Spring Break in Mexico

I'm sure you are all DYING to know how Mexico was! It was superb...the students were better behaved than the adults were...go figure! We left on Tuesday morning (at 2am) and returned yesterday, Monday, at 6pm. We got stuck in Dallas, TX and had to stay the night, pushing back our return home to Missouri another night. In a few words, it was HOT, AMAZING, HOT, YUMMY FOOD, BUGS, BEACHES, CRAZY DRUNKS, GRUMPY PARENTS, and COOL RUINS! In short...would I do it all again? HECK ya...if I could leave two not-so-pleasant women at home.

I just wanted to let you know a little about my trip. So, here goes nuttin'.

First day was kind of easy goin'. We met our tour guide, Claudia at the Cancun airport, and we were off to our hotel. We stayed at Club Verano Beat. Here's a link to show you what the actual rooms looked like. Not bad, but it it gives you an idea...we must've been missing the flowers in our room, 'cuz it sure didn't have nice flowers and it was a bit dirtier than the picture shows, but the location right on the beach and the atmosphere made up for it. Click here to see the motel.

On the second day, we headed to Chitchen Itza. It was FABULOUS! It was a two hour bus ride, there and back again, but well worth it! We had a tour guide named Guillermo who is fluent in Mayan and who shared all kinds of cool stuff about what life was like back when the Mayans were around and actually used this temple, and the buildings surrounding the temple. Did I get to climb the stairs to the top? NOPE! Did I want to? YEP! They stopped letting people climb the pyramid about 2 years ago. It was getting trashed and destroyed by graffiti and other things, so they now have it roped off. Did you know that Chitchen Itza is now considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World? Here's a pic of the group I traveled with...they look innocent, but beware...they'll get ya!

That night, we ate at a Mexican buffet where there was a family that did traditional Mexican dancing for us while we ate. But beware...the granny makes the tortillas at the buffet and if you don't ask the correct way, she gets a bit snippy (yep, she yelled at me...ugh!)

The third day, Thursday, we went to see the city of Tulum. Click here to read more about it. It is almost a complete city that still stands today. There is a temple, and it is a walled city. It was cool to see the wall around it, and then to look and find that on one side of it is water. There were several things that had religious symbolism and it was cool to see the city. Although we didn't have a tour guide here, it was cool to come home and do a bit of research today and find out more about what I saw, and the grounds where I stood for an hour.

Later that afternoon, we went to an Ecological Water Park named Xel-ha. It was all-inclusive, and it costs about $100 to get in. That includes all the snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, hammock laying, buffet eating, daiquiri drinking, music serenading, sun bathing you can handle! It was a blast to go to! This is a picture of one part where you could go snorkeling. There was a cool island in the middle of it.

At the top right, on the other side of the island was tight-rope walking, to the left was the lazy river and walking across bridges filled with water. Behind me, there was the buffets, hammocks, and the dolphins. This was one of my favorite activities by far! That evening, we went back to Cancun and ate at the Rainforest Café (authentic, I know). By that time, I'd had enough of Mexican food anyway...SO I had a salad which got my digestive track back on track. Here's a group picture at the restaurant. Go figure...I was front and center with the sombrero!

That night, we spent the night in Playa del Carmen at Las Molcas. This is where we had HORRID experiences...from the Doimno's Pizza man trying to charge us $90 freakin' bucks for 3 large one-topping pizzas to finding BUGS in our beds...it was a horrid experience! I yelled at the front desk clerk for laughing at me for wanting to know what he planned on doing for our group of almost 30 when I had kids crying and screaming over sleeping with bugs. Needless to say, he continued to laugh and mock, while the kids slept in the hallway with their sweatshirts for pillows, and I found evidence in several rooms that I plan on letting them know about. Crazy story, but I'll just chuck it up to an AUTHENTIC Mexico vacation with 27 people.

The next day, we left that infested and rude motel, and took a ferry out to Cozumel. It was a lot of fun. We went to another beach-type resort and it was fun as well to swim in the ocean. It was really pretty, and it was lots of fun to go on the ferry ride (even though I though I was going to vomit and lose my stomach several times)...a very bumpy trip to and from the beach! We left Playa del Carmen and went back to Club Verano Beat...although it wasn't as nice, the kids loved it b/c it was on the beach and had 4 beds per room (that way, boys didn't have to touch each other...he he he).

The last day, on Saturday, wasn't really part of the trip to begin with. So, it turned out to be a free day in Cancun. We went to the mall, the Hard Rock Café, and spent several hours on the beach. We sure did save the best for last...get a load of the beautiful water and the vacation lovers here...

This was a shot I took from the Hard Rock while I was waiting for my burger to come. Then, we just walked off the pier and jumped in the water. It was nice...that's all I have to say! The waves were large, and many kids got their knees skinned up pretty back b/c of the rocks, but it's just all part of the experience, right?

That night, we flew in to Mexico City and stay at a shwanky motel, El Ejecutivo. It was nice to stay at a normal place for once. Then the drama started again...We left at 6am the next morning only to see that our plane had been delayed, and we ended up missing our connection in Dallas, Ft. Worth. BUT, American Airlines paid for us to stay at the local Sheridan, so I didn't mind so much anymore. They paid for dinner that evening, breakfast, and we ended up getting too many vouchers, so we ended up getting our snacks paid for the next day. So yeah, we had to take Monday off of school, and we spent it in a group of 27 sitting in airports all day. Sounds like fun, and it certainly was!

Would I do it all again? There are things I'd do the same, and definitely things I'd do differently, but...Heck ya, I would travel again! We plan on going to Spain in the summer of 2009, if I'm still here and still willing to do it...watching some bull-fights is in my future. But the next time, Steve is coming along, too. :)