I thought you'd like it. Few tourist and you can still climb the pyramids, if only I had a smoke with me. We've been at a bunch of ruin sites on the peninsula where we're the only ones on these massive sites. I've been paranoid of traveling with smoke on us, there are police and military check points periodically around the Yucatan and you never know what kind of inspection it may be. I just smile play the tourista get waved on but you never know.Well well... Ek Balam was awesome @PipeCarver! Talk about sweatin to the oldies tho... Had to be almost 40 celcius.
Sweet view from the top of the Castile, you could actually see the Castile at Chichen itza off in the distance.View attachment 942553View attachment 942554View attachment 942555
That whole strip has turned into a tourist nightmare, with dirty cops, timeshare hustlers, sargassum all over the beaches, scam after scam after scam will leave you spreading that word and it will end up like Acapulco real soon.Last full day in Mexico and headed home tomorrow, I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to going home. Pretty over the people here... Right down to the last day we're getting scammed...
Our Airbnb for the last 3 days is in the hotel zone at Cancun... It's supposed to have wifi, 2 queen beds, TV, coffee maker,...
Wifi only half works within 3 feet of the ancient router and cuts out constantly, TV has no netflix or cable so just doesnt work, The beds are double, not queen, no coffee maker, shower head is plugged with lime scale and dribbles water.. And the beaches are all red flagged so we cant even go in the damn ocean. Totally misrepresented and overpriced at $150 per night. Sort of the story of this whole trip to be honest. Beautiful country though... Weather is great. Ruins were cool and the cenotes were fun. We enjoyed our 3 days in valladolid. Everything else has been a massive letdown from start to finish.
That whole strip has turned into a tourist nightmare, with dirty cops, timeshare hustlers, sargassum all over the beaches, scam after scam after scam will leave you spreading that word and it will end up like Acapulco real soon.
Like you said beautiful and once you get off that strip 90% of that crap is left behind. Visit the ruins down south Kininchna & Dzibanche were fantastic We we're the only ones there for hours, both sites. From Mahahual you can day trip to a number of ruin sites, Lake Bacalar is a popular place to stay as well with access to Chacchoben and up to Xpuijl where there are a number of ruin sites with access to Calakmul right into the jungle, monkeys, parrots,coatimundi and other exotic animals in and on the 1.5 hr long bumpy dirt road to and from the site.
Yeah, pretty much everywhere between Cancun and Tulum is on my "do not return to" list. The shitty part is there is literally sweet f*all for us to eat anywhere that is not touristy. And it's really no fun trying to relax when you need to make all 3 meals every day. It kinda sucks. I'd love to explore those places more but the lack of food choices rules them out for us. It just isnt easy being Veg in Mexico at all. We've had to have several dinners of papas frites this trip... And honestly once is enough.
Our last trip down thereThey have a full meal deal and will do specialty requestsMayan Beach Garden Serviced Apartments - Restaurant
Mayan Beach Garden Serviced Apartments and Studios - in Mahahual, Costa Maya - ecological Mexico beachfront Apartnemets. Dive Chinchorro Reef, visit Sian Ka'an, explore secluded beaches, snorkel, fish or visit Mayan Ruins.www.mayanbeachgarden.com
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We stayed in this room for 10 days on their meal plan loved it. way cheaper for 2 than on the strip and now that you've driven there you can skip the strip and head south
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Great vacation and return documenting. I enjoyed it. Its as close to mexico as I plan to get. ;-)
Actually my brother in law has friends down there and he and his wife just had a great trip. But they were guests of locals.
Chapala Jalisco is the only place I remember he went. But no tourist horror stories from them. They want us to go.
Mrs MMG just said they also were in Taquila. I dont know where any of this is. I just saw the pics of pyramids and forest trails with expansive mountain views.
Nice, Jalisco is on the West coast of Mexico, not much further south than Cartel territory. And dont get me wrong we had an awesome trip. Just learned a few valuable lessons is all.
But yeah, right down to the last day... scammers galore. Took the rental car back and after they inspected it told me to go in the office with the inspection paper. I noticed they had circled the driver side front wheel well...
I get inside and some French guy is absolutely furious yelling at the guy behind the counter calling him a crook an a rip off artist lol, I thought oh shit, here we go...
They said my car was damaged and it was goin to cost me extra. I said oh, thats interesting, I'm pretty sure I have pics of that from when I picked it up. Sure enough I did and showed it to them, so she says wait here and goes back outside. 5 mins later she comes back in and says yes that damage was there but there is more, right in front of the damaged wheel well there are deep scratches in the lower quarter panel.
I couldnt believe it. I said are you serious? You dont think that happened at the same time? It's clearly what caused the wheel well to come apart. She said no way, the scratches were fresh and new. So i pulled my pics back out, zoomed in and showed her the scratches were visible in the pics i had taken when we picked it up.
THEN she says, "well you could have just taken those pics last night" with this cocky grin on her face. I laughed and said yeah I dont think so. The photo has a date stamp on it.. Showed it to her, she got the manager out and we showed him the pics with the date stamp and they begrudgingly agreed the damage was already there when I picked it up and they fully refunded my deposit. But damn if they didnt try to screw me...
Stuff like that really took a lot of the "fun" out of the trip. This pic right here saved me a few hundred dollars or more.. And you cant tell me they didnt know about it before. I told them as much and called them a pathetic bunch of thieves when I walked out lol.
Felt pretty good about having my ass covered. I only took so many pics of the car because I read in a travel blog that they are notorious for scams like this and you should clearly document every single scratch when you pick it up. Glad I did. I almost missed those damn scratches... You can just barely see them on the lower left corner of the pic.
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I can barely see them. That would be considered normal wear and tear by any leasing company I dealt with at the new car dealer auctions. Here in america i mean. Like enterprize we bought lots from.
@Kanzeon, Your Lavanda cream is coming along nicely. Was a bit far away from the lights and it wasnt very warm in here so it hasnt grown a ton, But its happily PM free. I'd be lying if I said I wasnt a little worried with your recent struggles. But shes clean! Look forward to giving it a spot in the next cycle.
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And hey.. First joint in 2 weeks. Hoooooly shit! Lol, had to break open the 6 month cured stash of Bubba Kush Hashish for this one. Hashishine is strong in this stuff! Rolled with some cheap Mexican tobaccy, lol $4 Cdn a pack down there for darts. I was buying a 6 pack and a pack of butts for $10. Havent seen prices like that since I lived in Nova Scotia as a teenager! Lol. so there was that..View attachment 943916
It's beautiful down there. Been 7 times so far and hope to go again but you gotta get off the strip to where the chaos stops soon as you get past Tulum. Fk the AI's and head south lots of great places without the hassle.Kool trip, even though it’s cold bet ur glad to be home.
Had a good time when we went there but we prolly won’t go back like you said to many people tryin to separate you and your money! And they were very pushy, and then there were sometimes we didn’t feel safe! Great history great weather and great site seeing though!
That usually happens when the renter gets minimum insurance or tries to use credit card insurance believing the Mexican insurance charges are a scam. I get max insurance always have $50/day USA rental car $ 125 - $150 USA per week approx $ 500/per week. I just consider that part of the adventures cost that I make up with air only and not going AI.They dinged the French guy $250 US for a cupholder that had a broken tab in the console. French guy swore it was like that when they got it, his wife was freaking out too saying the same. The Mexican behind the counter says "well you have no proof, and we have the pickup inspection sheet proving it wasnt listed as broken". French guy was screaming at this point saying they never even went over the interior, they only walked around the outside..
Scammers, the lot of them. That whole strip from Cancun to tulum is designed to seperate you from as much of your money as humanly possible, and they're unabashed about it.
That usually happens when the renter gets minimum insurance or tries to use credit card insurance believing the Mexican insurance charges are a scam. I get max insurance always have $50/day USA rental car $ 125 - $150 USA per week approx $ 500/per week. I just consider that part of the adventures cost that I make up with air only and not going AI.
Trip advisor has a group like on here with regulars that stay there and rent yearly and have tips on the best companies to deal with. I went Alamo for years without any problems ever. Lats time I went with American car rental from Trip advisor recommendations. I bought the full insurance package, I cracked a window down near Palenque. Dropped the car off a week later with no questions asked.
I would bet the French guy went cheap / no insurance and they took advantage.
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