10.15.2008

Cancun... October 2008

We spent the last week (4th-11th) in Cancun, Mexico. We met some of our friends from The Dalles there & it was SO good to see them! The weather was somewhat cooperative. 3 full days of HOT sun... the other 4 were alternatively sunny & rainy. We didn't let the rain stop us tho! :-)

Welcome to paradise! Enjoy our photos!
Here we've just arrived at our resort... the same place we stayed in 2006.
Saturday, October 4th, 12pm. Beautiful.
Michelle and Trevor arrive! I worked with Michelle at Columbia River Bank in Oregon, so we got to know them pretty well. I miss her!
Love & I... Thunderclouds in the distance. :) We don't care!
Waiting for the ferry to Isla Mujeres. It rained this day in Cancun, so we were glad to be at Isla Mujeres where it was hot & sunny!
My wonderful hubby
Peter floating at Isla Mujeres. We LOVE this beach. It's about 3-4 feet deep for 1/2 mile out. Gorgeous. We spent ALL day here.
Trevor & I. The water is gorgeous!
Postcard perfect
We had a hard time getting both of us in the underwater shot! This was the closest we got to having both faces in the same picture. :-) Professional photographers... yep, that's us!
Boo!
This time we decided to go to the ruins at Tulum rather than Chichen Itza. It was closer, and we all decided less time in the car would be better! Much to our excitement & suprise, Tulum is located RIGHT on the beach.
After a HOT afternoon of touring the ruins, we found this set of stairs...
...that led to this AMAZING beach. Perfect waves for bodysurfing, and just what we needed to cool off! We stayed here for a number of hours!
Finally heading back to the car... ruins in the background.
On the way back to our resort, we stopped at a cenote. This one is called Gran Cenote. When we were here in 2006, we went to Cenote Dzitnup, but since that was closer to Chichen Itza we decided to find another one, and this is what we found! This one had some deep caverns, but none of us had scuba gear so we just snorkeled around on the surface. The water in the Cenotes is extremely mineral enriched & when we left, we all had silky smooth skin! Quite nice after our dip in the ocean at Tulum!!
Peter bodysurfing in front of our resort, The Royal Islander.
Our resort had a pool with turtles in it. They were freshwater turtles, but obviously used to people cause they'd come eat grass right out of your hands!
Michelle and I
Trevor & Michelle... glowing. :-)
This was the highlight of the trip for me!!! The Royal Resorts participate in a turtle conservation program. They have staff that go and collect the eggs that mama turtles lay on the beach at night. Then, they keep them in a safe environment, and when the babies hatch 2 month later, they let the residents staying at the resort release them at night (since they have less predators at that time). When we did it, they had over 120 babies to be realeased. The little turtles are SO cute! It's hard to take photos tho, b/c you're not allowed to use flash photography as it will hurt their little eyes, so this was as good as the photos are. SO neat tho!
Another day, we drove over to the Royal Hacienda - where Peter and I stayed in June this year (it's a sister resort to the Royal Islander). It's located in Playa Del Carmen, about 35 minutes from Cancun.
They've finished the 3rd phase of construction & have 1 more to go! Beautiful landscaping!
We reserved 4 kayaks and spent some time paddling around in the cove there.

Trevor & Michelle... Cute. :-)
Again... our last night's dinner.
P & I...
Quick story before I sign off... during our LAST 30 minutes in Mexico, we were driving to grab some lunch before we had to turn the rental car in, & we get pulled over by Mexican police. NICE. Long story short, Peter talked him down from $140 to $40 to let us just drive off. He pocketed the money & said "have a nice day." The ironic part? We weren't even speeding!
Anyhow, we had such a great time with Trevor & Michelle... it was SO good to see them again. Now we're off to plan our next trip. How about sailing in the British Virgin Islands?
Oh... The rest of the pics are here. :-)

4 comments:

Krista said...

It looks wonderful!

Diana said...

Looks like a relaxing place to visit. The ruins and cenotes look cool!

Anonymous said...

Tulum was also Ned & Cori's most favorite spot. Glad you had a wonderful time.

Sherrie said...

Beautiful - I felt a bit of a sunburn coming on just looking at the pics! Glad you had a good time - and nice to be with Michelle and Trevor.