Playa del Carmen, Day 8

I shouldn't really call this Day 8 of our vacation.  It was a sad day because it's the day we came home.  It was pretty much a repeat of the way down, just in reverse.  Except we were more careful about making sure everyone stayed fed, so we were all much happier.  The kids were really good again through all the travel, until the end when Lauren just couldn't handle the plane anymore and started screaming.  Fortunately, we were just about to land in Salt Lake when that happened.

We consider our vacation very successful - we came home with $27 and about 85 Mexican pesos, so we didn't go completely broke.  And the kids are already asking when we can go again.  The general consensus is that anywhere we go, it has to have a beach.  That was the highlight for them.

Getting back into daily routine is going to be rough.  After we got the kids a snack at home, I seriously thought, "Do I really have to clean up after them?"  Ah, reality.  But then we took the kids out to Chili's for dinner.  I just couldn't jump back into that yet.  Tomorrow.

Playa del Carmen, Day 7

*This post was written by Jeff, as if it was me.  In truth, I was so tired this night I couldn't stay awake long enough to write anything.  I've added my own comments, too.* 

Today Michael and I went shopping and spent way too much money while discussing last night’s “Mr. Iberostar”  Good thing my husband loves me anyway.

*Cami's note: The Mr. Iberostar show was a Chippendale-type show they did at the hotel the night before.  I did NOT attend, but the guy at the shop insisted he remembered me from it.*

Jeff stayed home with Faith and Lauren.  They played on the beach, found sea shells, and buried their legs in the sand.  Lauren really got into it, and thought it was great to be buried all the way up to her neck.

After we went home, the girls took naps and Jeff took Michael back to the beach.  He had the biggest smile the whole time they were there, and kept saying how he wanted to stay for “like three more weeks.”  He worked hard to make sure everyone in his class at school had a good seashell.  Jeff went snorkeling and found some fish.  Michael thought it was pretty cool when they ate bread out of his hand.

After that, we went to dinner at the Italian Restaurant. Faith sang about how she was eating her food instead of actually eating.  When we pointed out that she was singing and not eating, she corrected herself and started singing about how she was NOT eating her food.  A Mexican three-man band came in and started playing music at each table, which was also a lot of fun.

It will be hard to get into the flow of things back home.  With all the buffet meals, Michael has been eating very well, and we’ve been able to just turn him loose and let him find food he will eat. He’s been great about eating enough food at each meal, and finding new foods he’s willing to try after that first difficult day after we arrived where he didn’t want to eat anything.  Faith’s had her typical darling and devil moments, but for the most part has brought us a lot of smiles. Lauren has really warmed up to Jeff’s family after they’ve spent so much time helping us to take care of the kids, and they’ve all commented how fun she is to play with.  And we’ve got to have a whole week with no laundry, no dishes, no work, and have all been treating each other much better as a result.  Hopefully we can keep this friendlier spirit going once we get back into the grind.

*Cami's note: Since we've actually been home, Jeff has sorted all the stinky laundry, so the friendlier spirit is still going at least this long.*  :)

*Cami's next note: One of the highlights of the day happened while we were shopping.  There was a man with a small monkey, and for $5 you could have your picture taken with it.  We had Michael hold it while we took his picture.  He was a little hesitant at first, but once the man put the monkey in his arms, he was really excited.*

*Cami's note too: This is an ROUS.  We later learned from a tour guide that it is called a tzereque, and is actually a member of the rabbit family.  He called them Mayan rabbits, and said they taste like rabbit.  I still think it looks like a rodent.*

 

Playa del Carmen, Day 6

Our last day to see ruins.  Jeff and I left the kids with Richard and Anna, and we went with Emily and Jessi to Tulum.  This is the only Mayan city right on the sea, and it has an amazingly beautiful beach there.  The rest of the city is enclosed on the other three sides by a wall.  The site has been cleared out very well – there really isn’t any jungle taking over the ruins anymore – but the buildings themselves are still in the process of being restored.  Again, we couldn’t climb anything (except up and down the stairs to the beach) and had to stay behind ropes.  It was pretty, but probably my least favorite of the Mayan sites because the buildings were much smaller and the only real large building was roped off far enough away you couldn’t even really get good pictures of it.

 After walking around and taking all the photos we wanted, we left the site and did some shopping.  We got our anniversary date written out in Mayan characters, and bought the Mayan calendar before getting back on the bus to the hotel.  Jeff’s name is pronounced Yipili, and mine is pronounced Cami.

We spent some time at the beach with the kids:

and then left them with Emily and Jessi while Jeff and I had dinner alone at a Mexican restaurant here in the hotel.  Dinner was delicious.  I broke my diet and ate way too much, and even had dessert.  And now I feel sick.  Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson.  I’ve been doing so well here and haven’t felt deprived at all.  In fact, I have felt strong and had plenty of energy.  The heat and humidity have been uncomfortable, but I haven’t struggled with them like I thought I would.  Not one headache so far, which is very unusual for me.  Yeah, I’m getting more and more convinced that sugar is evil.

Playa del Carmen, Day 5

Our tour today was long, but we were able to see some amazing things.  Our guide was Jose, and he took us to Chichen Itza and to Ek Balam.  The public is no longer allowed to climb the pyramid at Chichen Itza, which is a bummer, but understandable.  Jose told us that they have had problems with graffiti, so they no longer allow the public to go inside of the pyramid and see the inner chamber either.  Basically you can just walk around and look at things from behind ropes.  While we were there today, the ball court was having restoration done, so we couldn’t see that either.  But Chichen Itza is phenomenal.  You can seriously look around and just imagine the Mayan people carrying on their lives there.  Today was the equinox (September 21), and so this afternoon, something like 15,000-20,000 people were there to witness the phenomenon that occurs when the light hits the pyramid just right and it makes a design similar to a diamond-back rattlesnake because of all the angles on the pyramid.  We were there in the morning, however, so we didn’t have to deal with all the crowds – just 15,000-20,000 vendors trying to sell us silver necklaces for one dollar.  I wish we’d had more time there.  We didn’t even get to see the astronomy tower or the palace.  But what we did see was amazing.

After Chichen Itza, we went to Xkeken, which is one of a zillion cenotes around here.  A cenote is basically a sinkhole.  The entire Yucatan peninsula is a flat bed of limestone, and wherever caves or pockets have formed, and water has filled the bottom, you have a cenote.  Xkeken is underground, and you can see stalactites hanging from the ceiling – some nearly touching the water.  It was beautiful.  Several people were there snorkeling or swimming, but we just got our feet wet, saw some blind fish that bumped into our feet, and shopped in the stands up above ground.  Jeff and I got some dresses for Faith and Lauren.

There were some girls there selling handkerchiefs and Mayan dresses for Barbies.  After we walked away, one girl was hit by a boy who we assumed was her brother and started screaming.  While everyone was taking a restroom break, I started talking to the girl and said that I had brothers too, so I knew how it was. She told me it was just a crazy neighborhood boy from her village. Well, we bought one of the Barbie dresses, and had a friend in her the rest the time we were there.  She followed our group for the next hour, helping the other kids down the steps into the cenote, offering to take pictures for us, and then (of course) trying to convince us we wanted to buy some bottled water before we left, too.

Then on to Valladolid, which is a colonial-era city.  Jose really just showed us the church there and then we ate in a restaurant.  I don’t know about what the rest of the group had but my food was delicious.  It was pork baked in a sauce of paprika, salt, and pepper, and served with pickled onions.  I don’t even like pork, but I would eat that every day.  I wish I could remember what it was called.

There was a plaza just across the street from the church, and in it, there were these cool seats where two people could sit and face each other.

Our last stop of the day was Ek Balam.  This is another Mayan site, but it hasn’t been fully restored yet like Chichen Itza has.  We could climb anything we wanted.  There is a pyramid there which we climbed.  The steps were much easier than Coba, because they weren’t so crumbled.  This pyramid is 40 meters high – the second highest in the Yucatan.  (Chichen Itza is 38 meters.)  Ek Balam might just have been my favorite of the Mayan sites – mostly because of an area on the pyramid where the carvings are just phenomenal.  This part has been restored, and the carvings are larger and more pronounced than in other sites.  They were beautiful.  And because the pyramid is so close to all the other buildings there, you can almost imagine how it would be to be a priest or other leader of the people, stand on top of that pyramid, and look over daily life there.  It really was incredible.  Unfortunately, we were kind of late getting to Ek Balam, so we only had an hour total at the site before it closed and we had to leave.

View from the top of the pyramid:

View of the pyramid:

Michael loved climbing everything he could:

Some of the carvings partway up the pyramid:

Our family at the top:

Highlights of the day: Authentic Mayan food for lunch; the little girl at the cenote; Faith and Lauren in their Mexican dresses for dinner; Faith letting Lauren hold her Barbie dress, and pointing out where Barbie’s head, arms, and legs would stick out from it; the kids singing in the back seat of the van; Kari and Emily singing songs they used to when they were growing up; Jeff throwing in his own goofy accompaniment; Michael, Faith and Amanda sleeping in the back seat.

Playa del Carmen, Day 4

Booze Cruise.  Remember that episode from The Office where the whole staff goes on a cruise, and it’s full of uncomfortable moments that only the sober people recognized?  Yeah, that’s kind of how today ended up.

But to start at the beginning:  We went to Coba today with Jeff’s parents.  It was so nice to not worry about chasing three kids around. (They stayed with Kari and Rich.)  From the main entrance to Coba, we rented a “taxi” – really a young man on a bicycle that was outfitted with a bench seat in front – and went to the pyramid.  Coba has the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula.  It is 42 meters high.  We climbed to the top, took some photos, and climbed down.  It wasn’t a very difficult climb – 120 steps is all.  The hard part was coming down because the steps are fairly narrow and also kind of steep.

View of the pyramid from a distance:

People climbing (and descending).  Richard and Anna are climbing in this picture - shall we play "Where's Waldo" with them?  You can also see in this photo how a lot of the people climbed down - step by step on their rear-ends.  Hey, whatever gets you down safely.

We made it to the top!  Jeff says I have a certain smile I only do in self-portraits.  Whatever.

Half of the ball court:

One of the steles here - this is the best example of any that we saw:

After Coba, we came back to the hotel and played with the kids for a while.  Then we left the girls with Richard and Anna, and took Michael with us to “Captain Hook.”  Yes, we had a 6-year-old with us on this booze cruise.  Actually two 6-year-olds, since Kari and Rich also came and brought Amanda (and Sean) with them.

The concept was pretty cool – two pirate ships go out and have a battle on the open sea.  Of course, dinner is also served.  But in reality, it was just a bar and dance club on a boat.  Between the beer-drinking contest and the dancing, it was not nearly as kid-friendly as it was purported to be.  Thankfully Michael is still too young to quite understand what we took him to.  And at the end, the two ships (The Black Pearl under the command of Captain Jack, and ours – The Red Boat – under the command of Captain Hook) came together and the crews “fought.”  That part would have been fun in itself, but all the drunk middle-aged people yelling “Captain Jack! Captain Jack! Captain Jack!” just made it seem lame.  And besides, by the time they got to that part, Michael had fallen asleep and totally missed it anyway.  I found myself praying that the night would just get over quickly.

In front of "The Black Pearl"

 Before we got on, Michael and Amanda got their photo taken with "Captain Jack," a mermaid, and another pirate.

Our boat.  Even though I think we totally wasted our money on this one, the boats were pretty cool.

Highlights of the day: Listening to Mario (the travel agent at the hotel) repeat the phrase he was writing about four times as he wrote it.  “Iberostar Quetzal.  Quetzal.  Quetzal.  Quetzal”; Javier and his awkward pauses in the middle of phrases and sentences, and ALWAYS after he started the sentence with “Amigos”; Michael with his pirate headscarf, eye patch, and sword.

Playa del Carmen, Day 3

Xcaret – It has to be the required stop for anyone visiting this area.  It’s amazing!  It’s part zoo, part adventure park.  We saw spider monkeys, a tapir, pumas, jaguars, lots of iguanas, sea turtles, manatees, nurse sharks, stingrays, and butterflies.  We swam in an underground river, and then Michael and I did a dolphin experience, where we actually got to ride a dolphin.  Okay, I rode and Michael decided at the last second that he was too scared.  But he did get to touch them and swim with them, and he loved it.

There was a Mayan village set up so you could see how they lived.  The kids had fun in the hammock:

The jaguar:

Faith holding a butterfly.  She was so cute with these.  When they flew away she would say "Wow, so beautiful!" in this sort of hushed whisper voice.

The tapir:

Girls with an iguana:

We went to the night show, and had dinner there.  Dinner was pretty good, except Faith really was done for the day.  She hated the noise of the show, and didn’t want to sit still, and she kept screaming.  Oh, the screaming.  Somebody please tell me how to stop it.  She screams when she’s tired, having fun, upset, hurt, bored, etc.  Anyway, eventually Anna took her out because she was just beside herself, and she fell asleep outside the theater.  I thought the show was awesome.  They had papantla dancers, the dance of the old people, a Mexican Hat dance, and several other regional dances and musical numbers.

 

 

Highlights of the day: Faith's awesomely beautiful bed-head - it must be the humidity

Michael eating calamari (and liking it!!); me telling Lauren, “You’re beautiful,” and her saying, “Again!” over and over; Faith kissing Rosie goodnight and putting her to bed; Faith and Michael so excited about the hats Jeff bought them at Xcaret.

And then 10 minutes later looking like this:

The raccoon at lunch time (I swear, if a raccoon came right up to you in any restaurant in the U.S., it wouldn’t be cool – but here, it’s awesome)

The rush of riding on a dolphin.  That was seriously cool.

Playa del Carmen, Day 2

I’ve come to the conclusion that a vacation with kids is really just work in a different place.  Sure, there is no cooking and cleaning, but trying to keep three small kids fed and happy and entertained just doesn’t amount to much relaxation.

Today was pretty laid-back.  We walked the grounds of the hotel, checked out the gym and kids’ club, went to the beach, and booked our excursions for the next few days.  Honestly, it was as relaxing as this vacation will get.  Starting tomorrow we have a whirlwind of activities lined up for the rest of the week.  We figure this is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so we’re going to take advantage of it and do everything we can.

We added to our list of animals.  We have also now seen iguanas, toucans, tortoises, and a curious creature that has a monkey body but a head more like a…. ferret?  I’ll have to ask someone about that.

Highlights of the day: Michael’s grin as Rich held him in the ocean and they jumped up over each wave that came; Faith’s face with her sunglasses and sunhat on; Michael eating a really big lunch and dinner; Faith drinking Fanta on the terrace (she had "her" chair out there that she always wanted to sit in while she drank Fanta); Lauren wanting to hold my hand as she fell asleep; Faith giggling as she runs through the waves and they knock her over.