Playa Del Carmen Week 1
Jan 19-26
Saturday Jan 19
After a crazy unforgettable long 19 hour bus ride from San Cristobal, where we endured a screaming baby directly behind us, the driver taking liberties with his latin salsa music and blasting it as loud as he could to stay awake in the middle of the night, thousands of topes (speed bumps), and not nearly enough potty breaks we made it in to Playa at about 5:30 in the morning! It was still dark and the bus stopped at a station clear out in the boonies away from town (that’s the thing with these local buses they always have these super sketch bus stops to try and detract any wary tourists from taking them, we‘re just not smart enough to understand that part). So, instead of taking out chances with the taxi drivers, we just asked the bus driver if we could stay on the bus and drop us off on the side of the highway once we got to the resort. So a mile and a half walking later in the dark with our disgustingly heavy backpacks and looking like bums, we get to the Royal Haciendas. I’m sure we walked up and they all thought, this is way too nice of a place for someone who can’t even afford to take a taxi here to come stay. :) We got checked in, but since it was 6 in the morning our room wouldn’t be ready for another 6 hours. They held our bags and we hung around, alternating between sleeping like bums on the beach chairs to sleeping like bums in the hammocks. You know us, we’re as classy as it gets!
This is the view from our room! I love this place so much!
The rest of the crew finally arrived and we made our annual first and most important stop of the whole trip to… Sam’s Club! Seriously, it’s serious business ensuring the hunger needs of the Smalley family are met, once there it is very necessary to stock up on a few of the Mexico essentials or food groups as they will hence forward be known (and in a very particular order); 1. Cheese (but not just one kind of cheese, we have to cover all our bases here, so I’m talking Mexican blend, Oaxaca, and Manchego) 2. Herdez salsa (I know you can get it in the states, but that doesn’t make it any less Mexican to us!) 3. Coconut Syrup (how else could we make amazing cheap Pina Coladas) 4. Tortilla Chips (duh!) 5. Black Beans (not refried or pinto, just black) and 6. Nutri Leche milk (seriously it’s like drinking milk with fruit loops only you don’t even have to eat the fruit loops first). Some might say we have an unhealthy fascination with food…. I just like to think we’re passionate! :)
We had such an awesome week of luxury with everyone. Nachos by day, Pina Coladas by night, happy hour at the swim up bar, beach volleyball, pinochle, tennis, snorkeling, what a life! My parents have a couple weeks down here every year and this year since we were traveling anyway they let us stay with them for both weeks! Even though we’d only been traveling for two week, it was still awesome to take a break from the backpacker lifestyle and get spoiled!
Here’s the gang minus my dad! This is at Akumal beach, one of our favorite places to come, they have awesome snorkeling where you can see Turtles and Manta Rays and this week there was a school of 50,000 fish hanging out in the bay! We come here every year and I’ve seen turtles every time I've come except for the two times I’ve been with McKay…. He thinks we’re all just lying about the turtles playing a big joke on him! :)
This guy is legitimately flying like Iron Man! His suit thing was attached to a wave running and it would push water out of the hands and feet and he could fly up in to the air and spin around and dive in to the water. It was amazing!! And for the very reasonable price of $100 for 30 minutes, you too can also fly like a superhero.
Oh don’t worry we’re just living the Buena Vida at the Buena Vida (restaurant)…. See what I did there? This was a late celebration of my mom’s birthday, I think she turned 35 this year…. :)
And this was how we discovered that 5 is in fact the magic number for the on deck hot tub…
Saying goodbye to the kids, I felt so bad that they were leaving and we had to stay a whole extra week in paradise without them. And then we walked back to the beach and the feeling was gone….
Week 2 Jan 26-Feb 1
It really was way sad for Bryce and Jill and Kelsey to leave us Saturday, but we didn’t waste anytime at all adjusting to our new beach side room and waiting for the next group to arrive!
This was the amazing view from our beach front room! We all loved the view so much, but decided it was too far of a walk from the car and reception area to stay here on a yearly basis (can you say first world problems?)! :)
My uncle Jeff and our adopted family from South Africa (Stuart, Louise, Jenna, and Emma) all arrived safe and sound Saturday afternoon! We quickly got them adjusted to the Mexican lifestyle by whipping up a fresh batch of nachos and quesadillas, followed by another Sam’s Club run!
After the Sam’s Club run, everyone was tired and hungry, we found a local taco place and had McKay order us a big spread so they could try a little of everything! Everyone was so impressed by his Spanish and ordering skills!
Oh man, it is so hard choosing between all these awesome beach pictures…. This is on the beach in Cancun, we drove up there for half a day on Sunday!
Atlante is the professional soccer team in Cancun, we’ve always wanted to go to a game and this year we finally made it happen! It’s also a lot easier to get behind a team when their jerseys only cost $12, I mean I’m not saying you can buy my loyalty… But if the price is right, I’ll cheer for just about anyone! :) Plus they were playing the Jaguares which is McKays team from Chiapas, so it was doubly exciting!
It was a crazy game! Atlante took an early 2-0 lead, and in the second half Jaguares got two red cards to go down to only 9 players. But something must have started a fire under them, because they came out and scored the next 3 goals to pull ahead 3-2! Then with 5 minutes left a guy on Atlante broke his leg, it was crazy, we could hear the snap from the stands. Plus they were out of subs so they had to play down a player. That was enough to get Atlante motivated though, because they scored two crazy goals in stoppage time to win the game 4-3! It was definitely some sloppy soccer but an exciting game to watch!
Have I mentioned how sweet these two are yet? They’re 8 and 10 and have more manners than most adults on a good day! On Sunday as we were walking in from somewhere Emma (the youngest) said to McKay, “ When we were swimming in the pool, I wasn’t really sure who you were. So, if it’s alright I’d like to come with you so I can get to know you better.” Ha, I almost died laughing it was the cutest thing I’ve heard in a long time! These two kept us entertained all week with their awesome jokes and funny stories!
Ever since we got to Mexico, McKay has been craving a street cart hamburger, so we convinced the whole crew to try it out. We got a burger with cheese, ham, fried onions, and fries all for 25 pesos ($2)! Plus all the indigestion at no extra cost, that is a killer deal!
Our brave subjects! This was right by a little store where the lady that was running it had her little kids there with her and they were just kind of hanging out playing in the street. Jenna was so sweet and wanted to buy all the little kids a piece of candy with her own money. She asked McKay to explain it to them and they were all beyond stoked!
This was our guide for the day in Tulum, Jose (he told us, he was the first and original one in Mexico). Tulum is beautiful, we came here about 6 years ago when it was still pretty quiet. It’s insane how much it has changed since then and is seriously a tourist nightmare now! It’s still super pretty and they are the only ruins in Mexico located right on the beach and when the Spaniards first landed in Central America there were still people living in Tulum.
Ooh, who's the tough guy now?
This is looking over the awesome beach where you can swim at the ruins!
One of the outposts for the city in the background. There are 4 outposts each one representing a season and depending on where the shadows were being cast at a certain time in the day it would tell you what season it was.... Seems a bit complicated to me, I'd rather just check the calendar....
Sometimes it's just hard to explain how we can look so tough and yet so.... No that's it just tough.
After seeing the ruins in Tulum, we went to this awesome cheap local fresh seafood place right in town. My uncle Jeff ordered fried Grouper and this is what he got. They literally take the whole fish splash on some batter and throw it in the deep frier. Once he got over the fact that it seemed to be staring right at him, it was actually beyond amazing!
As we were leaving the restaurant a truck pulled up with this cooler of freshly caught fish that had probably been swimming in the ocean ten minutes earlier, and this is what they serving their fish from. That’s about as fresh as it gets!
Along with the fish these guys walked in with this shark on their shoulders, I mean it‘s probably a baby shark, but I'd hate to meet that thing on a dark night in the ocean! It was kind of sad they just started chopping it up right there, cutting it’s fins off and slicing it in to pieces. If I listened closely I swear I could hear Jaws in the ocean weeping for this young one....
If only you could see where the license plate is supposed to be on this car. They don’t just give you parking tickets in Mexico, they actually take the license plate right off of your car, so that you will go and pay your fine! How do we know this? We’ve had to learn the hard way, two years in a row…. :)
Our last meal together at Cheester’s, our new favorite restaurant in Playa! We ordered two things for 5 people and still had leftovers (you know there was a lot of food when the Smalleys don’t clear the table)!
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