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Mexico: The good, bad and ugly of all-inclusives

Meridian Writers' Group CHACALAL, Mexico-I laze in a dreamy state. The Mexican sun beats down; I'm into a page-turner of a novel. A waiter goes by delivering free tropical drinks.
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Meridian Writers' Group

CHACALAL, Mexico-I laze in a dreamy state. The Mexican sun beats down; I'm into a page-turner of a novel. A waiter goes by delivering free tropical drinks. What's not to love? This is life at a dazzling resort perched on a perfect beach on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Did I mention it is all-inclusive?

These days, all-inclusive resorts have become as numerous as mariachi bands throughout Mexico. The all-in-one price, which covers your airfare, hotel, some activities, meals and drinks, make it the most cost-efficient way to relax in the sun.

Here's the good, bad and ugly of an all-inclusive stay. I'll use the five-star Hotel Gran Bahia Principe Akumal, a 30-minute drive from Playa del Carmen, as my example, but most of what follows applies to just about any all-inclusive. Read on and decide if it's the vacation for you.

The good: top of the list is price. Depending on the week, it may be as cheap as $799 or, at a five-star during prime time, $2,500. You travel on a charter flight so there is no stopover.

Sports enthusiasts love the tennis, volleyball, water sports and fitness centres. You may be able to luxuriate in a spa, have your hair braided or get henna tattoos. There's a wide choice of day excursions, mostly at extra cost. Wee ones often have their own activities, daycare may be available and there may even be pint-size buffets. The pool areas usually have specific designations: some suit families, others let the rowdier sort play organized pool games to blasting music.

The food is always plentiful. We appreciated the fresh daily fare at the buffets. If you tire of buffet there are usually à la carte restaurants. (On our package we could book three dinners at these more upscale eateries.) There is entertainment - in our case it included a Michael Jackson look-alike show. Booze flows liberally - tequila shooter before lunch anyone? Some places have free Internet service.

The bad: you will inevitably have to wear a brightly coloured plastic bracelet on your wrist to identify yourself as a guest and let staff know what package you're on.

While the wine is free, other than at the à la carte restaurants, it is often borderline drinkable. (Despite this, many times at dinner we observed fellow diners ordering two or three glasses at once!) And while your flight is direct, you may travel at ungodly hours: a 9 a.m. departure meant leaving our beds at 3 a.m.

The ugly: at the Bahia Principe we quickly learned that if you don't have a towel on a beach chair around your chosen pool by 7 a.m. you could forget about it. One group designated a runner to stake six chairs each morning. Most unpopular were the people who threw down their towels but never arrived to use the chairs. There were verbal exchanges over this. The worst story we heard was of a man who took the chair cushion to his room every night to ensure his pool space. Even paradise has a downside.

 

ACCESS

For more information on the Hotel Gran Bahia Principe Akumal visit its website at www.bahiaprincipeusa.com .

For information on travel in Mexico go to the Visit Mexico website at www.visitmexico.com .

 

 

 

La Paz is just starting to be discovered

 

By Mitchell Smyth

Meridian Writers' Group

LA PAZ, Mexico-This city is aptly named. "La Paz" means "peace," and it's that laid-back ambience that distinguishes it from other tourist places like Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. Heck, the stores close for two or three hours every afternoon so the workers can have a siesta.

But it wasn't always so tranquil. Its coves, on the Sea of Cortez in the Baja California peninsula, were once safe havens for pirates who preyed on Spanish treasure ships in the 17th and 18th centuries.

And in the 19th century it was the flashpoint for a daring, if harebrained, plan to annex the whole Baja peninsula and make it part of the United States.

This was the time, the 1850s, when the theory of Manifest Destiny - the idea that the United States was "destined" to rule the entire continent - was rampant in America.

In 1853 William Walker, a Tennessee-born hellion, raised a tiny army, invaded La Paz, took the governor of South Baja hostage and raised the flag of what he hoped would become a new U.S. state.

A replica of that flag - a white bar between two red bars - takes pride of place in a William Walker exhibit in the Anthropological and Historical Museum, a short walk from the picturesque malecon (waterfront walkway).

Nearby are bonds used to finance the expedition of El filibuster norteamericano , ("the North American filibuster," as Walker's known in Mexico and in Central America, where he also fought). The $600 bonds were redeemable for land in Mexico. Thousands were sold in San Francisco, where he recruited his dogs of war.

And there's a map showing the invasion route and the route of the retreat.

Walker had only 49 "soldiers" when he captured La Paz. Two hundred more joined him and for a while they held the town, waiting for help from Washington. But the United States disowned him, further reinforcements failed to arrive and he was forced to surrender and return to America.

The 29-year-old Walker's filibustering days weren't over, though. In 1855 he led a band of mercenaries to Nicaragua where, aided by local rebels, he overthrew the government and had himself named president. A counter-revolution unseated him and by 1857 he was once more back in San Francisco.

He made a final foray into Latin America in 1860, when he tried to take over the British Honduras island of Roatan, but the Royal Marines seized him. This time there was no return to America: the Honduran authorities put him in front of a firing squad.

La Paz is only now being "discovered" by North American tourists, especially since Holland America added it as a port of call. They find it - as John Steinbeck did in 1941 in his Log From the Sea of Cortez - "a lovely place" over which "a cloud of delight hangs." Part of that delight would come from its weather: sunny, warm and dry (over 300 days of sun a year), with a year-round average high temperature of 23 to 25 degrees Celsius, and breezes keeping the air fresh even in summer.

 

ACCESS

 

For more information go to the city's website, www.visitlapaz.net .