ruins

Tulum ruins

Ceviche and best shrimp tacos ever!

playa del carmen

Every year we’ve been married, Eric and I have taken a vacation somewhere new. In august we went to playa del Carmen, which is just south of Cancun. Being that my mom’s family is from Mazatlan, the pacific side of mexico, I’ve never been to the Caribbean side and have been dying to go. In our travels we haven't kept a journal, but we made it a goal this year to start a travel journal and write in it during our vacation rather than after. So I stole snipets from our journal and plugged them in here for even better memories.

We landed at the cancun airport for our 10 day stay and the second we got off the plane we were hit with the smell – to me – of mexico. Its really the smell of the tropics because it smells the same in the Philippines. We both love that smell and it brings back so many memories for both of us. Smells are the greatest form of memory after all.

When we rolled up to our hotel in our hot sexy Nissan tsuru rental (like an old school sentra) we were amazed at the size and beauty of it, the Mayan Palace. The name says it all. After settling into our room, the first thing we did was have dinner by the pool. I ordered mole enchiladas and eric got some delicious beef tacos…then off to the pool that was 24 HOURS! Never in my life have we come across a pool that’s 24 hours. We swam until the wee hours of the night, it was perfect. There were about 10 swimming pools at this place, they all connected together so it seemed like one big one…and the lights in the pool even changed color, so it really set the ambiance. By the way, this wall is huge and is the first thing you se off the highway.

This is the beach at our hotel, its kinda rocky so we went and toured other beaches along the coast line, from north in cancun to south in tulum.

Here's the view from the little cabana in the middle of the ocean.

Despite being in mexico, everything was really expensive because we were in tourist town. We didn’t bank on spending a lot on food. So we kept it chill and hung out more on the beach than anything else. The water was the perfect temperature, you know the kind that’s cool enough to cool you off and be refreshing, but warm enough you can jump right in without shock to your system! The second day of our trip some gnarly clouds blew in and it started raining. We packed up and headed towards the “Kool” restaurant/lounge and made it undercover just as it started to pour. There were a bunch of us crowded underneath the palapa roof of the bathrooms. It was so windy the birds were flying in place, fighting against the wind. A few hippies, locals, and drunk tourists made the most of the situation by dancing in the rain (the club DJ was still spinning, so why not?). We figured we'd join but had more fun watching.

We mostly stayed south of cancun but had to venture up there to see what the “hotel zone” had to offer. We snuck thru a hotel to get to the beach and it was gorgeous. The water was clearer, the waves were bigger, the beach was less crowded and it was hotter than in playa del Carmen. Less crowds make for more encounters with vendors and activity guides.
playa del carmen:


We hung out under this palapa and played cards for most of one day...it was the perfect day.
Cancun:

Instead of renting boogie boards for a pretty peso, we decided to buy one. we hauled it every where we went and the waves weren't bad either.

tulum:

After a day at the beach we’d go back to our hotel and hit the pool after the sun went down. One night a few towel boys in lava lava’s started getting everyone out of the pool to head down to the beach for a beach party. The beach party was pretty cool, they had a DJ and the lava lava kids taught us (and by us I mean Eric and other gringos..ha ha) a few salsa moves and we danced the night away…more to come...