Womens World Cup and Valladolid

I've thought for a long time about sending a newsletter to people who've stayed in our condo or inquired about it, but I didn't want to be pest or a spammer. Here's my alternative. I hope this blog will be an informal summary of our trips to Puerto Morelos, side trips, what's going on in town, helpful links etc.  

We always try to go down in November for the Villas Playasol owners meeting. The other owners are such a nice group of people and it's so fun to see everyone. This year the FIFA Women’s world cup qualifying was in Cancun. Some of our Canadian friends knew players on the Canadian team and figured out the tickets, details and logistics.  We tagged along for the final match which was supposed to be U.S. vs. Canada, however, Mexico upset the U.S. team so it turned out the final match was Canada vs. Mexico. 

Mexico got a red card in the first half and Canada made the penalty shot. Mexico had to play the whole second half, one player short. The game ended with Canada winning 1-0. I was really impressed with the sportsmanship of the Mexican fans when they lost a player for the penalty. There was no booing or name calling. Each time the Canadian goalie kicked the ball, the Mexican fans would wave their hands and chant a Spanish word we couldn't really understand. Our Canadian friends started doing the same thing when the Mexican goalie kicked the ball. The Mexican's around us were cracking up. We had no idea what we’re saying and it turned out to be something we'd never say in English. 

We also made a day trip to Valladolid. They recently paved the road all the way to Leona Vicario and we thought we could connect to the toll highway for the rest of the trip to Valladolid. It turned out there was no way to get on the toll road at the intersection so we ended up taking the Libre road to Valladolid. It took about 30-40 minutes longer then the toll road took to get home.

Valladolid was great. We'd been there before on our first trip to the Yucatan. It isn’t touristy at all. One thing that’s really telling is that Rick looked at 4-5 stores before he could find a t-shirt with Valladolid on it.  As our friend Yayo recommended, we had lunch at Cenote Zaci. It was delicious Yucatecan food at a very reasonable price.  We also got free admission to the Cenote for eating there.