Oh boy, Time to record the fun we had in Mexico. Caleb and I got to go on a great trip with 3 other great couples to an amazing and beautiful place called Playacar, Mexico. About an hour from Cancun. It was such a nice and relaxing time. The preparations had me panicking and worrying about my kids and every thing else I could think of, but once we boarded the first plane to Houston, I realized there was nothing I could do, and all would be fine.
And I was right on both accounts. A couple of my kids got sick and I am sure they ate all were a bit crazy, but while all that was happening, We were enjoying this awesome view.
We dropped our luggage in our room and headed straight down to check out the beach. It was awesome. The colors, the sand, the smell, everything. Loved it.
It wasn't until the second day that we set up our portable cabanas and did a lot of this...
Staring at the ocean and relaxing.
Our resort was amazing. It was so beautiful and most quiet and had great pools and beach access. We also got to experience a lot of eating and a lot of time spent waiting to eat. All of the restaurants had a dress code, so every night we would dress for dinner and head to a usually tasty meal that would take several hours to finish. There were always many courses and lots of good things to try. After a couple of the days that we all got a lot of sun, we may have been seen dozing a little between courses, but it was probably good for us to get used to a slower pace than the way we do things at home. We did try plenty of new things, some good and some bad, and by the end we even had our favorite waiter and favorite things to order. Because this specific resort catered to couples, they seemed to struggle a little bit with our reservations for a table for 8, but they handled us quite well. And having all 8 of us at dinner at the same time made for some great memories and some hilarious dinner conversations.
The first morning, Caleb and I went out for a run and came across these cool Mayan ruins near the beach. I was pretty amazed that something so old could just be sitting there basically unmarked, and there was something I really loved about the trees growing out and around the rocks.
Donald brought a bocce ball set in his carry on luggage which got him some funny looks from airport security, but turned out to be a fun beach pass time. Even tho these 4 can get out of hand pretty quickly.
Also, while playing bocce ball, these guys got into conversation with a walking salesman nicknamed "the King" who sold us a scubba trip for 8 for the first afternoon. The price was less than what the resort was selling and we were all itching to get moving a little and explore after our first 6 hours laying on the beach. All of these are reasons it seemed like a good idea...
Since this was our first day, we didn't realize that the waves happened to be higher than usual, and therefore we had a very adventurous ride in the speedboat to the cove where we were to scubadive. There were several moments, while we were being repeatedly pelted with water in the face where some of us may have felt that we would fly out of the boat, without a life jacket.
When Aubrey asked the driver if he had ever capsized, he gave a hearty laugh and not much other response. Oh boy. That is about all we can say about that ride. We will surely remember it.
Donald and Nathan looking a little skeptical.
Stacy is laughing from pure fear and this is before we really got moving.
Caleb and Ben had to take the seats in the back to help balance things out and they ate even more saltwater than the rest of us.
Aubrey and I posing for a quick picture before we had to hide the cameras and hope they didn't get too wet.
I would love to say that the boat ride was just a fluke and the scuba diving was great, but since this was my first time, and also Caleb's, we both ended up swallowing a sickening amount of sea water in the first 20 minutes before we figured out what we were doing. And while I did think that looking facedown into the water was a cool experience, there wasn't much to see, but some coral and a few dozen fish. And after an hour of salt water and floating on more waves, we were all a bit nauseous and ready to gear up for our frightening ride back.
After all of the day 1 sun exposure, we were ready to stay off the beach for a while and walked down to the Playa Del Carmen shopping district. Caleb and I bought a lot of great little things for the kids and did more than our fair share of bartering... which I find very exhausting... and then walked around enjoying the crazy atmosphere.
There was a cool little church that looked out right on the beach.
And then the awesome Mermaid statue at Puerto de Playa Del Carmen.
Of course we spent some part of every day on the beach, it is impossible to stay away... Stacy and I were watching some guys wave jumping... yep, our husbands.
So one of my favorite things to see were these weird pelicans that would float over the waves like this one is doing, and then suddenly just dive bomb straight into the water like they had been shot from the sky, then they would just float on the waves like nothing had happened. It was so weird.
(And that is Caleb, Nathan and Donald swimming under the bird)
This was Tulum, the ruins that have been excavated there are the holy grounds at the inner circle of the city. It consisted of a high wall with small gates to enter and exit, as well as a large temple and several smaller temples, and also the houses of the main priests and holy men.
The temple of the fertility goddess
Tulum is the only large ruin in this area that is found on the coast and which sits above sea level. It was very beautiful to look out from the edge near the temple.
Facing the other direction
After Tulum, we were able to stop and take a swim in this amazing cenote. Apparently, in the Yucatan the ground is made up of limestone, so rivers and lakes don't remain on the surface, they seep into the ground creating underground rivers and these amazing looking openings to the rivers, called cenotes.
This was looking down from the top.
The view at the surface. All of the tiny black specs in the water were small catfish that would float around. There were very much undisturbed my the swimmers which made them all the more unnerving.
There were some stone steps carved out of the side of the wall that you could jump from if you were daring.
Very amazing stop and the water was perfect.
Then we headed on to one of the most amazing places I have ever been- Chitchen-Itza. This was the main temple, which apparently has two other temples underneath it. The only thing disappointing about the amazing grounds and all of the restorations and work that has been done here... They won't let you climb to the top. I even asked what would happen if I just went up, and our guide said they wouldn't force me down, but that no one was supposed to climb it.
This was the memorial to the mayan warriors. One of the few building on the site that did not serve a religious purpose.
The view of the main temple from the ball court, which is apparently a court in which a strange and barbaric ball game was playing in which the winning warrior was beheaded. One of the many things we learned were the various ways in which the Mayan people because violent and barbaric.
On the way out of the grounds we endured more bartering, which included me attempting to barter in pesos, and offering more than twice the price the guy had told me before Stacy corrected my mistake. Good times.
Just a few more shots of our relaxing and having a great time. Caleb sported my sunhat for a few good laughs. And later created several games at the pool that involved jumping onto pool floaties or attempting to climb a tree near a pool and jump in. Perhaps we should have planned a little something to keep the men busy, but we really did enjoy just taking it easy.
