Mexico!

Well, this is our first week in Mexico and after two days of adjustment to the local culture we are getting along very very fine.

We started our trip in Cancun, which is simply an American enclave in Mexico. McDonalds, Starbucks, Hooters, you name it. We were sick of it after about half an hour and took the first bus we could catch to Rio Lagartos (via Tizimin).

We forgot to ask for a first class bus and were put on a regular service, which stops about every 500 meters (in Cancun) to pick up commuters. It took us 4 hours to get to Tizimin, where we had to wait 2 hours for a connecting (and last) bus to Rio Lagartos. In Rio Lagartos we were welcomed by two local fishermen, who make an extra buck with flamengo tours. They brought us to our hotel. Really nice, since it was dark and we didn't have a clue where to go.

The next morning we woke up early and took a flamengo tour with those guys. Manuel, our captain, didn't speak a single phrase in English, just about 7 words.

He showed us all kinds of wildlife in the Biosfera Reserva. Flamengoes, Black Hawks, Pelicans, all kinds of herons and even some crocodiles. Especially the crocodiles were very awesome. Apart from the animals the mangrove forests were very cool and impressive.

After Rio Lagartos we went to Merida. The capital city of Yucatan state (the peninsula is called Yucatan too, but consists of the states Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Campeche). Here we have a kick ass hostel, with loads of nice people, live Trova music (mexican folk) and three fans in our room (which is necessary).

Yesterday we went to Chichen Itza, the capital of Mayan civilization in the north of the peninsula. A quite impressive site, but bus loads of tourists and many many vendors of all kinds of semi authentic crap.

Today we went to Uxmal, which is another Maya city. It was a lot better than Chichen, since there were not even one percent of the people there, no vendors and more trees for shade. The place was very idyllic and we had a very good time.

The weather is incredible. At night it is still about 25 degrees and the daytime takes it up to probably just above 30 (sometimes hitting 35, would be my guess). No rain, almost no clouds. Tonight there just happens to be a moon eclipse. Wicked!

Disclaimer: the pictures are from the internet. No computer is up to speed with our camera :-)

1 day to go!

Tomorrow morning we take the first train to Schiphol, to begin our holiday to Yucatan, Mexico.

We'll be gone for two weeks enjoying sun, beach, xx lager, mayan ruins and no work.

This is our first holiday over one week together and Anneke's first time outside Europe. She's a bit nervours about the flight, so that is going to be a bit of a trial.

We plan to stay in hostels, not too expensive. Especially with the current value of the US Dollar, we might be in for an affordable holiday. There are lots of things we want to do and will be doing.

A little warm up...

Whisky and more

Last Friday I organized, together with a colleague, a whisky nosing and tasting at the Whiskykoning. He invited some friends, I invited some friends and since we had a bit of room to spare we invited some other colleagues as well. In the end we were with 10 people.

The line up of whiskies was pretty ok. I had to come up with a couple of whiskies to do the tasting, and in the end it seemed wise to go for different kinds of finishes. So we had the following whiskies:

• Glenmorangie Cellar 13 (bourbon matured)
• Cragganmore Distillers' Edition (port finish)
• Dalmore Black Pearl (madeira finish)
• Springbank Rum Wood (rum finish)
• Bruichladdich 15 (sauterne finish)
• Blackadder Port Ellen 21 (sherry matured)

The results were not really predictable, and since everyone had their own favorite, I am only going to give my results:
 
#1 Port Ellen (slightly sweet, fruitcake)
#2 Glenmorangie Cellar 13 (exceptional in its simplicity, vanilla and wood)
#3 Springbank Rum Wood (not too exceptional, but quite good. Too bad the typical Springbank edge was gone)
#The rest (can't choose)

The Port and Madeira finishes were not really my thing. I thought they tasted a bit stale and a bit too sweet. The Bruichladdich was a strange one. It tasted nothing like other Bruich's I have tasted (quite a few by now). It was incredibly sweet, too much. All this sweetness pushed all other flavors to the back.

Other things

The rest of the weekend was busy. We have been doing some preparations for our vacation to Mexico coming Friday. On Saturday evening, we went to Leerdam to see Last Horizon play again in a band competition, which they won this time!

On Sunday we slept in for a bit and then did some house keeping. In the afternoon I went to see The Bluegrass Boogiemen in Plein 79. They were quite cool and played some honest bluegrass tunes. Banjo's and Fiddles all around!

Yesterday we talked to Anneke's old boss, the butcher, for the dinner at our wedding. They had some great ideas and I got quite hungry! Looking forward to that!

Social Networking

The web 2.0 principle with all its kinds of interactive systems and user based experience is really cool. I love social networking. Therefore I have too many accounts to remember. Probably about 15 forum accounts, facebook, last.fm, pandora (even though it is not working in the Netherlands anymore) and so on.

Although I really like this all, Hyves always had some kind of a negative image with me. I never really liked it. Too many crappy looking pages and so on. It looks like an out of hand hobby project of some PHP script kiddy.

Facebook, however, works like a charm. Clear controls, proper support, worldwide access, good performance, and so on and so on. But, because Hyves is so much bigger in the Netherlands, it works like a fly in a zoo. As long as it is very much in your face, you won't even notice the elephant in the background. Facebook is bigger and better, and empty for me. Almost no one I know is on Facebook, and even less people actively work with it.

So, yesterday, my mission failed. I reactivated my Hyves account and am using it now. My account has grown, I got back in touch with heaps of people. All these things can be done much better with Facebook, but still.

I am a bit ashamed of myself, since I always evangelized against Hyves... this sucks...

Things about to happen

It is a bit of a calm before the storm. We are still very busy planning our wedding, preparations for our holiday, but it still feels as easy going.

There are lots of things that I am looking forward to:

• February 8th: Whisky nosing and tasting (Different finishes)
• February 15th to March 1st: Holiday to Mexico
• March 3rd: Nick Cave's new album
• March 10th: Joe Bonamassa in Eindhoven
• March 15th: Whisky Festival in Eindhoven
• March 17th to 21st: Another visit to Minsk (planned)
• March 28th: Whisky nosing and tasting (Lowlands whiskies)
• April 1st: The Black Keys' new album
• April 7th: Portishead in Amsterdam
• April 28th: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in Amsterdam
• May 24th: Timesbold in Den Bosch
• May 29th: Flogging Molly in Amsterdam
• May 3oth/May 31st /June 1st: One of these days we are probably going to Pinkpop
• June 10th: OUR WEDDING!!!
• June 11th to ?: Our honeymoon
• August 14th to 18th: the Lowlands festival
• November 7th: Whisky nosing and tasting (Islay whiskies)
• January 18th: Whisky nosing and tasting (Bottoms up)

As you might have noticed, I tend to plan ahead... Not all of these things are planned by me, like album releases, but I still look forward to those things anyway. I always consider that things that are going to happen keep you going. It is a bit of a reward after working and being a good citizen :)

We survived another Carnaval in our street again too. The last couple of days were days of partying in Den Bosch for all kinds of people. I still hate it, mostly because the biggest part of the party people are the most boring fellows you can meet during the rest of the year, and all of a sudden they think they can keep going for 4 days straight.
For some reason people get the idea that it is normal during a 'festival' that it is normal to throw all your waste on the street instead of IN the garbage cans that are 2 meters away. The street and the rest of the city center look like a refuse-dump now. Quite annoying.