Thursday, September 20, 2007
Cancun Day 4: Checking out the locals
Actually we were checking out their wares, not them. Heh. Big difference. There’s a huge club scene at Cancun, but we were totally not interested in getting drunk, dancing with strangers, or getting hit on by gross people. We’re more about browsing through shops, seeing sights, and eating authentic food.
There wasn’t a whole lot I needed for myself, just a nice souvanir tank top to remember the trip. Oh, and sunglasses to replace the ones I misplaced somewhere in Mexico. But there were a bunch of people we wanted to buy gifts for. My mom, a couple coworkers, my sweety’s nephews. My sister and her two babies are visiting my mom this week from Houston, so I got something for them too, for when I drive down to see them this weekend.
There are a lot of things we discovered about these shops. They may be in a flea market environment, but damn do they charge a lot of money for their wares! Cancun is expensive, very much a tourist trap. After all, that is their entire industry. Luckily we went during one of their slow seasons, so the shopkeepers were much more willing to bargain down their prices. If you can go with a charismatic people-person like my sweety, then you let them do the talking. Another thing about these shops is they all pretty much have the same inventory. You’ll see the same cowboy hats, shot glasses, blankets and jewelery everywhere. There is some variation, but chances are good if you can’t find a good price for the thing you want in one place, you will someplace else.
One of the weirder things I saw for sale were aprons with some penis-related phrase on the front. You lift up the top layer of cloth and there’s a big ol’ stuffed johnson hanging under there. I actually saw a topless lady wearing it at the hotel, out by the “sexy pool”, showing it off to people. I guess there is a market for it! Sorry, forgot to take a picture.
One place had a cart full of what looked like little dolls. You look closer and they’re actually hot sauce cozies.
That’s a lot of hot sauce. (Click for bigger view)
Although the buffet restaurant at our hotel was okay, it wasn’t great. It’s typical buffet food prepared en masse. You can’t go on a trip to Mexico and not have at least one meal with some authentic Mexican cuisine! That would just be wrong. So we found this place where the food looked yummy and chowed down like a couple of starving tourists (well we were).
That’s some good grub. (Click for bigger view)
And finally, the towel art of the day:
Aww, how romantic!
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