Mexico

Mexico was a great trip to start off the new year. It didn't start off so great though: we had some issues at the airport even before we took to the air. For some reason our pilots were in Montreal and had to cab to Ottawa. Where did the cabbie take them? The Carp airport of course. The finally arrived, we finally got on the plane, they finally de-iced the plane and then they figured out that there was a problem with a tire. Sure guys, you go ahead and fix that, because you couldn't have checked that earlier. Either way, we were finally on our way! Excited but tired and grumpy, we were going to Mexico.

The flight was fine until the captain came on the intercom thingy and said something about a fire. In the cockpit. Honestly. We landed safely in Cancun and were escorted by emergency vehicles to a deserted part of the airport and let off on the tarmac. Welcome to Mexico, these are the finest firefighters in the land!



Our first day at the resort, which was huge by the way, is a little fuzzy in my sleep-deprived memory. We went to the beach, we looked around, we ate food and we went to bed early. The whole week was a lot of the same - lying around on the beach or at the pool, eating way too much at the buffets - but here are some highlights.

We went to Akumal, a nearby town, to see sea turtles. We were told we could snorkle right off the beach and see turtles. We were not disappointed! J and I found this ginormous turtle munching away about 10 feet below us. I freaked out a little when he came up for air in our direction. Incredible!



We also took a day trip to see the ruins in Coba, a small town in from the coast but not too far from our resort. We were able to climb the ruins, which was made scarier by the fact that it was pouring rain. The stone steps, all 120 of them, were slick. From the top, I could see the exact spot I would land if I tripped on the way down.



We also had a little bit of canoeing, a jungle walk, a short zipline, a meal with the Mayans, a Mayan ceremoney, and got to swim in a cenote. The cenote is basically a sinkhole that you have to rappel down into. The water was almost completely clear and wasn't cold and you're sitting on an innertube, but what creeped me out where all the catfish in the cenote with us. Just thinking of them gives me goosebumps. But I survived and can now say I've swam in a cenote. The last event of the day was tequila shots at the head office of the tour company. Mmm.

We had three a la carte dinners during the week. We chose Italian, Mexican and Japanese food. My favourite by far was the Japanese place. We were lucky enough to get a table where the chef cooks right in front of you. He was crazy and the food was really good.



We've been back almost a week now. I'm back at work though J's super sick and is still at home. Work has been awful and I'm daydreaming about being on the beach again. Too bad we can't take trips once a month. That wouldn't be so bad.

Whole Mexico Set on Flickr