Cancun - Day 6 & 7

Day 6 - Tulum & Xel-ha

Bright and early we boarded a tour bus again and headed south of Cancun to visit Tulum. I was surprised to see a DQ and a Subway at the entry way of Tulum. Really??? I so wanted a blizzard but Cody convinced me to wait until Xel-ha for ice cream.

It was such a hot day! I don't do well in heat so I was not having the best time but we did enjoy seeing Tulum.

Love the look of the ruins with the beautiful ocean as the back ground.

The water was gorgeous and so warm! If we were Mayans living in Mexico we would have picked Tulum over Chichen Itza. 

Then we arrived at Xel -Ha. It's an all inclusive natural water park. There is a lazy river sort of thing, cliff jumping, snorkeling (Hawaii is soooo much better), 5 buffets, a hammock island, swimming with dolphins, and more that I can't remember. We were going to be around water most of the day so we didn't want to take our normal camera so we bought a waterproof one. BIG mistake! I will never again buy a disposable waterproof camera. The pictures turned out horrible. Next time I'll invest in a digital water proof one.

It was a fun day and we were exhausted when we returned to the resort. We ordered room service and passed out. If you're ever going to Cancun, Cody says he'd skip Xel-ha, I'd say go if you have time.

Day 7 - Last day of relaxing

We spent our whole last day just lounging by the pool and eating up the food. They had these rolls that were filled with cream cheese. They were sooo good! Cody ordered a few for me from the pool waiter and after I downed the first batch I ordered some more. He told me that I better be careful! If I continue to eat those rolls I'm gonna get fat! Cody and I just started laughing so hard! We couldn't believe he would tell me that! It was hilarious. 

Every day the resort had a taco bar. Cody was in heaven. We ate so many tacos al pastor! They were amazing!!

These nachos were the bomb!

Cody's Tulum

That night we spent hours in the hot tub and of course eating! haha We were sad to leave our little paradise but were so excited to see our boys. Thank you so much to G&G Webb for watching the boys for the week and driving them up so we could see them when we got home. 

I probably shouldn't have waited so long to post our vacation cause I so want another one! HA

I don't think we'll be going back to Mexico any time soon. Hawaii is on our list next and a Southern Caribbean cruise! We do want to go back when the boys are older to this resort though when it's complete which wont be until 2014!! Until then!

Cancun - Day 4 & 5

 Day 4 - Isla Mujeres

We woke up excited to go explore the island across the bay from us. We started with eating a delicioso (delicious in spanish people...come on) buffet breakfast at the resort and then ventured out to find us a combi. What is a combi you might ask. It is a taxi van that makes various stops that the locals use that costs like 10 pesos. Once again Cody refused to take a taxi that would cost us $20 one way. So the combi arrived and slowed down enough to let us step in but then took off again. It was craziness!! The driver was flying down the road and he would slightly slow down to let a rider on and then take off. I think the locals enjoyed seeing my face.

We showed up at the ferry dock and got on a sweet passenger ferry boat to Isla Mujeres!

Remember how I mentioned in the past about Cody not being able to work while on our vacation. Well, the ferry had free wifi so of course Cody jumped on it and worked the entire 20 minute ferry ride. It's okay. I forgave him. 

 

The water surrounding the island was amazing. We loved the colors. 

Our mode of transportation on the island... golf cart of course! Cody loved driving our golf cart all over the island. He mentioned it was nice to drive and do our own thing rather than riding in a taxi or being on a tour.

 

This is how it normally went. Cody when get into talking Spanish with the locals and I would be following behind. It's so cute to see him speak Spanish and see his face light up.  As we were driving down the road that follows the coast of the island, a guy was standing in front of house handing out fliers for a little beach front restaurant. We decided to stay for lunch since we were hungry. 

Cody loved it so much. He was in amazement by how beautiful the little beach was and these people just made tourists lunch in their backyard for a living.

 

A little ways down the same beach a few locals were making money by having tourists pay to hold some kind of shark. I can't remember what kind it was but it was weird. Cody really wanted to do it so he made a donation of $4 and held the shark. What a way to make a living.

We spent all day on the island and loved it. Cody was sold on the island simple life and wanted to buy a beach front property and start a little cafe. Oh boy! Good thing I convinced him that we'd be better in the States.

If we ever go back to Cancun we'll definitely be going to Isla Mujeres again. It was Cody's favorite day.

Day 5 - Resort & Mexican Night

We lounged by the pool and beach this day and read our books. The resort was hosting a Mexican night complete with a Mexican Buffet and a mariachi band. Cody was in love with the food and actually said the words, "I'm in Heaven.". That is huge for Cody! He's not normally in love with food as much as I am! 

Cancun - Days 1-3

Maybe you remember way back when in June that Cody & I went on vacation to Cancun to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. It was a little crazy before we left with getting the boys down to Blanding, my house full of family, and my Grandma Woodland's funeral the day before. But we made it to the airport Saturday morning so excited for a week break. Especially when Cody had been gone most of May.

DAY 1 - Travel

The plane ride down was great! Straight shot down to a part of Mexico Cody & I have never been to. Cody served his mission in Mexico City and we've both been to PV, Cabo, and Mazatlan. Cancun ended up being our favorite. 

You might say wow, you've been to Mexico a lot. Why Mexico? Okay you might not be saying that buy Cody's coworkers did when they were wanting me to come to Holland with them and have that count as our anniversary trip. I on the other hand did not want to do that. I wanted a week of Cody to myself. No work, no coworkers, no one else! Plus, Cody loves the Mexican people, the language, and the food. Boy does he LOVE the food. 

Speaking of the language. Whenever we were in a taxi, which was at least once a day, he was talking to the locals and I would be clueless to what was being said. I did however learn a few new words and I could kinda dissect what was being said when, esposa, ninos, mormon, or Joseph Smith would be said. Cody totally turns into a missionary when we go to Mexico. In fact, he gave our taxi driver who picked us up at the airport and took us to our resort the first discussion. He loved it!

We stayed at the Villa del Palmar Cancun and loved it. It was still under construction but it made the resort less crowded and quiet. The whole resort wont be finished until 2014. It will have 3 huge horseshoe shaped buildings with 9 restaurants and it'll be fully inclusive. We were about 20 miles north of the "hotel zone" which was nice. No "spring breakers" or "girls gone wild" for us! We were also directly across from Isla Mujeres which we ventured to later in the week. 

DAY 2 -  Chichen Itza

Everyone says you have to go to Chichen Itza and so we went. We probably will never go back though. It was cool and fun to learn about the Myan people. But it was a long bus ride out there and it was hot and humid. Thankfully though it wasn't as hot as it had been the last week according to our guide.

We walked around with our group for about an hour and as soon as the guided tour was over we went straight for the buffet. We could see some dark clouds coming in and we did not want to get caught in the storm. And boy did it rain. It started right as we stepped under the palapas. 

I told you it poured! For about 45 minutes while we ate. Even though it was pouring we still had an enjoyable lunch. Cody of course loved the tacos and the entertainment was interesting. The ladies would spin around with bottles on a tray on their head. I don't know how they stayed on.

Once on the bus our next stop was to visit a cenote. However, this is NOT what the picture of the cenote looked like when I booked the tour. I was pretty peeved. Owell! I had no desire to go in the water but Cody tested it out. There were some performers who had to have been high school age kids trying to make money. What a crazy lifestyle. 

After an hour of the cenote we were back on the bus and headed to the resort. Cody and I slept most of the way home and then crashed in our room and decided to just order room service. We skyped with the boys for the first time since we'd left them with G&G Webb on Thursday. They were happy as could be and loving being spoiled by G&G. They didn't even care to talk to us :) That's good though. It makes being away easier knowing they are being taken care of.

DAY 3 - Relax at resort & hotel zone

We decided that every other day of our vacation would be an excursion and then a relax day. It worked out perfect. When we woke up in the morning we were a little worried that our vacation would be ruined by dang rain since it had rained on us the majority of the time we'd been in Cancun up to that point. Thankfully it wasn't raining but it was cloudy. It was so nice. Not too hot but not cold. Perfect. We laid on the beach and drank our virgin pina coladas and read our books. 

That night we rode the resort shuttle to the hotel zone to go out to eat and explore. We ate at Senior Frogs which wasn't that great. We also weren't impressed with the hotel zone and were glad that we were so far away from it. I guess we aren't party people. 

One funny thing about this night was that we wanted to get a few things from a grocery store. Since our resort was so far away from everything it was going to cost us $30 one way for a taxi to take us to the walmart. So Cody decided that we'd take advantage of the bus system at the hotel zone to find a place to get some food. Out comes the missionary in him. While waiting for the bus to come by several taxis would stop and try to take us to the store. Cody would refuse them and they probably thought we were weird tourists. What tourists ride the local transit. We do! 

We were the only tourists on that bus and we were stared at the whole time to and from the store. They probably thought we were crazy. haha I had to laugh once we got off. It did however save us money. The round trip bus ride cost us a whole $2 versus the $60 by taxi.

It's a good thing Cody can speak Spanish.

Coming up: Isla Mujeres & Tulum