Don't Drink the Water (Part 2)

As a continuation to my last post, I am outlining my recent trip to Playa del Carmen. We are on the second half of the trip.

Day three started out with a similar routine. We got up, had breakfast, and headed to the beach in the morning, then to the pool in the afternoon. While at the beach, the boys played horseshoes and sand volleyball while me and Jen laid out. Here are my favorite pictures during the day.







The evening turned out to be one of lots of surprises with mixed emotions. Once Jennifer and Jamie returned to their room to get ready for dinner, they realized Jamie’s iPhone was stolen. He left it on the charger during the day in the room so housekeeping must have stolen it while we were gone on the beach and at the pool. He reported it to the front desk and security, but as you can assume in Mexico, they were not much help. This definitely put a damper on things. Not to mention, around the same time, Jamie got sick. He stayed in the room the majority of the night while the rest of us did other things.

Jennifer stayed with Jamie in the room for a bit while Mark and I walked around, had a snack at the snack bar, and then participated in a dancing class before dinner. I really enjoyed the class (and it was definitely entertaining to watch Mark dance with the guys).









After the dancing class, Mark and I had dinner reservations at the Italian restaurant.



Just after we ordered, Jennifer, Mucio, and Carlos dropped in to join us. We moved to a bigger table and had a great dinner. This was probably my favorite meal. Since it was Carlos’s birthday, the wait staff prepared a mini celebration for him.











After dinner, Jen went back to the room to convince Jamie to come down to hang with us for a bit. In the meantime, we lounged around and the guys had a cigar. After Jamie and Jen came back down, Jen and I went to the sports bar for shots.







After the shots, of course came dancing at the discotheque. At this point, Mark started feeling bad. The boys sure were troopers for sitting around while Jen and I drunkenly danced our butts off!



Day 4, our last full day, turned about to be a little drab. The boys were still feeling ill, and it was cloudy and rainy all day long. The snack bar on the beach was closed as well as some of the swim up bars. That was a bummer, but we got over it and tried to make the best out of our last day.

We started off having our usual breakfast at the buffet then headed out to the beach for some relaxation.







The boys finally broke down and took some Peptol Bismol at lunch. This made Mark feel better. Jamie was still queasy.



We returned to the beach the rest of the afternoon, then headed up to the rooms early to get ready for the night.











We decided to eat at the general buffet so we could get an early start on the shows they had in store for us in the courtyard. The theme at the buffet was Mexico!!







The first show at the courtyard was a skit detailing the culture of the locals there at Playa del Carmen. The second show was a musical and dance performance by the entertainment team with acts including Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cher, and The Village People.











After the shows, we went to bed early since we had to be at the front of the hotel at 7AM for our departure.

We were sad, but ready to leave Mexico on Monday. On the way out, we stopped to have a “regular,  Americanized” meal at the Margaritaville in the airport.





The flight was smooth, and when returning to DFW, Mark’s sister, Kim, came to pick us up.



Overall, in despite of some of the obstacles we had to overcome (our luggage almost getting lost, the cloudy and rainy weather the second half of the trip, the boys getting sick, and the stolen iPhone) the trip was loads of fun and it felt so good to get away for a few days in a land that at least tries to make you feel like there are no worries. We love travelling with the Stewart's and look forward to our next destination (we are thinking a cruise next time).

Don't Drink the Water (Part 1)

The hubbs and I just returned from a relaxing, but eventful trip to Playa de Carmen, Mexico, with our good friends, Jennifer and Jamie Stewart. The Stewart’s went to Cancun with us two years ago when Mark proposed to me. We are two of the few couples left on Mark’s side of friends that do not have kids yet. We decided that us “kid-less” couples have to stick together!!

Our flight left at 10:15AM. Since we were all surprisingly early to the airport, we decided to splurge on $3 mimosas from a winery in the airport.



When arriving in Cancun, we were all in a state of bliss. We got lucky in choosing the fastest line in customs and hurriedly got to our transfer bus with Apple Vacations. The Apple representative took our bags (all five of them…three of the Stewart’s bags and two of our bags) and told us that we still had to wait on other people arriving from the states. Still in a state of bliss, we happily went to the Margarita bar to get our first Corona.



We patiently waited on the bus for over an hour.



The trip on the bus did not take 45 minutes as we were told. Try an hour and 45 minutes. Our hotel was the last stop. The people our bus waited on at the airport were the first stop off the bus. Go figure. But hey…we’re in Mexico…no worries! Finally arriving at our hotel, Jen and I raced inside for a glass of champagne. It was at that point that Mark and Jamie realized we were missing a bag. The Stewart’s had all three of their bags, but Mark and I only had one of ours. Mark chased down the bus. Once the bus turned around, the Apple representative surprisingly told us that there were no more bags on the bus. They would have to do some research and make stops at all of the hotels we dropped people off at along the way to find an extra bag. We panicked for a little while, and then decided not to let this ruin our trip (it was the smaller bag and it had mostly Mark’s stuff in it such as boxers and shirts anways). We figured it was a lost cause and tried to forget about it. We checked in, went to our room, and changed into our bathing suits. We actually really liked our room, but were too excited to get down to the pool to really get a good look at everything. It was already 5PM and we didn’t want to miss one more minute of the sun. Right as we were walking out the door, we got a call from the Apple representative that they found our bag at another hotel. What a sigh of relief. After getting the bag, we THEN made it down to view the beach and hang out at the pool. At the pool, our other friends from Dallas found us, Mucio and Carlos. They scheduled a diving trip the same week we were in Playa del Carmen.







After chugging drinks at the pool’s swim up bar, we headed up to the rooms to get ready for dinner. All of us fortunately were able to stay on the same floor close to each other.



Because you had to make dinner reservations at the ‘al la carte restaurants in advance, we were not able to make one for the first night. However, Mucio and Carlos had already been at the hotel a day or two so already had reservations at the Mexican restaurant. Since they know the language, they were charm the hostess into letting us all join them at their reservation. The food was great! Although I think some had more fun playing with the food rather than eating it!





After dinner, we headed to the sports bar to have a few drinks then hung out in the courtyard with live music for a little while.



Then we finally made it down to the discotheque (club) for lots of dancing!  This was one of the things our hotel just had to have in order for us to consider it.  It's not a trip to Mexico without dancing!



Day two was turned out to be pretty eventful as well. We made it down to the breakfast buffet then headed out to the beach.  Favorite breakfast foods for Jen and Mark were taquitos and sausage.  Mine was a custom made omlet (even though I had to wait in line for 20 minutes for one).

















And of course, you can’t go to the beach without playing a few games of sand volleyball….  Although this is when we think Mark ruptured a Baker's Cyst in the back of his knee (more to come on this in another post).



After volleyball, Jen and the boys made it out to the ocean. They managed to get some good shots in the water with Mucio’s high tech, water proof diving camera.





In the afternoon, we left the beach and made it over to the swim up bar in the pool. Jen and I kicked the party off with mud slides from the swim up bar.  When the boys joined us, we moved pools and two British couples.  Mark loves (and is facisnated by) Europeans so we chatted with them for a good hour or so.  Then we met a hispanic family.  Since we were all getting out of the pool at the same time, they insisted on more drinks in the sports bar.  Of course we couldn't turn that down.  Then we headed up to the rooms to get ready for dinner.









Dinner at the Japanese steakhouse was something I unfortunately do not remember too well.... Those shots at the sports bar kicked my butt! Between Mark spilling his glass of water and Jennifer trying to get me to say "I'm wasted" in Spanish to the waiter, I am sure dinner was pretty entertaining.





Jennifer and Jamie hung out in the courtyard after dinner while Mark and I called it a night.

Stay tuned for part 2!!