Thursday 7 January 2010 - Quite a Month...

It's been just over a month since my last journal entry and hence we've done a great deal and traveled a long way since I last wrote. We now find ourselves in the Yucatan town of Merida and a jolly long way from Seattle (where I was headed at the end of my last entry). In the intervening weeks we have:

• Visited and loved Seattle, staying longer than we had planned uncovering new and excellent things every day such as the Freemont Troll (see picture). We also found a genuine pinball parlour serving cheap beer, sailed across Puget Sound as the sun was setting, saw country/swing/rock and roll threesome Hot Club of Cow Town bust some grooves, watched a Seattle bands showcase and (a personal highlight of mine) ate at a genuine Chili Parlour (see here);
• Spent a day searching for locations from the TV series Twin Peaks, humming the theme tune and being generally spooked out by the North West woods and the potential presence of 'Bob' around every corner (if you don't know what this means I recommend that you get hold of the box set);
• Been bewildered at the array of Twilight merchandise available in the town of Forks, Washington where the books and movies are set;
• Driven the highways of the west coast hugging the shore all the way from Washington state to San Francisco and taking in some beautiful views (and more motel rooms than I ever thought I would stay in);
• Spent 6 days in San Francisco (expertly guided by Lisa's friend Tom and his fiancee Christie) including taking in a Lady Gaga concert (at which I felt greatly lacking in flamboyance), visiting Alcatraz and eating some wonderful Mexican food in the Mission district;
• Drove from Los Angeles (taking in Venice Beach and Santa Monica) to the barren salt flats of Death Valley which was like a theme park of natural wonders and like nowhere I've ever been before. Everywhere we looked the views were breathtaking that made me feel very small indeed;
• Spent three nights of wonderful excess in a suite in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (including taking in a Cirque de Soleil show and rather more frozen margheritas than I would recommend);
• Had Christmas (complete with impromptu rucksack based Christmas tree) in an apartment near to Sedona, Arizona. We took walks out into the amazing red rock country on both Christmas and Boxing Day and cooked our first ever Christmas dinner (turkey, beef and all the trimmings) which was a more or less unmitigated success (if I do say myself). We also marveled at the wonder of Skype which allowed us to feel as if we were simultaneously enjoying Christmas in the UK and the US;
• Visited the Grand Canyon which was beautiful but incredibly icy and watched a succession of people slipping over (including me);
• Saw some very large saguarro cacti in the Sonoran desert;
• Spent a very drunken New Year's Eve in San Diego (happy hours right up to midnight are a recipe for disaster).

And now we have found our way south of the border to Mexico for a definite change of pace and what feels like the second leg of our travels - we no longer have rent-a-cars or the comfort of communicating in English (although Lisa's Spanish impresses me daily) but do now have the wonder of excellent food seemingly on every street corner and for the first time in a while, some sunshine.

Having flown into Cancun, we spent one night and then made our way to the city of Merida where we had decided to stay for a week. Having moved around a lot in the past month we really wanted somewhere to call home for a little while and so managed to secure the rental of a small apartment. This gave us a base to relax and do some planning ahead of our Mexican adventure (much as we did in Montreal at the start of our Canadian adventure).

Merida has been very good to us so far (setting aside a brief drama where having locked my passport in the apartment's small safe I was no longer able to unlock it - a locksmith with a hammer and chisel soon resolved the problem). We arrived here on 3 January just in time for the festivities for Dia de los Reyes (or Day of the Kings) on the 5th and 6th. This happens to coincide with the town's birthday and hence causes quite a fiesta. On a trip to the supermarket we stumbled upon part of festivities - music and some pantomime-esque comedy around trestle tables supporting literally hundreds of feet of cake which was both very impressive and, for the nominal fee of of 1 pound per enormous chunk, delicious. That evening we headed for the central square for more celebrations including some traditional Mayan dancing (which was a little like Morris dancing but with better costumes) and then a procession through the streets led by four Mariachi bands each with more than twenty members. The procession concluded with some genuinely impressive fireworks and ended what was, all in all, a thoroughly enjoyable party.

It was all an excellent introduction to Mexico that made me reflect on all that we've seen over the past months in North America. I'll certainly miss the US - there's many things that they do incredibly well (I don't seem to be able to shake my American football fixation for one) - and Canada provided some of the friendliest people I've ever met, but I think that after 21 states and 4 provinces, it's time for pastures new. I can't wait to see what joys central America holds.