La vida loca en Mexico

Cancun, Mexico- I don't think we ever would have come back if Kanyon wasn't here waiting for us. Mexico was sooo awesome! We kept very busy and had so much fun. We went with 4 other couples, all friends of ours. All the husbands graduated high school together. Jake got his first experience being south of the border- complete with crazy drivers, coconut popsicles, and many opportunities for adventure. I am very excited that he had such a great time. Now maybe I can talk him into heading a little further south into Guatemala. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

We stayed at the Westin Resort & Spa. The hotel was perfect - except for at the time of check in, when they didn't have any reservation for us in their system! (Thanks Orbitz) This is a picture of the view we had from our room. I am sure you can imagine how hard it would be to come home after a week of waking up to this. I now sit here, looking out to snow and looking at my peeling skin from being sunburned. Its sad to think so much has changed in less than a week!

As a group, we made ourselves a busy little itinerary. We wanted to make sure that we got everything done that we wanted to. Monday was our "free" day. We spent it on the beach and exploring downtown Cancun. We had a blast at Mercado 28 bartering with all the locals. They love it when someone comes in speaking Spanish. It was fun to be able to use my Spanish again, and brush up on it. I forget how much I love that language and how it helps me to get cheap silver jewelry.

On Tuesday we headed out to see some Mayan ruins at a place called Chichen-Itza. We hired a private driver to take the 10 of us on our 1.5 hr ride out there. I wouldn't go back and do it any other way. We had a fun driver and even sang some kareoke through the "tour guide" speakers in the van using his "tour guide" microphone.

Then on Wednesday the girls all went to the spa for facials & massages. It was heavenly. Then we laid out on the beach until the guys got back. They rented a fishing boat and did some deep sea fishing. Unfortunately, it wasn't extremely successful, and they all got really sea sick. Jake said he'd do it again, but none of the other guys did. Jake caught the biggest fish of the trip- but I think only 2 fish were caught the entire 8 hr trip. This fish is called an Amber Jack.

On Thursday, we took a bus down to Playa del Carmen to catch a ferry over to the island of Cozumel. It was here that we had our SCUBA lessons and dive. I'll be honest, I didn't make it on the dive to the reef...but either did 3 others in our group. There is something a little too claustrophobic about being that far underwater. Jake did it and took an underwater camera with him. He says that it was beautiful. Lots of fish- even sting rays & barracuda. We are hoping some of the pictures turn out- but from what I hear, I don't have very high hopes.

On Friday, we hired another driver to take us to Tulum to see some more ruins. Those were really cool cause they are built right on the rocky coastline. After we were done at Tulum, we drove up to a place called Akumal and some of us did some snorkeling there. Here there were big sea turtles to be seen...and pretty close to you! Jake actually got in trouble for trying to chase one. Leave it to him to be the one to do that.

The rest of the trip was not planned out. We spent alot of time at the beach and playing in the water. We really had a great trip and can't wait to plan another one. If any of you are thinking about going to Mexico...don't think twice, just go! You won't regret it!