We enjoyed 4 wonderful days of summer vacation in Cancun. Originally we had planned a driving vacation to various church history sites in Ohio and New York. But when the price of gas was sitting at $4 a gallon, we started having second thoughts. So I got online and found a great deal at the Sandos Caracol Beach Resort. That combined with my vacation passes from work made this a much more economical choice--and one where we wouldn't have to spend a lot of our time in a car. So we packed our bags and headed to Mexico!
We flew out on Monday, June 16. As always, flying standby made our time line fluxuate and as flights changed in the morning so did the goal of what time to leave. We finallly decided to try for an earlier flight than we had planned. We got to the airport not knowing if we would get on the flight, but then was told there was a possiblity of getting a couple of seats in first class. Bonus! Since they needed to make sure all of the paid customers had arrived before giving away seats in 1st class, we were given scattered seats in coach so that they could expedite boarding. After we were all situated, one of the agents came to me with 4 boarding passes for 1st. We have adopted our friends the Martins' rule that first class seats are given out in order of age, which meant that Erin would be the one left in coach. But since she was on the very last row I decided to move her up to either Rachel or Melissa's seat which were closer to the front of the plane. Unfortunately things were a bit hectic trying to get moved, so I just told her to go up front so we could get moving. I was thinking we would see Melissa and Rachel on the way, and I could stop Erin and sit her down. Well, I totally missed them and Erin ended up in the first class cabin and then turned to me to see where her seat was. I then told her that she had to go back and find Melissa and Rachel, send them up to 1st, and then take one of their seats. You can imagine how well that went over. She went, grumbling all the way to her seat and to Cancun. Since the flight was just a little over two hours, I really didn't think it was that big of a deal (of course I wasn't the one who had to go back into coach either. Everyone but Erin found it pretty amusing including the couple Erin sat next to. But in the end we were all just happy to be on our way. Cancun, here we come!
Our first view of Mexico
This was our first trip to an all-inclusive resort, and we had a great time. The resort was very colorful. We had rooms next to each other--one for Greg and I and one for the three girls. We also had our own peacock that visited every morning in front of our building. We enjoyed several days of good food, fun activities and relaxing on the beach. It was some excellent family time!
Sandos Caracol Beach Resort
Our building
Our peacock
"Miami Vice, no alcohol por favor!"
The girls loved hitting the beach bar for unlimited frozen drinks.
Rachel takes Melissa to chess school.
We enjoyed kayaking
snorkeling
burying Rachel (by request)
All of us agree that coco frios are better for pictures than for drinking.
The girls had fun in the pool
They kept calling them Aztecs, but Rachel, Erin and Melissa are sure they were hanging with the Lamanites.
Melissa and Rachel got up early to enjoy the sunrise.
We also enjoyed walking on the beach at early sunset
On Tuesday, we took a snorkeling trip. Greg and I have snorkeled several times and Erin had tried it at the resort and really liked it--but the lack of coral made us want to take the girls out to the reef. We caught our boat at the resort, and headed out on a trip that was Rachel and Melissa's first experience with snorkeling. As we were riding out in the boat, we realized we had made a mistake and should have had Melissa and Rachel practice with snorkels before we left. Opps. The trip consisted of snokeling on the reef and then some free time on a beach. All of us had a good time, except for Melissa. She could not get a good seal on her mask and had trouble keeping her snorkel above the water--so she was constantly getting water in her face and mouth. Because of this, she did not enjoy the snorkeling part of the trip. But in the end she was happy she had tried. Hopefully she'll get to try again and have better results. The worst part of the trip was that we forgot to reapply our sunscreen after we were done snorkeling and we all ended up getting burned on from our beach time and the return to the resort.
View of our resort from our boat
Our guides
Heading out to the reef
Rachel and Greg heading back to the boat.
I found a cool shell on the beach, but our guides wouldn't let me keep it.
On Wednesday we took a trip out to the Tulum ruins. The ruins are located on a cliff, along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites. Although it was a very hot day, and our tour guide kept rambling on and on about human sacrifices, we all enjoyed seeing the ruins. Once we were done touring the site, the girls went down to the beach to swim. Greg and I had brought our swim suits thinking we would change at the site, only to discover the all of the restrooms were back at entrance. Since it didn’t seem like it would be worth walking back to change, we sat in the shade and waited for the girls to swim. It is amazing how much cooler it was in the shade!
Melissa wants to see the ruins now -- enough with all this talk about human sacrifices!
The girls enjoyed a swim at the Tulum beach
After three fun days, it was time to head home and the trip was not uneventful. We got to the airport in time to catch the flight that was leaving just before our scheduled one. The agent at the counter changed our reservations and told us how much we owed for our departure taxes. We had been operating with dollars all week, since we were never able to find an ATM and didn't want to pay the resort's exchange fees. But now we needed pesos to pay our departure taxes. We went to the ATM and made a mistake and didn't withdraw enough money. So we had to make another withdraw, and not only had to pay 2 atm fees, but also ended up with more pesos than we needed. It was pretty funny that we had wished for pesos all week, and now were going to be taking them home when we didn't need them.
The first part of the flight went smoothly. All of us got seats in 1st class this time, so no one was complaining. When we got to Houston, we noticed that we were circling the area. That is never a good sign. The flight attendent made an announcement that the airport was closed due to weather and that we were being diverted to Austin. We landed in Austin and parked. Because we were an international flight and the Austin airport doesn't have custom facilities we were not allowed to go to a gate and deplane. Instead, we sat on the runway. The flight attendants kept appologizing and said they were trying to get permission to receive ice and cups so they could serve drinks--but they never came. The most ironic part was that there were people on the plane whose final destination was Austin. But because of customs situation, they would have to fly back to Houston and then hope they could make a flight back to Austin. They finally got us refueled and cleared to head back to Houston. We ended up arriving an hour after the original flight we planned to catch. We did avoid the long wait at the Cancun airport, but the trade off definately wasn't worth it! But even with this rough ending, it was a wonderful vacation!
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