Making Our Way to Puerto Morelos

Any direct flight to Cancun should be considered the Party Plane, right? Every passenger was anxiously waiting to begin their vacation and the guy sitting next to me was no exception...except that he decided not to wait until landing in Mexico to begin his partying.

In order to keep himself occupied on the plane he decided to pull out his gallon ziploc bag full of mini bottles. Two hours later all but two of his bottles were gone. To be fair, he did offer Rob and I one of his last remaining, so that was thoughtful. 

However, his consideration stopped there. He was LOUD and kept punching and kicking the seat in front of him where his friend sat. It made for an obnoxious start to our own relaxing vacation. Oh, well. 

After landing we made it via shuttle (after dodging many sales pitches) to the car rental company. It took us FOREVER to get our car.

The man helping us was VERY particular about his paperwork. After already waiting 15 minutes for him to verify and print everything, He handed us two receipts to sign. Rob signed one and, to expedite, I signed one. My doing so upset him very much. He said now he had to void everything and start all over again. Okay....sorry. After another 15 minutes of voiding and verifying and printing his second attempt at getting Rob's signature failed. Rob didn't sign it EXACTLY the way he signed his name on his driver's license. Upset again, the man voided everything and start over. After a third 15 minutes of waiting, Rob tried very hard to match his license signature. After a full and deliberate inspection, the man finally decided we were ready and responsible enough to get the keys to the car.

On our way out the door we got another hard sales pitch before we finally made it to the car. All we had to do was sign again and we were off...except for the tip the guy with the keys demanded. After some sketchy change was made and exchanged, we left in a huff, ready to finally let our vacation begin!

But wait, oh, the gas tank is just about empty. Okay, let's find a gas station. After some tense moments when we were trying to decide if we were supposed to pump our own gas or just hand over our money to the guy standing next to the pump, we decided to trust the young man who was asking us how much to put in the tank. We hadn't even had a moment to think about the exchange rate or metric system or the lack of speaking the same language, we said, "Umm, 40?" Surprised, the man filled our tank with about a liter and a half of fuel (40 pesos worth)...enough to get about 5 minutes down the road. After we realized what we'd asked him to do, we turned around and asked him for 40 liters more. Just a tad embarrassing...

A few more minutes of driving down the road and we finally made it to our first destination, Puerto Morelos!

Granted, it wasn't as wonderful as a beach town as I had perceived from my research...

but it was still nice to finally get to the turquoise water!

What a dreamy dusk view!!

Annnnd queue the relaxation...

Where We Stayed & Played in Playa, Akumal, & Vallodolid

I thought I'd write a post just on our Mexico lodgings because they deserve it.

The hotel prices in the nice areas of the eastern Mexican coast are exorbitant, around $450 for places on the beach. It didn't matter, though, because we didn't want to stay in a resort anyway. We wanted to enjoy a more intimate, local vibe that made us feel like we were actually experiencing Mexico.

We have rented lodging many times before through vrbo but this time we decided to give the much talked about Airbnb a try. Contrary to what people think, there are many small hotels listed, not only people's apartments. It's a convenient, cost-effective way for these small establishments to get business without running a webpage/booking site of their own.

After sorting through hundreds of options, we finally settled on our favorites and booked our stays. The booking process didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. One place that we had tried to book was being sketchy so we cancelled and weeks later they were still trying to get us to give them money. The other three places we actually did book were a thousand percent perfect, especially considering they only cost us around $100 per night! The owners couldn't have been more gracious and wonderful to work with before and during our time at their properties.

 

Our first night we stayed in Playa del Carmen. We decided we wanted to be out of the main hubbub touristy area so we booked a LOVELY boutique hotel a couple of minutes north.  It was situated in a very local neighborhood but right behind a 5-star resort. It was the best of both worlds since we got some local flavor but only had to walk a block to a beautiful, uncrowded beach.

There is a gospel church behind the hotel and so that evening we were serenaded with the craziest spanish gospel singing slash bawling. They were really feeling the spirit. It was awesome. Or disturbing. I'm not sure which. We recorded the audio from our back patio.

The neighborhood itself was a little out of our comfort zone. However, we really enjoyed taking it all in.

But once you walked through the large wooden gate into the courtyard, we felt so relaxed. After a day of travel and getting our bearings, we needed some serenity and this place delivered!

If I could live this minimally in my own home, I'd be a happy camper.

Our personal patio.

The rooftop was incredible. And, please. I'm NOT wearing a fanny pack. It's a travel pack. And my did it come in handy so no making fun!

For the next two nights, we drove south and stayed in a beach apartment in Akumal. Getting to the house was an adventure. The potholed dirt roads are something else! Click video to view.



It was literally 25 steps to this gorgeous view!!

 

The grounds were beautiful.

Wall of Coconuts

And the room was very comfortable.

Our last night we went inland to Valladolid and stayed in the center of town at a GORGEOUS bed and breakfast. It was actually more like a high-end boutique hotel.

Again, you walk off the noisy streets

And into serenity.

Everything about this place was perfect and spotless...which ended up being highly important since I ended up being sick all night long (not from their food). Since I couldn't make it to breakfast in the morning, they brought it to me.

We had such a good experience with our lodgings through Airbnb that we will definitely use it again and again, I'm sure.

Mayan Yoga

I'm hesitant to post these because who likes to post pics of themselves in a swimsuit? Well, I don't. But...every time I told people I was going to Mexico they always told me to post pictures of me doing yoga on the beach. So here I am, as white as the white sand beach! The funny thing is that this is AFTER applying self-tanner all week!

Forearm Stand / Pincha Mayurasana / Feathered Peacock Pose was a little tricky because my elbows would slowly sink into the sand, throwing off my balance.

Here I'm just relaxing underneath a palm tree. I was going to have Rob photoshop out the three people in the background staring at me but the guy in the white speedo is just too awesome.

Then it just felt natural to do a chest opener on a mayan temple because, well, you know...

Anyway, there you have it. Mayan Yoga.

The Copywriting on the Wall

Almost a year ago I started looking for a job. I wanted to keep my resume from getting stagnant and I had the intent of saving my paychecks exclusively for travel. Shortly thereafter I became an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) copywriter.

I was hired by an SEO company to write webpages for one of their clients, a nationwide company with hundreds of branches, each with their own webpage.

Each page had to be unique, which was quite a challenge at times.

Over the course of 10 months, I wrote:

• 325 search engine optimized pages
• Each page was 250+ words 
• About topics ranging from color printing to trade show materials to postcards and others
• 53 different pages about manual and booklet printing. Seriously. Can you imagine?? 

There were many days when I didn't know how I would be able to write any more of these pages! However, the thought of vacation kept me going.

Now I'm still writing a few webpages but I'm focusing a little more on writing 500+ word blog posts for various companies. I'm considered a freelancer so I work with whomever wants to hire me to write content for their webpages.

I do 6-10 hours of work a week at home on my own schedule. Because of the low hours, I don't get paid a ton but it has gotten us two vacations so far (which was my goal). However, as much as I like vacations, there's something even more important that this work has given me. It has stretched my brain and expanded my skills. It's given me something "professional" to do as I've missed working the last 5 years. I've enjoyed it a lot.

It's the perfect job for me right now and I'm very grateful to have it.

Disneyland with Cousins

We went to Disneyland in September with Rob's family and we had an absolutely amazing time. We already posted our beach time but we haven't posted on the Disneyland portion of our trip until now.

We overnighted in Las Vegas on the way down and back and got into a few little predicaments...

Ouch! Don't touch your bums to the cactus!!

 

I walked out of the stall to see this.

On every trip we take Caroline gets a goose egg on her forehead.   Every. Trip.

One thing we didn't get a picture of was when Ben hit his head at the hotel and had to be glued back up at the emergency room!

We usually stop in Barstow for lunch on the way down and back but let me tell you, stop in Victorville instead. It's so much less crowded and there are so many better dining options!

This trip we rented a house together a mile or two from Disneyland and either shuttled each other or took Uber back and forth. The house had a pool which was fun to come back to after the park and it was really nice to buy groceries for a lot of our meals. On a couple of the days we picked up food on the way back from the beach or the park and ate together at home (the park closed at 8pm most nights). It was so much easier than trying to control all the kids inside a restaurant or spending top dollar on Disney dining.

We went during the Disney Diamond Celebration so they had a new light parade and World of Color show for the event. Rob and I can't even express how blown away we were by the spectacles. FANTASTIC! Our theory is that you get so hot and tired playing all day and wonder if it was all worth it but the night ends so spectacularly so that the parents forget about the cost and stuff and realize just how worth it it all is!

Here things got a little crazy while waiting for the daytime parade.

Did I mention it was H.O.T.? It was right around 100 degrees most of the time while there. We knew this would be the case and were as prepared as we could be with spray water bottles, cooling towels, lightweight clothes, cold treats etc. but we were all dying at times. Of course, we still had much fun.

A few randoms.

Our last night in Anaheim we took advantage of the house and parental units by taking the kids back home early, feeding them and getting them in bed, and then Rob and I snuck back out to enjoy a date at Disney. It was so nice to be together in the happiest place on earth.

I do need to document one aspect of my trip that was quite less than ideal. As you remember I got a tendinitis and bursitis flare up a week or two before we left and wasn't able to walk well. In fact, I was in a lot of pain from my feet and hips. My doctor gave me a steroid pack and special insoles to get me through and I barely did. I was hobbling slowly and putting my weight on the stroller and gingerly stepping into and out of rides. I must admit, it was pretty rough. However, I refused to let it ruin our vacation so I kept smiling, made sure my kids didn't know how tough all the standing and walking was on me, and had fun anyway! 

We had a great time with these people and are so glad we got to vacation with them!

Thanks for the memories!!