Who would EVER have thought that I would consent to spend a week in Mexico??!!?? NOT ME!!! Glen coerced me into going.
We appreciated Ben taking us to the airport.
Take a look at that blue face covering of Glen's that has been his favorite all throughout this nasty, mask-wearing, never-ending Covid season of our lives. Somewhere during our vacation that mask got lost. Sad!
First thing that let us know we were definitely in Mexico was when we heard the stamping sounds on our way through customs. Glen says the Mexicans love to put a stamp on everything. There was vigorous stamping going on at each of the checkpoints.
We reached our resort destination. It was not actually in Cancun, but in Playa del Carmen, which is a town about 45 minutes from Cancun.
The first evening there was a big fiesta going on outside with dancing performers, locals selling their wares and lots of authentic Mexican food.
Here's Glen trying to appear excited about eating the food he desperately tried to avoid the whole two years he was serving in the Mexico Torreon Mission.
It was so peaceful walking around the resort at night. There were lots of pools located all throughout the property.
We had a couple of options of where to eat breakfast. Well, I guess three options. There was always a Mexican corn tortilla stand set up and running--which we happily bypassed to go to one of two restaurants.
There were so many pharmacies! Antibiotics are there for the taking--no prescription needed.
Street entertainers were lurking, eager to take photos with us in hopes of getting a tip from every tourist walking down the street.
Always love a man in a sombrero.
One of the side streets took us down to the beach.
Then we went back to 5th Avenue and more pharmacies and more Dia de los Muertos decorating.
The Mexican people make shrines to their deceased friends and family members. They use marigold flowers as they build altars with the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. They visit graves with these items as gifts for the deceased.
Look at Glen so in LOVE with being back in his beloved country of Mexico.
Home sweet home (at least temporary home for the week). Loved seeing so many palm trees again after having lived in California for three years.
We tried to eat dinner early and this evening we were successful in enjoying a dining experience with few people in the restaurant with us.
It was fancy food--just how I like it!! If we didn't know we were in Mexico, we could imagine we were on a cruise.
A man decided to feed the coatis some Fruit Loops. As soon as they heard the rustling of the cereal bag, it felt like coatis were coming out of the woodwork (or, in this case, out of the jungle).
The coatis get frustrated when the food supply is all gone. They raced after the man jumping up on his legs begging for more.
We got transportation from the airport to our all-inclusive resort. Michael and Lynn have timeshares and, like the time we went with them to Florida, they got a 2-bedroom accommodation and then invited us to stay in the second bedroom.
All we had to pay was the exorbitant fee for the all-inclusive food and drinks. Since we don't drink, we were feeling like we were paying for all the people who were living it up consuming as much alcohol as they could ever want.
I guess we did consume a lot of bottled water, so maybe that equaled things out.
In the morning, we had time to look more closely at our surroundings. These are some unique individual bamboo dining pods.
The eggs always consisted of ladles of oil mixed in with whatever egg or omelet combination we chose.
We took a taxi into the town of Playa del Carmen where we walked up and down the main drag--5th Avenue. There were many, many little shops all along the way with each vendor yelling at us to come and buy from them.
This is what Google has to say about it: "Most people associate 5th Avenue with New York, but little did you know that Playa, in fact, has its own 5th Avenue, or as it is locally known Avenida Quinta.
"5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen is a 5-mile long pedestrian-only walkway dedicated to catering to all of your touristic needs" (Haha!!--I inserted that outburst), "and it's an absolute MUST during your next visit here."
Dia de los Muertos was going strong the week we were there. The holiday is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. We saw lots of colorful skeletons.
We took a rest in a park overlooking the ocean with an archway of a man and a woman coming together with arms raised. It was close to a ferry pier and so there was a steady stream of people coming and going. It was a very relaxing few minutes for us.
We thought of Abe and Klarissa when we were in the shopping mall and saw the words San Francisco, California under the Old Navy sign. Actually, I thought it was very interesting to see so many stores and restaurants touting American names.
Even though Abe and Klarissa have moved to North Carolina, I will forever think fondly of them whenever I think of San Francisco.
Aside from enjoying the ocean view during our rest, the next most enjoyable thing was when we took an ice cream break. So refreshing and delicious on a very hot and humid day.
Funny Glen insisted on going directly to a 7-Eleven to get a slurpee immediately after eating ice cream. I guess the ice cream didn't satisfy his craving for something cold.
These statues were located in the center of 5th Avenue. After we had walked both lengths of 5th Avenue, we grabbed a taxi to take us back to the resort.
There were lots of coconuts growing on the trees--something we didn't see in California.
This is the mirror that greeted us upon entry into our first villa. Not very flattering, if you ask me!!
We didn't stay long--only one night. We were supposed to have two king-size beds and in our part of the villa, there were two double beds. Michael insisted that is not what he requested and he was adamant the resort accommodate his request.
So, we felt very unsettled the first 24 hours when we couldn't really unpack and then we had to move all our stuff to another villa.
On our walk to the restaurant for dinner, we passed by an area all set up beautifully for a wedding dinner.
It was a bit awkward walking right past this place after our dinner as it felt like we were intruding on their celebration.
Something we enjoyed was walking all around the resort in the mornings after breakfast and again in the evenings after dinner. We liked going on the boardwalk through the jungle area because we never knew when we would see wildlife.
We discovered this little critter is a coati.
Sometimes we would see one or two and sometimes many of them.
It was always a successful walk if we could see some creature wandering about foraging for food. We also considered it a successful outing every time we walked around the resort as we enjoyed spending time together and getting in some exercise before going back to our villa.
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