Mexico Rebounds: And Funjet Vacations Can Get Your There

Don’t scratch Mexico off your upcoming destination short list. The country is on the rebound since being devastated by Hurricane Wilma. And to encourage tourists to make their way to Mexico again, family owned tour operator Funjet Vacations (www.funjet.com) is offering enticing incentives.

So if you want to say adios to those winter blues, or take a much-needed vacation after the Holiday frenzy, you will find deals that include free nights and a second person flying for free. For example, through Funjet you can head to Cancun and the Riviera Maya—with a second person flying free. The package includes four nights with all-inclusive accommodations at the Gran Costa Real Resort & Spa. The package starts from $749.99 for the first person, and from $549.99 for the second person.

You can also take your chances and enter Funjet’s Mexico vacation contest, giving away an all-inclusive package to the Riviera Maya with accommodations in a 4.5 star hotel. Contest ends January 4, 2006, so hurry and enter online at www.funjet.com.

And, according to the folks at Funjet, Mexico is ready for you. “Almost all of the hotels in the Riviera Maya are now open for business and better thanever,” says Funjet spokesperson Tammy Lee. “The beaches are whiter and wider than ever –about 50% bigger – after Wilma washed more fresh sand ashore. The hotels are all in perfect condition and the attractions are all open for business. Tourists are already returning in full force from around the world. Americans need to book now to ensure availability for the peak winter travel season.”

Sounds like a plan.

Living The Accra City Life

After two weeks, we'd gotten into a routine of city life in Accra. Sure, we'd seen the tourist attractions, but by hanging out in the city we became almost one of the citizens. We'd grocery shop at the only large grocery store we could find in the business district, Osu. There, $10 worth of grocery would last a few days. The Western-style, Arab-run store attracted a wide range of folks--from literally African queens stepping out of their huge Ford SUVs wearing magnificent traditional dresses with their children following behind to white, teen backpackers to lower-income locals.

We'd pick up lunch or dinner at Papaya, a favorite local grilled chicken haunt.For $4 bucks tops you got a half of chicken that was cooked outside on a rotating grill. Inside, they served burgers and upstairs there was a popular diner. We contemplated trying one of the numerous Chinese or Italian restaurants on the Osu strip or the popular Korean restaurant, but we never did.

We'd head to Busy Internet, a huge, 24-hour internet shop that let you go on line for about $1 an hour. In their Internet call center you can make cheap calls back to the States—when it was up and running. On certain nights, they showed second run movies for $2 bucks. There was lunch buffet daily and at night the bar Busy Internet owned next door was jumping.

But the city can be tiring, so we decided to spend our last—and third--week at the beach. Unable to spring for a luxury beach resort, we hunted around for a guest house and found one owned by an African-American woman who moved to Ghana years ago. Her Ghanaian son, Melvin, runs the property called the Beachcomber. Taking a $4 cab ride from the central Accra to a town called Teshie, we found the guest home after a bumpy ride down a long dirt road. The night we arrived, a group was holding what seemed like a birthday party in the garden area. The DJ was spinning Ghanaian music and all the teens danced while the older sat back, ate and drank.

We had reserved one of the “huts” right where the party was going. The huts, five in all, had the bare essentials—two beds (it is hard to get a room with one bed at any of the hotels), a fan, and in our case a mini fridge, a desk and a small TV that got only two local channels. The "huts" had ocean views and were a quick walk to the beach (more on the beach below). The Beachcomber also offered apartments for shot stays; they included cable TV, a full kitchen, a dining room, living room and one or two bedrooms. These were a bargain at $50 a night, but had no ocean view. The huts were $25 a night with a morning breakfast--though we passed on the dry toast and instant coffee most of the time.

The property was neat, clean; and the staff (two sisters and a brother) friendly. At night we were lulled to sleep by the waves. In the morning the rooster, which strutted around the property, woke us up.

The only downside is that you DID NOT want to go to the beach. Since the beach in this area was public, the local fishermen used to it as a bathroom. So once you made it down the rocky hillside to the small beach, you didn't want to stay--let alone take your shoes off. Also people dumped garbage (including the Beachcomber staff) on the beach, so it is filthy.

While at the Beachcomber, we met an elder black woman from Detroit. At 75, she said this was her third or fourth trip. She always came to the Beachcomber and was staying in one of the apartments. This trip, she was scouting for property to buy, as she and her son and his family were planning a move to Ghana. I sat and talked with her in the garden while her driver cut coconuts from the trees and opened them for us to drink. He also went and bought the woman fish from one of vendors outside of the property who smoke the freshly caught fish. I didn’t try it, remembering the condition of the beach, but she said it was delicious. I know the coconut was. And I had another.

All in all, our beach stay was the perfect way to end our Accra adventure.

Travel Tip…If you decide to head to Africa yourself and wind up in Cape Town, South Africa, you might want to stay at The Hout Bay Hideaway (www.HoutBay-Hideaway.com), where during the winter, room rates are 50% off. And get this, all rooms have floor heating and almost every one has a private fireplace. So when the night chill hits, you’ll be more than comfy.