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