#92 - i've got tickets

i did it, i bought them today - round trip tickets to cancun in july! so here is the plan, leave on july 1 and return july 25. since it's a RT to cancun i will be spending probably a night or two there, separated by a nice trip by bus around yucatan mexico and guatemala. cancun is party central but i will mostly likely not dive into the party scene. i'll be there for cultural experiences, not shmoosing with other americans!

loose itinerary (as of this moment):

• arrive midnight july 2, find a way to bus terminal, wait around until there is a bus to merida
• spend a couple days in merida, see my friend jose
• valladolid and chitchen itza - mayan ruins: temples and pyramids
• isla mujeres, a caribbean island northeast of cancun where you go around on golf carts
• south to chetumal
• across border to guatemala - flores/tikal - more ruins, plus beautiful lake peten
• coban, trip to lanquin and semuc champney - a series of ponds and pools
• from there to lago de atitlan, a lake surrounded by volcanoes - different towns/villages around the lake - panajachel, santiago, san pedro, seeing some sunrises/sunsets on the lake
• chichicastenango for the sunday market - biggest market, locals with crafts, produce and food
• experience antigua - spanish colonial city, some volcanoes
• fly back to cancun to catch flight back to portland

so i've got about 23 days of travel. i'm taking a spanish conversation class but i doubt it'll do me any good. they'll probably be talking so fast i won't know what's going on! in addition to that, a lot of the guatemalan and yucatan population is mayan so they speak in one of twenty-plus mayan languages. many don't speak spanish, let alone english.

i have no idea how i'm gonna pull off all these bus trips and getting around. how am i going to see everything i want to in three weeks?! there are a ton of things i need but don't want to take too much. i gotta get some immunizations and anti-malarial pills. mosquito nets. traveler's checks. there are so many things to plan. planning is part of the fun! anticipation and excitement...but reading stories and looking at pictures are nothing compared to true experiences. i will definitely write a travel blog when i go. and take lots of pictures of course.

but i've got tickets. i am going!