Viva! Viva!

So, from my last post you all know that I am officially home from my Mexican vacation. It's taken me a few days to get back into some sort of routine, get the apartment put together, etc, but I think I'm ready now to tell you about my fabulous trip.

It really was great. We had an awesome room (which had an awesome whirl-pool bathtub, FYI), a nice balcony overlooking the "relax pool" (aka the "adults-only" pool), several good restaurants to choose from, free transportation into town, a spa on-site (great for my last-minute pedicure!), and lots of fun activities (of which I took part in very few, strangely.)

We had a couple of days of just enjoying the weather and hanging on the beach, exploring the town of Playa del Carmen, doing a little shopping, etc. Our best resources turned out to be the random people we met waiting in line to make dinner reservations and in the shuttle on the way to town. Through them we learned of these little things called, "Collectivos". Collectivos are these white vans that run from Playa del Carmen up and down the highway to all the sites for about $2 each way. They were great and way better than the over-priced tours we were thinking about doing!

Thursday we took the collectivo down to Tulum and spent pretty much the whole day exploring the Mayan Ruins there and taking LOTS of pictures. It was pretty amazing. There's something just kind of awe-inspiring about seeing these ancient buildings set against the most beautiful blue sky and ocean. Gorgeous.

Really the only downfall to Tulum was the bathroom. Not the most advanced. Which really would've been OK if I hadn't ended up in a stall next to the grossest stall ever. I'm not entirely sure what was going on over there, but I do know there appeared to be puke all over the floor and the person had to be naked, because there was a pile of clothes laying in the before-mentioned puke. I actually mostly felt sorry for the person until they started pulling on their wet jeans and then I could barely keep my own breakfast down. Needless to say I got out of there as quickly as I could and spent pretty much the rest of the day anxious to get in the shower.

Then Friday we went over to Xel-Ha which is this ecological park nearby that has really great snorkeling. It's basically just this big bay area, so the water is calm and it's just teeming with fish. I really had never seen so many varieties and colors (well, maybe at an aquarium, but certainly not out in the water.) I really wish I would've had an underwater camera with me, but with past experience I've never found those pictures to come out that well anyway. I'll just have to rely on my memory. Closer to where the bay and ocean meet was where the big fish hang out. I'm generally not one to be overly scared of fish, but I must say, I felt a little intimidated. I'd certainly never been face-to-face with fish that size before. I didn't stay in that area very long.

Scott and I turned out to be very good travel companions and we had a really great time exploring. We got several questions about our "status" and had several funny remarks made to us. Probably the funniest was one of the hotel staff labeling us as "practicing" when we told her we were there as friends. Or maybe the guy in town who told us we were "living in sin."

I'd have to say the highlight of the whole trip though was when one rainy evening when we decided to go for a swim in the ocean. There's just something exhilarating about being in the ocean at dusk with rain pelting down on you. A few times the rain was coming down hard enough it actually hurt if you were above the surface. There were great body-surfing waves. Just a good time. And we encountered a very strange animal on the beach when we came out of the water. I'm not even sure how to describe it. The best I could do I guess is kind of woodchuck like, but not exactly. Still have no idea what it was, but it's always fun to stumble on an unidentifiable animal about 2 feet away from you. A magical evening. :-)

I must stop my trip down memory lane now and get back to the real world, but I'll get pictures up soon and maybe some other stories.