Cancun

Entertainment Media
1

Hello Amigos!

I am back from my vacation in Cancun, Mexico and thought I would share some pics with you. Actually, I have quite a lot so I may post them in individual threads depending on how many I post and what the pics relate to.

Keep in mind that I do not have a digital camera. I do not know how these pics will show up on GS. They scanned nicely though!

Alright, let us begin.

The first two pics are of the resort I was staying at … The Blue Bay Club. It was on a marina so we didn’t really have a proper beach. We did have a little strip of sand but cause of the marina, there was a lot of seaweed in the water. However, we had full access to the Blue Bay’s sister resort in the Hotel Zone which was good. There was an excellent shuttle and boat service between the two hotels and was only 20 minutes away. The only problem with the sister resort, The Blue Bay Getaway, is that it was ‘adults only’ which means that it was very adult oriented in nature … if you catch my drift! I’ll leave it at that. :slight_smile:

The first picture is of the resort we stayed at while I was on the open end of the shuttle bus and I took the second picture of the resort while I was catamaran sailing out on the water. The water was very warm and nice to swim in!

[thumb=B]Resort%201.JPG[/thumb]

[thumb=B]Resort%202.JPG[/thumb]

When we first got to the resort, they did not have a standard room for us (with two double beds), so they put us in a room with a king size bed overlooking the marina. That was fine since me and my sister shared a room and two other two girls shared the other room. The next day, they still didn’t have a standard room for us, so they upgraded us to a junior suite with a kitchen and balcony overlooking the entire resort.

The third picture is the view from the first room in the morning. It was nice as we were on the ground level and just had breakfast outside on the patio while watching the sun rise over the view of the marina.

[thumb=B]Hotel%20View%201.JPG[/thumb]

From the second room, we had an even better view of the sunrise each morning. The fourth pic is one of my many pics of the sunrise.

[thumb=B]Sun%20Rise%201.JPG[/thumb]

2

The fifth pic is of the view during the afternoon from the balcony. You can see patches of turquoise and light blue in the water in the background.

[thumb=B]Hotel%20View%203.JPG[/thumb]

On Sunday, we took the local bus up to the hotel zone. We had to take two buses. It was fun and interesting to interact with the locals. My sister and I were assumed to be Hispanic or Mexican because we can pass for Latinos. The locals, however, saw the two white girls we were with and believed they were American. They really don’t like Americans all that much. They started making all these sarcastic comments about America….long live America, etc. etc. However, they made their distaste known when two girls from the hotel zone decided to get onto the bus in their bikinis (and nothing else) which is quite disrespectful considering a lot of Mexicans are devout Catholics.

Taking the bus was great though. It only cost $6 pesos which is $0.60 American and you could ride on the bus for however long you wanted.

Anyway, we were taking the bus to Dolphin Beach. We had no idea where we were going or where we were supposed to get off. It was quite an adventure! The bus just dropped us off outside the Hilton Hotel and we didn’t see any beach around. That’s because the beach was on the other side of the Hilton. We walked up a hill and came to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. We certainly frolicked in the water that day and I did my best Bo Derek/Pamela Anderson (Baywatch) impressions!! :)

The waves were so nice and the water was just beautiful. We did witness a drowning though since the waves were very rough. We saw the Mexican lifeguards strolling along the beach (fully dressed) towards the victim. While they were strolling, two tourists jumped into the water, swam out and rescued the guy. Meanwhile, the lifeguards got to the point (which was right in front of us), first took off their shoes and then their socks. Then they saw us and started checking us out with the booey in their hands. I was like, “aren’t you going to go in and rescue the guy?” but they didn’t bother cause they saw some tourists doing their job. It was quite funny. It was more entertaining to see the lifeguards first take off their shoes, slowly, then after a few minutes decide to take off their socks. :)

[thumb=B]Dolphin%20Beach%201.JPG[/thumb]

I will post pics of Isla Mujeras, snorkelling and the Mayan ruins later.

I hope these pics show up properly and I hope you like! :)

3

beautiful pics :k:
thanks for sharing sis :slight_smile:

4

On Tuesday, we took a boat trip out to Isla Mujeras....The Island of Women! It was a lot of fun. We got to travel over beautiful water that was completely transparent. Once we reached there, we got to swim with a shark, but it was harmless cause they pulled its teeth and I think they also drugged the poor thing. Then, we did my most favourite water activity .... snorkelling! It was fantastic. I could see right down to the bottom and saw loads of tropical fishies. They kept swimming too fast though. I did manage to get a few good shots.

[thumb=B]Isla%20Mujeras%201.JPG[/thumb]

Out to sea!

[thumb=B]Isla%20Mujeras%202.JPG[/thumb]

The second pic is the coastline of Isla Mujeras.

[thumb=B]Isla%20Mujeras%203.JPG[/thumb]

The third pic is of the coast line of the Hotel strip of Cancun.

[thumb=B]Isla%20Mujeras%204.JPG[/thumb]

The fourth pic is of downtown Isla Mujeras. It was very pretty! What I noticed was that nearly everyone in Cancun and Isla Mujeras drove an old-fashioned Beatle. Volkswagen cars are very popular there, although they drive cars that I have not seen in Canada or America like the VW Pointer or the Peugot which is also a cute car.

5

Here are some shots of when I was snorkelling. We saw some Baracudas and Parrot fishes. I don't know what the yellow and white stripped fishes were, but they were so pretty! :)

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%201.JPG[/thumb]

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%202.JPG[/thumb]

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%203.JPG[/thumb]

The third picture is my favourite! :)

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%204.JPG[/thumb]

In the fourth pic, you can see Baracuda fishes in the distance. They look like long, skinny, miniature sharks and have vicious teeth. They are harmless though .... I had them swimming all around me at one point!

There was also a buried statue of Jesus Christ for some reason at the bottom of the sea but I was unable to get a pic of it.

6

A few more from snorkelling ....

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%205.JPG[/thumb]

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%206.JPG[/thumb]

[thumb=B]Snorkelling%207.JPG[/thumb]

7

Nice pics. Were you using some kinda waterproof camera?

8

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
Nice pics. Were you using some kinda waterproof camera?
[/QUOTE]

Yes. I used a Fuji underwater camera. Last year when I went snorkelling, I used the Kodak underwater camera and it was crap. The Fuji one is much better! It only costs $20 and took great photos underwater. :)

9

$20 bucks? Pretty good results for a disposable camera :)

10

why are you not in any of these pictures

11

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
$20 bucks? Pretty good results for a disposable camera :)
[/QUOTE]

Well, I only used the underwater camera for underwater purposes. :) We used a regular camera for all outdoor shots .... except the one of the resort when I was catamaran sailing cause we got soaked.

I really recommend everyone to go snorkelling at least once in your life. It's amazing to see what goes on under water....especially in the Caribbean Sea!

Sheraz...I'm in my bathing suit in all the pics....don't want to give the mullahs of GS a heart attack! :)

12

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MehnazQ: *

Sheraz...I'm in my bathing suit in all the pics....don't want to give the mullahs of GS a heart attack! :)
[/QUOTE]

maybe heart attacks for different reasons lol
anyways i am sure you can censor your pictures and let us see your face?

13

There is a movie out, the real cancun and i heard it gets really wild over there....is it true?

14

beautiful pics! :k:

15

Lovely Pics Mehnaz!

16

Mehnaz,

WOnderul pics :k:
Looks like you had a great time :slight_smile:

Ok a few questions. I read somewhere that u went to Puerto Vallarta last year (?). I just wanted to know what the difference is b/w Cancun and PV (stupid qs maybe but I’m interested) if there was any ofcourse.

And then the 5th picture. What’s that brown-ish ‘stuff’ on the beautiful white beach?

:slight_smile:

17

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sheraz CT: *
There is a movie out, the real cancun and i heard it gets really wild over there....is it true?
[/QUOTE]

Yes, it is true! It can get very wild....if you are into that stuff, which I'm not. It was interesting to see stuff though. :) Keep in mind, I went during the American spring break so I guess we got to see the more wild side of Cancun. I didn't see anything particularly shocking though.

Shinoo, Puerto Vallarta is on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It has completely different water....dark blue with powerful white waves crashing along the beaches.

The actual city of Puerto Vallarta is very different than Cancun. It doesn't look like a tourist destination at all in the sense that it has cobble stone streets and more traditional Mexican architecture. It is completely surrounded by mountains as well, so there are a lot of hills and forest/jungle areas. I couldn't really tell when the tourist area began and when the residential area began in Puerto Vallarta. It was all entwined together. In Cancun, on the otherhand, it was very clear where the locals lived and which parts belonged to the tourists. The locals live a very poor life in Cancun, lots of graffiti and a lot of rundown areas. I went Salsa dancing on Thursday night in the local area and it was simply amazing! :) I didn't see many run down areas in Puerto Vallarta. In Cancun, only the tourist areas were built up nicely, so I can understand the resentment felt towards tourists in Cancun.

Even the people who worked at the resorts, there was a major difference in their treatment in Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. Of course, the men were major flirts and I was asked many times whether I wanted a boyfriend while I was in Mexico. I had no clue what that meant, but I can certainly imagine what it meant. Anyway, in Puerto Vallarta, the majority of the resorts provide sufficient housing for their staff whereas they didn't do that for the staff at the Cancun resorts (at least not the one we stayed at). I saw how one of the staff members lived....it was a single room the size of my bedroom. The guy's child slept in the same room, he cooked in the same room and that was his 'house'. We were very surprised cause we thought that the living conditions would be slightly better like we saw in Puerto Vallarta.

In Puerto Vallarta, there were gorgeous sunsets whereas I didn't see any in particularly stunning sunsets in Cancun. Instead in Cancun, the sun rises were much nicer. Weatherwise, I would say Cancun and Puerto Vallarta are similar except there are TONS of mosquitos in Cancun. I got about 15 mosquito bites. (:

Another difference is that at some point in Cancun, the Gulf of Mexico meets the Caribbean Sea which is why the water was so incredibly gorgeous in Cancun.

Nightlife .... no comparison. Cancun all the way! I went to a wicked club called Coco Bongo on Wednesday night. Wow! That is all I can say. If they did half the stuff they did there in Toronto, I'm sure they would be violating City By-Laws. I can't even describe it. It was like Mardi Gras meets Cirque du Soleil meets Las Vegas! A wild, wild party and lots of fun (clean fun of course)! :)

I'm not sure what the brownish stuff in the 5th picture is. Probably sea weed. Sea weed was everywhere!

One other thing I noticed is that Mexican men LOVE curvy women! :) They are all very flirtateous but they actually can be quite respectful if you make it clear you ain't interested in coochi coochi.

18

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MehnazQ: *
It was like Mardi Gras meets Cirque du Soleil meets Las Vegas! A wild, wild party and lots of fun (clean fun of course)!
[/QUOTE]

When Mardi Gras meets Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.. the first word which comes to the mind will definitely not be "clean". :)

19

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *

When Mardi Gras meets Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.. the first word which comes to the mind will definitely not be "clean". :)
[/QUOTE]

Just sit back and watch the sin! Actually, it was all good. Stuff happens everywhere and it is up to the individual whether they actually want to partake in it. I didn't. I was more interested in watching the Las Vegas type acts and Cirque du Soleil type acts (kept happening every 10 minutes, one after the other) to even bother with anything else. While the acts were happening, there would be techno/dance/salsa music blaring so while you are watching, you would be encouraged to dance at the same time. There weren't any seats anywhere. Everybody was up. Everybody was dancing!

I think the best part was when they would blow down that smokey stuff....don't know what it is called. The thing is, they would blow it down from the ceiling really intensely so that there was so much smoke everywhere that you couldn't see anything. Of course, you are dancing the entire time. Lots of confetti and balloons being dropped on you .... I can't even describe it! I'm not doing the place justice.

20

Mehnaz,

Thank you for the detailed answer :flower1:
So it was you, ur sis and 2(?) friends?

And what about the prices?.. is it expensive, like a night out and stuff?
I bet there is a big difference in tourist prices and for the locals.

:slight_smile: