Best Beach [EVER]: Tulum: Perfect, powdery sand; clear, turquoise water; just-right waves for body surfing; totally empty — these are the perfect beach cliches. And, even with explosive development, Tulum still delivers. We could even hear the waves breaking at night through the open window. Paradise.
Best Cenote for Thiefs: Ik Kil. Ik Kil’s proximity to Chichen Itza makes it a favorite stop for the massive tour bus trade. Which means pickpockets. Duh, rent the lockers, noobs.
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Most Unexpected Non-Ripoff: Los Tres Cenotes. This was one of those extreme unknowns. It seemed cool from the few reports we’d read: a horse-drawn cart on tracks takes you to three different cenotes. After waiting about 90 minutes for our personal rail-cart driver and loading into the rickety contraption, still, no one asked for payment. Three hours later, the sun was setting, the “Ricos” had torn it up at all three swimming holes and we still had no idea how much this thing would cost. I had visions of being shaken down for hundreds of dollars at the drop-off point. But no. Our driver stopped, let us off and looked about to walk away. ?! David practically chased him down and offered 400 pesos, about $30. He smiled and walked away. Wow. Just, wow.
I am not like David — I sleep on vacation. I do, however, have lots of opinions.
Most Unexpected Hazard: Speed Bumps. Holy Jeebus, Mexico, what is this about? Speed bumps in town I get. But in the middle of a highway with a 110 km/hr speed limit? Tope is the Spanish word printed on the signs, but often, all you see are the upsidedown boobs. And then… screetching, skidding, badonkadonk, you-know-you-damaged-the-rental, heart all aflutter. Crap. I have no idea how we escaped with no (ok, very little) damage. The trusty Nissan Tilda was our friend.
Our Middle East posts are done! We still have about 60 percent of the video to compile and edit — it’s beginning to look like that may never get done.
They look great! Thanks to Trish for photographing, editing and producing these.
Creekmoreworld.com is a travel blog for exotic family adventures. We are David, age 40; Trisha, age 45; Lily, age 7 and Emma, age 9. Washington D.C. is our home, although Trisha is from the Bay Area and David is from New York.
The adults are avid scuba divers, skiers, video game players and fans of heavy metal. In her youth, Trisha went on long backpacking journeys to Thailand, Central America, Europe and Turkey. David spent many months traveling Russia and the Soviet republics, from the Black Sea to Lake Baikal.
In 2003, Trish was diagnosed with a dangerous breast cancer. The real possibility of death made us rethink our lives, and together we committed to travel more if Trish survived. Our girls were still babies then. In her chemo haze, Trish would fantasize about taking a year off to travel the globe with them. It gave her the strength to continue the ghastly treatments.
Trish remains cancer free and the kids are now old enough to handle adventure travel. Our goal is still to spend a year abroad. But rather than take a whole year off, we are doing a series of month-long trips. The kids love their school and we enjoy our careers, which permit us to travel quite a bit. We are fortunate in that way. By the end of 2010, we should be a third of the way to our ‘year-abroad’ goal.
Most of our blogs are ‘live’ — we post daily while on the road. Our primary purpose is to record our travel for kids, friends and family. If we can help or encourage other families to travel more adventurously, it would be a bonus. For us, there is no purer expression of life than traveling as a family.
David currently works at an international non-profit in management and Trisha is a journalist and Web producer, working most recently at Discovery Channel and PBS. A long time ago, she wrote guidebooks to Belize and Norway. They’re probably incredibly out-of-date by now, so don’t buy them.
