyed some jazz with the best local burgers you can get, gorged on chocolates and icecream (all the kind you can't get in Mexico that we had cravings for) and had a great BBQ accompaned by plenty of story telling and laughing. The bed we slept in was absolute luxury, it was like a heavenly cloud. I wanted to take it with me, but I thought it might be a little tricky getting a queen size mattress through security. Drat, it was the best sleep I'd had since vacating my very cosy, delightfully comfy memory foam topper and bed in Victoria, Canada 6 months previous.

The first major moment of forgetfulness kicked in when I left my backpack on the train in New York. The one bag with everything really important inside, the most inconvenient one to lose. So then began a flurry of calling lost and found, cancelling credit cards, and getting frustrated every time I thought of another useful thing that was in the backpack, wallet, camera charger, all our memory cards etc. Thankfully the day before Jon had taken my passport and drivers licence to use for ID and had kept them with him or else the inconvenience factor and frustration would have grown by 200%. They have since found my bag and eventually I will see the contents again, thanks to Jess. Phew!