The Mexico Recap (Sans Photos)

I am still editing the nearly 750 photos we took on our trip – so you will just have to wait for those! But here is the rundown of our adventures!

Let’s see. We arrived in Mexico on Tuesday evening (5/23) – to a complete and utter downpour. I mean, we seriously got an inkling of what Noah felt like.

The weather forecast was not promising for the week and for the 1st four days, we had overcast conditions. Thank goodness it never again rained to the level of our first evening – and in some ways, the clouds were nice to hold off the heat. Apparently the rainy season came early this year (note to self, for future trips).

The kids could give a rip about the weather, though – they were loving the BEACH and the POOL! Both were a little timid at first – but Lily got into the swing of things first and Declan soon followed. By the end of the trip, both were swimming on their own (with floaties, of course) and pretty much had grown gills.

In general, the kids had a blast. We had a few tough spots here and there – but truly – they both took everything in stride. They even had their first strawberry daiquiris (“sin alcohol,” of course) and luckily we positioned those drinks as “Mexico vacation drinks” – or else I would have to invest in an industrial size blender. (Although, come to think of it – that’s not a bad idea!)

The first few days were all about the beach in the morning and the pool in the afternoon. The resort has a pool that runs the complete length of it – so it was never crowded and just heavenly. The beach was awesome. It did have some more rocks than last time, thank to Hurricane Wilma. But overall, it was wonderful – nice waves and warm temps.

On Friday, we took a snorkeling excursion that was just awesome. We all climbed aboard a catamaran and sailed out to the coral reef (the second largest in the world, next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). Can I just say how much I love snorkeling? I could have done that all day long – even though it was still slightly overcast which made it a bit harder to see the fish and reef life. It was Bryan’s first time snorkeling and he loved it too. We’ll definitely be doing that again. We even saw this crazy squid creature.

That evening was our 10th Anniversary and the crew was kind enough to watch Declan while Bryan and I went out to the Japanese restaurant at the resort. It was wonderful and romantic and Bryan really liked my letter. However, the bottle of champagne the restaurant brought us – plus the tequila shots in the lobby later, made for one interesting “ceremony” on the beach. Use your imagination.

On Saturday, Jeff, Danielle and I headed for the Mayan ruins of Tulum. I am glad that the kids stayed behind with the other adults – because that place is hotter than the surface of the sun. The sunshine did finally came out that day – and in FULL FORCE. But we really enjoyed the guide’s discussion of Mayan culture. I bought a book for further reading, and I will be sure to do another post about all the interesting things I find out. One thing I will note, is that the Mayan’s calendar resets itself on December 25, 2012 – when all the planets are in perfect alignment and a large asteroid revisits the earth. We are already discussing Christmas in the Riviera Maya for that year.

Sunday, we had a wonderful beach day. Beach, beach, beach because the sun was out, out, out. I snapped photos like crazy that day – sparking water and happy faces everywhere. We pushed back dinner so we could take sun setting photos, too. Of course, that is when I sprained my ankle – so the day did not end on a high note. Have I mentioned that, in my attempt to protect my precious camera, I gave Jenny a split lip? (…as in, I slammed the camera into her face to avoid an incoming wave). Poor thing. Luckily it didn’t swell up like my ankle did.

Danielle accompanied me to the medical clinic, partly because she is totally the good friend and partly because she is fluent in Spanish. We made quite a pair – she in her bikini and me in my sarong. Apparently we were ogled quite a bit, but I didn’t really notice through the haze of pain. The doc looked me over, said it was either a sprain or break, gave me some strong anti-inflammatory drugs, some crutches… and sent me on my merry way. The pain and swelling was pretty bad that night, so we laid low. I didn’t quite know how to use the crutches but a kindly, but nosy, lady at dinner was sure to inform me how wrongly I was using them.

For our last day, we all hung at the beach all day and Declan even took his nap there on a beach chair. Cap was kind enough to go early in the morning and reserve a spot right off the boardwalk so I only had to hop through the sand a short distance to plop down for the rest of the day.

Bryan was finally able to kayak this day (the held people back from kayaking due to the weather), so he jumped on the chance and went out to sea. Also, since Cap and Jenny are experienced sailors, the took out Hobie Cats a few times – so they were able to get out beyond the swimming boundary and see the coastline as well.

The only bad thing that happened on our final day was somehow I missed a sunscreen application for Declan – and he was unwilling to come out of the water for more than one minute… so he got a pretty bad sunburn on the lower part of his arm. Yes, with blisters and everything. I feel like total shit about it, especially seeing as we work in skin cancer prevention. But he is taking it like a trooper and it is healing really quickly. Phew.

As for food, we ate like crazy and had dessert with pretty much every meal. We joked when we got home that I would need a piña colada IV drip to help me through that rough withdrawal period.

The only other hiccup was somehow one of our bags didn’t make it into the van for the ride back to the Cancun airport. After much arguing (all done by Danielle, the only one fluent in Spanish, poor thing), the tour company put the bag in a taxi and it arrived literally one minute before we had to get through security. Of course, once we got through security (extra speedily due to the wheelchair I was in, I might add), the plane was a bit late and we sat in the un-airconditioned airport for a while. The kids did get a bit cranky by this point – but who could blame them? But once we got on the plane, both slept and we made it home with no further incident.

Overall, it was a fantastic vacation and I can’t wait to post all the photos to show you. OK, I couldn’t let it go without at least ONE photo! Here is a pic right before I busted up my ankle. Well worth the injury, I think.

Send this to a friend