Playa week 3 and Chetumal

Playa Del Carmen Week 3

Feb 2-9

So on Thursday night of the second week at the Royal Haciendas, McKay said, “Why don’t we just try and stay here one more week?” I was like, “Hmm… Let me think about it- ok!” The Haciendas are set up with A and B unit’s the A side is the suite and has a master bedroom, kitchen, and living room and the B side is the lock off and set up more like a standard hotel room with two queen size beds and a small fridge and microwave. Lots of people come down and have the full Villa for only two people, so we thought, we just need to find the right person to rent out their lock off side to us. So, we started looking online and then started asking around the resort the next day. Luckily my Dad loves to chat it up with so many people and he got us in touch with a couple who knew a lady who had a friend (did you follow that?) who was willing to rent their lock off! We were seriously so stoked, not only because we were getting to stay another week, but because my parents and Stuart and Louise were leaving so much food for us, ya know we can't be here without all the essentials! :)

We were beyond pumped to be spending another week in paradise, the only drawback was that the couple we were renting the lock off from (Steve and Marty)  had someone staying with them for Saturday night only (the weeks run Saturday to Saturday). So basically once we had to check out of the room with my parents Saturday morning we wouldn’t have any place to go until Sunday. It wasn’t ideal, but we figured we could spend the day by the pool and then just get a hostel in town and come back the next morning. We went for a bike ride all over Playa looking for the best deal we could possibly find and by the time we got back, my dad had already spoken with another awesome couple who just had the Suite side but said we could sleep on their pull out Murphy beds in the living room for the night, no problem! So, Saturday came and it was really sad to say goodbye to everyone, but somehow we managed….  :)

Saturday night we stayed with Greg and Colleen from Chicago, they were beyond sweet and made us feel right at home! We had an awesome time chatting with them and later on in the week we let them borrow the bikes we had rented. Sunday morning we moved all our stuff up to Steve and Marty’s, they are seriously so great! I think at first they were a little bit unsure after agreeing to let us stay, but by the end of the week we were all sad to say goodbye to each other! They are from Indiana and have 3 weeks at the Royal Haciendas every year as well, so it will be so much fun to get together with them again next year! We had such a great week and spent our time by the pool, playing volleyball and going for bike rides in the afternoon! The weather this week was by far the best we’ve had, and we made sure to soak up as much of it as we possibly could, we got so much in fact that one day McKay burned his back so bad he was afraid of the sun and wouldn’t come out of the shade for the next 3 days! Poor guy!

This is Steve and Marty, they seriously spoiled us all week long! They had some extra food leftover that they were trying to get rid of and made us amazing dinners almost every night, and basically wouldn’t let us lift a finger. To reciprocate, we introduced them to Crema de Coco for homemade Pina Coladas and Herdez salsa! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone outside of my family get as excited about Herdez as Steve, he loved it so much and put it on anything and everything including but not limited to: Veggies, Mac N Cheese, Pork Chops, Spaghetti, Chicken Nuggets…. I think you get the idea! It was making us laugh, but I was also so happy to see someone else really appreciate that little can of salsa like it deserves! :)

McKay and Steve got in to a wicked Ping Pong match, Steve was a pitcher and played Pro for a couple years until he had shoulder surgery, so he was very competitive! Marty and I were cheering from the sidelines and the official water girls anytime the boys needed a little pick me up! We had eaten these awesome chicken nuggets for dinner this night, but I was so bummed cause we didn’t have any ketchup. We still had chicken nuggets left so I knew we would be eating them again soon. So, on our way down to watch the boys play Ping Pong Marty and I passed a room that had half eaten room service trays sitting outside their door with unopened Heinz 57 ketchup packets sitting there ripe for the taking (you just can’t understand how hard it is to get legit ketchup down here) I only had to think about it for a second before I reached down and scooped up all the packets while sheepishly asking Marty, “Is it weird if I take these?” She got a big kick out of that and when we went down to meet the boys, McKay saw the ketchup packets in my hand and said to Steve, “See I told you she would take those.” Haha apparently my husband knows me to well! Everyone kept teasing me about it for the rest of the trip, they could laugh all they wanted but my chicken nuggets were much more satisfying the second time around! :)

Ahh, we love these guys! We had so much fun just chatting away with them every night, they were so sweet with each other and were so nice and wanted to hear all about us and our trip. They really did feel like family by the end and definitely remind me of what my grandparents were probably like 20 years ago!

Here we are cruising on our bikes into Playa, they’re finishing this awesome walkway that’s going to go all the way from the Royal Haciendas right in to the main walking street in town. It’s a great ride as long as you avoid all the presents the dogs have left on the path!

At this point you might be thinking, why are you two in the exact same clothes in every picture, were these all taken the same day or something? First off, I’d like to congratulate you on your keen eye! Second, I wish I could say that was the case, however, when you’re paying for laundry by the kilo, your definition of dirty slightly changes… Don’t worry I’m sure we only smelled marginally bad….

Here we are heading back out in to the sad poor (as in us) backpacker world void of pool volleyball, swim up bars, clean sheets, hot showers, and sports center (ok, I could care less about that part, but that was a big sacrifice for McKay)! Goodbye life of luxury, you will be desperately missed! :)

Chetumal 

Saturday Feb 9

We took off first thing Saturday morning to head down to the bus station. Steve and Marty were so cute and wanted to make sure they were around to see us off and see how we managed with just a couple backpacks. It was like Mom and Dad sending us off again! :) The part that killed us about getting to the bus station was in a taxi it cost 140 pesos for less than 10 minutes, then once we got to the bus station it was going to be 120 pesos to ride 6 hours down to the border. How does that make any logical sense at all? We debated on just walking the couple miles back out to the gate entrance and just catching a combi, but when we had tried to give Steve some money to tip the maid, he told us he had that taken care of and we should use the money to get a taxi instead! Haha, I think they were pretty surprised at the lengths we would go to, to save a few bucks! :)

We took a bus down to the border town of Chetumal. It is a cute little town and we were there on the night they were having their big Carnaval parade. It was such an awesome atmosphere and so much fun to experience! During the day we walked around this awesome walkway all along the beach, it wasn't sandy like in Playa, but the water was still beautiful! We also stumbled upon a group of boys battling each Step Up style, only the really amateur no actual dance skills style, seriously though this was not a joke to them and we couldn’t take our eyes away it was so bad in a completely endearing kind of way.

They don’t mess around in Mexico; this is a giant slide that goes straight in to 2 feet deep water with jagged rocks at the bottom. Fun and safe!

Every time we walk past one of the ladies on the street selling corn with mayo McKay threatens to buy it for me, today was the day that threat finally came alive. It actually was pretty good as long as you could choke down the raunchy cheese on top.

This is a hot dog wrapped in bacon covered with grilled onions! On the one hand it was amazing in theory on the other this was just one of the many food failures we had at Carnaval, we were 0 for 4 on our food choices!

I can’t believe this is the only picture we got of the parade, the rest are all videos, because I was seriously in shock and laughing at how many people were not only attending it and watching from the side but also how many people were actually in the parade. Seriously there were at least 45 different groups with boys and girls dressed in costumes and dancing. Every size (but really every size) every age, every dance style, and every revealing costume type you can think of. Some of them had big floats and some of them were just wearing big headdresses. You can definitely tell it is very important to everyone down here and really a part of their culture! Clearly McKay is as thrilled as ever to have his picture taken in this moment!

Up next Belize!