Playa del Carmen

So since this is going to be my scrap book, I decided that I wanted to make this post longer and more detailed - just as way of explanation....From the beach looking back at our hotel. Our kids would have loved our hotel! We did talk about that everyday and how fun it will be to take them back when Anna's a little older. There's just so many fun places in the world that I want to see, why go back to one:)

Day 1: We got there about 3:30 pm and took the bus down to Playa then found a taxi to our hotel. The hotel had recently changed it's name and it took us a couple of tries - pretty much every time we took a taxi - to communicate where we wanted to go. I was thrilled with our hotel. It was just as I had pictured it and perfect. We explored for a little while - laughed at the swings for stools at the bar - and headed out to explore, and acquire some pesos before dinner. We were STARVING as we'd gotten up at 4:00 am and hadn't eaten since around 10 am. It was actually a nice feeling that was missing from the rest of our trip since there was so much food. The restaurant was beautiful and the servers were so nice and friendly. We used up way too much of our cash tipping people. We never figured out how much we spent in tips, and I'm glad, but I figured it wasn't a bad way to spend money, and they were working hard. Then we went and sat in a luke warm hot tub that overlooked the ocean. It was beautiful, but I seriously never got warm again the rest of the night.Day 2: This was our relaxing day. It was chill and so amazing. We slept in, had a late delicious breakfast and headed out to the beach to relax. Justin and I are the perfect compliment. I make him relax a little and he gets me up and about experiencing things. We swam and Justin couldn't resist getting a surf board to try the tiny waves. Our plan was to eat lunch at the hotel and go out for dinner, but we were honestly never hungry again. We did get some tacos anyway.

Our hotel room. It was such a perfect place. The weather was beautiful. The rooms were nice.
The food was good. Funny side note - we ended up with two separate beds in our room - it wouldn't be that funny except it has happened to us every time we've booked a hotel since we got married - not sure what that's a sign of.The beach hut with the surfboard that Justin rented.
Justin tried obsessively to get a picture of the gorgeous moon over the water at night. I got super cold watching him:) I think he was kind of disappointed with the results but I like this picture a lot.The plan is to eventually merge these two photos together. Ever going to happen? Probably not.We watched this mom and her two kids for awhile. They were trying to find recyclables and seemed very poor but close. I loved watching the two kids play and the Mom watch them. This was our shopping and walking around night. We checked out Walmart - and were kind of disappointed. It was quite expensive - we later learned it wasn't necessarily where the locals shopped. We also walked all the way up and down Avenida Cinco and bought the kids their outfits. We managed to make one shop owner frustrated when we wouldn't pay his price. We were honestly looking for a cheaper material. He was at the end of the walk so we walked by him twice. He kept calling us back in and finally gave us Josh's shirt for the cheaper price, but was NOT PLEASED. I felt bad, Justin said I was ridiculous.




Day 3: Chichen Itza: As shown by the tour guides Miguel and ____ I'm drawing a blank. Miguel was interesting... I'm pretty sure that he doesn't love his job - although he gave us an interesting life story on the way home. In retrospect we wouldn't have gotten a tour, but rented a car and bought a book... I still want a book really bad. I really liked the warrior temple. There were tons of pillars each with a warriors name - how cool would it be to know the full story... On second thought, maybe it wouldn't be cool, everything we saw was fairly gruesome... The ball court where they sacrifice the losing team the sacred cenote where they had human sacrifices.... still.
I love this picture where you can't tell it's not ancient, and there are no people in it.
These are some of the vendors. They were very very annoying. Hawking their goods at the top of their lungs no matter where you walked in the huge site, but still interesting. It would be a hard life...The edge of the Sacred Cenote.
There was one area where you could actually walk around in, and touch the ruins - so cool.Justin had a lot of fun taking pictures of people. This lady was selling handkerchiefs in Chi Chen. She was kind of cranky, but I really like the picture. - She would only let him take her picture if he bought a handkerchief.
Justin searched everywhere in Playa for Cocos Frios! He missed them from his mission - we finally saw some by the side of the road while we were on a tour and stopped. I have to admit they are delicious!
Justin jumping into a cenote, we stopped on the way home from Chichen Itza. The French guy up there with him seriously stood there for 20 minutes before jumping. The cute Mexican boys started yelling, "1,2,3 jump! " over and over to him and laughing... i found it amusing. Not that I jumped from that high - I chose a lower vantage point.
Tour low points: Hour long stop at a tourist shop with psycho sales lady who wouldn't leave us alone and told us to, "But something to help the Mayan people!" Never mind that she was from San Bernadino. Only having an hour to explore Chi Chen - I could have spent an entire day easy - we were literally running the whole time.

Day 4: Cozumel
We debated for quite some time whether or not to come here. We'd heard that Xel-ha was amazing and Justin had a mad desire to swim with the dolphins, but it was expensive and an entire day proposition. Zach and Katie and Jerry and Ashley had both come to Cozumel and told us it was one of their favorite parts so we opted to do it. We ran into some trouble when we got to the ferry ten minutes before it left and found out there wouldn't be any snorkling that day - which was what Justin really wanted to do, but our "friend" Juan told us we could rent a scooter and snorkling equipment and just go off shore, and proceeded to "accidentally" rip us off by not having change and then giving us incorrect change after getting our ferry ticket. Justin had to go back twice to even get part of our money back. Despite that rough beginning it was a fabulous day. I can't say it was a favorite because every day was fabulous, but it was great. There were Mayan ruins all over the island, empty beaches, and just a cool town to explore.
Loved this little boy. I bought a bracelet from his Mom to remind me how blessed we are. He was not excited about having his picture taken though.
I love this guys face!

We took a ferry over to Cozumel one day. Then we rented a scooter and rode around the island. It was fantastic. Just kind of nice to be out of the touristy atmosphere and away from men yelling, "Come in, just for the hell of it" - yes some guys would yell that at the shops by the hotel district. We snorkeled a little and just explored. However I will NEVER go back. I got mildly nauseous on the way over, but on the way back the waves were huge - and I ended up puking standing at the front trash can in front of everyone - oh the joy. A nice Canadian guy was standing by me and was trying to make me feel better by telling stories and using the F word every other word - joyous! I was glad we hadn't rented a snorkeling boat - I don't know what I was thinking to even consider it!

Day 5: Home


Best part: sleeping 10-12 hours every night, and being able to do just what I wanted when I wanted. I read 4 books - it was a long plane ride people - got to relax, and just talk to and be with my husband - it's so good to remember how much fun we have together outside of being parents.

It was the perfect length of time I was just missing my babies and ready to see them again. Thanks to my parents for taking such good care of my babies that Josh wants to go back - Seriously getting a little offended about that - and for not telling me that Anna was sick the whole time until I got home. I did a lot better than I did on the girls weekend I think because I couldn't talk to them - highly reccommend that approach:)

We got some darling outfits for the kids - I wanted to end the post with a picture of them in them, but I... haven't taken one yet:)

In conclusion - everyone needs a getaway! I will watch your kids - it's fabulous!