We are the Backpackers

I finally found an eternal backpacking partner. By this point in my life I have dreamed up so many adventures that I started to worry whether or not I would ever find someone to join me on every single one of them. I am still unsure whether Andrew knows what he got himself into…but I like to think that he has backpacker dreams just like me. But let me say, after just one day in Central America, I am certain I chose the perfect partner in crime.

-Kylie

Well we arrived in Cancun for the first time ever! The flight over was a little rough (tough to sleep) but that might’ve been a factor of it being very warm and having someone lean on my shoulder. Oh well, start to the adventure.

When we arrived at the airport we struggled to get currency exchanged so we ended up retrieving money from an ATM. Minor fee of ~USD $2 so no big there.

Cab ride was a pain. Since a lot of the people in Cancun are tourists and not backpackers they run this monopoly shuttle service that costs a ton. Relatively speaking it was LA taxi prices but with no way out of the airport it was our only option. Kylie was a little frustrated but the driver was nice and understood my broken Spanish and Kylie’s Portuguese so that helped.

We’ve finally arrived at our hotel! It’s this cute little mansion in the jungle. We have a fan, two beds and a shower and a nice view of the Cancun jungle. There are other backpackers staying here which is kind of fun (according to Kylie) so we’ll make some new friends here 🙂

This afternoon after we’d gotten ourselves settled at the hotel we decided to get some exploring out of the way. We grabbed a couple hundred pesos apiece and went looking for the D bus which would take is into Cancun city. The bus took only a few minutes to arrive (a relief because we weren’t entirely sure if we were at the right spot) and we rode it into Cancun city. As we got out of our little Cancun town (15 minutes from the main city center) we started to see more of the resort life people to go Cancun for. We passed Walmart, Sears, and several other large stores.

We didn’t stop by any of them but decided to wander around the city instead. The smells were great, everything from cooking tortillas to fruit stands – lots to choose from. We eventually decided to make a long journey over to a restaurant called Chancedole which had high ratings in Lonely Planet for being cheap and delicious. We mapped out our route with the screen shots we’d taken at the hotel and began to trek. We walked and walked and walked until eventually we got so tired we stopped at a small local eatery for a lunch type break. I ordered tinge de pollo for kylie and I to share which cost a total of 14 pesos, or 1 dollar. When I passed the lady a 50 peso note she had the look on her face of ‘how do I break such a large bill?’ It worked out in the end but it got me thinking about the difference in lifestyles that exist.

I’ve found the people here in Cancun to be friendly, helpful, and great. While the market shopkeepers are just the same as the ones in China… Everyone else is great! And the fact we can live on under 10 dollars a day for transport and food for the two of us (even splurging for some ice cream and a nicer dinner) is hard to beat.