TRIP TO MEXICO

No, that's not the plane we flew on :) It's just the only picture of a Delta airliner that I could find on the internet!

On  Monday October 12th 2009 we dragged ourselves up at 3:30 am, shoved our suitcases outside and waited for the car we had requested to come pick us up. Our plane was leaving at 6:35 am and we had to get to the airport 2 hours ahead to go through Security and be at the gate so we could sit and tap our feet and wait and wait, lol. Which is just what we did.

We were very excited to be on our way and couldn't wait to get to Mexico!

It was very cloudy and our plane was bouncing the entire way to Atlanta. I was glad to finally get my feet back on the ground!

Fortunately we had decided to get a wheelchair for Steve. He had gotten his epidural 2 weeks before and his back and leg were doing pretty well. We sure didn't want to irritate them before we even got to Mexico! 

We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta so we stopped and got some lunch at Arby's in the airport. When we got to our gate we were asked if we'd like to get on an earlier plane! It seemed the weather was getting increasingly worse and our plane might be delayed, but a plane was getting ready to leave right then and it wasn't full. So off we went to another gate and got on the earlier plane!

The clouds were even worse now and our take off was pretty rough. It didn't help much when the pilot came on the intercom and announced:"Well, that was a little rough, we LIVE for that - YEOW!" and everyone on the plane cheered.I dubbed him the "cowboy pilot".

Jeesh, please somebody get me to Mexico in one place. We bounced our way for 2 hours and through this delightful dance, we were given our Immigration papers to fill out. After a bouncy, wobbly landing I was able to catch my breath while we waited for everyone else to debark so we could get the wheelchair - see I told you they come in  handy!

We were in Mexico!! I was wondering how we were going to get through immigration, etc, but shouldn't have worried. We had our wheelchair driver to get us throgh. He went so fast, I was practically running to keep up. Every once in a while he would give an encouraging wave back at me: "come on, come on". We zipped through immigration with no problems at all. And also through the Health gate with our Health Survey. They just took the paper we had filled out and didn't even look our way.

But wait! We had a problem. We'd rented a car through Easy Way and they didn't have a rental kiosk inside the airport. They were going to have someone waiting for us outside with a sign with our name on it.... but we were an hour and a half early. Steve asked for a phone so we could call them. Our wheelchair driver consulted with some of the other rental car places, then assured us that our rental car company would have someone in the parking lot.

Sure enough, there was a van out there. We showed him our online contract and he nodded and grabbed our suitcases and threw them in the back of his van while we climbed into the air conditioning. Whew, we thought it was hot in Virginia in the summe!

We arrived at the car company and were told they didn't have a Tsuru (we were supposed to be getting a Nisson Tsuru - all the cars have different names in Mexico) but they had a nice Platina for us. They brought it up and it was a fine car, looked practically new. We inspected it for problems and there were only a few minor little dings.

They gave us instructions on how to find our way back to them at 5am on our return to the airport and we were off to highway 307.

Highway 307 is the main highway that runs down the coast from Cancun. It was approximately 90 kilometers to Akumal Beach Resort (about 1 hour's drive) and we were early, so we decided to stop in the town of Playa del  Carmen to exchange some money into pesos.

Driving in Mexico is an interesting proposition. The signs are in spanish, but they corrospond with signs we have in the US, ie: a red octogon is still a stop sign, although it says ALTO instead of STOP.

We had already read that you shouldn't use your left turn signal. They use that to tell the driver behind them to pass! So if  you use it, then move into the left lane while the person behind you moves into the left lane to pass, it could be a disaster.

The instructions tell you if you want to turn left, you must first pull off on the right shoulder, then watch until the road is clear and then pull into the left lane, lol.

Pretty soon it became apparent that you just need to watch for cars and do what you want to do. That's what the rest of them did! Cars veered every which way, so we did too. Once we got into the spirit of it, we did fine.

Highway 307 is a very straight road for the most part. If you need to get to anything on the left side, you have to keep going until you find a "retorno" where you can make a U-turn and go back to it. There are very few traffic lights so you just zoom right along.

We found Playa del Carmen with no trouble and turned in on the main street.

By the way, Playa means beach so basically the name of the town is Beach of Carmen, or Carmen's beach.

Look at that map! What a nice grid, right? Wrong... Ok, we were lost. Half the streets were one way so you couldn't turn on them - at least not the way we wanted to turn. the other half were closed, lol.

We did finally find a bank where we exchanged money into pesos (approx 13 pesos to a US dollar, makes figuring out prices interesting. Imagine that our money was all in dimes, this is how it is in Mexico. A T shirt costs $140.00. WHAT? Then your realize that's about 12 dollars US. hehe.

We walked around awhile and oh boy was it hot! It was chilly when we left home, and I was wearing jeans and a button shirt. We were both just dripping.

The street vendors were very interesting, quite different from shops here in the US. They stand outside and call to you. "Hola Friend. Come in! I have a bargain for you. Everything is almost free!"

We asked one of them where a nice restaurant was and he sent us to La Parilla and it was on 5th street, the street we had been looking for! Yaay.

La Parilla, like most Mexican Restaurants, was open air. But it was shady inside and had ceiling fans which felt wonderful. We ordered diet cokes which are called Coke Light in Mexico. :) Steve had Fish tacos and I had quesedillas. They were great.

Steve went to find the banos (bathroom) and came back wearing a huge sombrero with a man following him with a sombrero for me. He then took our picture, lol. We left with a picture of us kissing on the label of a bottle of tequilla! OLE!

We headed on to Akumal Beach Resort. Our directions said to follow hwy 307 until we went under a bridge, then to turn at the 2nd retorno and watch for the entrance to Akumal Beach Resort. We found it without any problem and were met at the check-in by a very nice gentleman who gave us a lovely icy fruit drink while he checked us in and then took our bags to room 514.

We  had asked to be in bldg 6 because it was close to the beach, but it was closed because it was the low season.

Once in our room we decided to change into our bathing suits and hit the pool. We were HOT and TIRED and ready for some relaxation :D

The water in the pool was luke-warm and soothing. It was delightful. I had to run down to the beach and stick my toe in the Caribbean - well, actually Akumal Bay. The reefs form a protective barrier to this area so the water is very nice for swimming and snorkeling.

The water in the bay was warm and soothing also and the sand was powder fine and white. I ran back up and rinsed the sand off at the foot shower before going back into the pool. Ahhh this was GREAT. This was perfection. We floated around and relaxed, had a drink or two, and relaxed... did I mention we relaxed? mmmmmmmm

We went back to our rooms and changed into T-shirts and shorts and headed to the Buffet, located right off the beach.

There was a wonderfully strong breeze from the beach. The food is fine, not spectacular but very nice. The servers see  to your every need, get you a drink if you ask (the drinks are also self service), clear your used plates away, and are very helpful.

Everything is very clean and nice and comfortable with that beautiful beach breeze blowing through the huge windows.

There is beer on tap, fruit juices, sodas and wine. Mixed drinks are available from the beach bar which is right outside the buffet area.

There was always a variety of sliced fruit available, usually honeydew, cantaloupe, mangos, grapefruit, and watermelon. At breakfast there was mango yogurt and plain yogurt along with scrambled eggs, sausage, chorizio, an omelet station, cereal, etc.

Dinner usually had some sort of carved meat, a pasta station, chips, either chicken or fish, sometimes both, and other things including soup and salad. and desserts - several.It varied night to night, but on the weekends their mexican night and Italian night were great.

Also their ala cart restaurants traded off every other night: one night Mexican the next nigiht Italian and the food in there was extraordinary as was the service. All the people who work there are very personable and nice.

Clemente from the beach bar would come in with a margarita or a bahama mama for me, mmmmm it was terrific.

We had a little photo session while waiting for the buffet to open the next morning.

On Tuesday Oct 13th, we had our first snorkel. I was a little nervous with a yellow flag out. And remember, I was new to snorkeling. It was lovely, though. There was coral everywhere and the fish were beautiful! After a while I came in and settled under a palapa with  my book while Steve decided to snorkel a little longer. He wanted to go out farther than I felt comfortable.

The pool was playing soft music and I was oooooh so comfortable, mmmmm.

I had my bubba mug full of coke light and all was right with the world. And a bar full of Bahama Mamas nearby.

When Steve came back in, we did aerobics in the pool led by Antie.

At aerobics we met Marguerite a very nice lady who was vacationing from New Mexico. She was traveling all alone, very inspiring! She was  fun to talk with and we saw her frequently. She had an unfortunate experience when she went snorkeling at a nearby lagoon with some other guests at ABR. She and another person had their camera's stolen! Of course, they made a complaint and the policia came, but nothing was ever found.

After the pool, we went into Akumal town to visit the Super Chomak - a little store that had a little bit of everything. We were looking for some biodegradeble mosquito repellent and sun screen. We discovered that early in the morning and at dusk the  mosquitos could literally carry you away! And they really loved me. We got some buzz off (basically citronella) and some Tshirts.

I discovered later that the buzz-off doesn't work too well. It works for about 10  minutes - I think the skeeters are just waiting for it to marinate you well, then they seem to love it! :Yikes...

That evening we had dinner at the ala carte restaurant. It was Mexican night and the food was just scrumptious. The Burrito was wonderful.

We went to the beach bar afterwards for margaritas and enjoyed the delightful breeze and the view over the water with the stars twinkling down on us.