que viva mexico!!

Despite being an immediate neighbor to the U.S., Mexico was yet another country that I had never been to before this journey.  Aman had attempted to go there once, years ago, but never made it because of visa issues that prevented him from traveling at the last minute.  Translation:  substantial, unnecessary, unrecoverable, and forever lost expenses for travel never taken. 

In response, and on principle, Aman boycotted Mexico as a potential travel destination until 2010 when he received his U.S. green card (i.e., he no longer needed a travel visa to visit Mexico).  Whew… that was a close one.  With all restored between Aman-Mexico relations, we were both very excited to add Mexico to the itinerary for our epic journey.  Of course, my brother and his wife get some credit for this fantastic addition – had they not decided to get married there at the end of May, we would not have had such a terrific reason for going!

Our trip to Mexico, in short, was AWESOME.  We stayed for six nights at the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya, which is where the marriage ceremony was held.  This all-inclusive, seaside, luxury resort – complete with 644 suites, 7 gourmet restaurants, 13 bars, 13 swimming pools, a 20,000 square foot spa, etc. – was huge!  Basically, if you wanted to go from one end of the resort to the other, you would get there like so.

On the night that we checked in (four days before the wedding), Aman and I made sure to ask the whereabouts of our family members who had arrived earlier that day and those that would be arriving the next morning.  We noted everyone’s location on our little map of the resort and then got to work in finding people by making a few phone calls from our luxurious casita.  Minutes later, I heard someone who sounded like my brother, Andreas, or as we call him, Dre.  He had a different method for locating us, yelling randomly at our casita as he walked by, “YO!!!  IS THAT YOU GUYS??”  He, his beautiful soon-to-be wife, Liz, were at our door minutes later, and it was awesome being reunited with them just days before the special occasion.  

We set off for dinner where we would meet my parents and my dear sister, Zoe (who neither Aman nor I had seen since she returned from the Peace Corps last December).  Along the way, we picked up Aman’s Mom (who had travelled from India to join in the celebration of Dre and Liz), his Buajee and cousin, Sonia (who both came from Chicago to celebrate).  Yep, it was a priceless night in the company of loved ones who had been dearly missed … a night, incidentally, which ended at a bar that had swings for stools.  Not sure who thought about combining the concepts of bar and playground, but well done.

The next day, dozens of more family members and friends descended on El Dorado Royale for the Papalaskaris-Griffin main event.  After lunch and adequate time spent poolside, Zoe and I jumped on bicycles and rode around looking for everyone.  It was a beautiful day with the sun popping in and out of the clouds as we sped along the winding paths of the resort and, sure enough, we soon found my cousins, Jen and Tom, who were at a nearby lounge, waiting to check into their casita.  We told them where to meet us after they got situated, and took off to find more people. 

Outside one of the resort’s more popular lunch hangouts, Zoe and I ran into Dre and Aman who were also roaming in search of people.  We met, conferred and agreed upon a strategy for locating the newcomers.  But, just as Zoe and I were about to take off on the hunt again, we spotted a large group of friends who had just arrived that afternoon.  Ah, more beautiful, familiar faces and hugs all round…  Before long, there was a much bigger group of us than the night before all back on the swings at the bar.  

The next two days were basically spent hanging out in and / or around one of the resort’s umpteen swimming pools, and having a grand ole time together.  By night, we celebrated the awesomeness of Dre and Liz.

Rehearsal Dinner:

The Wedding:

Surely, everyone knew they were in for a good night when a donkey, laden with saddlebags full of Tecate beer, arrived at the reception on the beach:

To say that the ensuing wedding party was a blast would be an understatement.  Highlights from the evening include my sister, Zoe, catching the bouquet after a most spectacular dive across the dance floor; and the moment when Aman and Dre’s friend, Chris, took over the bride and groom’s table just to see if anyone was paying attention...  It was oh so funny to them both until the crowd started clinking their water glasses with butter knives.

With mixed results, we all focused our efforts on recovery the following day… 

The festivities concluded the day thereafter with a full day cruise on a three-level party boat named the Dancer, which – like any good party boat – had a bar, a dance floor and a corkscrew slide attached to one of the upper decks that dropped straight into the water.  In the morning, we made a pit stop to see some nearby Mayan ruins, which were cool, and then went snorkeling.  In the afternoon, we stopped at nearby Isla Mujeres to relax on the beautiful beach for a couple of hours.  This was followed by a full on dance party aboard the boat as we made our way back to the main port in Cancun.  Great fun.

Aman and I spent our last day in Riviera Maya quietly relaxing on the beach, and talking about what an amazing weekend it had been, how great it was to see everyone, how beautiful the wedding was, how it all went so fast …  Most of our family and friends had gone home either earlier that morning or the day before.  We grabbed one last lunch with Jen and Tom before they too left for the airport.  We said good-bye to Dre and Liz. 

And, once again, we were off!

Days earlier, Aman and I had decided that we should really check out another side of Mexico before leaving the country.  After all, we had that side of Mexico involving swim-up pool bars and 24-hour room service adequately covered…  So, we made plans for a quick stop in Mexico City, the DF, for three nights.  Some advised us that we could never properly see such a vast city in such a short amount of time, which is fair enough – Mexico City is the largest city in North America.  But, as one of the country’s most culturally and historically significant cities, we could not resist the opportunity to check it out, even if only for a few days.

After a short flight from Cancun, we arrived in Mexico City very late in the evening.  It was well past dark, and we were exhausted after six nights of non-stop fiesta.  With a quick hola, we jumped in a taxi and instructed our driver to take us straight to our hotel in the centro historico, or historical center of Mexico City.  Given the hour, there was not much traffic on the roads.  We cruised down the highway, and rolled steadily through the local city streets – at times, with a pause and in complete disregard for red traffic lights (much the local custom).  As the taxi neared our hotel, we drove by the Zocalo (Plaza de la Constitucion), which – fun fact – is the world’s third largest square (after Moscow’s Red Square and Beijing’s Tiananmen Square), and such famous landmarks as the Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María and the Palacio Nacional – beautiful Spanish-era architecture. 

Palacio Nacional at Night:

It was too late to go inside when we first arrived, but we took a peek in the Catedral Metropolitana the next morning:

We then jumped on the metro, with plans of hitting some museums.  As one of the world’s important cultural centers, Mexico City has a never-ending supply of highly impressive museums.  We had no hopes of covering them all in a day, so we focused on the Museo Nacional de Antropología and the Museo de Arte Moderno, both of which sit in Chapultepec Park.  The National Museum of Anthropology was exhausting, but awesome – its many halls filled with relics from the various ancient cultures of Mexico.  We spent a good couple of hours there learning about the civilizations of the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Olmecs, etc. 

Outside the museum, we stopped to refuel with a couple of tortas made fresh by one of the street food vendors in the park.  Deliciosa!  Feeling invigorated, we ambled down the shady, wooded streets of the park.  We were impressed by a statue of Gandhi, not to mention the number of old school Volkswagen Beetles we saw along the way (and everywhere else in Mexico really):

The Museum of Modern Art was cool as well, at least for two modern art enthusiasts such as us.  With only four galleries, it was very manageable to visit in an hour or so.   

We rounded out the day in Condesa, a very hip neighborhood within walking distance of Chapultepec Park that has lots of bars, cafes and restaurants.  After strolling around for hours, up and down the pretty tree lined streets, we found a lively little tapas bar, Pata Negra, which came highly recommended by a local dining guide.  Ham croquetas, empanadas, marinated pulpo (octopus) – everything was quite excellent and, even though we were still partied out from the wedding fiesta, Aman and I were too intrigued not to sample the nightlife while traveling through the one of the world’s great cities.

We devoted the next day to a full-day tour with stops at, among other places of lesser interest, the Basilica de Guadalupe (the holiest Catholic Church in the Americas) and the ancient ruins of Teotihuacán.  Full day excursions of this type are normally something that we hesitate getting involved in, given our general skepticism of organized tourist activities.  But, in this case, we were advised by our hotel concierge that the only other way to see Teotihuacán (the portion of the tour that we were really interested in) would involve a trip on the local public bus, which is generally not so safe for tourists.  Thus, we didn’t feel that we had a better option. 

Our tour guide for the day, Angel, was an incredibly nice man who greeted us at our hotel at the agreed upon hour.  We followed the normal course of picking up fellow tourists at nearby hotels and then stopped at the tour operator’s office where several other vans of tourists converged and a lengthy process of reshuffling everyone took place.  Ah, just one of the reasons we love organized tours so much…

We were lucky though to be eventually grouped into a van with Angel as our guide.  As we made our way out of the busy city, down Reforma Avenue and passed Angel de la Independencia (probably the most recognizable landmark in Mexico City), Angel offered up lots of historical and cultural facts about the city and its people, its history, its blended influence of Aztec, Spanish and Mexican cultures.  He also proved himself quite knowledgeable about the Basilica de Guadalupe and Teotihuacán, both of which were pretty cool to see (even though, in order to enjoy the Aztec ruins in their own right, Aman and I had to make a conscious effort not to compare Teotihuacán to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat...).  

Colorful celebration outside of the Basilica:

Inside the more modern section of the church, the poncho of Juan Diego containing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Immediately outside the greater metropolitan district of Mexico City, the hills covered in residential housing:

At Teotihuacán, the Pyramid of the Moon:

From the Pyramid of the Moon, the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun:

Steep climb up the Pyramid of the Sun:

Aman and I were the last two passengers to be dropped off at our hotel that day.  We took advantage of this one-on-one time with our guide by asking him some of the questions that we were really on our mind.  If traffic is so bad in Mexico City (and it is), why don’t more people ride motorbikes?  Motorbikes are too dangerous, they are just not part of Mexican culture.  Why do you think there is so much violent crime in Mexico City (and he did)?  There’s too much unemployment.  If there’s too much violent crime, maybe it’s too easy to get a gun?  No, most of the guns are illegal.  It was quite an interesting conversation to end the day.

We left Mexico City early the next morning, on a plane to New York’s JFK airport.  No, we weren’t heading home.  We were connecting through JFK to begin our European summer adventure.  The funniest part of that plane ride was when the flight attendant started passing out customs and immigration forms for landing in JFK.  Aman was conked out next to me.  I took the familiar customs form that I have seen dozens of times upon reentering the states, but hesitated as to whether Aman would need anything else – i.e., I was not sure whether there was a meaningful distinction between U.S. citizen and U.S. permanent resident for immigration purposes.  The flight attendant looked at me, waiting for some indication of what forms Aman might need.  Uh, not sure – he’s a green card holder, I said / asked.  Oh, he's going to Calcutta? the confused flight attendant asked, as if he heard me perfectly clear.  What??, I thought, This plane is going to New York mi amigo...