Feliz Navidad!

It seems the further we get into our trip, the less time we have to blog about it!

December 24 - Christmas Eve

We spent the day at the resort and took the shuttle up to the Royal Sands for the afternoon. It is one of the 4 sister resorts to the Islander here in Cancun and they provide shuttle service between all of them. For dinner we went to a fun place that had awesome shrimp "El Shrimp Bucket". The coconut shrimp was to die for. At the end of our meal they had us write our names and where we were from on a plastic bucket to hang up.

Playing in the pool at the Islander

Pool at the Sands. A great lap pool for Tanner and Gary!

Trever hanging our bucket at the Shrimp Bucket

December 25- Christmas Day

Riding the public bus. We are getting to know these VERY well but they are cheap at 6.5 pesos (45 cents) a trip for as far as you like.

We knew this was going to be a long day. We headed out on the bus for a 45 minute ride to the bus station downtown. We then got on another bus that would then take us a little south of Playa Del Carmen to a place called Xcaret. It is a huge place that is similar to a Seaworld. They have lots of animal exhibits, shows and water activities. We have tickets to go 2 days so this first day we were going in our swimming suits to do all the water things. The first thing we did was get on life jackets and drift and swim a down a looooog underground river that goes through all kinds of caves. It was a really fun and different experience. The water was so clear and was a mix of fresh and salt water. They have you put all your towels, sandels, etc. into a big bag and they transport it for you down to the end so that when you are done at the end, you have all your stuff.

Bad quality picture-it's a picture of a picture of us going down the river.

We then went down to the snorkeling inlet and had a great time. Some of us went out a little furter and saw tons of yellow and black striped fish, trumpet fish and some dolphin fish that were huge! At first I thought it was a shark! Did some lounging in the hammocks and saw a short show showcasing some dancing. Had to leave the park about 5 as we had dinner reservations back up in Cancun for 8pm at Captain's Cove.

We had a great dinner outside on their patio and watched one of their resident crocodiles in the lagoon over the railing. We think he gets fed pretty well there.

Friday December 26th-Day trip to Isla Mujeres

Slept in this morning and decided to spend the day at a small island off the coast of Cancun. It is only 4 1/2 miles long and .4 miles wide. We had gone there 20 years ago and remembered how wonderful the beaches were there. On our way to get on the bus we were walking on the sunny side of the street and tons of iguanas were sunning themselves. It was really fun to count how many there were and there were so many we stopped counting. We hopped on the bus and headed to the ferry terminal. Boy, have they upgraded their ferries here! It only takes about 15-20 minutes to get there and it is a catamaran express ferry so I didn't have to deal with the sea sickness this time but Tarin didn't feel so good.

Walking around Isla Mujeres

View from our spot laying on the beach


Kids are the ones waaaay out by the boats.

When we got there we walked along the beach till we found a good shady spot under some palm trees. The sand here is like powdered sugar and the water stays really shallow for a long ways out. The tiny people a long was out are the kids and the water only came up to their knees. We ventured into the downtown and what a fun town. Lots of street vendors and places to eat.

Saturday - December 27th

Tanner's ear has been bothering him since yesterday and this morning he woke up with a likely ear infection. Gary and Tyler were heading out for a scuba diving trip and he left me some money to go find antibiotics. Tanner was bummed he couldn't go on the dive but it's important that the ears are clear to be able to equalize when going 90 feet down. I went down to the market that is in the resort and they have a pharmacist and a pharmacy on site! It was so great to not have to get a prescription for Amoxicillan and he gave me the directions and bought enough for the neighborhood for the next 5 years! They came in a bottle of 120 capsules of which we only needed 30 for only $14!

I got him started on the meds and some pain killer and we were good to go for laying at the pool till Gary and Tyler got back about 1. Had some lunch by the pool and relaxed the rest of the day.

Tyler and Gary had one of their best scuba trips ever. They said they saw more fish than they've ever seen anywhere and they have done diving a lot of places. Schools of huge barracuda and BIG puffer fish. One of the guys on the boat with them is an actor on "Bones" and "Gilmore Girls" of which none of us has seen so we don't know his name. Someone asked him what he does cause he looked familiar to them and now they know why!

About 7pm we decided to head down to a place that we had seen called Chocolate City. Just the name was enough to get us to go. It was a fun sports bar type of place with huge screen TV's showing American's Funniest Home Videos and college football. They had lots more than just chocolate and had a great dinner. Of course we saved room for dessert and knew just what we wanted when we saw the chocolate fountain on other tables. We could barely finish it!

Sunday - December 28th

We knew church started at 10am so we headed out about 8:45 on the bus with the address and map of where they meet. We got off at the cross street and looked for at least an hour until 10:45 and we finally gave up. We were in a pretty scary area and one guy told us to be careful "about the boys" in this area! I think I asked at least 10 people from a taxi driver to a security guard to a shop worker and nobody could tell us where it was. We'll see if we can get more info and try again next week.

Catching Up

Internet service is kind of hit and miss here as we have to go around the lobby to maybe find the connection.

Saturday December 20th

Before checking out of our hotel in Akumal, we went early this morning to Yal-Ku lagoon for some more snorkeling. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and it was so peaceful. We caught a taxi back and packed up and our van arrived right on time which is unusual for Mexico since nobody seems concerned about time which is nice most of the time.

Goodbye Las Villas Akumal

Yal-Ku Lagoon

It took quite a while longer getting back up to Cancun as there are a lot of police checkpoints that slow the traffic down. Our driver said they must be looking for someone since they were being more thorough with their car checks. We've seen lots of soldiers with M-16's along the highway. Made a stop at Costco this time and their menu was exactly the same as home. Costco here is much more similar to the one at home more so than Sam's Club. We even found gallon jugs of cold 2% milk for cereal!

We were so excited to finally see the hotel zone of Cancun in the distance. Wow, how it's changed in the 20 years since we were here. We are at the Royal Islander which is more towards the southern end of the island and it's the quieter side of Cancun.

View from our balcony looking north

This is the living room. The master bedroom is on the right and the kids bedroom is on the left. They even have their own fridge on their side and all three rooms have their own sliding doors to the balcony.

Sunday December 21st
Happy Birthday to Trever! We did lots of lounging today enjoying the resort here. Our villa is beautiful and big! We have a full kitchen, dining area, living room, master bedroom with a big bathroom and a separate section for the kids with their own TV and bathroom! We love the balcony overlooking the beach just enjoying the sunrise and eating breakfast. We even have a personal concierge assigned to us who checks on us everyday and sets up any plans for us and makes our restaurant reservations. It's nice to have her to ask lots of questions about anything we need to know.

This evening we took Trever to a fun and crazy place called Perrico's. We took the public bus into the downtown of Cancun away from the hotel strip (where the locals live) and had quite an experience. It will for sure be a birthday Trever will not forget. As soon as we got there, they dressed us up in traditional clothing and took pictures. Then at our table a "little person" came by the make a balloon sword for Trever.

This is "Johnny Boy" who did some entertaining at our table.

It was a night of congo lines that went outside the restaurant, singing a Christmas song in spanish and breaking a large pinata. Then they brought Trever up to the front by the band and a girl danced with him and we all sang happy birthday. They let him blow out a torch of fire then put a fork of cake and frosting up to his mouth. As soon as he was going to bite it, they smashed a bigger piece into his face! It was pretty funny.

Monday December 22nd

Mmmm...Hung around the pool some more, played bingo for sodas and did some laundry. Susan, Tarin and Trever all took an intro to Scuba lesson in the pool. It was easier than we thought it would be. Made a trip to Walmart downtown. Are we crazy? Yes, the week of Christmas in Mexico is a zoo just like in the states but it was fun. They even have a tortilla factory in there and a wonderful bakery where you walk around with a large platter and pick the breads/pasteries you want and then they bag them up for you. Saw our first Santa here-a little scary looking.

Tarin getting the hang of scuba diving.

Tuesday December 23rd

Took a van provided by the resort down to Playa Del Carmen where they have a resort there called the Royal Haciedas. It is a brand new resort with lots of fun things.

Have we mentioned that the weather has been absolutely perfect here? It's been about 80 with no humidity. Nothing better than sleeping with all the sliding glass doors open and listening to the crashing waves. It is also really nice to be able to drink the water in Cancun with no worries unlike Akumal where we had to use bottled water to brush our teeth. The city has a purified water system here plus the resort purifies it again.

Spending the day in Playa Del Carmen at Royal Haciendas

High Adventure

Thursday December 18th-Akumal Bay

Gary, Tyler & Tanner headed out early for their first dive of the day. They went to the second largest reef in the world and went 90 feet down! It was a pretty rough ride on the boat coming back so Tanner wasn't up for another one. Gary and Tyler went on a cave dive in a cenote (a sinkhole filled with fresh water) and saw lots of stellactites and rock formations and even some bats! Their guide told them to be sure to clean the bat poop out of their ears whn they were done!

Susan, Tarin and Trever pretty much hung out at the beach in Akumal Bay where the dive shop was and got a lesson in european sun bathing. The kids got some laughs out of it and Trever, an experience he'll not long forget. After their dive we all went to lunch at a very rustic spot named Lucy's. Very good shrimp tacos and ice cream!

Friday December 19th-Coba Ruins

Headed out early to catch the collectivo south to the bus terminal at Tulum. We were hoping to get the bus out to Coba at 9:10 but they were full so we waited for the 10:25. Spent some time wandering the streets and the local markets. Stopped at a tortilla factory where we bought a HUGE stack of fresh, hot tortillas for $1 and gobbled those down.

Their public bus system is so nice here. The bus to Coba was air conditioned and had Spiderman playing in spanish of course. It was about a 45 minute ride. Got to the ruins and rented some bikes as we had heard that it was a really long walk into the ruins. The kids loved it, riding bikes in the jungle and stopping whenever we wanted to explore. It wasn't as hot and humid as we expected for being in the jungle and no bugs!

We finally made it to the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula and we were shocked by the size of it and that we were going to climb it! As you can see, it is one steep climb and by the time you finally make it up there you realize that somehow you've got to get down. It was blazing hot at the top, we took some pictures and went inside the little room at the top.

We thought we'd be here with many more Americans or english speaking people but we've really been in the minority when it comes to the language. LOTS of Europeans vacation here. We're finally catching onto the money exchange thing. Gary accidently gave the driver today a huge tip without even realizing it. He later said no wonder the guy gave him a big smile!

Tomorrow we leave for Cancun. We're going to get up early again and go snorkeling at Yal-Ku lagoon which is supposed to be a great spot. Today while Gary was snorkeling out in the bay, he saw stingrays, lots of turtles, and tons of fish. Our shuttle comes at 1 and I've told the kids that Cancun is a lot different than here. Here Riviera Maya you get much more of an authentic Mexican experience and lots less people. The trade off for that will be a more comfortable bed at the condo!

Tanner: is awake now, this week is pretty much awesome so far. It is super hot outside but at least i know at the end of the day i can watch my spanish spongebob and fairly odd parents. my main goal for this trip is not to be whte when i comehome like before. so today i just layed outside an d slept. today was fun thiugh cause we went to some mayan ruins and we got to climb the temple thingy, it was really tall but it was super fun to climb. it was hot at the top but it still took forever for my ice to melt. It is wierd being in mexico, it's getting hard to tell the difference between english and spanish now, everyone talks too fast, even in spongebob. they don't even make it sound like him so it's not very fun to watch. but today my parents told me that we needed to eat all of the food byy tomorrow so that was a great thing to hear. the food in mexico is awesome and we got some salsa, it's real too!!!

Trever: When me and mom were down at the beach, dad came back from snorkeling and I found some people making pottery. I wanted to paint a lizard and it was 60 pesos or $5. When I came back to the room I found a huge hermit crab and brought it inside our room. His name is Charles and is 4 inches.

Tarin: yesterday we went to the beach and we saw lots of naked people and made a somewhat of a sandcastle. But we saw some people making a sandcastle that look like a pyrimid with a moat that looked so cool! so we took a picture near it and pretended it was ours! LOL So, today we went to Coba and climbed then pyrimid things and we got to ride these cheap bikes everywhere there, it was fun. The buses we rode in to get there were so comfortable!! They were like heaven.jk they had air conditioner, reclining seats, tv's and lights in the ceiling. Afterwards we went to a tortilla place/shack and we bought a ton of hot tortillas for 11 pesos! Yummy!! My dad made yummy smoothies with all the things we had left in the fridge like watermelon, grapes, bananas, icecream and yogurt!! Today was very adventurous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Day in Akumal

Couldn't do an entry last night as the office was closed so we couldn't get the password to access the internet. Now we're sitting by the ocean at 10pm on Wednesday with a nice breeze using our laptop with a flashlight!

We had an uneventful trip-those are the best! Our flight left on time and was pretty smooth the whole way. We were a little bummed when it was pouring rain when we landed but we were reassured that the rain doesn't last long here.

We found our driver quickly and while we were chatting and I told him we weren't here for the alcohol and he asked "You Mormon?" We laughed and I asked him if he was and he said no. We made a stop to Sam's Club for dinner and groceries. We wanted to order our hot dogs and pizza and we found the language barrier frustrating so we used our van driver for some translation. It was nice to have him along.

We arrived at Las Villas Akumal to a beautiful setting of palm trees and the ocean right outside our room. It is VERY quiet here and we haven't seen many others around. This afternoon, we had the beach all to ourselves!

We got up this morning and headed out to the highway to wait for a "collectivo" public van. One stopped within seconds and we hopped on for $2 per person one way to Tulum. It was quite a walk into the ruins but it was worth it. We hired a guide who took us into the "walled city" on the ocean which was right at the edge of some steep cliffs. We were all pretty hot and went down the stairs to the beach to cool off in the water and bodysurf. There were all kinds of big creatures at the ruins that were fun to look at.

Tarin: SOOOOO......yesterday and today were veryyy tiring. I knew that at the airport they were going to be checking our passport and everything, but i didn't know that on the plane we would have to fill out a paper for each person and show it to the mexican people when we got off the plane but they didn't really look at them! The beds in our hotel are very HARD!! They lay is on concrete! And the funniest thing ever is that on the tv all the channels are spanish except for some shows disney channel but we were watching Sponge Bob in spanish and they were singing the theme song in spanish! LOL! At sams club they dont even have cold milk there. HAHA I can't live without milk! Any time we talked to someone they were all very nice and gave us lots of information. There were these dudes with like these indian/mexican outfits on (i don't know!) at Tulum and they looked pretty funny. Well, so far this trip has been uber duber cool!

Tanner: is asleep.

Trever: I liked building sandcastles with Tyler and collecting over 20 hermit crabs tonight at the hotel and putting them in a plastic boat to play with. They are all over the place! Two of the hermit crabs were about 2 inches. And 5 hermit crabs were about 2cm. They keep escaping so gotta go!

Tyler: Star date December 16th (hehe star trek)

Oh man this day has been crazy!!! The University of Washington Girls Basketball team was on our flight. The airport is nice than I thought but right as we got out of the plane it started to RAIN!!! The sky was full of rain clouds L Mexicans drive crazy btw but they are very nice and friendly and the sams club pizza is WAY different I cant even describe, but its not like my parents are the most helpless Americans on the planet when it comes to speaking with the mexicanos. Our driver was really nice though, he told us where to visit and stuff. Tomorrow we are going to the Tulum ruins. I’m taking loads of pictures so don’t worry The room is really really nice though and its RIGHT next to the beach and the two pools here.

December 17th

I woke up at 4 o clock your time today and man it is gorgeous! My dad and I walked 2 miles on the beach to the dive shop. I need new sandals cause white cheap flip flops from old navy are friends with my feet. It looks like we are going scuba diving 3 times tomorrow woohoo!!! Tulum is sooooo cool! I took a bunch of pics of the ruins and the beach there. Ill put them on our blog tonight. The beach at tulum is so cool and breezy I wish I could send you it or bring you here somehow. The waves were really strong and Trever and I made a sand castle…. It lived… barely haha. The guy that sold us our tickets to get into Tulum was named MORONI. Agh I wish I got a picture lol. The pool is very cold here. I wore my aviators all day today jealous much?
Im still alive and I saw the stars last night and most likely tonight

Gary and the boys checked out the scuba shop first thing this morning. They are set for 3 dives tomorrow so Tarin, Trever and I will check out the little town and have a beach day.

Where in the World are we going?

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Cancun from above


December 16-20 Akumal ( 1 1/2 hours south of Cancun) Staying at Las Villas Akumal. Plans to go to the ruins at Tulum and Coba and climb the pyramids. scuba diving, snorkeling & swimming in cenotes.

Las Villas Akumal



December 20-January 3 Cancun - staying in a beachfront condo at the Royal Islander Resort. Plans to RELAX! OK, I guess we need to do something. We're going to Xcaret for 2 days, a ziplining tour, take a ferry to Isla Mujares for a beach day, windsurfing, eating, parasailing, church, scuba, snorkeling and anything else we can find that's fun!

January 3-6 Moving to a few doors down from RI to Marriott Casa Magna Resort

Tyler & Tanner will be heading home on Sunday the 4th so they can start Green River on Monday. The rest of us will get to enjoy this wonderful resort for 2 more days and fly home Tuesday.

During our trip to Wonderful Cancun

The purpose of this blog is too show how much freaking fun we are having. We will be updating everyday with new pictures and video so check in daily. Every family member will be posting their own photos and messages that they wanna send to loved ones.

From you beloved author,
Tyler the Amazing

5 Days and Counting

We're about ready to get out of this cold, wet weather!