Freezing Cold!

Thats what we have been greeted with since our return from Mexico! We went from 26 degree Caribbean sun to 0 degree Canadian Autumn! (winter doesn't officially start until December 20).

The one good thing has been seeing the beginning of a North American Christmas, Toronto has a huge Santa Claus parade every year. It started just around the corner from our house so we went up for a look.
The streets were packed with kids.
Then the parade started with a few marching bands and these guys on horses.
Followed by these guys with the worst job of the parade
Then came the floats, and there were heaps of them, interspersed with marching bands and other people in costume.

Sarah could hardly contain her excitement!
These little kids had a bit of a pile up just up the street, they had to get the safety car out for them.
The parade was going great and all the kids (big and small) were having a great time!



Until the weather took a turn and it started to snow, it was freezing!
This photo shows how hard it was coming down, its also funny cause the cinema there is a porno theatre and its surrounded by kids and families watching Santa.
By the time Mr. Potatohead came past it was too cold for us,
We escaped to the closest pub.


The snow didn't hang around for long which was good, but we didn't have to wait long, last week we were bucketed with snow. Here is the view out the window it had only been snowing for about 4 hours at that point. If you make the pic bigger you can see how hard the snow is coming down.

And this is what it was like when I got up for work the next morning.



Its all melted away now, but its still cold, it hasn't been over 5 degrees all week and some days last week it never got out of minus temperatures. It didn't stop this guy up the street from being the first one to put the Christmas lights.

Getting there

So after countless posts about Chiapas, I am going to write about the rest of our holiday, we spent the last 5 days on the island of Cozumel, which is just off the coast of Mexico, near Cancun. Its a Caribbean island and it was beautiful!
The water was perfect, really clear and really warm.
The main town that we stayed in was on the land side so the water was calm and flat.
Even better was the islands main mode of transport! Everyone rides scooters!
When in Rome.
Sarah freaked when I took this one.
There is one road around the island and you can do it on a scooter in about 2 hours. Our first stop was here, the money bar for a bit of snorkelling.
Apparently the reef in Mexico is the 2nd biggest Barrier reef after ours, the highlight of the snorkel was seeing a barracuda, but the coral was a bit crap.
Every few kilometres there was a bar by the beach where you could stop and have a drink on the beach. Most catered for american cruise ship customers, so they were a bit crap. But even the worst bar couldn't really ruin the view.


We even found a mate on the way around that let us take a photo with his iguana.
The best bar of all though was waiting for us at the southern tip of the island. After about an hours riding we stumbled onto this Gem!
It was awesome, there was nothing else around, just this shack with open sides, cranking reggae!
Then you walk through out the back and are greeted by this.
I was getting comfortable there, and instantly wished we had caught a cab.

I even made some new friends.
But after a couple of brews and a bite to eat it was time get back on our scooter and ride on. By this time we were on the Ocean side, which has basically nothing on it save for a few bars and restaurants scattered up the coastline. We found ourselves a nice place for a swim.
We were the only ones on the beach for miles. It was awesome, the water is really warm too.
The island also has some ruins which we visited.
I was praying for the mozzies to go away though.
Our nites were spent in town drinking $1 beers and $2 cocktails, and it wouldn't be Mexico without tequila. Think the person that wrote this must have had a few already.
We had a favourite bar, where I became known as a ping pong contender, this guy wanted to play me every night. I think he was the local champ. He was way drunker than I was which evened things up.
On the last night I even entered the prestigous beer skull contest.
Although I think I was robbed, the guy that won spilled it everywhere. He is the one on the left.
Anyways to sum up Mexico was definately the best holiday we have been on, it was so interesting and we saw so much. I would definately recomend going there to anybody. We had a blast.
Adios!