I didn’t forget, but I started doing something else after bedtime and then it was my bedtime, so here I am writing this on nap time the day after.
After our big day yesterday, we decided this day would be less adventurous, so back to pool #1. I also finally remembered the underwater camera and successfully got them online. (previously I’d mucked one of these steps, including deleting the photos >.>).
Ava is really coming along with her swimming, she’s figured out how to wave her arms under water to bring her mouth to the surface to take a breath, it’s pretty amazing. She doesn’t do it in a continuous manner that one would associate with swimming with ones head above water, but it’s enough that she can swim longer distances now than I’ve seen before!
For Miranda’s birthday, we woke up early. She slept in 20 minutes while I made tea and breakfast, but we were out the door to catch our cab at 815 to go to Xcaret!
Xcaret is a “zoo” slash “theme park” slash “ecotourist” location that we decided to go to again on this visit. Miranda and I went here on our last trip (link 1 old photos, link 2 old writing), and now that we have Ava with us it seemed even more likely to be a fun time!
Which it really was. Although this was the first time (ever? maybe?) that we’d purposefully decided to skip Ava’s nap and I’m not sure we would choose to do that again, because it was much more difficult to manage than a day when we put her down and she decides to miss her nap.
Here’s a bunch of photos. I’ve captioned a couple of them to continue the day story.
They have this fantastic system where you scan your wristband and it collects photos of you to buy at the end. This is from one of their locations.
We didn’t buy their photos, because we only took 26 and it was $60USD.
Ava trying to look at a kitty kit.
The gap between the panther and puma areas.
A panther having a day.
Ava enjoying the monkeys.
“Egg”
The “Kids Zone” has a slide leaving the washroom.
Ava made 4 trips back and forth of this net system.
I followed her, and it was awkwardly tight for me.
But she wasn’t happy with the “cenote” pool, and this was where the fun was, so I did my duty.
I had mole likely for the first time. I liked it!
A little boat ride we took.
Then we made a decision and tried to go swim the underground river.
Which was questionable, because she’d already said no to the “kids cenote”.
She was not unhappy with it.
We caught a cab back to town and got him to drop us off at our current favourite restaurant La Patrona de Playa, which is good because it’s cheap and decent, rather than because it’s the best eats.
After putting Ava to bed, I walked up the street to a nearby bakery and bought some chocolate cake and donuts to finish Miranda’s birthday proper off well. But I’ve promised to buy Krispy Kreme before the end of the trip.
We decided on day 3 to make day 4 a little mini adventure, even though day 5 will be a bigger adventure.
We’d done some research before leaving and had noted that a place called Punta Esmerelda was a good starter cenote for kids, so we set up to make a trek out to it.
Desayunos de la casa were had, although I think we need bacon. I laid out all of our adventure stuff on the floor and packed it up into 2 good sized backpacks, and out we went.
We walked up the street a couple blocks and were hailed by a cab. (you don’t hail cabs here, they hail you). Miranda and I had discussed taxi negotiation beforehand, and she was to be my “foil”, but she capitulated quickly and I couldn’t recover, and we didn’t haggle at all. 200 pesos, about $14CAD for about a 15 minute drive.
At Punta Esmerelda, it was lovely and not at all touristy. The first thing we saw was a big sign saying “FEE”, which turned out to be an acronym for the “Foundation of Ecological Education” >.> We’re just used to everything costing. (the bathrooms, for example, are $5MX, about 35 cents CAD). We found a place to put our stuff in the shade, and got changed into swim stuff and braved the cenote.
It didn’t go super well.
Ava seem uncomfortable in the sandy, semi-cold water (it was warm enough out that the water was nice). I took her to the ocean for a bit and we played “it’s going to get you!” and she laughed up a storm, while clutching to me desperately. After the ocean we walked back to Miranda, and she stayed clutching to me until I think she realized Miranda was nearby and then she transferred to her and stayed there for a good long time.
We’d already set out in a semi-bad mood, plagued with little things like Ava locking out the electronic lock on our door, our condo concierge being absolutely useless and THEN trying to sell us a tour we hadn’t asked about, and HUGE winds at the beach, and the place felt a little bit disappointing, so although we’d thought to spend the day there (or at a couple nearby cenotes), so after this list of issues, it was time to pull the rip cord and go home.
Back home, a nap was attempted and failed.
After nap, back to pool #1 again! I mentioned a family staying nearby, and they have like…8-12 children between them and the children are constantly in the pool. Hilarious, but they take up a lot of space. At one point they were all in the hot tub and Miranda and I wanted to go there and couldn’t because there was no space.
Once space cleared up, we joined another couple in the hot tub and had a great conversation about places we’d been to, places to eat and kids.
As for the pool, I think spending time swimming every day is really coming along nicely for Ava. She’s learned that she can push her arms down and raise her mouth out of the water to take a breath of air, so now I literally don’t have to do anything to keep her safe except watch that she doesn’t muck it up! (or get tired and be unable to complete it). I’m super excited for whatever skills she puts together over the next little while!
I try to make a dive day on each vacation, because I love diving but it’s hard to justify taking more time than that away from my lovely family. So one day, go hard, have fun!
I woke up at 7am Mexico time, had a quick breakfast and hailed a cab with all my stuff to another part of town. My dive guide was a fellow I’d dove (diven?) with lasttime. (first link is text, second link is mostly bad photos, because…read the first link. :P). This time I didn’t flood my camera, although the vacuum detector started beeping and going yellow about 10 minutes in, which really worried but ended up meaning nothing.
Some of these photos are really great, and some of them are just here because I want to show you actual photos of this really cool hole in the ground. They are overexposed because I had to shine a light on things to see them, because I don’t have an underwater flash. If you think a photo is trash, it’s the latter. If you love it, it’s the former. 😛
Which is reminiscent of how the day started. I’m slowly learning that I don’t handle time zone changes all that well. I woke out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night, but the clock said it was 8am, and the kidlet was happily talking up a storm in her room. Bah.
We’d gone grocery shopping yesterday, so I made breakfast and tea!
We had some discussion about what to get up to today, as our second day in Mexico perhaps it was time to go on a greater adventure, but ultimately we decided to do a rough repeat of yesterday.
Which meant…the pool!
My hope is that Ava learns something new by swimming (almost?) every day. I’m not sure what that new thing will be, but I’ve got a couple contenders I’m trying for. She’ll come up with her own, I’m sure. I’m thinking about a doggy-paddle, or using her arms usefully under water maybe. I’m wondering if we need more pool stuff. Or maybe I just need more pool stuff, she seems pretty happy with what we have.
Lunch today was at a place just around the corner. Once you get off the main strip, things get notably less expensive really quick. But still not nearly as inexpensive as regular Mexico, I’m told. Lunch for 3, with drinks, was about $20 CAD.
After lunch, back home we put Ava down for her nap and Miranda and I vege’d real good. We’re thinking of one day maybe skipping her nap, on purpose, but it’s a hard choice to make.
After nap, we tried the third pool again.
Actually, I’ve decided it’s the fourth pool. So the first pool is the one shown above. The second one is attached to this one and is a hot tub that I think they heat at the start of the day and then leave alone for the rest of the day. Then go across the street to the sister hotel, and the third pool is a little jacuzzi that Ava isn’t allowed in that has a great view of the ocean. And then the fourth pool (which was the third) is a regular sized pool.
Ok, back to the story. I felt like the fourth pool was slightly warmer than then first pool today, but because the hot tub is near the second pool, the first pool ends up being warmer because you can swap back and forth a bit. So we started at the fourth pool, then got cold and jumped into the hot tub (second pool) and the played around.
Confused yet? Yeah, it’s ok, it doesn’t super matter. 😛
Dinner!
We walked up the street to a seafood place on 5th. This is where the real expense comes in. The seafood platter for 2 was $970MX, which is roughly $70CAD, which is roughly what one would expect to pay for a similar meal at a similar restaurant in Vancouver. We bought individual plates, which I think with the drinks came to around $50.
We walked for ice cream after.
She enjoyed it until it got to cold.
There’s a family staying in a nearby apartment that has a BBQ on their deck, and their dinner smelled amazing. I’m full, but I want burgers.
My dive day is tomorrow! So I’m waking up around 715, hopefully I can wake up easier than this morning, and hopefully I’ll have some cool photos tomorrow!
I am pretty tired as I write this, so who knows where this will go!
We woke up at a reasonable hour, PDC time, so an unreasonable hour Vancouver time and I felt like hot crap. Sinuses were plugged, body ached and had slept for long enough that I didn’t want to sleep any more.
Because we hadn’t gone to get groceries the night before, we had planned to go to a nearby buffet breakfast. Ava woke somewhat easily, and off to the dinner. We had to walk past 3 pools to get there, which was a challenge with our daughter who loves pools.
I asked the waiter for a recommendation and he recommended a thing that ended up being runny eggs served with potatoes and onions and vinegar. It was pretty tasty, but was unexpected. Tea was amazing. Miranda had pork tacos and Ava had chips. (Edit: Ava had lots of fruit, I’m reminded.)
I’m this photogenic naturally.
The chips are a theme so far. They are served at every meal, and she’s super happy about them.
After breakfast we walked down the beach just a bit, before we decided it was pool time, the first. Ava and I had a great time in the relatively warm pool while Miranda watched.
Pool #1!
We walked down the main street, called 5th Ave, which is a bit of a show of a walk. Lots of people, lots of stores and somewhat pushy salespeople standing outside them. We found a lunch restaurant and enjoyed fresh guacamole and fajitas. And my second beer, a 4.5% cervesa-style lager of no real import. (there will be a beer post at the end, don’t worry).
Miranda was taking this photo because the dude behind Ava was much to close, but I thought it was a nice photo of the two of us.Lunch was gooooood.
Nap time was somewhat easy, but Ava woke up unhappy. 3 hour time difference, I think.
After nap, back to the pool! We tried the third pool (she’s not allowed in the second one) but it was too cold and the weather here isn’t warm enough for it to be refreshing, so back to pool #1. Miranda joined us this time and we all had a great time. I’m looking forward to swimming with Ava every day I can!
Dinner we walked up to the #1 rated Mexican place in Playa Del Carmen which was damn good. I asked the waiter “como estas?” as we sat down, and he launched into his opening thing, fully in Spanish, so apparently my Canadian accent worked well. As he was finishing I had to ask him, in English, to repeat the last bit, because I was with him until he seemed to be asking about a high chair. (he was asking about a highchair). He was super nice, and we had a great conversation about beer and the menu and such. He recommended two tacos that were absolutely delicious, and a craft beer that was great (Cucapa Amber Ale, 4.5% 17IBUs).
We finished off with a long walk to Walmart and back for groceries.
Back at home, very tired, less sick, but very tired, I took a break on the couch before enacting a dance party before bed.
Day 0 was a known problem. It started at 5:30am, we gathered our bags and got in a taxi. I was unable to secure breakfast before our flight at 8:30am so I was not feeling happy when we boarded. The flight was about 6 hours, and Ava wasn’t super into watching her show for that long, which was a little surprising because our last flight from Fredericton she was good with it. So lots of her climbing on us, and needing attention, and such, when Miranda and I just wanted to sleep or die, because we were both feeling a little sick and a lot of tired.
We arrived and stood in the customs line up for way to long. The first line was the longest, but it went the quickest. We were “smart” and walked to the last line, which was the shortest but the slowest. Boo.
No issue at customs or border declaration, except that it took much longer than expected. Our luggage was right there when we got to it.
And our shuttle bus to Playa Del Carmen was super nice. Guy was really noticeable, it was just the 3 of us in the shuttle and he offered me a beer upon getting in. It was a 3.5% cervesa style lager, but it was much appreciated. He spoke very little English, but we conversed about street signs and how to pronounce “Xel-ha” (it’s “chel-HA”).
It was dark.
Got to our place and Ava was interested in exploring even though it was night time. She and I walked around while Miranda sorted out our accommodations.
After we put our stuff down, I went out to buy some milk and find some dinner. “Comer para llevar” is “take out?” and I found some nice food and a 7-11 to buy milk from.
I had planned to walk to the store to buy stuff for breakfast, but we were exhausted so just put Ava to bed and slowly decided how to go to bed in a +3 hour time zone and still sick and traveled all day.
Sleep was restless for me, but Miranda slept well as did Ava.
We learned a lot in Mexico, and a lot of it was really small things that you wouldn’t think about.
When pushed, you can communicate. With less than a hundred words, no available translation methods, gestures, and a smile, you can make things happen.
Travel with ear plugs. You never know when you’ll be staying in the most beautiful place that just happens to have 5 dogs, a rooster and a lot of noisy neighbours nearby.
Driving in Mexico is scary. But it’s less scary than you think.
Many people in Mexico want to take your money as efficiently as they can. However, just like in your home country, there are genuine and amazing people out there if you keep your eyes, mind and heart open. We narrowly avoided a needless car rental bill because we’d met the right person, and our scooter rental guy was super nice. Both of these activities we were wary of, because you read so many bad things on the Internet.
Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. But you can believe some of it. Everyone has a different need when they travel. I can appreciate that some people may not want to do what we do, but if you want to you can do it.
You haven’t actually eaten a mango until you’ve had one in Mexico.
We searched high and low for the Best Guacamole in Mexico, and we finally found it in Cancun. But you can still get the Second Best Guacamole in Mexico from Earls in Vancouver.
It is worth finding the right place to stay, and stretching your boundaries to learn something new. We stayed in Playa for 9 days and in Cancun for 1. Cancun is fake, with giant hotels and people who speak “perfect” English. Playa is a much more real place, that is still a safe experience. Don’t trust the stereotypes that you may have.
You can buy anything on 5th Ave. Some stereotypes are true. I got offered blow and crack one night.
Sometimes the best experiences of your trip, will be the least expensive ones. But sometimes, you just have to fork out the @#$% cash.
The more you know up front, the better you’ll feel. We did a bunch of research beforehand, but mostly left our day-to-day unplanned. We took a Spanish class beforehand, which was really worth it.
Double check all your reservations…
There may be a map nearby somewhere that will tell you everything you need. It’s not the end of the world if you miss it, because the experience is worthwhile regardless. But there may be a turtle oasis if you swim just a little further.
Get someone to hand you your scuba camera. Check all of your waterproof seals. Check them again. Get the sand out of the o-ring. Check the o-ring again. Check your pockets for electronics before you go in the water. Check them again.
There is no situation in which you should bring socks to the Caribbean. Even fewer situations where you should bring 5 pairs. >.<
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And that’s all we’ve got for this trip. Thanks for reading! Friends won’t be surprised, but we have another trip coming up in May… one of Miranda’s best friends is getting married in Hawaii, and we’re going. More turtles! 🙂
Some of these photos are out of order. And I’ve been dealing with photos all afternoon (wow, it’s only 1pm…) and I’m kind of done with it, soooo…enjoy the dolphins!
These two girls were in the group with us.
Miranda is not actually walking on water. There are a pair of dolphins underneath her feet. I have no idea how they train the dolphins to do this.
I’d like to say that I was trying to look a little creepy, but I’m not a great liar, particularly when it’s good for self-deprecating humor. This is just a normal-day face for me. 😛
