So, please pardon the lack of pictures from a whole week in Mexico... but we literally did NOTHING every day. We slept in, relaxed at the beach, ate at a different restaurant every night and ventured into town for some shopping one day... but really-- mostly did nothing!
So, let's start with the resort:
It was AMAZING!!!! We went to the Grand Princess Sunset, and it did not disappoint :)
When we got there is was down pouring warm tropical rain... and I loved it.
The lobby had a grand staircase down to the garden level, and above it was a gorgeous wood-lined peak.
This is where you walk in (at the top of the staircase). So we checked in and headed out to find our room!
Down the staircase and out into the garden area!
The grounds were full of wildlife! There were TONS of coati running all over the place...sometimes packs of 30 or more! The had tons of tiny babies, too. So fun.
I haven't seen these in the "wild" since I was in Argentina!
All around the grounds were these palapas surrounded with ponds with fish in them.
They all had comfy seats in them for chillin'.
There was a giant main plaza where they had different things every night. One night was a fire dancer show, another was an open air market where local vendors brought all kinds of cool stuff to see and buy. Every night it was a center of activity, and of course was full of comfy couches, lounges, and chairs.
Our room was on the second floor. Down below that half wall was a fountain!
All the rooms were in small buildings like this with a little plaza in the middle :)
Now, our room!
We got a "standard" room... but by US standards, it was the executive suite!
Complete with a giant jacuzzi bathtub!
.. a sitting area...
and a large balcony!
Our balcony looked out over one of the "tributaries" that led to the main pools.
At first I wanted to get a swim up suite, but I am really glad we didn't. The swim up rooms have access to the pool from their balcony, but they are also readily visible to anyone passing by in the pool or on the side...boo. Plus, all we had to do was walk down one flight of stairs and hop in! Plus, our view out the large window of sliding glass doors was out to the trees instead of people walking around on the paths.
Complete with towel animals!
So, what's a vacation without a few selfies?
We had a great time chilling at the beach. One day after kayaking, we were walking along the beach and got hit up by a photographer who took several photos of us. Most of them we felt super fat in after eating everything in sight... but there were a few worth keeping!
Lucky for us, when you speak Spanish you don't pay ticket price for ANYTHING!
We ended up getting these few photos on a disc for only a couple bucks!
Here's my tropical crush :) He was pretty cool.
And here's Jeremy's tropical crush... the ice cream parlor!
That's right... all the ice cream you can eat! We discovered a new combo: coconut and pistachio ice cream in a waffle cone.... yummy!
Here are a few pictures of the fire show!
We went down to the beach to walk almost every night after dinner... and it was completely desolate! With the full moon there was no need for lights, but I guess the lack of lighting kept most people from coming?
I took these with no flash, just a 30 second exposure and the moonlight!
Proof that there was nobody there... nothing passed by during a 30 second exposure!
The nice part about going to a family resort is that all the bar tenders are very used to making the frozen drinks without alcohol. My new favorite... Mango Tango! A mix between a strawberry daiquiri and mango something? Amazing!
You may notice Jeremy stuck to his old favorite: the Miami Vice!
This was at the Italian restaurant, yummy.
This was the bridge between the main area of the resort and the beach. At the resort side of it they had a place to wash all the sand left on you after crossing the bridge, but the bridge itself did a pretty good job acting like a sifter for all the sand!
One day at the ice cream parlor I asked for a banana split, and they went above and beyond to make the most amazing thing!
The parlor had a cute 50's diner theme, and there's Jeremy with his usual :)
One night at dinner we sat next to a super nice couple from Spain and had a wonderful dinner conversation with them! So fun to make new friends from around the world.
(We were having our after dinner pass at the buffet to see what we could find for dessert... don't judge!)
The day we went into town I was mostly haggling :) But it was so fun!
We did get this one picture of me with this fresh little piece of chocolate...
The fondue restarant was fun and intimate!
We also had a fun time at the hibachi restaurant, the Mexican restaurant, and my favorite: the steakhouse! I guess I didn't get pictures of those... oops. We also loved swimming in the pools, the swim up bars, and the pool side grill was always cooking up something amazing!
Here's a compilation of what video I did take (mostly with my phone, sorry!..it was so relaxing I was too lazy to even carry my camera around most of the time!)
One thing I loved about being in Playa del Carmen was that it seemed MUCH less of a place for partying than Cancun. At the resort in Cancun it was hard to even get a drink at the swim up bars, let alone a seat, and everywhere you went there were spring breakers. Here it was either families, honeymooners, or older couples getting away. Great, great great resort!
We were admittedly VERY sad to leave and come back to reality.
In the airport coming home we saw this guy and had to take a picture of him (the M&M).. I had to take a picture of him because we both looked at him and though, "that M&M looks Mexican!" Funny how they can do that, but it makes sense... we were in Mexico!
On the way home we decided that we need to make an annual relaxation vacation! If we could go on the week that we did (it ended up being the worst time to be gone for a week!) that we could go ahead and schedule for next year and we would find a way to make it work.
It was a VERY MUCH needed getaway and one of our favorite vacations that we have ever taken!
No comments:
Post a Comment