Alberto François, Renzo Ibañez, Felix Wong, Jana Anderson, Pauline Asher, Cancún sign

Cancun, Mexico

In October I realized that I had not gone anywhere this year that would continue my annual foreign country streak. Since I had blown through my annual vacation budget via the Trans Am Bike Race, I looked for an inexpensive out of country destination to visit. I soon realized that Cancún, México fit the bill, costing no more or sometimes less than many U.S. locations.

Maureen was not going to be able to come due to having a busy grad school schedule, so I thought I would have to go there alone and booked a trip for only four days. But then I was talking with my friend Alberto François, and he mentioned he wanted to take a two-week vacation somewhere out of the country in November. It did not take much coaxing to get him to come down to Cancun.

He actually went down there a couple days before I did, but we met at the Mezcal Hostel shortly after my arrival. From there, our taquería-searching and ocean-swimming adventures began. Cancún was also our launching point to the not-so-distant destinations of Isla Mujeres and Chichén Itzá.

As you can see in the photos below, we did some of these trips with other folks on vacation that we met at the hostel. This included Renzo from Buenos Aires; Pauline from Chicago; Jana from Slovenia; Carolina and Yesenia from Portland, Oregon; Julian from Toronto; Christophe from Paris; and Carla and Daniella from southern Italy.

We also randomly encountered a number of people from northern Colorado, including Oxsana, a Russian CSU student living in Greeley; Oxsana’s brother and mother living in Broomfield; and then Bruce, co-owner of the Ras-ka Ethiopian restaurant in Fort Collins. (Neat fact: during past trips to Panamá and Guatemala, I encountered other folks living in Fort Collins as well.) Bruce also mentioned that he had a friend in Fort Collins who was leaving for Cancún in a week. “With $49 fares from Denver to Cancún on Frontier,” he said, “I thought, why not?”

Sounds like I was far from being the only one looking for a cheap foreign get-away at this time of year.

Yucatan quesadilla, Alberto François, Cancun
Alberto François eating a Yucatan-style quesadilla in Cancun.
Pauline Asher, Jana Anderson, Alberto François on bus in Cancun
Pauline, Jana, and Alberto François on a bus in Cancun.
Alberto François, Felix Wong
Alberto François and Felix Wong on the bus in Cancun.
Alberto François, Renzo Ibañez, Felix Wong, Jana Anderson, Pauline Asher, Cancún sign
Alberto, Renzo, Felix, Jana and Pauline with a sign of Cancún along the beach.
Felix Wong, Alberto François, jumping on beach, Pauline Asher, Renzo Ibañez, Cancun, ocean waves
Felix and Alberto jumping on the beach with Pauline and Renzo in the background.
Pauline Asher, Jana Anderson, Alberto François, Renzo Ibañez, Cancún, jumping on beach, ocean waves
Jana and Alberto jumping on the beach with Pauline and Renzo in the background.
Jana Anderson, crawling on beach, Pauline Asher
Jana getting down on all fours on the beach in Cancun with Pauline in the background.
Cancun beach, sunset, sand, ocean waves
Nice sunset at the beach past the Hotel Zone of Cancun.
Alberto François, Jana Nicholson, Renzo Ibañez, Pauline Asher standing on beach in Cancún
Alberto, Jana, Renz, and Pauline standing on the beach in Cancún.
taco shop, Puerto Juárez, Cancún
Eat tacos at a taco shop in Puerto Juárez in Cancún.
Felix Wong, black shirt, two tacos, Carla
Felix Wong with two tacos (P'al Atascado) at a taquería in Cancún near the Mezcal Hostel. Carla from Italy (on right) joined us for dinner.
Christophe Capiaux, Alberto François, Corona beer, taquería at night, Cancún
Christophe and Alberto with Coronas at a taquería in Cancún near the Mezcal Hostel.
Mexicans selling and eating tacos in Cancún
Mexicans selling and eating tacos in Cancún. Note the huge vat of cooked shredded pork.
Alberto François, two pork tacos, Cancún
Alberto François with a plate of two pork tacos (15 pesos each) in Cancún.
Felix Wong, black shirt, blue cap, rainbow, central Cancún, sunny morning
Felix Wong and a rainbow over central Cancún on a sunny November morning.
Alberto, Bruce, ADO bus station, Cancún
Alberto with Bruce, a fellow Fort Collinser (co-owner of the Ras-Ka Ethiopian restaurant in Fort Collins) whom we randomly encountered at the ADO bus station in Cancun.