Deb's Place

DebSiobhan.Diaryland.Com

Our Excellent Hosts
Now
Then
Say Howdy
About Me
Guestbook

Moved - 2007-07-16
Inappropriate Movie Day! - 2007-06-23
Moving Up. - 2007-06-19
Pool Membership. - 2007-06-16
Should I be worried ... - 2007-06-15

2007-03-04 - 2:41 p.m.

Bienvenidos a Mexico.

Back from paradise. I had a lovely time. Not to say it was without its trials but lovely nonetheless. As in all things trips are full of good and bad and all about what you make of it.

We started out badly. Very badly. The weather descended just in time to cancel our flight. Thankfully the clever and intrepid ladies I was travelling with had an inspiration. We moved our flights not to the next day as the airline suggested but to the next big airport south. So it was that three of us hopped in a car and drove 2 hours south from Dulles airport to Richmond airport through sleet, slush, snow and frankly some rather appalling road conditions. Our lovely and intrepid driver took her time and set a pace that was safe but got us to the airport on time. It was such a clever thing. We were somewhat later than anticipated but two flights with a short break between and we landed in Cancun.

The advantage of a later arrival is that the phlanx of timeshare salespeople is much less onerous. In fact, we had no problem at all getting to the booth representing our ground transportation who escorted us through the masses of independent taxi drivers and 'tour guides' to deliver us to a van which took us to the resort.

The contrast between snow and the tropics was intense. Within minutes I was hot. It was at the time annoying but in retrospect not at all a bad thing.

Check in was easy. The resort was beautiful and the buffet was still open when we got there. In fact, at the Iberostar, the buffet is nearly always open.

The only disappointment of the day was that 2 of our party had not escaped the Washinton weather. On the runway second in line for takeoff, the airport closed and they had to go home to try again the next morning.

I've never done an all inclusive resort before. It was a revelation. The resort was amazing. Pools and beach and food and drink. There were games and activities and if that wasn't to your taste, tours could be booked to the surrounding attractions.

Our group did one tour to see Chichen Itza. It is an amazing place. We had a fabulous guide who really gave the ruins a historic context. Actually, you can see a bit of it for yourself at the new seven wonders of the world site . In fact we were there right before the press conference they did as part of the New 7 Wonders tour. Places such as this make me feel very small in many many ways.

Unfortunately for me I had offered the old gods a blood sacrifice for getting us out of snowy Washington. They got it in the form of a twisted ankle and the most amazingly bloodied scraped knees I've ever gotten twisting my ankle. Apparently it was an acceptable sacrifice, however, as it was also the least twisted my ankle has ever been after such a spectacular fall. Which is to say I was able to walk all the rest of the day and while I had to choose my shoes carefully for the rest of the trip, I managed with nearly no pain or swelling. Good thing too as our rooms were on the third floor and the only way up is the steps.

The other stops on the group tour were a mayan tourist stop for lunch with a buffet with native dancers and shops, and a Cenote. A cenote is an interesting thing it's basically a swimming hole in a cavern. The caverns themselves are fairly plain (the yucatan is limestone with few other minerals so the caves are basically grey) but actually swimming in one was a great novelty and downright chilling after a hot day in the jungle.

The rest of the trip involved sunning, swimming (mostly to the swim up bar), shopping, eating, drinking and enjoying the excellent conversation of my companions. The facilities had pools for every taste (regular, wave, sport, and the lazy river). We actually never went down to the beach during the day due to the fact that the red flags were up (too rough to swim) and the sun was too intense for our pale winter white bodies. The most time I spent on the beach was actually early morning watching the sunrise.

On the whole I was very taken by how friendly and helpful the people were. They nearly all knew some english and they appreciated my poor attempts at spanish. As a large group (12) we had a few problems at the non-buffet restaurants. The waiters messed up several orders and chefs overcooked several steaks. The advantage was some special treats like the grilled lobster tails that just appeared 'from the chef' at the seafood restaurant.

I could go on and on. Suffice to say there was an awful lot of not sucking going on. We won't mention work - I did get called. And we won't mention the return trip's 2 hour delay. We will simply call it a lot like life - some good, some bad and on the whole fabulously entertaining.

To�� &�� fro


"The beauty of grace is that it makes life unfair."

-Matthew Thiessen