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By kilax, March 5, 2015 6:09 am

Once we booked our tickets to Mexico, I started getting really serious with my Duolingo usage (currently on a 170 day streak!). I wanted to re-learn as much Spanish as possible before our trip. I knew I’d probably be around a lot of people who spoke English, but I wanted to give my Spanish a whirl. Why not, right?

Ha, the only problem was that I practiced by listening to the app and writing in Spanish (in the app and with friends, sometimes). Not so much spoken. So… there were a few funny incidences in Mexico, when my brain didn’t work fast enough. Or, almost worked right, but not quite.

There was that time Gina and I were looking at swimsuit covers in Cozuhel and I asked the sales clerk if I could buy two for a certain price. “Quiero comprar un vestido en rojo por mi hermano!” Ha. Ha ha. The sales clerk definitely laughed (in a nice way) that I said I wanted to buy it for my brother (hermano), not my sister (hermana). Oops! “¿Tu hermana, sí?” Yep, I meant my sister. But like Gina said, someone might go in and buy one for their brother (not my brothers)!

The time I couldn’t remember the word for tip, so just guessed and said tipo. Um, that would be type, Kim. It took the waiter awhile to figure out that one (“¿incluye el tipo?” made NO sense). He finally said “¿propina?” Ha ha. I remembered the word after a few days!

There was that time I thought I was doing really well with my Spanish, reserving una mesa por cinco at Babe’s, when the hostess asked for my nombre and I got really confused and thought she wanted my phone number. No, Kim, nombre = name. She didn’t say número.

But you know what? She didn’t give up on me! And that is what I liked, and noticed a lot – even though I was making mistakes with my Spanish, people were patient with me, and let me try, which made me feel empowered to keep trying.

There were quite a few times when I was practicing before the trip that Duolingo taught me a word I didn’t think I would use (or didn’t teach me one I thought I would need) and it actually came up in Mexico…

Like, escalera. Ladder. Why yes indeed, I did have a half English / half Spanish conversation with the man giving me a tattoo on the beach and ladders came up. “¿Cómo se dice escalera en inglés?” “Ladder.” “Ladder, like leather?” Ha ha. So I tried to explain ladder vs. leather pronunciation. Luckily, as someone said to me when I told them this story, “lather” didn’t come up. (This guy also wanted to know the English word for “little people”… interesting conversation indeed.)

The Duolingo app also wanted me to know the word for chain, cadena. Gah, it took me forever to remember that one. And while I did not speak it while I was there, yes, we passed una cadena on every walk to the beach or Fifth Avenue and I always thought about how good it was I learned that word. Ha ha.

It was also very important to Duolingo that I knew tijeras, scissors. When the heck would I need to know that? Oh yes, when the security on the way home stops me because of the knitting scissors in my bag!

Duolingo retaught me spoon (cuchara) and knife (cuchillo) but never fork (tenedor). I didn’t memorize tenedor before I left and was worried I would have to ask for one (just kidding… I didn’t really worry about that). Know what I did have to ask for? Tres cucharas, to share sherbet with Steven and Luca on our date night. It made me laugh so hard that I used the word I learned, not the other one. Duolingo, how did you know?!

Speaking of Steven, he didn’t learn any Spanish for the trip (he took German in college) but he did a fantastic job with it there. He asked me a lot of questions about what words were, and memorized them. I would tell him how to ask a question in Spanish (then he’d ask it), then I would tell him what the person said (more or less, of course) and how to answer back. It was fun to share my (very limited) knowledge with him!

And it took both of us awhile after we got back to stop saying hola and gracias to people! I still say sí, all the time, like I did before.

I am still continuing with the app, and have seriously thought about getting a tutor or taking a class to work on my skillz! Spanish is fun to learn! “¡Me gustan las reglas dela lengua!” I like the rules of the language… as I told our boat driver in Tulum after he mentioned how hard it is to learn English. Yeah, I said a bunch of messed up stuff to them in Spanish too. Ha ha. I could keep going and going with this post…

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By kilax, March 2, 2015 4:21 am

Day 7! Our last full day in Playa del Carmen. Cry!

Funny that this was well over two weeks ago on February 11th! I’ve been enjoying reviewing my photos and writing these recaps. I like having this sort of thing documented, even if it’s only interesting to me. Ha ha. Anyway…

I think this was Steven’s favorite day in Mexico, because… we spent the morning driving a dune buggy in the jungle!

One time when I was running in Playacar I saw a bunch of people drive by on dune buggies and was all “OMG I NEED TO DO THAT.” I got back and told Steven about it and he had the same reaction. Luckily, we were able to get a tour booked for our last full morning in Playa del Carmen!

Similar to our snorkel adventure, we didn’t really know what this excursion included (or, when it would be over). We read this blog review of it the night before and freaked out – in a good way and a bad way. Good because, we’d get to see a cenote! We had no idea the tour would include that when we signed up – we had been trying to figure out how to visit a cenote, and here was our answer! And, bad because it sounded like an all day excursion, including a visit to a village to hand out candy (???), and stopping at a place for lunch that did not serve vegan food (heaven forbid I miss a meal!).

It was very clear on the website that your clothes were going to get trashed, and that you’d be muddy and want something covering your face. I was worried about this, because I stopped to get bandannas before the trip, but couldn’t find any. Happily, the tour guides had bandannas and goggles (which they pronounce “googles,” hee hee, because they were French) for us. And fortunately, we found out the tour would be over by 1:00 (because I wanted to spend our last afternoon at the beach!!!).

This business is run out of the owners’ home in Playacar. The husband leads the tour from one buggy with an assistant, and the five other buggies follow him. We happened to be on a tour with a family from Canada – the mom and dad, and their three kids and partners. What a fun trip to take with your family (to Mexico) and what a fun excursion to do together. We found out they had been to Playa del Carmen many times before. I can see why people keep coming back!

For the first part of the tour, we drove on the highway to get gas. It was amusing to be driving a little dune buggy on the highway! I wonder if the other cars think it’s odd, or if it’s just another normal commute sighting?

After we got gas, the tour guide (how awesome that I never caught his name… oops) did tell us we’d be stopping in a Mayan village and that he likes to buy a few things to hand out to the people there. He said he likes to do it because the people don’t have much, and, as a thank you for us driving through their village each day on his dune buggy tour.

It felt odd to us. Especially to have people come rushing up when they see you show up, so you can hand things out. But we did participate. And really, we probably spent the equivalent of $6 on some noodles, oatmeal, and beans. But, it was never about the money. Just feeling put on the spot, really. Anyway.

It was eye-opening to see the conditions the families were living in. No plumbing. No electricity. I guess I got to see a real part of Mexico that I wasn’t ready for. Or expecting.

After that, we were on our way to the cenote. I was happy for the goggles and bandanna. It was dusty! Oh, and they came in handy when we drove through this:

Sigh. That water was so, so cold. Hence, the squealing in the video. And guess what doesn’t come out of your clothes? Jungle dirt, apparently. Ha ha! No worries. We knew we were going to get muddy!

Which made going in to the cenote all the more refreshing!

Ahh. I am just… so pleased we got to experience one of these. Apparently, this region of Mexico has tons of centoes (sink holes turned fresh water caves and underground rivers!). The water is clear, so you can see almost all the way to the bottom!

It was really neat when the sun beams shined in through the water!

We wanted to visit a cenote but so many of them around the area we were staying in were part of, for lack of a better word, amusement parks. We had looked for one in a natural area/park we could visit on our own, but came up with nothing. Luckily, that is exactly what our tour guide took us to – some random one in the jungle that the locals showed him and not many people know about! I can see why it’s gone unnoticed – it’s hidden! We walked on a rocky hilly path for awhile, then all of a sudden, it appeared!

We spent an hour or so there. Our tour guide brought snorkels and goggles, and we enjoyed exploring the water. I was also brave enough to climb in to the back of the cave and jump off one of the lower rock formations – but only once! Ha ha!

I didn’t realize it, but I had water on my GoPro lens (duh, make sense), so most of my photos didn’t turn out (the low lighting didn’t help, either). But I did get a short video of what it was like inside:

Such a cool space. That might be my favorite part of the trip, and I didn’t even know we’d get to do it! Wouldn’t it be amazing to live near one of those? We talked with a local there, who used to live in Washington state and missed cenotes while he was there, so he makes a point to visit that one every morning.

After that, back on the buggies, for the real jungle adventure. Before we were on somewhat open dirt roads like this:

Then it was on to more tree coverage and even more twists and turns:

Oh yeah, and a few more puddles:

Honestly, we were driving a long time (Steven drove the entire time)! I tracked where we went with my Garmin watch, and we spent over two and a half hours driving, and went over 40 miles (top speed of 34 mph). I enjoyed it, and I know Steven did, but I wonder if this excursion is for everyone. The dune buggies are loud, and smelly, and when you aren’t moving, you get pretty hot! I may or may have not fallen asleep on the ride back, too. Ha!

We stopped once for someone to use the bathroom, a few times to fix broken down buggies, to visit some native Mayans in the jungle, then we were back in Playacar, just after 1:00. The lunch mentioned in the blog post we read was no longer part of the trip, which was fine with us (they did provide a snack at the cenote, and water, though)!

Wish I would have known our buggy had a GoPro mount on the front! I would have brought the right adapter for it!

We took a taxi back to the condo (we were kind of muddy… oops) and ate some leftovers from the second Mexican feast we made, then headed over to a beach club,

where we enjoyed drinks and fries,

and where I got a new tattoo.

We met up with Gina, Steve and Luca (they spent the day on Isla Mujeres near Cancún) and walked on the beach a bit.

I was sad to be leaving. Sad it was our last night. And… sad my stomach decided to revolt against something I consumed. Yeah. The last night there was not pretty! The five of us had one last meal out, finding a place with several options for food, since Gina and I were so over Mexican cuisine at that point (the boys weren’t though!).

Steven and I shopped a bit after dinner and got him one last marquesita, and packed. I was in agony for a lot of it due to my stomach. Not much sleep that last night, and unfortunately, not because I was out partying!

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By kilax, February 24, 2015 5:18 am

Once it dawned (ha, pun) on me that we were by a body of water that faces east, I knew I’d have to get up for a sunrise run.

The thing is though… you can’t really run along the beach to see the sunrise unless you are running in the sand (because all of the buildings along the beach front block the view of the water). Yeah, I actually wanted to move, so I wasn’t doing that! So my run to see the sunrise included a lot of me running to the peer, seeing it wasn’t up yet, running up and down the street, and coming back. It was worth it, though (when isn’t it?!)! This brought back memories of when my dad and I got up early to see the sunrise over the Alboran Sea in Spain!

After a few miles on my own, I stopped back at the condo to see if anyone had bitten on the note I left “running a few, back at 8:00 if anyone wants to join me!” I got back and Steve was in his gear, ready to go!

I took him to a street Gina and I had discovered a few days earlier. I mentioned the owner of our condo told us a few places to run – Playacar, the bike path along 10th Avenue, and a track, north of the condo. Err, even with my best intentions, I never made it to the track! But I think Gina and I may have run close to it, when we took the 10th Avenue bike path north, and discovered it stops pretty soon after it leaves the touristy area.

But on that run, we cut back over to Fifth Avenue, just north of where the touristy part of it ends, and discovered a paved trail that runs along the road. We saw lots of other people working out there, and felt safe.

And we got to see lots of beautiful tags as we ran! So I took Steve there, to see it, as well.

I am surprised the condo owner didn’t tell us about this street, as well! It seemed like you could run out a good amount on it!

The rest of this day was laaaaaaaaaaazy. We hit up the pool around midday. I read a bit, swam a bit, knitted a bit…

I managed to get an AWESOME sunburn, which just peeled last week. If you look at the photo below, it’s the two red marks, under my shoulders. Yeah… I put some sunscreen on my shoulders, and didn’t get much further than that! (Ignore the weird dark lines on our backs – that’s a shadow!)

The afternoon included me teaching Gina how to knit!

She got off to a great start! Unfortunately though, I didn’t get to show her too much, because Steven and I had a date to go to that night… with Luca!

Date night included a stop to see Pedra, and give her treats:

table-made guac at dinner:

a Mayan Flyer show (yes, they climb up that thing then swing their way down!):

We also had tips from our condo neighbor to see the “fire show” – a Mayan dance show!

first dance without fire

second dance with fire

Luca really got in to the dancing! It was so cute (I was dancing with him too… I won’t be posting that video, ha ha!)!

Obviously, date night needed to include some sugar, right before bed time:

Ha ha!

Luca is such a good boy! He listened to us the whole night, and was very good about going to bed when we got back. We had a lot of fun taking him out!

When Gina and Steve came back from their date night, they had a gift for me and Steven: tía and tío bracelets they had custom made (Gina also got me a beautiful scarf, too!!!)!

Those are the Spanish words for aunt and uncle, and it really meant a lot to me that they got those for us – I cherish that Luca calls us “Aunt Kim” and “Uncle Steven”! (Ha ha, as I write this, I am remembering he asked on this trip, what “aunt” and “uncle” mean, and I said “it’s your mom or dad’s brother or sister.” We were all like “he’s asking tooooo sooooooon!” But earlier that day I had called myself his honorary aunt (when someone called me his mom), so we used that word. You know. Since little kids understand the word “honorary.”)

Steven, Gina and Steve and I stayed up a bit after they came back, being giggly and sharing stories of our nights and planning future get-togethers. Also, as I write this, I realize we didn’t have a ton of that sitting around and chit-chatting, like we typically do during our get-togethers, probably because we were on the go quite a bit, and the four of us weren’t always together. I hope our next trip includes more of that! More goofing around, please!

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By kilax, February 20, 2015 4:31 am

I had a very short “must do” list for Mexico, that looked like this:

1. Beach
2. Ruins
3. Snorkel or Scuba

We got the beach taken care of right away! Then it was on to the next two things!

Playa del Carmen is relatively close to the Tulum and Chichen Itza ruins. Before the trip, we were undecided on which to visit, but had a recommendation for Tulum. Tulum was 40 miles away (Chichen Itza was 112), located right on the coast (potential for water activities after seeing the ruins), and a cheap Colectivo ride away. We went with Tulum!

At first we weren’t sure how to get there, but Steven did a bit of research and found out about Colectivo – a shared van that drops and picks people up along highway 307 between Cancún and Tulum (and beyond?). Cheaper than a taxi, and quicker than a bus… and the price was right at 40 pesos per person one way (about $2.70). AND – it gave us control over the schedule. I didn’t want to sign up for a tour and have to be on someone else’s schedule. This is my vacation, damnit!

That doesn’t mean we didn’t get up early, though. Ha ha, that was our earliest day there! We had read online to get to the ruins before the tour buses showed up and the sun got too hot, and that was a good tip. We got there around 8:30 am, right after they opened, and got to enjoy the ruins a bit before the crowds arrived.

The Colectivo dropped us off on the highway, then it was about a ten minute walk to the ruins site. You pay to get in (64 pesos), but I didn’t pay for a guided tour (and as it turns out, a lot of the English portions of the signs, explaining what things are, were rubbed away), so my only knowledge of what I was looking at was what I had read before the trip (and what I overhead English-speaking tour guides say, ha ha):

• (I think) Tulum was the only walled Mayan city – tulúm is also the Yucatan Mayan word for wall.
• Tulum was an important trading post, as it had access to land and sea routes.
• Only the important peeps got to live in the walled city – the rest lived outside of it.
• Yep. That’s all I knew.

Upon returning to the states, I read more about Tulum on wikipedia (where else?) which was more interesting for me to read, after being there.

These pics make the space look kind of small, but if you check out this map, you’ll see it’s quite large!

We spent an hour or so walking around, which was just the right amount of time for me! Then we ventured out of there. The ruins have some touristy shops close by, but the city of Tulum is just down the highway, about 1.7 miles from the ruins, so we walked there to check it out. There was actually a paved path along the highway, the entire way!

It would have been helpful to have data (the service, not our cat, ha ha) on my phone when we got to Tulum. Before we went to Mexico, I downloaded an “offline” map to my phone of Playa del Carmen (using the Google Maps app) but couldn’t get it to work for Tulum on our very limited wifi in the condo (I should note, the internet is very unreliable in Mexico, where we were). So… we weren’t quite sure where the town center was, and ventured off the highway too soon. I stopped at a little shop and asked in Spanish where all the restaurants and shops were. They kind of directed be back toward the highway, but said to go the opposite direction, back toward the ruins. Maybe that is what they thought we wanted?

Anyway. We eventually figured it out, and found some lunch,

then split for the day, after. Steven and I wanted to walk around and find out about diving or snorkeling, and Gina, Steve and Luca were going to go to the beach.

And what Steven and I found out about scuba diving is that most of the places wanted to take us to dive in a cenote, and that most of the trips started at 8 am and ended at 1 pm – we had already missed them for the day.

The idea of getting up early the next day (when I knew we had an am excursion the following day, our last day there) was NOT appealing to either of us. And we weren’t sure if scuba-diving in a cenote was, either.

So we decided to hit up the beach, and see what we could find there for snorkeling and scuba diving.

Oh gosh. So we got a taxi, from the funniest old Spanish dude who didn’t speak much English at all.

I asked him to take us to the beach (in Spanish), to which he asked “which one?” (makes sense to ask that…). I said, “no sé,” so he starts rattling off lists of names of local beaches… eek. I had no idea! We just told him to take us to the best one and that we wanted to snorkel, so he took us to El Paraiso.

The first thing that happened when we walked up to the beach was a waiter from the local restaurant/hotel asked us if we wanted to pay to rent an umbrella or table (lots of beach clubs do this so you don’t have to haul your own stuff around). I actually told him we wanted to snorkel, and he took us over to this little table that we probably never would have noticed, and we found out a snorkel adventure was leaving in 10 minutes!

Ha ha, again, these conversations were all in Spanish, so that meant I was only getting the gist of them (but I felt comfortable with that). I knew we were paying about $30 a person to go out on the boat and snorkel, and that we would be gone just over an hour. The woman telling us about it mentioned something about a ride then snorkeling,  but I wasn’t following, and didn’t figure it out until we were out on the boat.

Oh my gosh! They took us right by the ruins! That was so darn cool! I actually thought it was neater to see them from the sea, than to see them up close, in person!

And after that, they took us over to the reef, which is apparently part of the second largest in the world. For about 35 minutes we followed our guide around (trying hard not to swim over the coral, or choke in too much salt water) while he showed us different things.

See the blue fish between the corral and rock? I kept thinking “Dory! I found you!” Ha ha. 

I brought the GoPro just for this, and am so happy I did! We took a ton of underwater pics when we were snorkeling!

The snorkel trip was just what we wanted – short and sweet, and we got to see some corral and fish! Steven and I were so happy we stumbled across it (thanks to that taxi driver)!

We had a few drinks and a snack on the beach (it felt so funny to be ordering from a waiter, wearing only a bikini, ha ha!),

before we took a taxi back in to town then rode Colectivo back to the condo (and yeah, the taxi ride cost more than for both of us to ride Colectivo home)!

We got to the condo (after saying hi to Pedra, of course),

and it rained for a few minutes. That was the only time we had “bad” weather while we were there. And that certainly wasn’t bad!

Steven and I went out for dinner and got something we hadn’t had in awhile (since arriving to Mexico, I mean) – Middle Eastern food!

Ha ha. So, the owner of the restaurant was sitting out in front of the shop with his family and all these people would come up to chat to him while we were there. Every once in awhile, he would get up, walk to the back of the restaurant and turn up the radio really loud – which was miserable – I couldn’t hear Steven, and it wasn’t coming in. Then as soon as the owner sat back down, our waitress would turn it down. This went back and forth while we were there, and made us giggle (and grateful the waitress kept turning it down).

We also stopped for gelato/sherbet, after!

It was fun when we got back and got to hear about Gina, Steve and Luca’s adventures for the day! They ended up on the beach really close to the one we went to. I still need to figure out where it was, exactly – that would be funny if they were somehow on the same beach, or in our beach pics from the boat!

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By kilax, February 18, 2015 5:02 am

Maybe I should have saved this post for tomorrow, when my area has a high of 3°F for the day (9°F today isn’t much better!)? Ha ha! That’s okay, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing since we got back – looking at vacation pics for virtual warmth!

Our weekend in Playa del Carmen was all about the beach (la playa)! Each day started with a run:

Food consumption:

And meandering over to the beach:

I did bring my GoPro to Mexico! More on that in later posts!

You can’t really tell in any of the pics, but I wore these bikinis (tops here, bottoms here) while in Mexico, and really liked them (I bought them just for this trip – looking forward to wearing them this summer, too!). 

One day we got crazy, and went to the pool, after we got back from the beach. I was amused by the fact that I was working on knitting a super warm scarf, while wearing a bathing suit:

This is exactly what I wanted most of the vacation to be like – totally chill (ha, relaxing, not the temps). No schedule. Lazing about. Getting to things, eh, whenever we got to them. Perfection.

We did have a few adventures other than the beach. On Saturday night, we went to Babe’s, a Swedish owned restaurant with a specialty for Thai noodles and “Asian European” cuisine. I got the recommendation for Babe’s from a super enthusiastic coworker, who said it’s the best Thai food she’s ever had.

I used my Spanish a bit there (with a lot of mistakes, but more on that in a later post!) which was fun. And I did find out that almost all of the dishes had fish sauce in them, so they made a special dish for me and Steven!

That was not the highlight of dinner though. The first was this Daiquiri:

Then Steven and Gina working on this masterpiece:

And Luca asking if he could use my phone to take pictures. So I gave it to him and asked him to take a picture of the four of us.

Oh my gosh, we were laughing so hard. And that got the attention of the ladies at the table next to us who did come over and take a picture of us five – now it’s one of my favorite pics!

We had a fun time at Babe’s.

And after, Steven got what he said was the best thing he ate the whole time in Mexico – a Marquesita – a sort of crepe (made with flour and milk), cooked on the spot, then filled with something sweet or savory of your choice (Steven chose Nutella).

And our wild adventure the following day (Sunday)? Prepare for this folks, I party hard.

Laundry.

Ha!

Steven and I packed with the intent of doing laundry while we were there. And there was a laundromat right by our place! Gina and I bought soap on Saturday and headed over on Sunday to check out the laundromat… only to find it closed. Drat! I spoke in Spanish to the lady at the smoothie shop next door to ask here if she knew of another – no luck!

But! We had passed a laundry place the day before, that was also really close. Would it be open? Ding ding, it was

And. AND! I didn’t even have to wash it! I gave my instructions in Spanish (lavar en frío, secar en delicado), with some use of writing on a notepad too, and paid, with instructions to pick it up at 8:00 pm.

GUYS. I paid the equivalent of, like, $4 USD for someone to wash all these clothes (my bag only) and fold them so nicely!

Does that service exist in the states at that price?! Gina and I were a bit excited!

Oh, and since you can’t have too much Mexican food (wait! you CAN!), we made it for dinner that night, too! It wasn’t getting old to me… yet…

Don’t worry, we saw Pedro on the weekend, too. Only, we figured out she might be a girl, and re-named her Pedra. After that day, every time we left the condo, Luca would call for her. So darn cute (and super funny to me to imagine what the locals were thinking to hear a little boy call “Pedro! Pedro! Where are you?!”)!

We bought her some cat treats and started carrying them with us (just like I did in Rome, ha ha). She would see us and come running to us! It’s dorky, but it made me miss Data a bit less (and feel guilty for giving another cat some love at the same time)!

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By kilax, February 16, 2015 9:40 am

Day 2, first things first, let’s get a run in!

Yay! First run in a foreign country, for both of us!

The person who rented our condo to us is a runner, so when Gina inquired about the condo and told him we are runners, he gave us some great recommendations for where to go! The first place we checked out was Playacar – a gated resort community that was just south of our condo, and easily accessible from the bike path that runs along 10th Avenue. The community was one big loop, and there and back was just about 5 miles (oops, should I be putting that in kilometers?! ha ha!).

We had plans for the day but weren’t in too much of a hurry when we got back from our run (ahhh, I love vacation pace). The night before, we decided to go to Cozumel. I had said “Let’s get Cozumel over with.” Ha ha. I felt obligated to go there. Not by anyone in our group, but by many people I told we were going to Playa del Carmen – “It’s so close to Cozumel! You have to go!” Okay, then!

The walk along 5th Avenue to the ferry included a lot of people calling out at us to buy things, Steven and Steve deciding to get hats at one of the shops (after some hardcore bargaining, ha ha),

And note, Luca’s new hat from Walmarto

me and Steve stopping to buy ferry tickets (they seemed to be leaving every hour, on the hour), Steven and Gina doing some Jeep rental bargaining, and a stop for lunch, then we made our way to the ferry.

Ahh, the ferry. El barco.

El barco del barfo.

The day we chose to take the ferry from Playa del Carmen to San Miguel de Cozumel was probably the windiest day we were in Mexico. Something about the wind shifting direction? The waves were a bit… intense.

As was the ride over.

Just watch the horizon line in that video – see how much it moved? The whole trip was like that. Did I mention we went right after lunch? Gah. Pair that with being a bit enclosed with not much air and a live band… wow. Most of my senses felt assaulted. That ride (about 40 minutes, eek!) could NOT get over fast enough.

Luckily, none of us left any lunch behind on the ride over… but I did feel a desperate need to get something like Gatorade to drink when I got off (it didn’t help I woke up with a bit of a headache that day!).

So yeah. The boat ride was rough.

We didn’t have plans on Cozumel. It’s known the for diving and snorkeling, and as a cruise stop, with a touristy shopping area. There are a ton of excursions you can do – ATVs, swimming with dolphins, and so on. But it was our first full day there. We didn’t really feel like that. We wanted to explore.

Steven and Gina had spoken with someone in Playa del Carmen who swore he’d get us the best price for a Jeep in Cozumel. Better than any price we could get on Cozumel. We suspected he might be full of it, so one of the first things we did when we got off the boat was talk to someone about renting a Jeep. Yep, as we suspected, the price was the same on Cozumel (and better after using the bargaining tactic of walking away). Ha ha.

But, no Jeep. We decided to just walk a bit, on foot. We visited a few shops, found a bakery,

It was Gina, Steve and Luca’s first time at a Mexican Bakery! I can’t believe we’ve never taken them to the one by our house! It’s so fun – you grab a tray, and some tongs, and load up your plate. Stuff never tastes like you think it will. As a general rule, things that look sweet, aren’t, and things that look bready, might be sweet. It’s so fun to try it all and see what turns out to be your favorite! This would not be our only bakery trip in Mexico!

and wandered to a few more shops. I think we were all a bit “this is it?!”

We probably should have done a bit more research before going. Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have been so eager to “get it over with.” But! Things started to look up!

The boys found a cigar shop to check out, and while we waited, we noticed we were right next to a bar/restaurant, so why not order some drinks?

We didn’t even look at the menu. Just asked for two piña coladas. Um. We were pleasantly shocked when they came out. Wow. And the price? I think less than $4 USD each!

Luca had a snack too (we helped).

Um. Oops. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea for the Barco del Barfo ride back…

Wait! One last pic to prove we were there!

I was feeling all optimistic about the boat ride back. We were in a lower part of the boat, and it was enclosed and air conditioned. “Hmm, maybe this will be better? Less waves since we’re not so high up? And not as stuffy! No band, either!”

Errr… um. Nope. Two in our group fell victim to the Barco del Barfo. Why’d we eat all those fries again?!

Ha ha. This post makes it seem like Cozumel, which Gina aptly renamed Cozuhel (jajajaja), was a bust. But it wasn’t! The boys got the cigars they wanted, and Gina and I found drinks the size of our heads. And, on the way back in Playa del Carmen, we noticed how beautiful the beach looked to the south of the pier, so we ventured to check it out.

Someone had told me that the beach there gets better as you go south of the main area (probably closer and closer to Playacar, and even in Playacar), and they were right!

We decided then to go back the next day and be beach bums!

There was a bit of goofing around on the way home.

Our friend from the day before! We decided to name “him” Pedro.

And I had to stop to get this!

Since we had Mexican food for lunch, we decided to get something different for dinner – pizza! Which we ate on the rooftop patio!

Apparently we missed all the excitement up there – after dinner, Steven and Steve went back up to smoke a cigar and a bachelor party was up there! Don’t worry, Gina and I were being equally as exciting – we were chatting and I was knitting. Ha ha.

Comments (21)

By kilax, February 14, 2015 6:16 pm

Consider yourself warned – these posts will be long and detailed because they’re my journal account of our trip and because I want to share some of the information we discovered there that other people browsing the internets may find helpful. 

When we were looking for plane tickets to Cancún in September, we were actually able to find one that had a layover in Dallas on the way there and on the way back. Awesome! This meant we could arrive and depart Mexico with Gina and family (as they live in Dallas)!

The only odd thing about the flight there, was that it left on a Wednesday night from Chicago, got to Dallas that evening, then left for Mexico Thursday morning. I had never experienced a layover split over a day like that before! But (despite a delay and getting in really late), I discovered I liked splitting the travel between two days like that – it felt like I was wasting less time traveling splitting over two days (rather than spending one day of travel like we did on the way back). And of course, it helped that Gina’s husband, Steve, picked us up at the airport and we got a few hours of sleep at their place before our Thursday am flight!

Luca and me on the shuttle to the airport!

When we booked our tickets, we chose the row behind Gina, Steve and Luca on the flight. Which meant there was a bit of this going on:

Hee hee!

Every person on the plane seemed in great spirits on the flight from Dallas to Cancún. Hmm… I wonder why?! Maybe something to do with the weather? It was actually pretty chilly in Dallas when we left, at 31°F! I made sure to check the weather back home too…

Nope. Nopenopenope. Adiós cold weather! This trip seriously could not have been at a better time of the year!

Hola, Cancún!

We arrived in Cancún in the late morning and took a previously reserved (thanks, Steve!) Super Shuttle the 35 miles to Playa del Carmen. Someone had warned me that the Cancún Airport is really confusing and that even if you have a reservation for a car or ride, tons of people will be giving you transportation offers and you won’t know where to go. Yes, people were there offering rides… but there was only one way out of the airport and it was super clear where to go for what you wanted. Ha ha, makes me wonder what the heck happened to that person that they gave me such a warning!

Waiting for Super Shuttle. This Christmas, there was a gift from my parents marked “for Kim and Gina” and it had two matching pink hats in it! Gina and I loved them! And so did Luca. Ha ha. We had to get him a hat the day we arrived. Steven and Steve bought their hats the next day…

As I mentioned, we rented from Airbnb. Originally, we were looking at resorts, but I was hoping the five of us could share a suite together, and that wasn’t very affordable at a resort! And while I love love love being around Luca, I didn’t want to be in a family friendly resort full of other people’s children. And… I didn’t want to feel “stuck” on a resort compound. So! Airbnb it was!

Our rental ended up being great! It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and kitchen, front desk security, a serene interior courtyard, and a roof top pool! (And super nice neighbors)

The only problemo? Location. And not location to the beach. It was at a great location for that – just four blocks from the beach and three blocks from 5th Avenue (the 30 street long pedestrian-only avenue FILLED with shops and restaurants). And I will mention, two blocks from the only vegan restaurant in Playa del Carmen – and that was all by chance!

Nah, the location problem was right next door – the ADO bus stop. It was on the opposite street to the living room/bedroom Gina and Steve took, and it was quite loud. Other than that, the place was great!

After unpacking a bit we ventured out for our first meal. We didn’t even make it two blocks before we settled on a Mexican (of course) restaurant! I ordered the first of many dishes of delicious fajitas I would have there.

During the meal, I realized I hadn’t looked at the exchange rate, at all, and didn’t want to use the data on my phone to look it up (we added international call minutes/a bit of data to our phone planes but I didn’t want to use it too much). So… we just went with whatever the restaurant charged us (the bill total was provided in pesos and US dollars).

Now, this took awhile for me to figure out. The whole money exchange thing. A few people told us that most places will take US dollars or pesos. So, before we left, I got out a few hundred dollars in US currency, and planned to just use that. Easy, right? What I did not know though, is that if you pay in US dollars, you are likely being charged the commercial exchange rate (which most places had set at 12 pesos to 1 dollar) rather than the exchange rate of the day (which was commonly 14.85 pesos to 1 dollar, while we were there). So while you can pay with US currency, you might be paying more than you would with pesos, based on the rate you exchanged US currency for pesos in, or the rate your bank charged you to withdraw pesos from an ATM (which we ended up doing at the end of the trip). Blah blah, money mumbo jumbo. Overall, I am sure we lost a few bucks here and there, and it doesn’t bug me, but if that sort of thing would bug you, it’s something to think about before you travel!

After lunch we had to walk to the beach, just to check it out!

Aww, yes! This is why we came! Warm sun, sand and water = instant happiness!

But… we didn’t stay long. Duty called, and we wanted to get a few things from, dun dun dun – Walmart! Our place was literally a block away! Super cheesy to be going to Walmart in Mexico, but also, super convenient.

We made sure to get the essentials:

Then it was back to the beach for realzies, swimsuits and everything!

It was later in the evening and the water was a bit cool (and oddly stinky – maybe to do with the tide?), so we mostly just lounged around.

This isn’t documented in a photo, but I am pretty sure we made Mexican food (beans, rice and guac) for dinner! And we had our first encounter with a new friend…

And, that was Day 1! Day 2 brings an exciting adventure to Cozumel on what we lovingly named the “Barco del Barfo”! Ha! Stay tuned!

Comments (10)

By kilax, February 15, 2015 4:06 pm

Highlight of the Week: Last two runs in Mexico and getting my speed work in despite the weather and stomach issues!

Monday | February 9, 2015: rest (does snorkel count?)
Tuesday | February 10, 2015: 8.1 m run (last 3 w/Steve)
Loc: Playa del Carmen, Temp: 66°, Time: 1:19:42, Pace: 9:50 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay
Wednesday | February 11, 2015: 3.2 m run
Loc: Playa del Carmen, Temp: 66°, Time: 31:23, Pace: 9:49 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good (but rushed!)
Thursday | February 12, 2015: rest
Friday | February 13, 2015: teaching strength class + 7.1 m run (incl. 8×400)
Strength: body bars, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but need to get back in to the swing of things
Loc: hood, Temp: 19°/20°, Time: 1:02:29, Pace: 8:48, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, minus stomach pain (left over from Wed night in Mexico)
Saturday | February 14, 2015: 6 m run + teaching fitness boxing 
Loc: hood, Temp: 17°/12°, Time: 1:01:07, Pace: 10:11 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: challenged by the 25mph winds
Strength: boxing and body weight workout (plyo boxes), Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, challenged
Sunday | February 15, 2015: 10 m bike
Bike Time: 44:10, Pace: 13.6 mph avg, Difficulty: super easy, Felt: sooooooooooooo laaaaaaaazy

Notes:

• Only two runs in Mexico this week! I was hoping to get up early before our flight on Thursday and get one last run in, but I started to get some really bad stomach cramps (accompanied with a few other symptoms) late Wednesday afternoon, and that went on until Saturday am! Yikes! No running for me on Thursday – I hardly slept Wednesday night!
• Surprisingly though, my 400s were decent on Friday… in that I got them done and pace wasn’t too all over the place. I did groan outwardly a few times due to stomach pain. And I totally cheated and ran with the 18mph SW winds for the 400s, and in to the winds for my recoveries. Ha ha… isn’t that how I am supposed to do it?! No?!
• Not surprisingly, I was a bit rusty teaching class Friday morning, but back at it by Saturday morning! I have four classes coming up this week!
• Due to weather, general laziness and some stuff unexpectedly coming up, I decided to move Sunday’s long run to Monday (tomorrow). Yay, President’s Day!
• I would like to see the percentage of strength classes taught, overall, number go down, but it’s going up. I need to start doing more on my own.

Link to Training Week 277

Comments (14)

By kilax, February 13, 2015 7:59 am

Highlight of the Week: Running in Playa del Carmen!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday | February 2, 2015: 5.5 m run (incl. 3×1 mile) + 6.5 m bike + teaching strength class
Loc: treadmill, Time: 55:55, Pace: 10:10 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: horrible
Bike Time: 30:00, Pace: 13.0 mph, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: resistance bands, Difficulty: easy (mostly observing), Felt: good!
Tuesday | February 3, 2015: 5 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 6°/9°, Time: 53:01, Pace: 10:36 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: too cold
Wednesday | February 4, 2015: 14 m run (first 5 w/Kelly)
Loc: LSC, Time: 2:19:18, Pace: 9:57 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: clunky and tired
Thursday | February 5, 2015: rest
Friday | February 6, 2015: 5 m run (w/Gina)
Loc: Playa del Carmen, Temp: 64°, Time: 47:35, Pace: 9:30, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | February 7, 2015: 5 m run (w/Steve)
Loc: Playa del Carmen, Temp: 68°, Time: 50:52, Pace: 10:11 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | February 8, 2015: 6.5 m run (first 4.3 w/Gina)
Loc: Playa del Carmen, Temp: 66°/68°, Time: 1:00:19, Pace: 9:17 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• Monday was NOT my day. Speedwork on the treadmill felt so hard (I have a theory that our treadmill is faster than it says. I’d like to think that is the reason I felt like I was about to fly off the back. Ha ha.), and I messed up the workout tracker on my phone during my bike ride. It made me feel stupidly frustrated.
• In fact, I felt a bit rushed and meh the first three days of the week. I knew I was trying to cram workouts in before I left for vacation on Wednesday night and that didn’t feel right!
• But! Everything was super relaxing and chill on vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Ahhhhh. It was my first time in Mexico! I absolutely loved running there! Our condo was really close to a bike trail that lead to several good places to run and I took advantage of it. It was so nice to run outside in a tank top and shorts!

Link to Training Week 276

Comments (22)

By kilax, February 12, 2015 9:46 pm

Gosh, I got so lost in this knitting project for my snister that I haven’t posted in over a week!

Ja ja ja, just kidding, I haven’t quite moved to that level of obsession yet.

I was actually taking a blog/social media/texting break while we were in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with our otra familia, Gina, Steve, and Luca, for the past week!

In August last year we decided it would be fantastico if the five of us traveled to Mexico together. Gina and Steve had gotten great recommendations for Playa del Carmen from a family member, so we found an affordable airbnb rental, and booked tickets in September (which happened to be just the right time to buy a few summery things on clearance for the trip!).

Booking in September was far enough away that I sometimes forgot we were going at all! Then I would remember during the beginning of a long run and spend the rest of the run daydreaming about what it would be like to soak up the sun in February. Ahhh.

It. Was. Great. I’ve never traveled anywhere else with such fantastic weather – cool in the morning (great for running!) and at night (great for going out!) and nice and warm during the day (great for the beach!). I was astonished that so many shops didn’t even have doors on them – could the weather really be that nice somewhere, year-round? Ha ha.

I wasn’t very familiar with Playa del Carmen (or any town in Mexico really – the closest I’ve traveled to it outside of the states is Aruba) before going, and honestly didn’t do a lot of research before I went. I knew I wanted to be lazy and hang out at the beach (check), see some ruins (check), and snorkel (check).

More to come in future posts…

What’s cool though, is that if I mentioned I was going to Playa del Carmen to people who had already been there, they raved about it! And I can see why – it has something for everyone – beaches, excursions, cenotes, scuba/snorkel, bars/restaurants, shopping… and it’s safe to be in town and explore.

I’m so happy we chose to go there, and especially with Gina and fam! And can’t wait to write all about it… once I get some rest. It’s been a long day of traveling back home!