Where to begin, where to begin …

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this already — and I’m too lazy to look it up — but my entire summer has just opened up. The official cancellation for the summer program I was supposed to serve as Guy With The Money for came yesterday morning, so in four months’ time I shall be neither on the shores of Sicily nor in the highlands of Morocco.

I saw this coming — it’s a bit disappointing, still, but I’ve decided to rebound from this and find other things to make my summer exciting. One of the ideas that has emerged as a definite possibility in my own mind (and I’m trying to convince Ray of this) is taking a trip down to Mexico City in late June.

I’ve never spent much time at all in Mexico. We’ve taken two cruises out of Galveston–one in 2004, one in 2005–both of which have docked briefly in the Yucatán. We did both trips on Carnival Cruise Lines, whom I have neither strong nor weak feelings toward either as a cruise line or in terms of their hospitality toward gay couples on board. The first cruise we took was a seven day cruise that called at Progreso in Yucatán state (the port for Mérida), Cozumel, and Belize City. That one was the more fun of the two for us. There were several other gay couples on board, not that we actually socialized with them, but it was nice that we weren’t alone on board.

The second cruise was a shorter, five day cruise that called at Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, and this one can be best described as the White Trash Disaster Cruise. (Ray thinks I’m being dramatic when I say this — look who he’s talking to, hello?!–but will, when pressed, admit that the quality of persons with whom we rubbed elbows on the second cruise was significantly lower than on the first.)

I’m over Cozumel. I can’t snorkel (somewhere, there’s an entry about this in the records from my trip to Sinai — I just can’t deal with swimming face down in the water and breathing. Psychologically, I just can’t do it), and I cannot drink my body weight in beer. Hence, Cozumel holds absolutely no interest for me. Both times we were there, we ate at the same restaurant, walked into the same three stores, were offered the same sister by the same pimp on the same backstreet, and bought the same tequila at the duty free store on the way back to the boat.

Progreso is a dump, and there were lots of people on the boat who complained about it, apparently missing the point that Progreso is a jumping-off point for other places. Specifically, it’s a half-hour bus ride from downtown Mérida, which is a neat colonial town with interesting things to see and do. However, what I really wanted to do in the Yucatán was see the Maya ruins at Chichen Itzá, which I’ve missed both times.

The problem with those sorts of cruises is that they make their money off of the shore excursions, and they charge through the nose. They wanted $90 per person to take a day trip to Chichen Itzá, so Ray and I just took the local bus to Mérida and spent the day there. I still have the hammock we bought, along with an interesting carved wood mask that hangs on the wall upstairs next to the one I brought back from Zanzibar.

Several people got off the boat in Progreso and made their own way to Cozumel to reboard the next evening — wish I’d thought of that. The next year, we rented a car in Playa del Carmen and drove down to Tulum ourselves. Carnival wanted $80 per person for a three hour tour down to Tulum, after which they dropped you back off at the boat. We paid $75 for a rental Jeep, $4 to get into Tulum, 100 pesos for gas (around $10), and got to spend the afternoon in Playa del Carmen where we had lunch and hung out on the beach. Plus I got to drive in Yucatán, which is fun in a Grand Theft Auto sort of way.

Where was I going with all of this? Oh, yeah. I’ve always wanted to go to Mexico City and see the pyramids at Teotihuacán, visit the Zócalo and the Templo Mayor, go to see Frida Kahlo’s studio, and take a boat out on the canals at Xochimilco. And then I’ve heard of the ‘other’ sights to be found in the Zona Rosa. Aeromexico recently started nonstop service to Austin from Mexico City, and they’ve got a decent ‘introductory’ fare — and you can’t beat not having to fly through Dallas, which is my least favorite airport ever (it’s down there below Miami, New Orleans, and I’m not sure if it’s not below New York/JFK). I’ve got tips on places to stay, and some things to do in the area — the problem will be trimming down the list. Do I want to do a cooking class in Puebla? Hang out with the artists in San Miguel de Allende? See whatever the heck one sees when one goes to Cuernavaca?

What do you all think? Does anyone have any advice on what’s hot in Mexico City? I’d love to hear it if you do.

Anyway. Enough rambling from me. At some point I shall have to weigh in on the buyout of TXU — apparently we like them now, who knew? — and the Jesus ossuary because it’s just too insane not to mention at some point. But now, dinner beckons.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!