You might like Mazunta a lot better I dunno. There are some other towns along the coast from Escondido to the national park as well. One seemed really nice, can’t remember the name.
Escondido is a decent sized town but I wasn’t super impressed with it. Then again if you’re young and want to party it may have more to offer. But Mazunta had partying all over the place - just of the hippie variety.
@ChrisV Coober Pedy gets a mention as one of the 11 remote place few travelers have ever seen.
I’ve been pretty close to 3 of these but never actually in any of them.
This is kind of bullshit lol, it’s a tourist town. I mean:
How to visit: Coober Pedy is located on the Stuart Highway, which you can reach via a full day’s drive from Adelaide (about 518 miles), the Ghan Rail service, or the Greyhound-Pioneer bus service.
Few have ever ventured there, other than those taking the major sealed route through the red center, a major tourist train service or a national bus provider.
Every time I read something about the Netherlands, it sounds like the greatest place to live, outside of Japan of course. A trip to Scandinavia is at the top of my post-COVID travel list.
You gonna be really surprised when you land in Amsterdam.
Yup. Here in a couple of months. Phoenix area for a couple days with a day trip to Sedona and Jerome.
Anyone spent much time in Yucatan region of Mexico? I’m spending the winter in Playa del Carmen, but I haven’t really ventured out of the city yet. So far the one thing I’ve done is diving with the bull sharks, which I must say was pretty cool. But if anyone here has done some fun stuff around the Riviera Maya region or further south, let me know! Preferably not something in big tour groups!
I’m also hoping to get over to Chiapas and Oaxaca at some point.
I spent a couple weeks there, a week in Playa, a couple days in Cancún, and then headed west. Valladolid is a pretty cool little town, with several cenotes to visit, and of course, once you’re there you have to visit Chichén Itzá. I also visited Mérida which is a pretty decent mid sized city.
If you’re heading south, then Tulum would be an obvious choice.
Ha, I keep forgetting about Chichen Itza. Historical ruins don’t do a ton for me, but I guess I should see it at some point!
Tulum should be interesting. Most of my backpacker friends hate it, and most of my normal 9-5, good career type friends love it.
Have you been down to Bacalar? Were there any specific cenotes in general that you liked??
Chichen Itza is pretty iconic. But it’s crowded. Same for Tulum ruins - which are super scenic. But there are plenty of other sites in the Yucatan like Uxmal that are pretty empty and you can wander all over.
I loved Merida - really cool interesting city with a lot of history. I didn’t go to nearby Isla Holbox but really wished I had after I went to a few other islands that don’t allow cars. If you want time to really slow down - look for islands w/o cars.
Tulum annoyed the crap out of me too. Super expensive now that the Rich Kids of Instagram crowd has discovered it. If you’re into stuff like a “3 Day Vibrational Concert for World Peace” with a bunch of rich new-agey faux-hippies - Tulum is the place for you. Justin Bieber got kicked out of the ruins for climbing on them and pulling his pants down - pretty much tells you everything about the state of Tulum.
If I was going to do resorty stuff around Cancun/Playa del Carmen, Isla de Mujeres seemed like the coolest option of the bunch. Cozumel was ok too.
We did a cenote that was pretty cool. But the climactic end of the snorkeling tour was a bat cave. We all got sick the next day and I’m convinced it was the bats pooping all over the water.
Here’s my Yucatan blog if you want to see some pics. This one has Merida and Isla de Mujeres, also Chiapas. Oaxaca is in there too if you poke around - best food in the whole world imo.
Don’t know if it’s safe to meet up due to the 'rona but depending on the weekend we might be in the same area.
I don’t know man. I went to Amsterdam and couldn’t help but think about how awesome it’d be to live there.
The high cost of living would be by far the biggest disadvantage. Barring having connections already in the city, it’d also be hard to get a decent job too.
Sure, but he wants to go to Norway.
I haven’t been to Oslo but I suspect that all I’d have to do is change the city and everything else would still be accurate.
Thanks, I’ll have to put Merida to the list, I just kind of assumed it was another largish, kinda boring Mexican city. Although doing city stuff during COVID isn’t ideal…
I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like Tulum, I am definitely not about the new agey BS and will not be aligning my chakras or healing myself with crystals. I do like good value for my money however. I might have to find a chica to go with.
I did go to Cozumel for some diving, and the reef diving there is definitely better than Playa, and renting a scooter to ride around the island was fun, but Cozumel is a bit sad panda right now. I guess they really rely on the cruise ships, so they’re hurting pretty bad. You feel kinda bad walking around with everyone is trying to get you into their empty shop/bar/restaurant.
Around Playa, I haven’t snorkeled in a cenote yet, but I must say diving in the cenotes is awesome. I just did a few in the last week, and I’m really digging it. I mean you’re floating through underwater caves! The haloclines are trippy as hell, and the way it looks when sunlight directly hits the cenote is just awesome. The photos look sick too. Highly recommended, although pricey for diving. I’m tempted to do a real cave diving course, but again the prices… dlskjfsdljclj
I’ll check out the blog! I still haven’t done any research into Chiapas/Oaxaca yet, although I’m happy in Playa for now.
Oh, and what did you think of Mahahual?
It was overrun with sargassum and pretty much empty when we were there - which was about this time of year in 2018. Seems like mostly a place Mexican tourists would go - which is cool if you just want cheap and super laid back.
Just look out for bat guano if you go snorkeling in a cenote. All 3 of us were sick the next day - except I think one was just food poisoning. But I had a nagging sinus thing for like 2 months that I think came from the bat cave or just snorkeling in the cenote in general. I’d feel safer diving where you aren’t on the surface so much.
Going to Denver this week, any tips for restaurants or breweries or dispensaries etc?
Only going to be in town wed night-fri night and going to USMNT soccer game Thursday night so not a lot of time for sightseeing or anything
Go here for the French onion soup dumplings
We actually did a Denver trip just to eat these.
This place had surprisingly good BBQ:
And this joint had good Persian: