Travel Notes and Lessons Learned

• Resorts are memoryless in a sense. Because most people are only at a resort for a week, all the people at the resort when you arrive will be gone by the time you leave, having been replaced by people who arrive after you. It makes the history of a place harder to find out, and it means 'new' discoveries will be made over and over again. A case in point: Ross' discovery of underwater river outlets in the ocean just north of Caracol Village resort was relayed to other guests, but undoubtedly knowledge of them will be lost, and the outlets will get 'discovered' again by someone else in the future.
  
  
• Both of us have always felt that Canadians collectively take potable water too much for granted. However, even those feelings were understated, given how prominent water was in our minds while in Mexico. As an all-inclusive resort, we could have as much bottled water at Caracol Village as we wanted, but it still meant a change in routine: being careful in the shower, and brushing our teeth carefully while conserving water. During our excursions, we always took water, but also needed more, which was never cheap. When out for a full day, we used about 3 litres, which is not insignificant to carry around everywhere.
  
  
• Excursions out of a resort are an integral part of any vacation for many people, and charter and tour operators can really vary in their prices. We found that we could save substantially (50%+) through buying tickets readily available in Playa del Carmen rather than at the resort's tour desk.
  
  
• The US is not the only expensive place for those who earn their wages in Canadian dollars. Because Americans are so prevalent in the Mayan Riviera, everything is priced in US dollars, and if you're familiar with travelling in the States, that makes things more expensive than in Canada. You have to go really off the beaten path to find things priced in amounts affordable for Mexicans.
  
  
• Be careful with any extra batteries. During our first of 3 bag searches at the Cancun airport when returning to Ottawa, our extra batteries were confiscated. We might have avoided the problem had we hidden them in the recharger rather than having them sensibly handy in the camera bag. The greatest irony, however, was that our extra batteries also included an unopened pack, and batteries could be purchased after the security check before boarding the plane. Such an obvious hypocrisy is galling.
  
  
• The best place to get money exchanged is via a bank in Canada or bank machine in Mexico. Everywhere else is a rip-off, including the airport places. Even though the exchange rate was about 5.7 pesos to the C$, it was common to get about 5.1 through non-bank means, which is quite a mark-up. For some reason, exchanging US$ for pesos only had about half the mark-up, and in fact could be exchanged for profit in some places. In general, it is better to carry pesos rather than exchange your own currency into US$. This is not only because you'll get change in pesos, but because the prices are usually a little cheaper when expressed in pesos. One exception to this rule was everything in Xcaret, for which it may make some sense to carry US$.
  
  
• At the latitudes of the Mexican Riviera, not only is the sun a lot more direct, but it takes a little getting used to the times when the sun rises and sets. Canadians naturally associated warm weather with longer days, but this is of course not true for the Mayan Riviera in March. At the time of our travel, the sun rose and set pretty much when it did in Ottawa, making for a 12-hour day, rather than 14 or 15 as in Ottawa summers.
  
  
• Packing light has its advantages. Both Ann and I were able to fit everything into our own single carry-on bag, meaning we didn't have to check any baggage with the airline. This saved us time, and had some other unexpected benefits. It meant we were first on and off the bus, and first in line for a number of things, such as an ocean-view room when we arrived at the resort. One of the bags was a backpack, which helped with our off-resort excursions. Butt-packs are also recommended.
  
  
• If you were born in Quebec, and need to renew your passport, allow up to 3 months. The Passport Office invalidated Quebec proofs of birth prior to 1994 in the wake of Sept. 11. You will need to first get a new birth certificate, then apply for the passport.
  
  
• Not all sunscreens are created equal. Both of the eco-parks we visited, Xel-Ha and Xcaret, only allowed non-oil-based sunscreens, as a means of protecting the marine life when swimming in their park. We didn't know this ahead of time, but fortunately, our President's Choice sunscreen did the trick. Other people on our tours were not so lucky.
  
  
• The cost of labour is about C$5 per day in Mexico. This makes many labour-intensive services, such as an all-inclusive resort, much more feasible. As an elementary economist can tell you, labour that is that cheap also creates a disincentive to make labour-saving capital investments relative to places where labour is more expensive. Outside of the resorts, the trade-off of labour for capital was abundantly visible just about everywhere we went, including the cities like Playa del Carmen that are located in wealthy Quintana Roo. Not unrelated to that was an incredible lack of infrastructure.
  
  
• As noted in the piece on Tulum, visiting historical sites in Mexico is a little different. The government seems to have much less of a role to play in promoting, protecting and researching such treasures. Though it may not be for the best, it was certainly refreshing.
  
  
• Mexico, unlike the US and Canada, is a lot less litigious. The result is a lot more common sense rather than safety-at-any-cost. Guard rails only appear where risk is significant, rather than absolutely everywhere. The eco-parks like Xcaret could probably not operate in the US or Canada, because ubiquitous guard rails would lessen their appeal, and the risk of swimming in the rivers (however small) would have to be reduced. The lower insurance costs in Mexico (due to a lower threat of litigation) is a factor that alone makes a number of business and recreational activities feasible that are currently impossible in Canada or the US.