Cancun Mexico - Retirement destination?

Its been some time since we chatted and the blame lies with my work. Its been keeping me busy and has led to what authors call a "block". But then last weekend Cancun happened and I tell you its an experience that can shatter all kinds of blocks. Go there in March, when its the "Spring Break" (Yoooohoooo) in US, and you will understand. ;)

My wife and I took what they call an all inclusive package to a hotel called the Royal Solaris. Its not the best one there but its the best you can get at that cost. If you go on google maps and zoom into Cancun you will see a piece of land they call the hotel zone. Its like a very thin peninsula jutting out into the Carribean sea in the shape of a 7. The width of this piece of land is just enough for one road and one hotel. So what you will find that each hotel in the hotel zone has the sea on its backyard and a lagoon across the road!!!. On top of that the Solaris had 5 swimming pools inside the campus. So if you love water..you know what to do with your next vacation.

The place over the years has become customised for the US people and you will find almost every body speaks english and expects a tip. Every hotel has an entertainment group which keeps the tourist busy around the pool with things like water aerobics, crazy couple games, tequilla volleyball and what not. On top of that Solaris had an indoor theater where they used to perform things like Magic show, plays, dance programs every night.

"All inclusive means" exactly that. You can eat, drink, swim, excercise, play tennis, golf, use the beach...absolutely anything you can think of anytime of the day for free. There is just so much to do that the holiday can actually leave you exhausted!!

One Sunday Afternoon..:)

Its July now and yes we are still in this blissful place called Mexico City

Mexicans are a proud people but even they will gladly admit that they have one of the worst traffic scenarios in the world. But then the Mexico city has this wonderful system of closing down a section of their main city tributary called the Avenue Reforma every Sunday. So there are no vehicles on that particular section of the road and you can see a lot of rollerbladers, skateboarders cyclists... having the time of their lives..Its a unique sight one that you would not see anywhere in India. If you had happened to be crossing the Reforma on this Sunday, you would have been pleasantly surprised to see a very cute Indian couple, wearing the fancy X-games helmets, riding very old but sturdy looking bicycles and in general being overwhelmed by the sights around them....

We had always observed people from different nationalities riding these old looking cycles on the pavements before and wondered what that was about. So this Sunday we decided to give it a try ourselves. We did some research and found that on a kiosk very close to our hotel, we could get those bicycles against our identity proofs..for free!!!

We hadn`t set foot on a bicycle for at least 12 years so you can imagine the state of our minds. There was excitement of a novel experience mingled with the anxiousness caused by the lack of confidence on our ability with a lost skill... But as it turned out, it was an experience we will cherish for a long time.

Having overcome the initial jitters we were flying past intersections when we observed a very peculiar sight on the side of the road. In an open space in front of a grand building we saw a group of people playing mini football with a very small sized ball. The teams were five a side, wearing green and yellow t-shirts, while there was a referee in a red one holding the whistle in his mouth. The field was on concrete and wasn`t bigger than 10X10 feet. On both sides of the pitch there were supporters for both teams wearing the team colours and in general there was a lot of noise. We decided to take a look.

After a few minutes I realised that the teams weren`t actually trying to score..they were just passing the ball around!!! Suddenly one of the guys on the field fell down and started screaming holding his leg. The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot. All hell broke loose..the opposing team members swarmed the referee claiming injustice, the supporters started cursing the referee...the other side started cheering. There was just too much animation for it to be normal..that's when we spotted the video camera. However the best bit was yet to come..

The penalty was going to be taken..the striker had placed the ball, goal keeper was ready, referee had the whistle in his mouth and suddenly it went dead silent. What happened next was just out of this world..the whole penalty kick was performed in slow motion!!...And when the ball went past the keeper there was literally an explosion with everybody expressing the right emotions but all the same...shouting at the top of their voices..The performance and the match was over.