joe shaw

Contrast:

ohio, 2°F

mexico, 78°F

These two extremes sum up the last three weeks for me. Christmas with the family in Ohio, where a snow storm dumped 7 inches on us, followed closely by a freezing rain which beautifully coated the trees, and bitter cold temperatures that were at times subzero. Then New Years in the Yucatan with Nat and Peach, with perfect white sands and pure aqua waters, palm trees, and comfortable breezes.

Presently I am sitting in Terminal A of Miami International Airport. Arriving through the international terminal was quite something, as Robert and Nat had warned me. There are so many people from different walks of life, different ethnicities, ages, classes, races. There’s a mixture of at least seven different languages all of which blend into incomprehensible chatter. Plus, there are a lot of very attractive women here.

The experience is a little more pleasant than my departure through here, where we were taking off from poor Terminal F. Forgotten and rundown, the bathroom near my gate was by far the dirtiest of my entire trip, much worse than any bathroom in Mexico. When I arrived at my gate, a security alarm buzzer was going off — BZZT BZZT BZZT — over and over — BZZT BZZT BZZT — and clearly had been for several minutes. No one seemed — BZZT BZZT BZZT — particularly concerned about it, nor did they seem to actually be doing anyth— BZZT BZZT BZZT — anything about it. It — BZZT BZZT BZZT — goddamn it! — sounded for a good 15 minutes before they managed to silence it. The ceilings were low drop-tile like in a cubical farm hellscape, with the familiar water stains to boot. At least CNN Airport Edition was on, showing the tsunami aftermath in Sri Lanka and Thailand.

This airport lacks wireless, even for-pay wireless. What the hell is with that? Even Akron-Canton Regional Airport has that. And not a power outlet in sight. It’s just sad, really. (Later: I found an outlet under a water fountain, but still no internet)

Enough about this airport, my prison for the next two and a half hours… About the trip! Cancun is a pretty horrbile place. I mean, I can see why people like it; the weather is perfect. But at this point the US might as well annex it and start collecting tax revenue on it. There’s no point in even trying to speak Spanish there; everyone speaks English, and a lot of them speak it better than you. McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut — Cancun’s got it all! The clientele seems dominated by leathery middle-aged and spring break-drunken frat boy types. We spent one night there before we got the hell out.

We spent the majority of the time in a little town called Puerto Morelos, on the ocean about 40 km south of Cancun. This had a decidedly small town feel about it, although it was still a gringo town. A lot of English, and it’s said that half of the population of 2800 are expats, the majority Canadian. Which is how we found out about it in the first place, actually. Nat sat next to a guy named Al Beach who was on his way down there and we checked it out on his recommendation. He and his wife are from British Columbia and live down there half of the year.

The interesting thing about Puerto Morelos is that while the majority of the people there seem to live in somewhat impoverished conditions — many of the houses are small and run-down — they are sitting on extremely valuable plots of land. With Cancun to the north and Playa Del Carmen to the south, it’s pretty much a no-brainer that over the next 20 years (if that) Puerto Morelos will also likely explode. Pat (Al’s wife) told us that the small lot next to theirs, with an abandoned one-story concrete house and no driveway was going for $250k. Clearly the ship has sailed on buying up property there.

About 600 meters off the beach in Puerto Morelos is the world’s second largest coral reef. And the nearly constant games of hearts notwithstanding, the snorkeling was the most fun activity. If not for the bad chafing the life jacket gave me the first time out, we almost certainly would have done it more than just the twice. We saw all kinds of neat things, like sting rays, turtles, barracudas, these neat striped fish, and enormous, absolutely huge schools of fish that I couldn’t identify. This, along with The Life Aquatic, is really giving me the urge to learn how to dive.

Peach went home a day early, and we did stay in Cancun last night and made the most of it. We had a long dinner at one of the hotel restaurants and insisted on eating outside. Several courses and bottles of wine later we hit the expansive outdoor pool complex at the Hilton Beach and Golf Resort and swam for 3 or more hours. This morning we woke up at sunrise and hit the pools again after a room service breakfast of waffles and eggs benedict. The plan was to go into the ocean but the beach was too rocky by the hotel.

What a great time. I must say though, I am psyched to get back to work. Check it out, Beagle is the “Most anticipated application” for 2005 by Ars Technica!