Playa del Carmen, Day 3

Day 3 was recovery day.  We spent the day just chillin'.  It was a perfect way to spend the last day.

Shelly shopping for a hat.  Why does she have to be so cute?

No, she's not upset about yet another picture of her.  No, she's not upset at me.  She's upset at the cleaning staff who are SOO efficient at their job that "do not disturb" does not deter them in the least.  No item can be left on the floor or desks and must be placed in a drawer or cupboard.  This happens twice a day.  Once in the morning for cleaning, once in the evening for turndown service.  Here, Shelly is upset that she can't find her swim dress/cover.  Did they take it?  Hang it up in the closet?  Launder it?  Put it in a dresser?  Put it in a drawer?  Who knows, but we couldn't find it anywhere.  She's perturbed.

Chillin' in the swimming pool

Chillin' on our porch with a book

Some of the food we were able to choose from

Enjoying a burger

The poolside bar, also featuring delicious virgin drinks we had never heard of.

There are about 1 million pictures of this beautiful chica.  Here's one of my paparazzi-style pics.

Chillin' again

A picture from my poolside chillin' chair, overlooking the ocean.

There were at least 2 weddings at the resort while we were there. 

The back lobby of our resort

The front drive

The front of our resort

Interesting vines that look like snakes

Part of the 3/4 mile road from the resort door to the main road

Another view of the resort front

This is a picture of the bathroom.  The tile was beautiful.  The bathroom "conveniently" opened via window to the bedroom.  The shower and toilet doors were both clear glass.  --convenient for, well, you know.

A view from the bathroom back into the bedroom.

For our parting night, we were able to find a nicer resort restaurant that did not require nicer dress.  We were delivered some delicious dinners.  Beautiful presentation, as well!  This was my apple salad.

Here's my salmon dinner.

Here's Shelly's coconut jumbo shrimp and tenderloin.

The meals were delicious but, as you can see, not very filling.  So, we went to the Caribbean Night theme buffet and topped off our stomachs with some curry, rice, and other Caribbean delicacies.  We watched a couple minutes of a show, then retired to bed.  We had to be up by 3:30 the next morning so we could check out and leave by 4 a.m. 

On the way home, I was patted down again.  We got home safely and just in time to take the kids to gymnastics.  The kids had a blast with Grandma Jones in town (HUGE thanks to Grandma Jones, who made the trip possible).

What we learned:

1.  Timeshare Competing resort representatives are NOT there to help.

2.  Schedule ahead of time but call to confirm everything that is already confirmed by email and internet

3.  Scuba dive when the water is calm and perhaps only in fresh water.

4.  Always take at least 1 set of nice clothes so you can enjoy nicer meals

5.  Make sure the male traveler packs lightly, he WILL be checked/patted down

6.  Take longer than 3 days!

7.  2:1 ratio; ie, 2 days hard play, 1 day relax  

8.  SLEEP IN!!!

Playa del Carmen, Day 2

When we arrived in country, there was a very nice "travel specialist" who welcomed us to the country. Since we were married, he could get us a free excursion.  We really wanted to go scuba diving.  So, he told us all the things we should avoid (carrying our passports/driver's licenses/credit cards with us, agreeing on prices with taxis before getting into the cab, etc).  Then he showed us a neat timeshare new resort we could visit where we would get free breakfast and a quick 45 minute tour, and then we would get 2 free scuba diving tickets.  Sounds nice, huh?  We got suckered into it, so day 2 started with a brisk walk to our front gate to meet the driver who would take us to our free breakfast.  Of course, we had since decided it would not be worth spending 1 of our 3 days at a timeshare new resort, but we had PROMISED.  So, we got to the gate where a black SUV with tinted windows and missing handles was waiting for us.  In a nutshell, things were not going well, so we decided to NOT go to the breakfast.  Too many weird feelings.  So, we went back to our own resort for breakfast.  

This is what we had to wake up to every morning.  Here I'm standing at the threshold of our sliding glass door.

Here I'm standing on the edge of our patio.

Here I am looking back at our room.  Notice the reflection of me waving at you!

Here, Shelly is shutting our door, which locked, with all of our key cards on the inside.

After breakfast, we found a scuba diving excursion.  It started with a 1-hour video introduction to scuba diving.  Then we got a quick snack of cookies (important for later) and mango juice.  Then we went to the water to try our hand at scuba diving.

My cute wife, ready to go

Shelly underwater, only about 5 feet at this point

Shelly, 40 feet down, waiting for the instructor and me.

Still waiting.  One member of our group was unable to equalize the pressure behind her ears and had to resurface.  We waited at the bottom.

A picture of plant and fish life 40 feet down.  Somewhere in there is something stung my leg.  Even now, 6 weeks later, the wound is still on my leg and still itches--but not as bad as it did! 

Another pic of Shelly underwater.

A collection of fish by a tunnel

A closer look at the fish.

A picture of me scaring the fish away (I blame the brilliance whiteness) and checking out the tunnel.

On the bottom, I began to feel nauseous.  I think it was the salt taste.  Several other things contributed: tunnel vision, the boat ride to the dive spot (6 foot waves all the way out), the sting, who knows what else.  Needless to say, I did a lot of hyperventilating to help keep the nausea away.  It also made me run out of air quicker than anyone else.  So, after about 45 minutes, we had to surface.  I was still feeling sick.  When we got to 15 feet to decompress, I started feeling the waves again and started feeling even sicker.  Suddenly, I couldn't hold it anymore and raced to the surface.  Just as I reached surface I tossed my cookies (haha--get it?).  It took a bit, but I finally got it all out.  But, as a note, just think of this the next time you have to vomit.  How would you ever do it under water?  After you expel all that stuff from your stomach, you immediately take a big gasp of air.  I guess you have to vomit into your regulator while holding the button that expels the air.  Sounds too complex.  I'm just glad I made it to the surface (just in the knick of time).  Anyway, I'd go scuba diving again, but I would want calmer water and probably fresh water next time.

We returned to our resort and had a nice dinner in one of the restaurants (unfortunately, I did not have any nice clothes, so our choices of restaurants were a little limited) and had a buffet.  We also discovered the bars serve virgin drinks and enjoyed some delicious drinks.  To finish the night off, we went to an Elvis concert.  

Elvis puttin' on a good show.  We stayed for about 1/2 hour then decided we needed some sleep after 2 days of not sleeping in.

Playa del Carmen, Day 1

So, I looked at my February schedule and found out I had somehow gotten a stretch of 9 days off.  How did it happen?  I don't know.  I DO know that I did not go to the scheduler and demand more shifts.  Instead, Shelly and I decided February would be a nice time to get away from the cold of winter and get to a warmer climate.  So?  Cancun/Playa del Carmen, here we come!!

We left on Thursday afternoon.  The start of our trip was certainly interesting.  Ken got patted down TWICE at the airport.  When we finally arrived in Cancun, the company that was supposed to transport us didn't have our information (even though we had a confirmation number), so we didn't arrive at our hotel until after midnight.  The good news is that since we were so late checking in, the room we requested had been taken, so they had to upgrade us to ocean front.  Shucks.  We had an early morning the next morning, so we ordered room service:

Breakfast burrito, fruit plate, toast with jam, yogurt, and french toast.  I had warm fresh-squeezed orange juice, and Shelly had warm papaya juice (apparently, our resort did not believe in cold drinks).

Our first excursion also was an issue.  The person who was supposed to pick us up did not show up.  We waited and waited and waited until I called.  It's kind of a long story, but basically they had not made any reservations for us yet but they said they would come get us in a bit and see if they could still get us on the schedule for zip-lining.  We were taking the tour with another family, and they had tickets.  Eventually we got our tickets, and the other family waited with us and taking a later reservation (about 1.5 hours).

The family from Utah.  This family has 5 kids, 3 girls and 2 boys, just like us.  They had 2 girls, then 2 boys, then a girl, just like us.  This is their youngest daughter, who had recently graduated from high school. Their trip was in honor of her graduating.  They had a tradition of taking their kids on a trip for their graduations--anywhere in North or Central America.  She had chosen Cancun.  Sounds like a fun tradition--maybe something we'll do as well?

Shelly getting excited.

Still excited!

The two of us, ready for our first adventure . . . 

 . . . zip-lining.  Here is Shelly, cruising over treetops.  The hand at the bottom of the picture is the guide telling Shelly to SLOW DOWN!!

Doesn't she look so happy?  Notice the sticker on her shirt.  They asked us to wear name tags so they could identify the bodies (haha).

Cruising in on the last of 12 zip line routes.

Changed and ready for the next adventure . . . 

. . . zip-lining into a cenote (freshwater water hole)

Shelly going in for the drop.

Me getting ready.

About to drop into the water.

The fun and very bouncy truck/trailer we got to ride in.

After the zip-lining and cenote, we were able to go on a tour of some Mayan ruins in Tulum.  We arranged for an LDS guide so we could get an LDS perspective.  It was a lot of fun and very interesting.  

Shelly standing outside of the walls.  This is where the commoners lived.  They were allowed through the walls 5 times a year on 5 holy days.  Otherwise, commoners were not allowed through the gate. 

We saw several of these critters during our stay in Mexico.  I didn't try to pet any of them.

A picture of a Mayan temple.  We could not go up to the temple.  The steps are narrow making it possible to go up only by going back and forth (like switchbacks).  You were not supposed to face or turn your back on the door (God).  There are 3 doorways representing each member of the Godhead.

A noble's home.  There are several meaningful carvings on the home.  I won't go into them right now.

The beach at Tulum.

A picture of me to document that I had indeed come.

Another picture of the beach.  On top of the hill is a mini-temple, which would make a sound like an alarm if a tornado was coming (the winds blew in a certain direction and caused the noise).

A special tree in the Mayan culture--considered a holy tree or a tree of life.  The tree is hollow on the inside.