• Menu

Cancún, Mexico – A Fair and The Beach

We always stumbled upon cool stuff when we travel. Yesterday night, it was a fair in the centro. The rides and attractions were really cheap by both French and Canadian standards, although they did look a bit worn-out. “Wow, free entrance!” said Feng. “Course it is!” I retorted. “It’s a parking lot! Only in Canada you have to pay to enter the fair and then pay extra for the rides.” I never really understood why that’s how it works in Canada to be honest. To me, it’s a rip-off.

We hung out at the fair a bit, mostly because I wanted to take a few shots and because I was eating a waffle dripping with Nutella.

The sun sets around 5:30 p.m. and there isn’t much to do around. Sure, there are a lot of bars in the hotel zone, most of them with promising names such as “Marijuana & Margaritas,” but they are mostly targeted towards the spring break crowd and anyone who wants to get drunk fast (open bar is $20). Not my kind of activity. Yes, I know, I’m a kill joy.

So we headed to the centro, where locals actually live and shop. It’s pretty busy over there. The first night, we ended up at the mall “de las Americas”, a giant indoor shopping mall packed with people doing their Christmas shopping. The second night, we walked along a busy road lineup with familiar and not so familiar stores. Wherever, we are going, people are buying stuff. Maybe the economy isn’t as bad in Mexico? Or maybe people just take Christmas really seriously. That could be it. Latinos often go a little bit overboard when it comes to Catholic holidays.

As soon as we get out of the touristic district, people mostly ignore us. Whenever we are around the hotel zone or by the shore, we are constantly stopped by salespeople trying to get us to sign for excursions. “Es más barato si habla español!” one guy finally shouted after we walked by, ignoring him. I chuckled. At least, he was honest!

Nonetheless, the tourist traps are much less annoying than in Thailand where people were borderline aggressive when selling tuk-tuk rides and massages. Or maybe I understand Latino better—the language, the culture, etc., are more familiar to me.

The Fair
The Fair
Xmas Decoration
Two Little Birds
The Beach
The Beach
The Beach
Almost Sunset
Almost Sunset
Almost Sunset
The Pier
Sun and the Sea
Share this article!
Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

View stories

Leave a Reply to Isa Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

19 comments