Our first day travelling was quite a long day, made somewhat worse by a guy in seat 34K in front of me, who had the seat fully reclined for the entire 11 hour flight. I'm not complaining for complaining's sake but I'm quite tall and it's not very comfortable to try to relax for such a long time in a tiny cramped space.
Another slightly negative note to add was the so called fast bag drop at LHR. Yeah, do the online check in and drop your bags and you're off, right. In an airport such as Heatrow, there simply is nothing fast, apart from the first class passengers hurrying their way past you to the fast track luggage reclaim and migration control...
Apart from that, the journey went well and it was nice to arrive to D.F. with a hint of daylight left. The skies were clear with little pollution and we could see the volcanoes surrounding the city nicely.
The first weekend we spent in a city called Puebla and also visited some surrounding towns for Aztec ruins. Very impressive. Puebla itself is a nice and vibrant colonial city, at least for my eyes. The weather was great and the process of sunburn did not take too long to get started.
The great thing about Puebla is Mole Poblano. I've never tasted anything so voluptuous, sweet, bitter and hot at the same time, gorgeous! Made with several ingredients ranging from plantains to various chillies and roasted sesame seeds, this truly is a Mexican dish at its best. And this was the best I've tried, ever, and I've tried a few...
After the weekend we took an early Monday morning flight to Cancun (for cheap flights, check Volaris). Landing to Cancun International was rather interesting as we could see from the plane the damage done to the jungle by the hurricane Wilma.
Our destination wasn't Cancun itself but a little island called Isla Mujeres (island of women), located apprx 10km from Cancun in the Caribbean Sea. We've actually visited this place together once before and I fell in love with it immediately so we just had to go back.
Isla (as everybody seems to be referring to it) is a quaint island of some 13,000 inhabitants and a small abudance of tourists. Fortunately, there are no franchises (ie. McDonald's etc) on the island and the tallest building is limited to three storeys. The abundance of tourists is not overwhelming at all, on the contrary. We felt the place very peaceful, especially in comparison to the previous time as that was the peak season (xmas-new year).
Highlights of Isla definitely included snorkeling and beach (which you can see on the right). Holiday as ordered... Including some delicious food from the Loncherias.
From this little paradise our journey continued towards Veracruz state. 16 hours on the bus is not necessarily an ideal way to spend precious holidays, but for some reason I didn't mind. At least I had more space on the bus than I had on the flipping plane.
In Veracruz we had a wonderful time meeting family members and just literally taking it easy. Xinola already posted some pictures from Veracruz and I'm sure you can appreciate the beauty of the place from the photos. Very nice indeed. I've always had a large soft spot for nature and wildlife and Mexico definitely has some great places to explore. If only one had more time and money...
Some more beach and delicious food and it was time for me to head back to UK and boring office life again. Xinola still had some extra days with her family which she, hopefully, enjoyed whilst I headed back.
It's a shame that nice things must come to an end... Anyway, this was a great holiday during which I managed to read a couple of books and truly relax well. Can't really ask more for from a holiday, can you?
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