Our flight left BWI at 9:25, and your supposed to get there 2 hours early (NOT) so we ended up leaving the house at 6am. Oh JOY! Anyway, the flight down was fabulous!! There was an empty seat between John and I so we both spread out and read every single damn word in the newspaper, including ads, for the first time in like (exactly) 3 years & 5 months. So that was totally fabulous! Reading the paper! What a forgotten treasure.

So the plane ride is what, 3 hours? So we arrived at our hotel by 1. Really liked where we stayed. The décor of the lobby was so-so. Lots of lobbies down there are very lush and overflowing with plants and stuff - which I am into. This was very artsy and minimalist, which was a disappointment because I'm in Mexico and I want lush and loud. However, it was in keeping with the style of the hotel. Our room was GREAT! We had a king size bed, and at least 14 feet of clearance on all sides of it, and really high ceilings. So, the overall impression when you walked in the room - table and all - was of space! (Not that you are spending much time in the room, but it's still cool.) The floor was done in tile, well, not tile exactly but something that resembled cobblestone…like the big bricks you find in all the Mayan temples, and the walls and celing were a pale stucco. The dressing area was separate, and the bathroom done in light brown tiles. This probably is really boring to you but I LOVED our room. Oh yeah - all the doors, even the closet doors, were solid wood. The door to the bathroom had a knot missing on the very bottom, so you could see that the door panels were solid. It was really cool.

So day one we explore the hotel, check out the pools (not as cool as the previous place we stayed in, which had a multi-layer pool) and the beach. This hotel had the coolest creatures -- resident iguanas! The landscaping was fab and had a creek and lots of rocks. So there were 4 large iguanas and plenty of small ones, down to mere lizards. There didn't have a hell of a lot of fear of people, so every now and then you'd be walking and talking and look over and be face front with this thing with teeth! The last day we finally saw one really moving - I don't know where it thought it was going but it got in the way of the drink waiters. (Everywhere you possibly were- in the pool, on the beach, in the water, you needed to merely nod and someone was there to attempt to fill your food or drink fantasy.) So it almost got stepped on boy did he move then!

The beach was, of course, wonderful. We were on the bay side of Cancun this time. (The top part of the 7.) The negative is that the walking part of the beach is not long on this side. So, you'd walk maybe 15 minutes and run into a rocky area or the lighthouse. The other side had private homes, and the beach wasn't well taken care of there. I enjoy walking, so this was a pain. Also, the beach was not a wide as on the ocean side. However, the water is totally, amazingly, calm. So basically you can walk way out in this perfectly clear, unbelievably blue water. No complaints at all!

So day one we hung out, checked out the Jacuzzi (which was in the pool) and the separate 'adult only' heated pool, and then went to one of our favorite restaurants from last time, (I will not bore you with the all great places we ate, but it is one of the joys of being there) and I fell asleep by 7:30 so once again John was left on his own for the evening. (Humph, you're lucky I didn't know you well before I married you!)

Day 2 of course I was up by 6:30 so I walked the beach until 7:30 when John came down to complain that it is hell being married to a morning person. We had a wonderful all you can eat breakfast at the hotel for what we later realized was 30 dollars, and drank about 7 cups of great coffee and sat there for over an hour.

We then hung out at the beach until about 11:30 when it was time to board our bus for a place called Xcteret. Took a bit over an hour to get there. Is a cool water park that has horseback riding, turtle release, swim with the dolphins, a lagoon for swimming snorkeling and a bunch of other stuff. John and I had a blast wandering around like fools. We then went snorkeling in the underground river.

Now, let me tell you about the underground river. You have a life vest, and you have your snorkel and fins. So you march down the stairs to the beginning of the cavern, put on your life vest, sit down to put your fins on and unsuspectingly flop your legs in the water. Guess what?! It's cold!!!! (Duh!) Well, what do you know, underground rivers are cold. So you enter into the cavern and -- (Duh two!) it's really really dark. Exactly like what you would expect in a cave, except you are also in water! Thankfully the park authorities only scare the shit out of you briefly and the rest of the time there are natural areas of light or drilled holes in the ceiling. So that was really cool - although, for seeing lots of fish and really good snorkeling I would go to Xel-ha instead.

This brings up a minor note about how Mexico must not be a litigious society. So you are in a dark underground cavern with rocks and side trips and plenty of places a drunk idiot could get stuck. Do you have a guide? Do you even have to sign in to enter? Of course not. By was of informing you of your rights there is a sign as you enter the water that basically says "Do not go underwater to follow fish and get your head stuck under a rock because you will drown" So that was most amusing. Especially because there were several offshoots from the main cavern that had I been younger, more stupid, and not have kids that needed me (a thought of my brother just flashed into my mind) it would have been quite tempting to see what was in those caverns. Or to follow an eel to see where it went.

(PS, the windows from our room were about hip high and opened as wide as sliding glass doors. Just outside the window was a small ledge, perfect for young foolish people to sit on. And they did.)

The park supposedly has a fabulous night show which everyone says not to miss. However, your choice of busses home are at 6:30 before the show or 9:30 after the show. John and I weren't in the mood to be there till 9:30 so we missed the whole thing. Feel free to tell me what saps we are. (Every time we go to Cancun we swear we are going to rent a car, and then we don't, and then we get pissed off.)

The next two days we did nothing but get burnt red as lobsters. Part of the problem was John convinced me not to be such a morning person - so by the time we were done with our morning walk and 30 dollar 2 hours breakfast it would be 11. And since we didn't have a car (STUPID) it was too late to take buses anywhere. Also, the glorious beach would call and suddenly it would be 3pm and too late to even take the ferry to the Isle of Women. What we did do (and why my legs are ridiculously burned) was take these things called Ocean Kayaks for a spin. (Again, nothing to sign, no directions to follow, I guess if you never came back they eventually would send someone to look for you) These things were GREAT! So we'd get on one of those and paddle out to interfere with the jet ski people. We also took them from our hotel all the way around the lighthouse --- oof! The ocean side of cancun is not nearly as nice for kayaking! I mean, you could really move in these things! So we did that all day Saturday and Sunday.

Finally, the fish didn't disappoint me. The water is completely clear so you can see the fish swimming around. I was laying in the water with my hands lightly stirring up stuff and I kept feeling funny things around my fingers. I look down and the fish are going bananas over whatever I'm moving around. Well, given my diminished mental capacity you can guess how much this amused me. So for the next hour I deliberately swirled sand around and attempted to catch fish.

There are two things we wanted to do that we just never got motivated. There are jungle tours which means you get on one of those everglade boats and they take you through the jungle to see monkeys and stuff, and a place called Tres Rios (bus left at 8 am! NOT.) that has kayaking though the rivers and also bike riding through the jungle. We also didn't get back to Chicaneza (spelled wrong) which is so utterly fabulous it alone is worth a trip to Cancun. Anyway, at the end of this trip we both agreed that we simply must go back, and GODDAMMIT, we are GOING TO RENT A CAR!

Trip home was rugged. Flight left at 8:15pm and arrived in Baltimore at like 11:45, so we didn't get home until 2am. Ugh. Also, had to fly through rain storms. Had a large 40 row plane bounce around like a ping pong ball - which had me swearing I would never get on another plane for as long as I lived.

Oh yeah, while waiting for the plane were sitting next to two newlywed couples. I was scaring them with how our 5th anniversary in October and our 3rd child will be born in March. So that was an amusing was to pass the time. John and I each has row seats across from each other since it was a full flight, (which was cool, because again we both got to spread out) and he sat next to one of those couples and tried to assure them that 3 children in 5 years doesn't just happen, but takes actual trying. (and maybe a month or two of not paying attention when you are as fertile as I am!) So that was amusing.

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Last updated: October 12, 1999