Melody's Upcoming Trips

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

This month, I'll be traveling to Cancun and then Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where I will be studying Spanish at a language school.  It will be my first time visiting the Riviera Maya and I am looking forward to it! 

The language course, booked through one of my favorite language-learning companies, Languages Abroad, will be intensive as I can only stay for ten days and I wanted to make the most of it.  But I will be able to practice my Spanish by speaking to the people I'll meet outside of class, which, of course, is the purpose of studying a foreign language in another country!

I'm also hoping to travel to places like Tulum or Chichen Itza; do some zip lining (see my post on my last zip lining experience in Guatemala), and visit ecological parks like Xel-Ha (see photo, above) and Xcaret. 

By the way, if you're interested in virtual travel (after all, even people with a serious case of wanderlust can't always be on the road!), the Mexican Tourist Board, Visit Mexico, is wonderfully represented in Second Life.  Read more in my new blog, Second Life Journeys.

Photo courtesy of Languages Abroad.

Arizona

After Mexico, I plan to head out west to visit my family in Phoenix.  I've been to Phoenix many times, but never to Tucson, so I'd like to spend some time there as well.

Some things I love about Phoenix: 

• the more than 300 annual days of sunshine
• the huge variety of restaurants
• a profusion of shops and bookstores
• a wealth of outside things to do year-round (you guessed it, the winters where I live are cold!)

I found a nice video called Destination Phoenix 2008 on the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau website.  If you're planning a trip there you might want to check it out.

Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau.