LAX - Tex - Mex

Thanks to some excellent sleeping pills, we arrived in LA almost unaware that we'd even been on plane. Logic would suggest that, since it was 11am LA time and we'd just slept for 8 hours, we'd be fighting fit to start the day. Logic was quite wrong. We checked into our hotel and then slept for another two hours.

We only had a 20 hour stop in LA (and most of those hours were at night), so had to be near the airport. The unfortunate side to this is that there isn't a whole lot to do near LAX. The closest place of interest was Venice Beach, so we decided to get a bus there. Well, actually, at first we decided to walk. Usually, in our typical (slightly arrogant) Kiwi way, we think everything is close enough to walk and ignore the (mildly overweight) locals telling us to get a bus, and usually it's fine. Luckily, we were too jet-lagged to walk and listened to the advice for once because it would've taken us hours. And we would have missed the delightful cellphone conversation of the gangsta on the bus whose mother had just kicked him out of home by throwing all of his stuff outside. He was also giving helpful advice to a friend who wanted his girlfriend back ("I'm the new Hitch, a'ight?"). Like us, he was a big fan of long distance travel ("I'm a traveller. I like going to foreign places. I'm going to Vegas tomorrow").

After stopping by an LA pet-store (carpet python anyone?) we found our way to the Venice Beach Esplanade. It was warmish, and relatively people-free. After a wee wander along the beachfront we hit the boardwalk and got some Mexican. And then, somehow, we felt tired again. Back to the hotel for a sleep - since we had to get up at 4:30am for the next set of flights. It was a dull three hours in LAX, but we changed some money, played bananagrams, and got breakfast. We slept most of the way to Texas (although I did watch the first two episodes of the Borgias) and then a quick turnaround to fly to Cancun. We flew Continental airlines, and I'm glad we're not doing that again. They had us sitting rows apart, and wouldn't move us because we didn't have children or cancer (not that we want either), the seatback TVs played nothing but ads for pay per view (and who would pay $6US to watch Rumour Has It?) and the air hostesses really couldn't care less about anything. Anyway, landed in Cancun, flew through customs and out into the balmy evening, and before we knew it we were flying down a Mexican highway with our driver, Jimenez, zipping past all the armed police and singing along to (appropriately)  "land down under" on the radio.

By 10pm we were safely at the resort in Playa del Carmen, pinching ourselves that we were actually in Mexico.