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.