Alicia’s Journal 2
4/ 5/ 97
A SLICE OF SUMMER
This time, join me on my trip to a balmy Winter- wonderland: Cancun, Mexico! While there was snow on the ground at my home in Russell, Kansas, the sun was hot and shorts were the only thing in Cancun!

Cancun or bust!
I felt like we were on the “bust” part when we landed at the Cancun International Airport on February 22. It was horrible! That airport was the worst part of our trip to Cancun. There we were, in jeans and sweatshirts, during a very humid “Summer” day! We stood, sweating, in the line for customs for what seemed like at least half of forever. I was never quite sure exactly what happened, but it seems that two other planes had landed at the same time ours did. By the time we were done, I was feeling more than a little ill, and very tired. But it wasn’t over yet. The baggage claim was a nightmare.


The first day of a nightmare?
Actually, we had a pretty good flight from the KCI airport to the Cancun one. I had the window-seat, which is always fun, of course. When we flew over New Orleans -at night- it was a pretty spectacular view. But, it was a long day. Between getting up early to drive to Kansas City and the experience at the Cancun airport, we were all worn out by the time the bus got us to our resort, Caesar’s Park. But more than that, I was beginning to seriously wonder if I was going to like this place at all.

“Hola!” from Cancun, Mexico!
But the next day in Winter paradise proved me wrong. It was absolutely awesome. We spent most of the day being lazy: lounging around and swimming in one of the seven pools, walking the white-sand beach, splashing in the ocean waves, getting sunburned...Okay, maybe that part wasn’t so fun. We really should have known better than to lounge around without any sun-block or anything on, but we were still thinking “the Winter sun doesn’t burn.” Well, in Cancun, it does.
Caesar’s Park, the resort we stayed in, was really nice. Each room- not excluding ours- had a fantastic view. We were on the fourth floor, and each day I enjoyed watching the ocean waves washing up onto the white-sand beach, the clear-water pools sparkling in the sunshine, the wind blowing the palm-trees. It really was beautiful.
Our room wasn’t fancy, but it was comfortable. It also had the Disney channel in it, which the boys very much appreciated!
Caesar’s park had 5 restaurants and several gift shops in it -it was pretty big. While we were there, we mostly ate at the “Spices” restaurant. There was also a pool restaurant. We got our lunch served to us by the pool the first day we were there, which was fun. And, of course, we got souvenirs at the gift shops- actually at one in particular, called the Tobacco Shop!

Tuesday
On Tuesday we went to Paradise Island. We went over on an Aquaworld boat, about a 35 minute ride- but it was fun. We went through a jungle tropic area, which was pretty, and when we got there we went on a Sub-See tour, which was supposed to be pretty cool, because the bottom part of the boat was under the water, and you could look out the windows and see the reef and fish and stuff. But I didn’t see much- or enjoy much, because I got seasick. I got very close to throwing up, in fact.
One thing I noticed about the man-made “Paradise Island” was that the rocks looked just like marshmallows! That was the first time I’d ever done any real snorkeling, and I had a lot of fun. We actually saw a baby barracuda. I mean, it was right by us! Forget all that stuff about all babies being cute- this one definitely wasn’t!

Wednesday
On Wednesday we went on another tour- this time an all-day one. It was real fun. We got on the bus at about 7:30A.M. and got back at about 6:15P.M. The ride to the first stop on our tour, Tulum, was about an hour and a half, but it took awhile to get out of Cancun, because we had to stop at a whole bunch of other hotels to pick up other people that were going on that tour. We were served breakfast on the bus. At Tulum we toured the Mayan ruins there. At noon, we were taken to El Dorado resort, where we had lunch. Then on to Xel-ha to cool off in the beautiful water there. That time snorkeling was even more fun than the first time. We saw 4 huge parrot fish several times, along with lots of other schools of beautiful fish around the reef.
The rest of the time we had in Winter Paradise we spent being lazy. Hey, what’s vacation for?

Time to wake up!
We knew our luxurious vacation was definitely over when we “woke up” from dreamy paradise in the Cancun International Airport. It was another not-so-great experience, but infinitely better than the first time we saw the Cancun airport. The line for customs was pretty horrible again, and then our flight, which was scheduled to leave at 11:30A.M., was delayed until 2:30P.M. (when we were supposed to land at Kansas City). We sat on the floor of the Cancun International Airport for over three hours (we were actually at the airport for about five)!

Hello, USA!!!
Wow, what a contrast! We just left the tropical beauty and breezy warmth of Cancun, Mexico and came home to the fresh-from-just-melted-snow, chilly bleakness of Russell, Kansas during the Winter! It‘ll take some time to get used to it again, but it’s good to be home.

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