We're Zack and Callie. Welcome to Scenic
Sites and Bites. We hope you enjoy the
episode be sure to click on that
subscribe button. 2 a.m. and wow what a
night
we've got to make it to Calgary now to
get to our flight so here we go alright
it's Callie getting all ready we're
ready to rock
Okay so Callie's got a hankering for
McDonald's. I need a tea to stay awake.
well I don't know why, we got 40
minutes sleep. Was it 40 or 45 minutes? I
don't know I don't think it makes much
difference you might have got 45 minutes
and I got 40 minutes, does that sound right? I don't know.
All right so we're on the other side of
security at the Calgary International
Airport it's about 5:30 and we don't
actually have to be at our gate until
7:00
so I don't know, just kill some time chill out
relax
beautiful water, Cancun Mexico.
There's the beach. The coastline.
we love to lie on.
Hey Zack and Callie here, so we are
checking out the Sears in Mexico
downtown so anybody from Canada would
know that Sears in Canada is now gone, so
we're gonna check it out and see what
it's like in Mexico. Okay I don't think
this is the main entrance but we're at
the Los Americas mall. We came in to
Sears earlier and now I'm just out here
checking this out, so this is one of the
other entrances and it goes quite a ways
down so I imagine there's probably a
nicer main entrance somewhere but that's
where we are.
Say hi Callie. Hi.  Inside the mall here
they've got a big supermarket
it's Chedraui I think that's how
they pronounce it, I could be off on
that so forgive me and it's kind of like
a Walmart type of deal they've got
everything in there so let's go see what
we can find.
And one of the neat things they have
here is a wine dispenser that you can
have with your food so we ordered a
pizza and now I'm going to have a glass
of wine so I'm just going to go check this out.
You've gotta get a prepaid card once you've got that card he just put it in the
machine smallest card they have is 100 pesos of course so let's see how this works
apparently it doesn't like me
okay there we go
grab a glass, select
some of these are pretty expensive, some
of them aren't so bad
let's try this one here.
Okay easy as that minus the spilling. Okay
everybody should check this over here in
the grocery store you go right from deli
foods to booze and not just a little bit
of booze there is alcohol everywhere you
look.
Check this out.
Isn't that crazy?
Look at these chips you got regular you got
your jalapeno, you got your
Chili's got something that looks like
flaming hot
receta
This is the entrance to the express lane
at the supermarket,
so if you want to go through the express
lane you get to pass right past a whole
slew of alcoholic beverages. So this is
our shopping trip went. A bottle of pop
that we drank with lunch here in the in
the grocery store or a supermarket got
some coffee, some more coffee, t-shirts
and almond milks to drink, some pop for
later
some alcoholic coolers, some tequila,
bananas limon-aid, a couple of different
kinds of chips and some other snacks and
bananas we'll see how that goes.
I wonder what's playing in theaters today.
This ice cream tasts like a mix between
frosting and ice cream mixed together. Want some?
No you try it, okay give me a bite. It's a
little sweet
I don't like it. It was only 60 pesos
yeah I thought it was going to be more like gelato but is on the sweet side. Weird
ya it's something different.
This is our table, they brought this here with the  different condiments
these are Callie's dos pastor
conquesta
pastor conquesta corn tortilla tacos, thats the onions pineapple and cilantro you've 
gotta have the pineapple onions and
cilantro with your pastor apparently
that's pretty good. Then this is my first
one I've got more coming out.
This is a view from our 6th floor of
the Smart Cancun by Oasis hotel downtown
Cancun. Now some people are thinking
that downtown Cancun is a very scary
place. I'm here to tell you that the only
scary thing you have to worry about is
the traffic, the traffic can be nuts down
here and so as long as your eyes are
open you're paying attention and maybe
not drinking too much it's not as scary
as you think. Stay away from the drugs,
stay away from things that are gonna get
you in trouble and just enjoy yourself.
Walk in groups of more than one and just
be aware of your surroundings like any
place in North America and you're gonna
have a good time here, even downtown. Now mind you at nighttime we have walked around
down here in the night and it hasn't
been really too bad at all you know.
You'll find some more people asking for
money and whatnot and if you just walk
by and you're not gonna be bothered,
all-in-all downtown should not be feared
so let's have a better look.
From our hotel, we made a couple of trips
to the Oxxo, which is kind of like a
7-eleven and from our hotel we had to
cross four lanes of traffic we've got
the two main lanes and the main road and
then you've got side roads on each side
of that and those side roads can
actually be busier than the main road at
times, so when you're crossing you've
gotta cross the four lanes and you've
got to really pay attention because
you're not paying attention that could
that could be the end of a happy
vacation so keep your eyes open watch
for those openings be ready to cross there are marked crosswalk areas, not that
they mattered, they don't stop for a
crosswalk but we always went to the marked
crosswalk areas yeah so if you like
Oxxo, so if you like fast food, nachos
and cheese, burritos, hot dogs, bags of
chips, frozen slushies, those kind of
things then the Oxxo is the place to go
that's also a good place to go to get
your phone cards SIM cards if you're
going to be getting a Mexican number
on your phone and we can talk about that
a little bit later how to do that the
process of that,
yeah check it out. Don't be afraid of
downtown.
Some chips with salsa some red hot sauce
some really hot green sauce, some limes
and some guacamole and normally I don't
like guacamole but I might just try it
and see. So were here at the Smart
Cancun by Oasis and the sister hotel right
beside it is the Urban Oasis Oh! and we're
renting a smart car for the day.
We're here with a day pass at the Grand Oasis Palm
and we just loaded up our plates with the breakfast buffet.
And so this is what I've got on my
plate here. I have a couple of
quesadillas that were made to order, I
grabbed some breakfast sausage, some hashbrowns,
some rice and oh my goodness I
forgot what it's called chicka chilla?
or something like that I think
and then coffee and water to drink.
Callie's been working away at her
breakfast here, she had a couple of fresh eggs
and some pancakes, corn, pastry and a bun.
How were the eggs? The eggs were fine I ordered over medium but got sunny side up.
The pancakes are a little on the firm or crunchy side. Firm crunchy pancakes
That's a little different but it's a buffet.
Oh no, look at all those crazy birds
if you don't put your food away the
birds will take it away.
Coffee Milk? No just black, gracias.
That is the kind of wine rack that I have
dreams about I would love to have that
and you know where that would be good in
my house? Right in the living room, yeah
right there well no that would block
the TV but maybe and if I had a big
enough kitchen having that right in the
middle of the kitchen would be fantastic.
So this is the kiddy zone that they have
at the Grand Oasis Palm which is pretty
fun we've brought our kids here before
when we stayed here. Our oldest was too
old to be in the kiddy zone but our
youngest at the time liked it. The main
large pool here going onto that bridge
if I remember right it's a little
sketchy it's a good way to smash your
head but if you swim you can do it quite
easily.
It's a decent-size pool, most people
opt for the beach there's a lot of
free beach chairs here around the pool,
I'm hoping that we'll find a couple of
beach chairs on the beach that we can
use as well. You've got a wet bar, swim up
bar right in the pool
itself which is pretty cool if you want
to stay in there and have a few drinks.
And then they've got a snack bar just
right off the beach over there.
If I remember from last time they had
hamburgers and hot dogs fries that kind
of stuff and of course they had
alcoholic beverages there, pina coladas
rum and coke, cervecas , whatever you want.
The water over here is pretty calm very
clear and the sand is very very soft
it's like flour or talcum powder or
something just a very very soft sand.
This used to be the Oasis Palm like it
says on the building but now they call
it the Grand Oasis Palm. A couple years
ago that building there that says Sens
the Oasis Sens, that used to be the
Grand Oasis Palm so they've taken the
name from that building and put it on
this building. So if you've been to the
Grand Oasis Palm before in your book now
you are going to end up at what used to
be the Oasis Palm, so don't be surprised
they like to change the names around
just to confuse you or whatever, so if
you wanted to stay at what used to be the
Grand Oasis Palm you now have to book at
the Oasis Sens and I think that's more of
an adults-only, I could be wrong but  I heard something about it being
adults over there whereas the Grand Oasis Palm of courses is for
families and you've seen some of the
kids stuff out there by the pool they
also have a climbing structure out here
in the ocean as well which is kind of
cool because they didn't have that out
here the last time I was here. They do
have water hammocks which are pretty cool, that's a neat little feature, you can sit
there and soak your butt in the water
and wait for a crab to come and grab you.
I don't like crabs in the water by the
way just incase you didn't know that. The water's
not super clear at the moment it is
still somewhat clear but with kind of a
yellowy tinge to it so yeah I don't know
I don't know what's going on there, last
time I was here was a little bit more
clear, but the sand feels great you do
not need to wear water shoes out here
you can simply walk out in your bare
feet and just enjoy the feeling of the
nice soft sand between your toes.
One of the other nice things they have
here which you'll find at a lot of
resorts is free water sports,
non-motorized water sports and so you
can see there's a bunch of people with
the kayaks out in the water right now.
This water is nice and warm it's warmer
than the swimming pools that I've been
at some of the places here in Cancun so
this water is absolutely beautiful, its so
nice to be in, I could spend half the day
in this water. It looks like you rent the
sea-doos or Waverunners right at the beach here at the Grand Oasis Palm so if you
want to go for a rip round I don't know
how much they are I haven't asked them.
You can see they've got the
pirate-ships docked just off the side of
the Grand Oasis Palm,  if you want to go for a cool night out and experience a nice
evening dinner and pirate-ship show, we
actually did this a couple years back as
well, and actually I think when we went
it was probably four years ago, and boy
oh boy what a show that was it was so
good the two ships were out there in the
middle of the night you got to enjoy a
nice dinner out on the water and the two
ships started fighting each other cannon fire, guys swinging from ropes and
jumping all over the place, sword
fighting and then one of them eventually
won and you ended off with a great big
party and loud music everybody was up on
their feet just dancing around it was
really a fantastic time, pretty loud
though, and it was hot, the sun was
beating down, at least when were there
so take precaution, wear what you
gotta wear but yeah it's fun for the
whole family I would say, although mostly
adults when we were on it and the food wasn't
half bad.
See here, there is quite a few beach vendors
out selling stuff. There's one there for
sure that you can see in this shot at
the moment but we've been approached
since we've been on the beach, we're
sitting near the back of the beach
closer to the hotel we've been
approached about 10 times already
in the last hour so selling everything
jewelry to braids, food, sunglasses you
name it, and once upon a time they they
wouldn't approach you, at least these
resorts, they would stay closer to the
water edge and then if you called them
over they would come over. I think
there's a guy walking over there, where is he,
selling coconuts some sort kind of got
it on his head there under the umbrella
yeah so it can be kind of annoying so
just learn to say no thank you and kind
of ignore them which may seem rude but man they'll bug you non stop if
you don't. You learn something new everyday. Here I am pushing 50 and I just
learned. You're not 50 yet. I'm not 50 yet, I'm a couple of years away. You're not 49 yet.  I'm 48
I'm pushing 50, anyways, so you know I never knew what a shrimp cocktail was and
the people sitting beside us who I'm not
gonna film me because I don't want to
invade their privacy, she had this big
glass like my pina coloda glass and it
had this red drink in it. Orangy Red. And it had a whole bunch of stuff
in it and I'm looking at it and look
like it was in the shape of shrimp and I
said the Callie, I said look at that
drink it's got all this shrimp in it,
is that at a shrimp cocktail
and she looked at me like I was
something special and pretty much told
me that yeah that's a shrimp cocktail
So here I am pushing 50 and I just
finally learned what a shrimp cocktail
was. So what have you learned? What
have you lived your whole
life or a good chunk of your life
living and never knew what something was
until you older? What has surprised you? Comment below.
Let me know.
So I don't know what the sign says but I
think Calie found what basically is
kind of like the equivalent of a dollar
store because you can see up above these
things are all everything on this wall
is 15 pesos and everything on that wall
over there is 10 pesos and then I'm sure
there's some exceptions because I don't
think the t-shirt would be 10 or 15
pesos but for the most part everything
seems to be priced pretty cheap here.
The Chedraui supermarket.
Okay so we're checking out one of the
Chedraui large stores this one's not
in the mall, this is a bigger store, I
think it's freestanding
We'll go check it out and see how it's
different. Okay so at the last Chedraui
we were at we had to put  both our
backpacks, Callie's purse backpack and the
big backpack that I carry in, we have to
check it basically we had to give it,
there for us to leave and pick it up
afterwards but here I talked to security
and they just had a quick look and ask
what is in it and then they let me pass
into it so I guess each place is a
little bit different if you're not sure
just ask the security guard and they
will tell you if you have to check it
at the front. So the el bano is
on the second floor here at the chedraui
and the escalators are a little bit different they don't have the stairs
it's just a walking ramp. You can bring
your shopping cart up here. You can bring your shopping cart quite
easily I think.
This is something I've never seen before
we're at the Chedraui supermarket and
walking along near the the toy aisle the
fitness gear and the automotive and
hardware area and they've got motor
scooters for sale, so that's something
that I would not have expected to see
here, little motorbikes and motor
scooters and right alongside the
bicycles.
So we saw this right outside the Chedraui supermarket,
this guy is selling corn in a cup and
it looks like you put spices and cheese
and butter on so I'm gonna check it out and see if it's any good.
'inaudible'
It's corn right? Yeah.
This is butter?
Yeah.
Spicy? Oh yeah. Yeah?
Is that cheese? Cheese yeah.
Not bad.
Okay so we arrived at the airport by our
Sunwing shuttle. Going through the Cancun
Airport is certainly a lot different
than going through the airports that I'm
used to in Canada.
Here you can go through security in a
matter of 2-3 minutes, even going through
getting your bags checked and what not that was a pretty easy
process. At security it's like drop the
stuff on the conveyor you don't even
take your laptops out of the bags or
nothing, just throw it all in the bins
collect it at the other end it comes out
just as fast as it goes in, so quite
frankly I'm surprised that they can even scan the stuff that fast. There was only one or
two times I actually saw them slow that
conveyor down and it was very very brief so
they are looking for something but
they're much much faster than what I'm
used to. And then once you come out of
security
you're bombarded with a bunch of shops
and restaurants, Johnny Rockets, Domino's
Pizza, upstairs for the international
flights you'll find a bunch more stores
of course the duty-free shops which if
you didn't get a good enough deal in
Cancun you can come to the duty-free
shop and pay twice as much for it here
and then yeah the TGIFridays was up
here I'm not sure if I said that or not
and then now we're just heading over to
where the gates are.
We're getting ready to land in Calgary. Home sweet home. It's dark out.
'Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Calgary
local time is approximately 11:40 on
behalf of all of us here at Sunwing
especially your flight crew, we would like to thank you for flying with us, We look forward
to seeing you again on your next vacation'
Yeah we're home.
No it's cold not warm.
You can see the ground crew with their lightsabers.
