iguana

Are everywhere on Isla Mujeres, which is the island my mother, sister and I stayed. I would go into depth about what the island was like, but I took plenty of pictures, so hopefully those will be posted soon (think about three weeks). People rave about Cancun, and I only spent one day there, and it was nice ... but felt more like an extension of the United States ... But Isla Mujeres was nicely off the beaten path. Definitely more laid back, less expensive, .... fewer US Americans. Apparently its where the Mexicans and other Latin Americans go for a vacation. The waters of Playa Norte (beach) are much more placid, unlike Cancun, where the Caribbean Sea pounds the crushed lime sand (although not as furiously as the Atlantic Ocean on the shore--where the wrong move will send you face first into the sand).

Most days it was 90 degrees, by the afternoon you were cooking in the shade. I found that Mexican people there are super friendly, very helpful, and polite ... contrary to the perceptions I got in high school (where english was taught as a second language to a large migrant population). My experience living in Herndon has mostly been that of being shoved into by a group of adolescent hispanic boys so they could cop a feel or be whistled at when going anywhere. But remarkably I found these people to be very honest and very nice. Made me think it wouldn't be such a bad idea to retire in Mexico!