Day 1
Our trip started out pretty normal. We had to fly to Chicago Midway for a 50 minute layover before we headed to Cancun. Our plane took off from Kansas City on time and we actually landed in Chicago early. This is where it started to go down hill. Since we were early we had to wait for a gate to open up. We were still waiting even when it was our scheduled time to land. We continued to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait some more. I am pretty much freaking out at this point as I kept checking my watch. When we finally started moving towards our gate we had about 20 minutes until our next flight. Of course we were towards the back of the plane and it seemed everyone was taking their time to get off the plane. At this point we had about 10 minutes until our next flight. We started running through the airport as they are calling our name over the airport intercom. On top of everything we landed in Terminal B and were taking off from Terminal A. I have never ran so fast in my life (I HATE to run). We eventually made it to our plane, out of breath and sweating. Thankfully we carried on our luggage otherwise I am pretty sure it would have never made it on our plane. Once we were on the plane, I was finally able to relax.
We landed in Cancun and had to find our resort shuttle among all the people trying to get you to go with them. It was a 30 minute drive to the ferry port that would take us across to the island Isla Mujeres, then a 30 minute ferry ride, and another 5 minute taxi ride to our resort. To say the least it was a LONG travel day and I was so excited to finally pull up to our AMAZING resort.
After getting cleaned up and taking a look around the resort, we headed to dinner. We hadn't eaten much all day so it was pretty much the best thing we had ever eaten. In the middle of dinner I kept hearing this scratching sound in the flower bed next to our table and couldn't figure out what it was. The sound finally made an appearance and it was a HUGE crab! I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.
Day 2
If you have ever stayed at a time share you know that they try and get you to go to one of their presentations to get you to buy with them. If you do go, they usually will give you something for your time. We decided to go because they gave us a pretty good deal on an excursion we wanted to do. We had to get up pretty early to take the ferry across to Cancun to go to another one of the Palace resorts (Beach Palace) for the presentation. After breakfast, a resort tour, and about 30 minutes of them trying to convince us to buy (which we did not) we were set free to do our own thing. We could have stayed at the Beach Palace all day but we were ready to enjoy our own resort.
Once back at our resort, Jason was able to get some snorkeling gear to use on our beach as I laid in the sun.
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| View of downtown Isla Mujeres from the ferry |
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| The beach at the Beach Palace on Cancun |
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| Watching Jason snorkel on our resort's beach |
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| Look closely and you can see Jason snorkeling |
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| Sitting under the beach cabana |
We had lunch and decided to check out the swim up bar at the pool. We ended up meeting a few of the other couples at the resort and had way to much fun. At dinner that night they had a pretty cool fire show to entertain us.
Day 3
Since the island is so small there are very few cars (mostly taxis). Everyone drives mopeds or golf carts. We decided to rent a golf cart for the day to explore the island. We went to North Beach which is the best beach on the island. We drove along the Caribbean Sea side of the island and also checked out Punta Sur which is a sculpture park with Mayan ruins as well. Punta Sur is also home to A LOT of iguanas. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them because they are so cool.
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| Adventures around the Island |
After our adventures around the island we came back to the hotel to relax and get ready for dinner. It started to rain early in the evening and I was pretty bummed since we were scheduled for a romantic dinner on the beach. Luckily it cleared up right before our dinner time. It was a beautiful night with an absolutely delicious 4 course meal with champagne.
Day 4
We had scheduled our excursion to Xplor park ( check it out here ) for this day. We woke up to downpours and cool temperatures but I wasn't too worried since we would be underground most of the day. When we scheduled this day we had no idea how much travel it would entail. We first had to take a 30 minute ferry ride across to Cancun. We then had to take another 30 minute taxi ride to the Xplor pick up site. This was one of the craziest taxis rides of my life. Since it had rained so much the night before and that morning, the streets were completely flooded. We could feel the water swooshing underneath the taxi as we were driving. It even started to come in through the doors. SCARY!!! Once we got to the pick up location, we had to wait another 45 minutes before they would even start loading the bus. It was then another hour bus ride to the park in Rivera Maya. It was SO worth the trip. There was so much to do and it was also an all inclusive park for food and drinks (non-alcoholic). We zip-lined, swam and paddled through the caves, and drove through caves and the jungles on Gators. I wish I had a water proof camera but I am hoping to purchase some of the pictures they took of us while we were there.
The worst part of the trip was the ride back. We didn't know that we were not allowed to leave whenever we wanted but had a scheduled time of 5:00. We had made reservations for the private chef's dinner that night at 6:30 but it was raining and rush hour traffic when we left the park so it took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to the ferry port and then 30 minutes on the ferry. We didn't get back to our hotel until almost 8pm. It was a long day but so much fun and so many memories.
Day 5
When we woke up it was pretty cloudy again but not yet raining. We decided to head to the beach to see if we could do some snorkeling together. This was one of the best memories of the trip. Jason knows so much about fish that he was able to point out and tell me all the kinds of fish we saw. It started raining as we were snorkeling but that is what made it even more fun. There were so many cool fish to see and we even saw sting rays! The worst part about this was that Jason lost his wedding ring! We have not idea exactly where he lost it but we are almost positive it was in the office. I was only upset for a little bit before I realized it didn't matter and I wasn't going to let it ruin our vacation.
It started raining pretty hard after snorkeling but we still decided to head down to the sea turtle farm. I love sea turtles and the babies were so cute. I wish we had been there for when they release the babies back into the ocean. That would have been a neat experience.
We were suppose to kayak to an underground sculpture museum and take a boat on a snorkeling tour but the weather was so storming everything was canceled. What do you do when it is raining at your all inclusive resort? DRINK! We headed to the bar and met up with some our new friends. It became a crazy day with lots of drinks but super fun. We ended up all having dinner together that night watching the Caribbean dancing show.
Day 6
We definitely paid for our heavy drinking the night before on this day. It was a late morning with lots of napping. I had scheduled a massage for this day which was perfect when he have a little bit of a hangover. Once again it was a rainy, stormy day. We were hoping to go on our snorkel tour but it was still not possible with the storms. Even though it was raining, it was nice to lounge around the resort. I did get to lay out by the pool later in the afternoon, which was a perfect end to our last day. We had a great dinner that night and talked about all the things we want to do the next time we come (hopefully).
Day 7
We had to leave the resort pretty early but the best thing about it was that the resort scheduled us to leave for Cancun on their yacht instead of taking the ferry. It was a great ending to an amazing week. I hope we get to return one day.
