Cancun

[paul_oshea]

anyone been? wouldit be good craic for a couple of lads to go to in september? is the weather ok around then or is it hurricane season? Any activities or water sports oranything like thatto do?? A couple of birds i know went and said it was deadly, but a birds idea of sitting by the pool 8 hours a day isnt my idea of deadly. Dont want to get bored, im sure at night we will find some entertainment but its the day time im worried about

heading over to the states first ( chicago again ) and going from there, anyone know any cheap ways of getting from chicago to cancun. Is there somewhere better in mexico to go than there, and is mexico city safe, as i saw details of flying to mexico city and busing it from there.

[Closed Account 2]

Cancun is good, weather will be ok then, you should be able to fly there cheaply from Chicago via the airline Jet Blue (you might need to change planes in NY-JFK).

Mexico City is safe enough as long as you take the normal precautions you would in any major city in a poorer country - ie don't wear valuables, flash your camera, or wear clearly tourist clothes.

[shedite]

Went there a few years ago. 8 lads - absoultely mental craic!

We got a hotel for $400 each for a week of all inclusive. The bars and restaurants were brilliant in the hotel and we only left at night really go to a club. The hotel was called the Carribean Village - it's pretty cheap price but is still flashier than anything in Europe. There's plenty to do in the hotel too during the day. There's always something like volleyball, basketball, drinking games organised, and there's day trips like scuba diving, swimming with dolphins, golf, and windsurfing.

Weather at that time of year is mixed. We went mid september and it was about 30-35 degrees each day - absolutley perfect. That said, they were hit by a hurricane the day after we left so it could be bad that time of year too.

I completly reccomend it tho.

We got our flights from Boston with expedia I think. Cost us about $500 return from Boston.

[paul_oshea]

shedite, can you get the number for that hotel by any chance, anything ive read says its a great spot, but i cant find actual contact number for it.....and i want to ring them directly.

[paul_oshea]

ah i see why, it was wrecked after hurricane wilma. shugs i am getting worried that we are going to end up there when there is a hurricane and nothing to do....i dont care so much about the hurricane its the lack of entertainment that would **** me off

do you know of any other good hotels or heard of any others from friends?

[shedite]

Here's the official website of the hotel

http://www.occidentalhotels.com/hote...=1082644237764

Not sure if Hurrican Wilma was a few years ago. Last I heard it was suppose to reopen about Feburary 2007. Give them a ring sure and see what the story is. Maybe they could reccomend somewhere similar

[paul_oshea]

just back from US/Cancun, went to chicago again ( best city ive ever been too - for going out at least, friendlyness of people, price etc ) and it worked out way cheaper.

We stayed in Royal Solaris Cancun, $750 all inclusive for 5 nights this included flights - we extended this to last for a week in the end, as you can see it was for nothing. The drink is watered down unless you tip well, but the food is A1. This was a 3 star hotel, but i stayed in a 4 star in lake garda the week before and the hotel in lake garda didnt come close to this in terms of service, layout, staff etc ( and as far as I was aware a steam room and sauna doesn't decide between a 3 star and 4 star ). All inclusive is a great thing, i had never gone on one of these before but i would highly recommend it, food was excellent with a choice of 3 restaurants nightly all serving cusine from the world over.

Cancun itself is mad im sure the downtown area itself is like a spain or greece, but the shows that go on in the clubs are unreal, amazing to watch. I am sure when you have them once though you might have enough. The women were unreal down there ( sweating like an irishman in a latino club ), one club we went to we were the only non mayan, hispanic people in the place and did we stick out!

What differentiates cancun from other package places is you can leave the resort and you are in the heart of mexico, where you can go and see mayan architecture ( think apocalypto ), go on tours through mayan jungle , chichi niza (spelling wrong ) cave snorkle, swimming underground, scuba dive etc etc. Really get both aspects of a holiday which was what really appealed to us, though after 7 nights of being up very late and out very early again in the morning it takes its toll ( when you are doing it for 17 nights straights its unreal ).

Just a few problems we had listed here. We got accussed of smoking marijuana in our hotel ( it wasnt us though we knew who it was ) and the security fella called the police, I told him to F OFF while my mate reasoned with them I went back to the bar ( from what I could gather he was trying to get money off us as a bribe to "forget" about the problem ), eventually he came back in and apolgised when we werent having any of it. Place was full of english because of off-season which was off putting as we didnt want to be in greece or spain. Finally the other problem which is a big one, is the mayan mexicans are trying to rip you off at every opportunity, always looking for money and always doing ye, especially the taxi drivers. Build up your trust and then when not looking rip ye off. The concierge, bell boys etc are all in cahoots with the taxi drivers.

[strangeirish]

Great stuff POS. Although it wasn't Cancun, do you remember this story? Must be something about being Irish and smoking!

[paul_oshea]

ya i do, i was telling my mate that story after it happened to us. We got ultra paranoid and started checking our suitcases every morning and night to ensure no substances were thrown into them.

[kingdom hoop]

the mayan mexicans are trying to rip you off at every opportunity, always looking for money and always doing ye, especially the taxi drivers. Build up your trust and then when not looking rip ye off. The concierge, bell boys etc are all in cahoots with the taxi drivers.

I can't say I noticed that too much when I was there. Remember the cardinal rule when getting taxis abroad if no meter; don't get in until you agree on a price and you should be fine, there's always loads of taxis in holiday places so if you're not happy with a price tell them to vamós. The Mexicans were lovely people I found, smiley happy helpful, didn't get ripped off once. Good to hear ye'd a nice time. Oh yeah, it's Chichen Itza is the right spelling of chichi niza, not far off phonetically in fairness. Class place isn't it? But there were about a million fat Americans waddling about when I was there so that took away from the lustre. I don't think it deserved a place in the fakey ma doodle new 7 wonders thing though, I think it's just that it's beside Cancún that it got it, there's a similar Maya place in Guatemala far cooler.

[paul_oshea]

ya it is, there were fat americans doing the duck walk all over cancun, especially in our hotel. NO shame on them at all, just walking around all day being fat.

We did agree a fee, but they never gave back the right change in the hope you wouldn't check, which I always did for the unfortunates trying to rip me off There was one particular incident where i knew he ripped me off just before i got out of the taxi, i said hey thats another 100 pesos ye owe me, and he was like "oh im so sorry, i didnt mean to rip ye off" he still ended up giving me 10 pesos less again, but i didnt bother counting it till i got out ( took his word after trying to rip me off once i thought he wouldnt do it again )and then realised!!

As soon as you wrote Chichen Itza it came back, but i was only spelling it as Fabien our french tour fella in the hotel pronounced it.

[kingdom hoop]

I see, they mustn't have liked the look of you then.

There are few things funnier than laughing at the ways of Americans when they're on holidays, so stupid and naive or something, I love them. That part of Mexico is over-run (not that Americans actually run) with them alright though pushing prices, but also quality and English usage up. Everybody in the tourist industry speaks English there, a great success story for the Mexican authorities, but half of Cancún is still a building site, massive amounts of money have gone into it. Where's next on the agenda Paul?

[paul_oshea]

Everybody in the tourist industry speaks English there, a great success story for the Mexican authorities, but half of Cancún is still a building site, massive amounts of money have gone into it. Where's next on the agenda Paul?

Ya a concitta there was saying how if you have better english than someone else for a job then you are sorted, its as simple as that, she also said a lot of interviews are conducted in English to grasp it. Don't worry though, when we were "sweating like irishmen in a latino club" we learnt some useful phrases, the only one I can kinda spell based on pronounciation is "que woppa" along with the usual easy stuff. They worked, for about 2 mins until we had to follow up with something else. The attitude of most of them is fair enough though, they wouldnt give you the light of day really unless you spoke in spanish which is completely understandable so we did our best At the same time though, cancun had a working population of about 33,000 before the "yanks took over" now it has close to 1 million, its something that these mayans and hispanics should remember. Its fair enough to say "we hate the fat tourists i.e. brits and English" ( which was said to me a few times, I gladly explained I was from Irlanda ) but it shouldn't be forgotten how much of a difference they have made to the area ( in good terms as much as bad )

No one knew for days where we were from when we kept saying "Ireland" we are Irish and we were like surely they cant be that thick, so the entertainment guys in the hotel kept saying where exactly and i explained and they kept replying "uk" i was like no, not the UK, i said north of portugal, its an island far north of portugal and west of the Britain. Eventually one of them goes to the other "poss Irlanda" and I was like ya Irlanda, Irish etc. Another funny thing was thinking everything in the hotel shop was a rip off, like a straw hat for $100 and shades for $200. We kept asking had they not cheaper shades and yer one looked at me like i was a cheap yank. Eventually after buying sun cream we copped on, our mistake.


Actually I thought of a few more off-putting things, like dumping your toilet paper into a bin as oppossed to the toilet and the smell from the laguna every night we came home from a club. I figured out what was happening they dump their sewage into the bottom of the laguna, and a taxi driver more or less confirmed this - that was another interesting taxi ride home!!!
Im thinking further central or south america as I have a friend in Argentina, so I should really get the finger out. The thing is going to panama and guatemala or nicaragua etc is that you can only travel by day in a lot of places as nite buses get raided by ( sugar i forget the term so going to call them) "pirates".

We were a bit upset we didnt get to see mexico city, but ive been told by a lot who go there, you almose see enough from the plane coming in!!!

I think id love to go to the otherside of mexico and down to guatemala and along over towards nicaragua etc, cos everyother mick hasn't been there and has no interest. I hate the idea of lets go like a sheep to asia/australia/new zealand. Absoloutely no interest in that.

[kingdom hoop]

On the Ireland understanding problem, I quickly discovered you just have to put major emphasis on the Ear bit of Irlanda, otherwise they think you're from hOllanda most of the time. EAR-landa usually did the trick, then you say its an island cerca Ingleterra, Roy Keane, U2, Guinness, Donna & Joe (they're huge in Mexico) etc. There was usually a positive reaction, and if anyone ever said, ah, you're from England, I'd just yeah, the same way you're from the States amigo, quickly shutting them up or producing uproarious laughter!

We kept asking had they not cheaper shades and yer one looked at me like i was a cheap yank.

ffs Paul! You sound like the tightest git ever.

Don't lagoons always smell a bit odd? Stagnant water in a hot country? Maybe not, I don't know, the smell was pretty bad alright but bearable all the same. I had to walk alongside it for eight miles, yes, eight!, early one glorious Sunday morning as all the healthy people were out for their jogs, and there was impecunious and friendless me dawdling beside them with my drink-stained top. I befriended a bum along the way who, in the kindest act of generosity I've ever been a party to, gave me 20 pesos for the ferry ride back to my island, what a hero!

I think id love to go to the otherside of mexico and down to guatemala and along over towards nicaragua etc, cos everyother mick hasn't been there and has no interest.

Yes yes yes!! Good idea, full kingdom hoop stamp of approval! You could fly to Mexico City and work your way down the west coast for a while, and then, moving inland a bit and very near Guatemala, there is a town I fell in love with. Oh how I yearn for a return to San Cristobal! It's kind of a Galway-esque buzz I suppose only two million times better. Very cool people, great vibe off it, for young and old, huge open squares where people congregate, good live music scene, great character - narrow cobble-stoned streets, churches, and cheap as chips too. Definitely a place I'd like to live for six months or a year.

Then Guatemala, also amazing. Beautiful beautiful countryside, really green and undulating like Ireland, only the mountains are way bigger and the trees way cooler. People are lovely, everything is cheap and there are loads of activities(I saw a volcano erupt!)/nice towns/cultural things etc. Take me back with you! I would say that to learn Spanish would improve things immeasurably, you won't get ripped off, but best of all from my perspective you get to talk to the locals, who's day is made as well by getting to talk to someone from the other side of the world. That's one thing about Central/South America that trumps Asia for me, you can learn the language of the locals very easily rather than hoping the locals know English, makes for a much more fulfilling experience.

I haven't had time to go down to Nicaragua, Costa Rica et al (I did get to go to Belize though, Rastafaris, ex-British rule, really cool and different place too) but by all accounts they are also fantastic. Oh the joys of travelling, I love it, maybe even more than I love everyone on foot.ie!

[paul_oshea]

good man hoop, a man of the same ilk as thy great self.


I agree with all the above particularly the Ear landa thing. You have a great way of summin up - in a satirical way - what must be common amongst all.

Btw me and my mate were seriouslly contemplating learning spanish, any good references - his reasoning was simple to come back and do a "last of the mohicans" on a chiquitta, if ye get me actually you prolly wont so i mean "hawkeye: You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you. " followed by clannads "I will find you".

any good references for learning spanish, i reckon it must be the easiest pick up - foremost the accentuation between words, make it easier decipher words than any other language I have really heard.

[kingdom hoop]

You have a great way of summin up - in a satirical way - what must be common amongst all.

Stop it! Though to be fair, one of my best attributes is that I can understand where people are coming from (usually before they can themselves!). The most compassionate person in history! Not sure about the satire though, that baileban geezer knocked my confidence for six the other day, he said I was boring! Surely it is with he the problem lies, anyway, we'll that well alone.

Yeah Spanish is muy easy to pick up. If you are good at English especially so, a lot of the words are just the same only Spanishified; obvious ones like fantastico or grande, and then others are a bit sneakier but once you know them are easy to remember; like polemica is their simple word for controversy, whereas in English it's a bit more obscure, what else, ah say, cerebro means brain or genius, like cerebral might in English. So once you start making inroads it's very easy. Pronunciation is a doddle compared to English, everything is phonetic.

I'd sat the best way to learn it is to first pick up the basics yourself with one of those CD/book thingys (I don't really know what brand is the best tbh). Get comfortable with basic sentences and then go to an advanced night class - I don't think there's much point spending money on going to beginner classes. Then you should be able to go off to deepest Nicaragua and live with the Sanchez family, apply the cattle raising tricks you learnt in Roscommon, marry the local accordion player's daughter, have three sons, they'll grow up playing football for the local team, quickly emerge as having an innate ability to score goals, get snapped up by FC Leon and become the first set of brothers to not only play for the Nicaraguan national side, but also the first to do so with the revered O'Shea surname. Now go buy that CD!

[paul_oshea]

so how long were you tehre in total? I thought you were a student?!

Stop it! Though to be fair, one of my best attributes is that I can understand where people are coming from (usually before they can themselves!). The most compassionate person in history! Not sure about the satire though, that baileban geezer knocked my confidence for six the other day, he said I was boring! Surely it is with he the problem lies, anyway, we'll that well alone

Maybe he is like you can can understand where people are coming from

Btw, the laguna or however they spell it there ( not the english way) runs into the sea, only cut out from the swamps. I haven't experienced many myself but I definitely haven't got that smell before. That bum sounds nice I would have given him money if ye told me earlier He doesn't sound like the "bum" my friend met when he went walkies and got given a "brochure" with a number to call......

[kingdom hoop]

so how long were you tehre in total? I thought you were a student?!

Yep, I am a student, post-graduate level now though, so I think I could nearly be classified as a mature student! I had seven weeks over there, worked really hard for about a month first and then jetted off. Well well worth it compared to those who stayed at home working and just drank their earnings!

Yeah that bum (he hung out on decking on the lagoon shore actually, maybe that was the smell ) was an absolute legend. I'd say 20 pesos to him would be like €100 to me (an awful lot!) so fair play to him, he got me home in one piece. Just to allay any confusion for you, yes, I did beg off a homeless Mexican! I wasn't looking forward to swimming another few miles after an eight mile walk!

[paul_oshea]

i hope you gave it back to him on the way back? surely they would have let you on the boat for free if you explained in spanish your predicament? Btw why did you chose to work there? great idea but just wondering why?