Mexico Vacation

Mike and I had our 11 year anniversary this year. Mike also had his HUGE boards test. Basically he was MIA for months until that was over. When he was done we flew our kids up to Idaho with my parents and we headed off to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We left early Monday morning and flew into Cancun. We caught a van down to Playa Del Carmen where we stayed at The Sandos Playacar all inclusive resort. It was so hot and humid but absolutely gorgeous. Mike is really good at keeping a journal of what we did during the vacation. He sent it to his family and my family to give them an update. Because we were in another country we couldn't use our cell phones (except to send emails over wifi). So, this was a great way to keep in contact with everyone.  These are Mike's notes from our trip:

Thursday June 26th

Our trip got off to a great start when we got a free first class upgrade on our flight from Phoenix to Cancun.  We found out about this on Sunday and were so excited.  But, we had no idea how nice this would really be.  It was amazing how much room we had on the plane. They told us we would be delayed at the gate for thirty minutes and I didn't even care.  I was just sitting in a comfortable lounger relaxing.  I could fly across the world like that.  In addition, they brought us breakfast, unlimited drinks, snacks, etc.  It was fantastic.  They also gave us free checked bags.  

When we got into the Cancun airport we got our bags and went through customs.  We got a red light in the red light green light game so they had to search our bags.  It was more funny than anything.  I had prearranged for a company to pick us up from the airport and take us to our resort in Playa Del Carmen, it was about a 45-50 minute drive.  We found a greeter at the airport, who called the driver, who came and picked us up.  He spoke a little English.  When I got in the driver asked me my name, I said Mike, he said "Miguel", I said, my dad calls me "Miguelito"  It was exciting because Mexico was playing in the World Cup right when we got in, so the driver was listening to the game on the radio.  Unfortunately I couldn't understand anything so I had to keep asking what was happening when  the announcers sounded excited.  Finally Mexico scored a goal when we were in the car, that was exciting because the announcer sounded so excited and the driver was clearly very excited.  He told me what had happened.  Then they scored again.  Then when we checked in they scored again and everybody was excited yet again.  

We got to our hotel and got checked in and everything which was mostly uneventful.  The resort is massive.  It takes up three blocks.  Our room unfortunately is at the very back of the resort and it is about an 8-10 minute walk to the beach, needless to say I should have brought a better pair of sandals.  Its okay, this is the adult only part of the resort and it is very very nice.  It is an all inclusive resort so there is food everywhere.  There are multiple buffets, about 7 nice restaurants that you need a reservation for, bars everywhere (which have delicious virgin drinks), and smaller restaurants all over the place with fajitas, hot dogs, burgers, nachos, and whatever else.  And, all the food is free as is everything else.  

After we got checked in we got ready and went down to the beach while exploring our resort on the way down.  On the walk down there are iguanas and monkeys which are just hanging out at the resort.  We stopped at a "cupcake shop" where we got cupcakes and smoothies, again for free.  We got down to the beach and it was beautiful.  The water is a clear green color, just like we see in pictures and movies of the Caribbean.  There were some big waves that first evening so we went and played in them, tried to body surf and just hung out in the water, which was really fun.  The water is warm and just nice to be in.  We didn't have too long before we got hungry and wanted to go eat.  We came back up and then went down to an all you can eat buffet.  It was okay.  I'm quickly noticing (and remembering from coming down here 14 years ago) that all of the food tastes a little bit funny.  But the buffet was still good, I'm always excited about "all you can eat".   After eating we just walked around the resort, saw a little bit of a show and just explored a bit.  The resort is outstanding.  There is a huge gym, a huge spa, with hydro massage.  There are tons of pools and like I said food everywhere.

On Tuesday were scheduled for a super annoying time share presentation which was painful and took 2.5 hours.   We agreed to it because of the free gifts they were offering.  For doing it we got a beach bag, a couple shirts, and Melissa got an 80 minute massage.  They basically convinced me to get a 25 minute massage even though I knew it would put my manhood in question.  So the timeshare was painful, they did feed us breakfast though which was again an all you can eat buffet and that was great.  

After the presentation we came and got ready for the beach and spent a few hours on the beach.  We played in the waves.  Then, we found a coral reef and snorkeled.  The water was clear but there were a lot of waves.  We took some bread with us, while I was snorkeling I heard screaming, I brought my head up to see Melissa screaming about 15 feet away, she yelled, "The fish are getting me".  She was really terrified, I swam over and we swam away.  But, the fish over there were so excited about her bread, they were swimming all around her and even into her.  I went and found the same school of fish later and they were awfully agressive, surrounding me, I think they were looking for food.  We didn't snorkel for long because the conditions just weren't very good.

We eventually came back up because we had to get ready for our dinner reservations here at the resort.  We ate at "Le Gourmet", a French restaurant.  I didn't think I would really like it but it was okay.  For my appetizer I got beef filet chopped up, they brought and it was raw, completely raw, and obviously completely disgusting, not cooked for a second.  Obviously I didn't even try it.  I cut it up and pushed it to one side of my plate.  Melissa got some arugula salad which she supposedly liked.  We got the filet for dinner which actually turned out to be quite good.  For dessert they brought this fire over and literally lit our food on fire.  It was weird, and I think it may have added a little bit of alcohol to our dessert, after I realized it, I quit eating, mostly because it tasted gross.  The best part of the meal was that there was no price, all included in the resort.

After dinner, we came and got ready and went and played tennis for an hour.  We had a great time, but obviously got really sweaty.  It was really hot.  They have rackets and balls that we borrowed and it was really fun.  

After tennis we went to a crepe shop at the resort, again for free.  We got crepes with nutella and caramel and ice cream on the side.  Amazing.  Really.  We will be doing that once a day for the rest of the trip.  Then we sat in this "bar" and ordered really amazing virgin drinks.  We sat there and drank them and that was basically our day.  

Wednesday morning we slept in kind of late, almost till 10:00, woke up and rushed down to breakfast before it closed.  Once again breakfast was great, all you can eat buffet, pancakes, french toast, omelets, eggs, fruits, and all kinds of other things, some good, some nasty.  After finishing breakfast we went and checked bikes out so we could ride into the town of Playa Del Carmen and check it out.

The bikes were light green and very old, brakes didn't work well, and overall they were hard to ride, but fun.  It was about a 10-15 minute bike ride into town.  We got there and we were finally in Mexico.  It reminded me of coming here 14 years ago and the smell reminded me of Abidjan.  I haven't smelt that smell since, its hard to describe but it smelt just like it, and had a very similar feel, though Mexico is a bit nicer.  It was really fun though, we rode our bikes clear to Wal Mart, which was probably another 10 or 15 minutes.  Along the way we passed tons of shops and restaurants.  People were lined up to get a McDonalds ice cream, which looked like it only sold ice cream.  There was a Burger King and KFC.  There were just tons of people on the streets.  The buildings were all old and worn down, it was a really great Mexican experience.  Wal Mart was really normal, looked basically like a real wal mart.  The parking lot was under the store though, that was interesting.  We shopped around there, got some things we needed.  I got water shoes, we got some candy to try, i don't remember what else we bought, sun tan lotion maybe.  But, we had a great time.  After Wal Mart, we wanted to eat at the taco restaurant dad recommended, I think I found it but it didn't open till 1 so that was weird.  On our way back we stopped at a lot of shops and bought a few things, some things for the kids, etc.  It was fun to go by every shop and have people constantly say, "come see what we have", "we have good deal", "you need this".  Hilarious.  Melissa did quite a bit of bartering which she really liked.  

On our bike ride back Melissa went over a bump and her seat bent almost 90 degrees so her seat was almost bent backwards touching the tire.  She rode it a little ways further until she got tired.  Then I rode it the rest of the way.  It was hard because we had to stand up on it from that point forward, which was a TON of work.  I sat down on it at first and bent it clear back to the tire.  By the time we got back to our resort 15 or 20 minutes later we were both exhausted.  We were dripping sweat, almost as wet as if we had just jumped in the pool.  I didn't mention the weather, it is about 90 with just a ton of humidity.  We are used to hot, but this humidity makes it really hot and makes us really sweat.  When we got back, we hurried and got some water, went and changed into our swimming suits and jumped in the pool by our rooms as fast we could.  We were dying.  

After our swim we came up and got ready for a really fun night of adventure at Xplor.  It is next to Xcaret and it is the same company but it is a bit different, more of an adventure park. The bus for Xplor came to our resort and picked us up, then it was about a ten minute drive or so.  When we got there, they gave us helmets to wear the whole time and they gave us lockers for our stuff.  First off, we went on a zip line course.  This was just amazing.  We zip lined in Maui last year but this zip lining blew that out of the water.  It was WAY better..longer zip lines, more controlled, just awesome.  Great thrill.  There were 7-9 lines, and on the last one you end up in the fresh water.  Next we went and drove what is called an amphibious vehicle, which was kind of a mix between a four wheeler and a golf cart.  There is a 3 mile course in the middle of the Mexican jungle (the whole park is in the middle of the jungle).  It was also a great time.  The vehicles seemed like they were going to break down and they were really hard to turn which made it more fun.  Also, the course had a lot of bumps, turns, fire, and hills.  

After this we went rafting in an underground cave.  Melissa and I shared a raft and it was actually a lot of work, they gave us hand paddles that we attached to our hands.  It was probably the only thing we didn't love there, was just a bit uncomfortable and hard to paddle.  But the underground cave was completely awesome.  After rafting we swam in the underground cave, called a cenote.  It was quite a really long swim, took us probably 25-30 minutes, they gave us lifejackets and everything.  The water is fresh and natural I guess.  There were tons of bats in there and it was dark with just lights in the dark.  This was a blast.  There were lots of waterfalls in the course and everything.  

At this point we went and ate at the included all you can eat buffet.  The food here was better than the buffets at our resort.  They had beef and pork ribs, burgers, dogs, pizza, salads, fruits, lots of deserts.  Huge amount of great food.  And, like I said it was included.  One thing I forgot to mention is that we decided to do this park at night...you have the option of the day or the night, the night hours are 5:30-11:30.  We made the right choice for two reasons, everything was really fun in the dark and there were no lines to do anything, we didn't wait in a single line all night.

After dinner, we went and did the zip lines again, this time in the dark of night, which made it even better.  You are elevated clear above the jungle, you can see the trees below and the skylines of Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen.  Over one zip line you go over Jaguars and Crocodiles.  This was so fun I can't even tell you.  After doing the zip lines again, we went and did a hammock ride.  I was unsure this would be fun at first but we gave it a try.  This ended up being zip lining into the fresh water in hammocks.  We LOVED this.  We loved it so much, we just kept going again and again and again.  We couldn't get enough.  It was at this point I told Melissa I've never had more fun as an adult, ever.  She agreed.  It was a great time.

After the hammock ride we still had time to drive the vehicles along the course again, this time in the dark and we had time to do the zip line course one more time, which once again was incredibly thrilling.  

That brings us to Thursday, which it is as I type this entry.  This morning we woke up and hit breakfast at a new buffet, which was great.  Melissa had real "juevos rancheros" and she was in heaven, she loved them.  After breakfast we had those massages we earned through that awful time share presentation.  Melissa convinced me to get one but I really didn't want to at all.  Before the massage we went and did hydrotherapy which were basically these bars you lay on in the pool and the jets come up and pound your back.  Then they came and got us for our massage.  Melissa is still doing hers now, hers was 80 minutes, mine was 25, so now I'm finishing catching up on this.  Mine was just so awkward.  Ya, it felt good, but there was a language barrier and I wasn't sure if the lady was really telling me to get naked.  She motions to me to take my clothes off and get in the sheet and she'll be back.  I say "should i leave my towel on?".  She says "its ok"...Im thinking "what the heck does that mean, am I really supposed to get naked right now?".  Anyway, i left the towel on and went face down on the bed and she gave me the massage.  It felt good, but I don't think I need to do one of those again.  

Tonight we have reservations at a steak house here at the resort which will again be free (included with the resort).  We are still trying to decide what to do tomorrow.  Today is a beach relax day and so is Saturday, but I haven't seen the Mayan ruins in Tulum yet and I haven't snorkeled much yet so somehow I need to make those two things happen.  We have a couple of options but we will see.  We are having a fantastic time.

On Thursday like i mentioned previously we got our massages, which made me a bit uncomfortable but Melissa loved.  After that we really spent almost the whole rest of the day at the beach.  Well, right after the massages we went in an area and watched the end of the USA Germany World Cup match which USA lost 1-0.  After that ended we headed down to the beach.  It was mostly uneventful, we both just relaxed, slept, read, etc.  I played in the water a bit, but not much.  It was nice, because Wednesday was exhuasting.  We had a small lunch down at the beach at the restaurant down there, just burgers and fries.  Once night rolled around we started to head back up to our room.  We knew we had dinner reservations at a steak house but we weren't certain what time, we were thinking six, but it ended up being seven so we went and swam in the pool by our room and just kind of relaxed and cooled off in there.  

The steakhouse turned out to be pretty delicious.  I got a ribeye, which I would say was about as good as an average Texas Roadhouse ribeye.  Melissa got chicken, I think...and she really liked it.  After the dinner, the night was mostly gone but we did go down to the main hangout area and got dessert crepes and amazing drinks.  The drinks we get are basically like jambas.  And they are unlimited and really incredibly good.  Melissa gets the crepe with nutella and caramel and she thinks its heaven.  I mix it up, and they are all really amazing.  It has become our nightly ritual.

We woke up early (8:00) on Friday for a fun day we had planned.  We got ready and went down to breakfast, ate real quick and then grabbed a taxi to the Playa Del Carmen bus station, that ran us about 7 bucks.  At the bus station we bought tickets for Tulum for about 7 dollars a person.  We were a bit early so we shopped around a bit, finished getting stuff for our kids.  Melissa bartered for Caches gift at the first store and we ended up walking away and the guy was ticked.  We weren't sure exactly what he said but it was something like don't come back to my store.  He was mostly directing it at Melissa.  Melissa felt a little bit bad but got over it.  Now we can laugh about it.   We ended up getting the deal we wanted at a store a few stores down.  

Finally we got on the bus and rode it to Tulum.  It took probably about an hour after stops at Xcaret and Xel-Ha.  Monsters University played on the screen in spanish.  It was a pretty nice bus actually.  Tulum was really awesome.  As we were walking in we walked by an incredibly green snake that was really long and was the same color as the leaves/tree it was hanging from.  We took a great pic.  The ruins were incredible, something everyone should see once.  I didn't want to get a tour guide because tours just plain bore the heck out of me, so we walked around for probably an hour, took pictures, read the signs and just looked around.  I was trying to decide in my head if there was any relation to Book of Mormon history and there just may be, who knows.  But it was interesting to think about.  The amazing thing is that the ruins overlook an amazingly beautiful beach.  The beach was packed full of people, but I think from down in the water you can see an incredible view of the ruins.  We didn't want to get all wet yet though.  On our way out of Tulum we saw a Subway and we decided a sandwich and chips would be nice and it really was.  

After Tulum, we caught a taxi to a town and beach called Akumal.  I had done a lot of research before we came and this is the place I wanted to come and snorkel.  The taxi dropped us off and on our way in guys were trying to sell us snorkeling tours, we said no and kept going.  There was a dive shop just right by the beach where we rented fins and the mandatory life jackets and a locker, all for 25 dollars.  Then we just went and hit the water.  It was absolutely fantastic!  It wasn't long before we saw our first sea turtle.  And, then we saw more and more sea turtles, they were huge, and they were awesome.  There is grass at the bottom of the shallow ocean that they just sit and feet on.  Every few minutes they come up for some oxygen and then head back down and keep eating.  We took lots of video.  

We then ended up pretty far out from shore and found a lot of really amazing coral reefs that were just packed with beautiful fish, which I loved.  I really love just watching them do their thing.  A guy got mad at us out there for standing on the reefs, which I may have done to rest, but Melissa didn't.  We swam a little further, saw a lot more and then Melissa decided to come in.  But I wanted to keep going, so I swam in with her a bit and she got out.  I guess when she got out a guy came up to her and got mad at her saying he had heard that her and her husband were standing on the reefs.  She felt really bad but explained that she didn't stand on the reef because she hates the reef!  It creeps her out.  

I kept swimming and kept finding more reefs and more fish.  It was a amazing.  Before we came Melissa had gotten me and even her our own snorkel masks and snorkels.  They were a kind I had found on Amazon that don't let any water in through the snorkel even when it goes under water.  It was great.  When I was in Maui I fell in love with snorkeling so I had really been looking forward to this day.  I kept swimming and realized I had gone way too far out so I came back in and talked to Melissa for a bit.  My goal for the day was to see lots of turtles, lots of fish and  a sting ray.  I hadn't seen a sting ray yet and wasn't sure I would. 

I went back out to the ocean alone and it wasn't five minutes before sure enough, I saw a sting ray swimming along the bottom of the ocean.  It was awesome, it was kind of small for what I expected but I kind of swam along with it for about 5 minutes.  I then went in and got our camera in case I saw more.  I grabbed the camera and this time went really far out and I found two more sting rays.  One of them was absolutely huge.  So I was satisfied, I decided to come in. 

We turned our stuff back in and then we decided to eat at the main restaurant on the beach there, even though we had dinner reservations later they weren't until 9:00.  We hadn't eaten yet at a real authentic Mexican restaurant yet so we wanted to do that at least once.  I got enchiladas and Melissa got pork tacos.  Both were fantastic, as expected.  The beans and rice that came on the side of mine were to die for.  

After dinner we caught a taxi back to our hotel (we spent so much on taxis this trip we maybe should have just gotten a car).  At our hotel we just cleaned up a bit and were so tired we sat here and watched under cover boss for an hour.  At about 8:00we decided to head down for our dessert crepes and our smoothies.  Once again they were awesome.  It makes us kind of nervous to order these drinks at the bar in case they accidentally put alcohol in them.  And its not that we will feel bad about drinking them, we are more terrified about how sick we will feel if we were to drink them.  I always ask when they are done to verify they didn't put alcohol in them, finally last night it paid off.  They had put alcohol in Melissa's smoothie, so they made her another one.

Our dinner or 4th meal reservations were at the Brazilian restaurant here at the resort.  This ended up being the best meal of the trip.  They just kept bringing us out unbelievably delicious pieces of meat.  Steak, chicken, pork, sausage, more steak, etc.  Fantastic.  The only problem was that we were stuffed.  We were both just sick about half way through this meal because we had eaten way too much.  So, that part was unfortunate.  It was so awesome at these restaurants at the resort that we didn't have to pay, we just sit down, order what we want, eat, and leave when we're done.  Its weird and awesome.

That basically takes us up to right now as I type this out on Saturday morning.  We are just chilling all day today at the beach, we might boogie board a little bit but for the most part it will be an uneventful day of relaxing and finishing up our trip.  We have to head to the airport at 5:45 in the morning tomorrow.  We will just stay here at the resort and eat at the buffets and just take it easy.  Its been a great trip, we got to do all of the main things we wanted to do, and we hope to come back someday not too far in the distant future.  This is a great vacation spot because its beautiful, warm, foreign but not too foreign, and really inexpensive compared to other vacations.  We figured that we paid about 65-70% of what we paid to go to Hawaii last year and about 65-70% of what it would cost to go on a cruise in the caribbean, maybe because we live in Arizona, the flights are cheaper to get down here.  But, it has been absolutely as enjoyable as Hawaii last year, probably even more so.

We flew home Sunday morning really early. We were really tired that day so we ended up sleeping most of the day. It was such an amazing vacation. I'm so glad we got to go and spend all that time together. I hope we get to go back some day.