I have a synopsis of our trip, and a slideshow made from most of our pictures.
First the fun stuff:
--My hair is wavy there. It was pretty much pointless to do anything but pull it up.
--Topes. Speed Bumps are everywhere, often with very little warning. Won't miss those.
--Bathrooms aren't free in Mexico. If you don't buy something at the shop or restaurant, you pay.
--Marcus spoke Portuguese to everyone, and enough translated that he got on quite well. I found the locals were much friendlier if you attempted to use Spanish.
--I was not prepared for how people accost you and hover over you at tourist sites and in stores. Even when we flew in at the airport, you walk out the gates and everyone starts yelling at you to try to get you to hire them to drive or to buy their timeshare crud. In stores and at tourist sites, they follow you around and try to entice you to buy by saying "Almost Free" or "Only One Dollar".
We arrived in Cancun an hour late on Tuesday, then rented a car and drove down to Tulum. It was a nice, easy drive. We checked into Cabanas Tulum and ate dinner at the on-site restaurant, El Bistro. The food was amazing, though the portions were huge.
Our first full day was spent at Xel-ha (pronounced Shell-hah). It is a natural aquarium, and our ticket included snorkeling, bicycles, inner tubes, swimming, and more. Plus all our food and drinks were included for the day. We spent a long time snorkeling. Then we explored the other areas, finding some ziplines, the Cliff of Courage (like a jump off a high dive), a "river" to tube down, a Mayan cave to explore, plenty of hiking, some cenotes (pools that lead to underground rivers leading to the sea), and even some bicycles to ride. We were there from open to close, and loved every minute of it. We also learned that our sunscreen wasn't strong enough, or we needed more, because even with 3 applications of sunscreen, we both got very sunburned, in places.
Thursday, we spent the morning at the Mayan ruins in Tulum. I was unprepared for the barrage of of vendors selling items as you walked in the entrance. Once you got past that, it was a 10 minute walk to the ruin site up on the cliffs. It was 93 degrees and 100 percent humidity. I haven't been that hot in a long time, and I live in Phoenix! After about an hour, we were ready to cool off in the beach below. Then we returned to our hotel and spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach.
Friday, we drove up to Xplor- an adventure park near Playa Del Carmen. We started off with two zipline courses, of varying heights and speeds. They had tower landings and water landings. It was so much fun! Then we drove tractors through the jungle and into caves. We also paddled canoes through a cave, swam in the underground river, and ziplined in hammocks. We were at Xplor all day (meals also included) and had a great time!
Saturday was another down day, so we drove a few KM from Tulum to Grand Cenote. It was this sunken pool of crystal clear, blue water. We snorkeled and explored the caves. These cenotes are really cool for scuba divers, but we aren't certified as such, and so just stayed to the top. After that, we ate lunch and spent another afternoon relaxing.
On Sunday, our plan was to go to Chichen Itza, but it was POURING rain, and our car battery was dead. We had found out the night before, and spent thirty minutes trying to track down jumper cables, but apparently no one carries them. We ended up having to call the rental car company to come give us a jump. Some humor ensued when the driver then proceeded to lock our keys in the car. Call us unlucky in cars.... Anyway, the weather was just awful, so we pretty much just hung around the hotel all day.
Monday was overcast, but not raining, so we drove about 2 hours to Chichen Itza. We got up early and made it there right when it opened so we could avoid the tour bus crowds. We spent three hours exploring the ruins on our own. We had a few more buildings to go when the skies opened up and soaked everyone. We waited it out for a little bit, but decided to head on out of the park. As we did, hundreds of tourists began pouring through the gates, as the tour bus crowd began arriving. Good timing! Unfortunately, this also began my 12 hour stint with Montezuma's Revenge. Try driving through the Mexican jungle and trying to find a bathroom in a tiny town, when you don't speak Spanish or Mayan and they don't speak English. We finally found one that charged me 5 pesos.
Tuesday was travel day- cleaning up, packing up, and driving back to the Aeropuerto. All went well, and we made it home to our kids!
We had some great food in Tulum. Tacos Diaz was fabulous- simple, but so tasty. Marcus especially liked the fruit waters and rice pudding. We had some extremely spicy tacos at Don Cafeto's (which my lips are still recovering from), and some good Pollo Mole at El Tacquetto (although this might be what made me sick. I tried to be really careful, but who knows?)
We enjoyed breakfasts at El Bistro. I most often had Chocolate Caliente and a Cuernito con Nutella (Croissant with Nutella). So GOOD! We also went there for drinks some evenings- shakes or frozen lemonades.
All in all, vacation was wonderful. It was nice to get away- just the two of us. And, it was nice to get home and see our lovely kids. Thanks to my mom for watching them while we were gone. Now, I hope you enjoy our pictures!
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