Isle Mujeres and Cancun
A few weeks ago I took my first trip outside of the United States. I had my passport, two bags, and a roll of U.S. dollars, and my VISA card. Although I was a little nervous in the days leading up to the trip, I was more anxious than anything when the airplane arrived at the Cancun Airport.
At the airport, the customs agent asked us where we were staying. I could not pronounce the name of the hotel, so I pointed at the name I wrote on my declaration form.
“Como se dese?” I asked, and pointed to the word ‘Ixchel’
“Ish-el…” she replied, then tried to explain to us, in limited English and some Spanish. “God…the love…”
Although I couldn’t really understand at the time, I found out quickly (and was reminded many times in various forms) that Ixchel is the Mayan goddess of the moon.
From there we took a long shuttle ride through the entire city, through the hotel zone, downtown, towards the port. The driver pointed out various areas. “Here are the discoteks” he once said. When I asked him to differentiant between the caribean sea on our right side, and the large lagoon on the left, he said “That is the lagoon. Mucho Lagarto”
“Lagarto?” I asked, confused…then finally figured it out: alligators. Vanessa took a deep breath and had a worried look on her face at the sound of the alligators.
I had heard various descriptions of Cancun from other Americans prior to the trip. “Commercialized”, and “Americanized” were two common trends. While I fully understood the commercialization of the area, I found it far from “Americanized”. While the enormous buildings in the hotel zone reminded me of the Vegas strip, the culture was distinctively Mexican. As we made our way downtown and to the Puerto Juarez, the scenery became more urban. However, this city scape was just a little bit ragged, a little more poor than a reasonable American counterpart.
At the port, I ventured into my first Mexican convienent store. To my ease, it wasn’t much different thatmy local 7-11. In addition, I found a wide variety of Mexican snacks, sweets, and ice cream that would be out of place in the health-conscious culture of the U. S.
I took a lot of photos on this trip. Here are a few. Scroll over for descriptions.
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 am
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