Another weekend... another airport. This morning was a rude 3:30 AM awakening in Cancun, Mexico to taxi to the airport so I could fly 800 miles north just so I could take off my shoes, answer a few curt questions from an immigrations officer, walk six city blocks to my next departure gate, board a new plane, and fly 961 miles south again to arrive in Belize City, Belize. Yes I know... it's crazy.While I have access to the interwebs, I thought I'd share a bit of the local color from Cancun. There were a lot of still boarded-up or taped over windows in stores and homes around the downtown area. Hurricane Dean made landfall south along the border with Belize, so Cancun only experienced tropical storm-level winds and rain. But after last year, I suspect no one was taking any chances with Dean's projected path.
I was in Mexico to meet with our field rep and check-up on progress. I also met with Alfredo Arellano, the Director of Mexico's marine protected areas (MPAs). He works for Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas (CONAP) which is responsible for all natural areas in Mexico, aquatic and terrestrial. Alfredo is a great guy and strong partner in our MPA support and coral reef conservation work, so it's always great to meet-up with him and strategize. Since Hurricane Wilma tore through the Yucatan last year, Alfredo's offices have been occupying a temporary space in a residential area of Cancun (his personal office looks like a bedroom). The backyard is littered with the tools of his trade (mooring buoys, boat engines, signage). I'm sure he's a big hit with the neighbors.
I was staying at the El Rey del Caribe, a small hotel in the Centro district of downtown Cancun. This is such a great hotel worth checking-out if you visit Cancun and want to avoid the unsustainable monster hotels so common along the waterfront. It's an eco-hotel (a rarity in Mexico) and is constructed from sustainable woods, uses composting toilets instead of traditional flush types, and even has a solar clothes dryer (don't ask me how that works). The owner is a die-hard environmentalist with a passion for activism for animal rights. For all these reasons and more, I like supporting this small, locally owned and run hotel. Here are a few pics:
The entrance...
The courtyard...
The composting toilet...
The "flush" pedal...
The tiny amount of "flush" water...
The enormous cockroach that crawled across my face while sleeping, waking me up with a scream, and drove me scrambling out of bed doing my version of "The Roach" from the movie Hairspray...
Two other highlights worth mentioning during the Cancun leg of this trip include this streetside taqueria that served-up the best tacos al pastor in the world! I always hit this place on every trip to Cancun. I dunno if it's hygienic, but it's delicious. The pineapples in the background will eventually be peeled, skewered atop the pile of rotating meat, and as it roasts the juices will marinate and flavor the pork.
Then there was the tiny hole-in-the-wall bizzaro snake-oil shop (there's at least one per block in Mexico) that sold various and sundry patent medicines for all that ails you. Got warts? No problem. Got cancer? They can cure it. It was this poster of feet hooked up to an electrical current and soaking in what looks like excrement that first caught my eye. The sales person beckoned me in. I kept walking. Who knows what ailments I could have shuffled off? Or contracted?
1 comment:
I think that I would like to have a job like yours! :)
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