No visit to see my parents and this is NOT something that I want to repeat as long as they are alive. I would have been miserable if I stayed home so I would go and make the best of it.
12/20- Left home in the afternoon and headed towards Gatlinburg. Spent the night in Cherokee, North Carolina just outside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Nice mountain scenery but I had hoped to see snow capped mountain peaks. No such luck, Only at 4500-5000 feet was there a dusting of snow on the ground and the road up to Klingman's Dome (6600 feet) was closed for the winter.
12/21- Ober Gatlinburg. First time skiing in nearly 25 years and I consider it a success. I did take lessons and was very cautious out there. Yes, there were a couple of small spills but I did progress to the ski lifts and Beginner slopes by the end of the day. From there, it was a longer than expected drive to Atlanta to catch my flight to Cancun the next morning. It required a plane flight but I've checked off a bucket list item to go skiing and body surfing on back to back days. I hope to do Maggie Valley/Charleston sometime soon. The ski resort was located at about 3300 feet elevation so the snow was not real but for Tennessee, I'm not going to complain.
12/22- Arrived in plenty of time. This was my first international flight on my own so I was a bit apprehensive. I did have to show my passport to get my boarding pass and to board the flight itself as well as fill out a Mexican immigration form but it was pretty much painless. I took a private taxi to my hotel and actually had a decent conversation with my driver in Spanish. While a sharp cold front was headed for the East Coast in the US, I arrived to find 80 degree temps with palm trees lining the streets. Cancun is below the Tropic of Cancer but didn't feel quite as tropical as Puerto Rico. The impending cold front did affect Cancun a bit and brought the temps down to 74 by Christmas Day. My hotel was on the 5th floor with a full ocean view.
12/23 and 24- Though the sand here is not quite as white as the Emerald Coast, the water is the most beautiful shade of blue that I have ever seen so I've got to give the edge to Cancun. As far as food, I dined outside and mostly stuck to my hotel. As far as the surf, I have mixed reviews. The waves were pretty high at 3-4 feet but I had to be careful of the shore break. That is, most waves broke and crashed almost directly on the sand. That meant steep drops and short rides. It was fun but some of the waves were too big. A steep drop off directly onto wet sand? Yes, that can be dangerous. Lifeguards were vigilant. I knew what I was doing out there so I was fine and knew which waves not to catch on the board. Even still, one wave in particular left me with a mildly sore lower back but that did NOT put a damper on the trip.
12/25- The day dawned cloudy so I ventured away from the hotel to get some real Mexican food and a souvenir t-shirt. There is an upscale shopping area just a couple kilometers from where I was staying. Many Americans from border towns come into Mexico for cheap food and dental work but in Cancun, prices are about on par with what you'd find in the USA, maybe even a bit higher. Oh well, this was meant to be a luxurious vacation. By the afternoon, I was back in the surf. Temps had dropped to the low-mid 70s and with a strong wind, it was a tad chilly but I didn't complain with a water temp that remained near 80. When the sun was out around high noon, that's when the water looks its most beautiful blue.
12/26- I was able to steal a couple more hours in the surf before catching my flight back. This one was delayed by more than 2 hours and Cancun is not the most interesting airport either so I wish I had stayed longer at the beach. Still, I could not risk a SNAFU with immigration or security. I did have to fill out a health questionnaire. It was almost midnight by the time I got through Customs. Needless to say, I was quite tired the next day back in America
Final Thought:
An excellent trip and I may be back someday but I am a variety seeker so if/when I return to a non-border town in Mexico, it will likely be Puerto Vallarta. That's on the Pacific side in the state of Jalisco several hours north of Acapulco. I've considered Cabo but the big negative there is that most of the beaches are not safe for swimming and those that are have little to no surf.
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