Ylliks

Over the last 2 plus weeks I’ve been on holiday to the south of Mexico. It was a vacation of firsts: first time seeing Mayan temples up close and personal, first time in Central America and the first time I went on a group holiday. Here are some of the things I’ve noticed.

Despite all the violence that’s on the news I never felt afraid or scared while in Mexico. Locals tended to be helpful and nice and I had a great time interacting with them (despite my lacking Spanish). I have to admit there was a shooting in the bar across our hotel in Palenque (we hadn’t noticed a thing until our guide told us) and while on the night bus to Playa del Carmen we were stopped and checked by drug enforcement agencies 3 times but all in all nothing worth mentioning really. Mexicans believe the violence is between the gangs themselves and the police while bystanders who got involved just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also the drug violence is situated in the northern part of the country which was way off from where I was traveling. I did however talk to a Spanish girl who told me she was terrified but when asked why she couldn’t give me a reason. But as far as me and the people I was traveling with goes all was fine.

The south of Mexico is a beautiful place with luscious green hills, jungle and forests that seem to go on forever. The coastal line around Cancun and Playa del Carmen is turning into the Spanish Costa Brava more and more, but there are still some mostly undiscovered sites where you can relax or snorkel next to turtles and coral reefs. Then there are the mountains around San Christobal de las Casas with its high tops and canyons like the Canon del Sumidero. There are sights and sounds for everyone.

I’ve been wanting to visit Mayan sites since I was as a little kid. It took me until this year to finally go and see them and they didn’t disappoint. I had a blast visiting sites such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Yaxchilan, Bonampak and Palenque (Tulum felt more like a golf course to me somehow) with Uxmal being my favorite. Maybe it was because of the lack of commercialization on the site (on others sites there were dozens of pushy merchants trying to sell “real” Mayan artifacts) but it just felt different than the other ones. I can’t fault the people for trying to make a living at the sites nor did it really distract me from enjoying the architecture and learning about the fascinating Mayan culture.

Mexican people tend to be on the short but large side. Our guide told us that Mexico had officially passed the US as the country with the fattest people in the world (although this study ranks them the same). And that’s no surprise. No matter how small the village, there will be several small stores where you can only buy sodas, potato chips and candies. And of course there’s the rich Mexican food. It’s no wonder that with an abundance of unhealthy food people will gain weight.

Speaking of Mexican food: it may not be the most healthy of choices, but it was good. And I had no trouble with my stomach whatsoever (you won’t neither when you follow 2 simple rules: either go where it’s very busy or go where the locals eat). I savored tortillas, empanadas, quesadillas and tacos, chicken, beef and shrimp dishes and all other kinds of tasty, excellent food (Weight wise I was lucky we walked and hiked a lot). And if you like it spicy there’s plenty of ways to add peppers or spicy sauces. My taste buds had a great time.

With Mexico being the first country I visited in Central America I now know for certain what I already figured: I want to see more of that part of the world. Somehow Central and South America always had a bigger attraction to me than say Africa or Asia. I’m pretty sure that for the next couple of trips there will be quite a few going in that direction.

Despite my Spanish experiment, my Spanish was lacking. Sure, after spending some time there I could understand a bit, but the locals speak so quickly that even my buddy Tim, who happens to be a translator (not Spanish though) and knows quite a bit of Spanish had some troubles at first. However, since I’m planning to go towards that part of the world again in the near future, I need to brush up on it. Note to self though: I’ll make sure that whatever road to learning I’ll take there be more speaking/listening than reading.

This trip to Mexico was also my first with a group vacation. Since my friend Tim joined me I knew I would have a great time no matter what, but the group we joined kind of clicked immediately and we had no trouble whatsoever. We agreed on excursions or where to go within minutes and did pretty much everything as a group. This bunch helped to make this a great holiday and I hope to spend more time with them in the near future.

This trip to Mexico has been one of the best holidays I’ve ever been on and I enjoyed it tremendously. If you want to get an impression of it you could visit my Flickr Mexico photo set.

I’m now in full vacation mode. That is to say that I’m not yet at my destination (flight’s not until tomorrow), but I’m enjoying the first day of my 3,5 week holiday, have packed for the trip, made sure that all things at work have been finished or transfered to a colleague and write this while my legs are up on the desk while I enjoy a nice refreshing and ice cold soda. Rest of the day consists of driving down and spending some time at my parents and then a diner with friends. Just relaxing and enjoying myself. As vacation time should be.

Since this will be my last entry for some time (yes, my holiday will be very low tech) I thought I could share a few random thoughts:

The “Writing a blog post every day for a week”-experiment went rather well I thought. With the incentive to need a subject every day to fill that commitment it was easier than I thought to come up with one. Still not the easiest thing in the world for me, but easier. I do have to say that I think the quality of the posts were somewhat lower than usual, but reason for that could easily be the lack of time I had to write/edit them because of work related issues. Thing I’ve learned though is that if I want to write more often I need to come up with a process that generates ideas.

The last couple of months I’ve been drawn to Mark Sisson’s website and I like what I’m reading there. So much so that I’ve ordered his book in order to see if his advice on eating and exercise habits could be something that works for me. This may turn into some experiment I’ll write about later.

Since I’ll be out of the country for 2,5 weeks I’m bound to miss a lot. Hell, maybe us Dutchies will even get a new government (it has taken them quite some time already). But there’s no reason to feel sorry because I will be doing something I enjoy tremendously: travel a part of the world I’ve never been to and try to enjoy myself doing it as much as possible.

See you in a while.

I don’t believe in marriage. At least not in the way marriage is perceived by many and mainly by religious institutions. I think it’s an outdated concept which time has caught up to. Let’s just take a look at the wedding vows.

..to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

All in all there’s nothing wrong with these, but it seems that these promises have lost their value. Because despite this spoken commitment to each other, many marriages end in divorce. So how much value has a ceremony with promises that are so easily broken?

I can understand the fiscal reasoning behind a marriage (although, when you live in my knack of the woods there are other arrangements that can be made) or when children are involved.

But the biggest gripe I have with this whole marriage thing is this: why should you need a piece of paper or huge ceremony to show someone you love them? Shouldn’t that be something they should know from your actions and how you share your life with them?

Don’t get me wrong: if people want to get married they should. By all means. I’m all for people doing the things they want to do. It’s just not something I would do, because of the above reasoning. I’ve been called unromantic, a chauvinistic male and cynic because of my stands. But the thing is that I do believe in commitment in a relationship. I believe that when you’re in a relationship with someone you love you should do your utmost to show them that. I just think you don’t need elaborate weddings to prove that.

And it won’t stop me from enjoying the wedding (and party afterwards) between two good friends of mine which I’ll attend today.

LinkedIn. Flickr. Twitter. StumbleUpon. Google Reader. As you can see in my blogroll, those are the 5 social media sites that I use (well, I do have a Facebook account, but it’s dormant). When you’re a business and you want me to buy or buy again from you, there’s a good change you can reach me there. For a business the possibilities to choose from are almost endless. And your choice depends on what kind of business you run.

Let’s say your a musician. Before yesterday Myspace Music was the best choice. Sure, they may have lost the battle with Facebook when it comes to total users, but when playing music was your job, they were a safe bet. But with the addition of Ping by Apple, which is tightly integrated with their iTunes business, you might want to jump into that as well. When you’re a multi-national having a presence on Facebook is never a bad idea. But what do you do with your customers in Brazil (where Orkut is the largest) or the Netherlands (where Hyves has the biggest presence)?

And it’s not just the number of social network/media sites you can choose from, it’s also a matter of whether your actions lead to generating leads or sales. Just getting into social media because “everybody is doing it” is not a sound business strategy. You want to reap the benefits of your efforts. So it’s no surprise that consultancy in social media is growing as a business.

Most businesses have realized that they should have a social presence but don’t know how to go about it. And with the ever growing aditions in social media, making the right decision isn’t getting any easier.