A Trip to Paradise
If I had no limits as to how much I could spend on a vacation, I would take a trip to different cities in Mexico. My dads side of the family is Latino and many of my relatives live in Mexico. My month long trip would consist of a variety of cities I have visited before and others that I would be visiting for the first time. I would take advantage of Mexicos rich culture by participating in the peoples customs and getting as much experience as possible. The trip would be very meaningful because my heritage is something that I am very proud of and passionate about.
My permanent residence is in Bettendorf, Iowa and the closest airport is in Moline, Illinois. Unfortunately flights dont leave the Quad City Airport for Guadalajara, my first stop, so Ive decided to take a limousine from Bettendorf to Chicago, which would roughly take two and a half hours. Although the limo ride would cost around two hundred dollars, it would be well worth it because I would not be paying OHare Airport to park there for a month. I checked out three websites to obtain airplane ticket information: Expedia.com, CheapTickets.com, and Orbitz.com. All were extremely useful except for Orbitz.com which wanted me to create an account. This discouraged me from spending anymore time at this site. Expedia.com and CheapTickets.com were very easy to use, but were crammed with different advertisements. Despite the clutter, the sites loaded fairly fast. All of the websites included times for departure, length of flight, cost, which airports used, and airlines used. I also found a variety of different flights taking me to the cities I wanted to visit: first class, coach, direct flights, round trip, one- way, etc. Overall, my search for a plane ticket was successful.
My next obstacle was finding hotels to stay in when I wouldnt be staying with relatives. It was difficult trying to find hotels by checking their sites, so I searched city sites which proved to be more successful. Fortunenatey these websites were not packed with different ads. Hotels ranged from one to five star and cost between twenty and one thousand eight hundred dollars per night. Some were all inclusive while others didnt even have swimming pools! They gave information on addresses, policies, and different packages. I used Google.com and MSN.com search engines to find the different cities websites (Gomanzanillo.com, Vive.Guadalajara.gob, MexConnect.com). One of the hotels I was interested in was the five star Double Tree Hotel Rio Monterrey in Monterrey. The hotels consist of two huge towers with a gigantic parking garage underground. There is also a descent sized pool and elegant restaurant on the ground floor.
The different city sites also reviewed the more popular restaurants. They listed the name, if it was a restaurant, cafe or bar, the capacity, and the restaurants specialty. The bigger cities had the same kind of restaurants we have here in the United States: Italian, Chinese, Tai, and of course, Mexican. Caf La Paloma was one caf/restaurant I was particularly interested in. It is decorated with bright colors in the traditional Mexican motif and features its own mariachi band. With a traditional Mexican cuisine, this centrally located cafe/restaurant seats up to two hundred people and still has plenty of room for dancing. I found that all of the cities websites were extremely successful in listing and describing the different restaurants, but not describing the food. Why didnt they post any of the menus? The city sites also suggested various night life hangouts. There were tons of different clubs and bars that anyone over the age of sixteen could attend. These excerpts included location, business hours, capacity, if they had a dance floor, whether or not musicians and comedians performed there, and if they served food or just drinks. The club that caught my eye was the Night Life Colima Bay Cafe, in Manzanillo, which featured musicians, comedians and once again, more than enough room for dancing. Although they were somewhat informative I felt these sites were too brief in describing the clubs. They didnt include any details about the appearances or exactly which musicians and comedians perform in the different night clubs. So again I felt the sites had good information just not enough.
Another place I would visit is Lago De Camecuaro, in the state of Michoacan, is by far my favorite place to be in the world. CCU.UMich.mx describes it as a huge natural spring crystal clear lake that appears turquoise from afar. The lake also has giant cypress trees, imported from Louisiana, planted all around it. There are plenty of picnic tables around the lake for family outings and a restaurant that will take orders to your picnic table or even prepare the meat you bring. Mariachi bands circle the lake all day playing music for any of the picnickers. You can also swim or canoe in the lake. It is truly on of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is well worth paying ten dollars to see sights Ill never forget.
In Manzanillo and Veracruz, both coastal cities, I would go snorkeling, fishing, swimming in the ocean, and relaxing on the beaches in the sun. In Veracruz, I would also have a chance to go rafting. This is something I have never done before, but I think would be fun to experience. There are different packages that include both snorkeling scuba diving and fishing. Some of the hotels actually sell these packages, once again on the city sites. I would also make time to sketch at every place I visit. That is one thing I wish I would have done on my first trip to Mexico.
The information that is most important to me, I can not find on any website: visiting family. All of my relatives take me in as one of there own whenever I visit. Money is never an issue; they just care if Im comfortable. The same is true when they visit our relatives in the United States.
The places I visited were Guadalajara, Vista Hermosa, Guanajuato, Monterrey, Manzanillo, and Veracruz. The stops on this trip would give anyone a true feeling for the cultural and geographical variations in Mexico, which is my reason for not going on a cruise. There are many misconceptions that Mexico is just a big dirty country and that offends me. While on this trip I could carefully document the sights and sounds that make up this beautiful country. I wouldnt go on a trip to Mexico just to have a good time. I would like for it to have meaning, because I am passionate about the history and culture of Mexico all the time, not just when Im visiting.