{"id":496,"date":"2009-06-04T17:22:36","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T00:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/?p=496"},"modified":"2009-06-04T17:22:36","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T00:22:36","slug":"cancun-is-in-ruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2009\/06\/04\/cancun-is-in-ruins\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancun is in Ruins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have been to Cancun many times. I considered it my favorite vacation spot. I worked hard to get Stephanie to make it our honeymoon spot. I had not been there in 8-10 years.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Cancun is greatly changed.<\/p>\n

So many of the things I thought I knew have become wrong.<\/p>\n

It used to be true that if you converted your US dollars to pesos, you’d end up your trip with 20%+ more money than if you used US dollars there. Now, it is the opposite. Most things are priced in US dollars and pesos and if you do the math, you’d find you were being screwed using dollars. Now you are screwed using pesos.<\/p>\n

It used to be true that the prices in the hotel zone were very high and if you went downtown, you would see a near 50% price cut immediately and could bargain for better. Now the mall in the hotel zone has near the same prices, and maybe better than at the downtown markets.<\/p>\n

It used to be that the hotel zone markets like Coral Negro were full of the most aggressive, awful people you ever were around. Being in there makes you sick. Market 28 downtown was a great relief where you could shop in peace and enjoy your time. No more. Now Market 28 is as obnoxious as Coral Negro.<\/p>\n

Restaurants downtown are more<\/em> expensive than the hotel zone.<\/p>\n

The bus is now 15 pesos per trip, not 6.5. So a trip anywhere for 2 will cost you a much more noticable 60 pesos. The taxis are looking more okay.<\/p>\n

Cancun always had lots of people trying to get your attention. Trying to sell you a tour or to get you to look at their goods. You either ignore them or say “no, gracious” and move on. But now it is at a fever pitch and unavoidable. Even when we sat at a table eating, we had to say no to 4 or 5 people trying to sell us things, along with the people in the restaurant wanting to take your picture and sell it to you.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is beautiful. On the beach at our hotel was great. But most of the public places in Cancun are now unbearable.<\/p>\n

I took my last trip to Cancun. We discovered Playa del Carmen, and that is where we will go next time. More like the way downtown Cancun used to be.<\/p>\n

I can highly recommend the Ambiance Villas hotel and Locanda Paolo restaurant. And Walmart for pastries and fresh fruit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been to Cancun many times. I considered it my favorite vacation spot. I worked hard to get Stephanie to make it our honeymoon spot. I had not been Read More …<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[535,537],"tags":[591,592,409],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blather","category-existential-fodder","tag-cancun","tag-mexico","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p731sH-80","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/07\/07\/tropical-drink-home-brewing\/","url_meta":{"origin":496,"position":0},"title":"Tropical drink home brewing","author":"Swanky","date":"July 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Cocktail exorts those who make their own versions of cocktail elixirs this month. In October, Hukilau will have a mixology seminar headed by Beachbum Berry. At his side will be a few friends of mine whose drinks I have imbibed with pleasure: Pablus, Kuku Ahu and Basement Kahuna. Thes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cocktail Capers"","block_context":{"text":"Cocktail Capers","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/cocktail-capers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":346,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2008\/01\/05\/og-tiki-central\/","url_meta":{"origin":496,"position":1},"title":"OG Tiki Central","author":"Swanky","date":"January 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a steady refrain that Tiki Central is not what it used to be. This is true. But there are very regularly things there that still\u00c2\u00a0make an old Tiki dog\u00c2\u00a0wag their tail. I am going to start posting links to the threads on Tiki Central that interest me and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OG Tiki Central"","block_context":{"text":"OG Tiki Central","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/og-tiki-central\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":457,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2009\/01\/06\/an-old-testament-chrsitmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":496,"position":2},"title":"An Old Testament Christmas","author":"Swanky","date":"January 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't often post links to blogs on my blog, but, after this wasn't posted on any other major blogs, I felt I owed it to all of you to share what may be one of the singularly best posts in all the freaky world. It made me weep. 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The old buildings deteriorated, but hold\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Existential Fodder"","block_context":{"text":"Existential Fodder","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/existential-fodder\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":467,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2009\/02\/21\/another-new-mai-kai-postcard-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":496,"position":4},"title":"Another New Mai Kai Postcard Found","author":"Swanky","date":"February 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You'd think that after searching for 6 years for all things Mai Kai I would have seen every postcard there was. No. This one appeared on Ebay a few weeks ago. More things to try to find!","rel":"","context":"In "\"Tiki\" Collecting"","block_context":{"text":"\"Tiki\" Collecting","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/polynesian-pop\/tiki-collecting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/tmaikai-500x322.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134,"url":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/2006\/07\/20\/hukilau-2002-video\/","url_meta":{"origin":496,"position":5},"title":"Hukilau 2002 video","author":"Swanky","date":"July 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I recorded very little video at Hukilau 2002. I was way too busy working my ass off and sweating! But, I put this little slice together and posted it on a site a long time ago that I had forgotten about. I have uploaded it to a new location that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swankpad.org\/blather\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}