symbol next to the new photos.
We spent five days near Puerto Aventuras (just south of Cancun and Playa del Carmen) with our friends Dan and Gina. We've been close friends for years, but this was our first chance in a very long time to go on vacation and relax together. The area south of Cancun is trying to market itself as the Mayan Riviera to, I think, sound more exotic. Basically, it's a stretch of the Yucatan Penninsula on the Caribbean where there many resorts. Aside from the resorts, there really isn't much to do in the immediate vicinity, so I have no idea where the "riviera" comments come from. Even with the lack of activity outside our hotel gate, we had an amazing time.
Updated: May 1, 2004. I finally got some rolls of film developed from the trip. Only about 11 months after the fact! Anyway, most of the photos
wouldn't add much to the site so I've added my favorites. I added a little
symbol next to the new photos.
We stayed in the all-inclusive Aventura Spa Hotel, which is part of the Palace Resorts chain. Above are pictures from our room's balcony and of the front lobby to the resort. It was our first-ever experience with the all-inclusive format, and we had a good time. As with any all-inclusive deal, you really only get your money's worth if you spend a majority of your time in the resort. All meals and drinks were included, and since the food was actually pretty good, we did spent a ton of time in the resort. I can get used to a life of leisure.
As part of our stay in the resort, we were able to partake in the wonderful opportunities afforded to us if we decided to purchase a membership to the resort family. Of course, the sales pitch (which was supposed to be 90min that was actually over two hours) started at the $62k "presidential suite" price tag, and slowly worked its way down to $5k for a 20 week membership. For the priviledge of plunking down $5k, one is able to stay for a week at any Palace Resort for about $2k/week. And don't call it a timeshare, because the Palace Resorts are different. Trust me... ;-) I still can't believe we left the office without writing them a check. Darn.
I never realized that Dan liked to pose so much. I was in for a pleasant surprise over the course of this vacation. You'll get to see a lot of Dan "striking the pose." This one shows Dan in front of the resort sign. The second picture is of the resort gate. Security seemed pretty tight, which made me feel safe and worried all at the same time. Know what I mean?
We ended up spending the first few days in the resort soaking up the sun and becoming pregnant with food babies. I was surprised how good the food really was. I mean, it wasn't Chez Gerrard, but we never dreaded having to eat in the resort once. Plus, the resort had about ten restaurants of different styles to choose from so we never got bored. Here are a couple pictures of Dan, Gina, and Erynn during a couple of our dinners.
Since we pretty much ate and relaxed in the resort, I didn't have my trusty camera with me most of the time. I'm sure we'd all like to see more pictures of the ladies, but I'm sure they're glad I didn't bother with the camera too much at the resort. I did happen to catch a couple photos though.
One of the fun things we did was to use some of the resort's bikes to ride to the neighboring town. The town, Puerto Aventuras is a completely man-made, recent creation. It is a place where you can buy your Mexican dream home and watch dolphins frollicking outside your window. I actually think we won't remember too much about the little town. What we will remember was how amazingly uncomfortable the seats on the bicycles were. If I ever get prostate cancer I know it will be from the Mexican bike seat in May 2003. Holy cow. Since the bikes were gratis, I guess we got what we paid for.
Above is a photo of Dan, Gina, and Erynn in front of the little inlet for the town. In the lagoon behind them is where you can pay to interact with dolphins as part of Dolphin Discovery. If you look close at the second photo, you can see some random punter being pulled along by a couple dolphins. Actually, it was pretty fun to watch. I think the "get pulled along by dolphins" package runs about $200. For some, a bargain.
About 10-15min north of our hotel was Playa del Carmen, where we were able to catch a ferry over to the island of Cozumel for some more sun, shopping and snorkeling.
There's Dan again striking the pose. What American tourist would be complete without some McDonald's? We actually didn't eat there, but we thought it'd be a funny picture while we were waiting for the ferry.
Playa del Carmen exists as a stopping over point for people who parked their cruise ships at Cozumel. The moorings for the cruise ships are on the island, and to get the the mainland they have to pass through Playa. Just imagine miles of trinket shops and people trying to pursuade you to buy stuff. The beach is actually quite nice as the photos attest, but we didn't spend much time here.
Here's a shot of the dock at Playa del Carmen as we pull away. Also, here's a picture of Dan and myself on the ferry. Shortly after this picture was taken both girls promptly fell asleep for the rest of the journey. The head bobbing on display was comical.
Here is the view of the beach and dock once you arrive in Cozumel via ferry.
Isn't Mexico wonderful? More sun and ladies is what everyone needs in their lives. Dos Equis (or Two X's) is the local brew, and I think this was their version of the Swedish Bikini Team.
Here we all are on Chankanaab Beach.
I added a link to the full size version of the photo. Click on the image to view.
Just behind us on Chankanaab Beach was this pretty little lagoon that we posed in front of. The water was crystal clear with tons of fish. It was like a 50ft aquarium! We took some underwater photos while snorkeling around the beach with some wonderful Kodak waterproof disposable cameras. I may try and get some scanned and put up here. The cameras really work well, so please, go out and buy some, because I'm sure Dan's dad would appreciate it.
Here are a couple photos of Chankanaab Beach.
One of the really cool things about the beach was the nice snorkelling avaiable. Here's Dan pointing out the
relevant wildlife, and proving that he's not afraid of sea urchins.
The underwater camera was cool, but you'd be amazed how difficult it was to take these photos. Without anything
to weigh you down, it's very difficult to position yourself feet down (with flippers) and hold long enough to
snap a photo. Anyway, on the left are Dan and Erynn all kitted out in their snorkel gear and myself on the right.
We ended up taking about two rolls of film of the various fish we saw, but none of them really turned out or were worth
posting here.
Our last full day in Mexico was spent in Chichen Itza. Please, go to this link because it does a decent job describing this ancient archeological site. Aside from the oppressive heat (it was hot, darn hot) we spent most of the day in awe.
The tour was part of our all-inclusive package. The site was almost a three-hour drive from our resort and we were lucky to get Francisco as our tour guide. I think he mostly gave tours to Germans, because his name tag said Franz. You can see his picture above with one of his many animated poses. Almost rivals Dan in some repsects.
The main focal point of Chichen Itza is the Castle, which is a gigantic pyramid. Here are a couple of photos.
Apparently, we only took two photos on the whole trip of the four of us. This one and the one of Dan and I are pretty cool.
You can click on the one of the four of us to see the full size version.
The steps to the top run about 45 degrees and the width of the steps are very small. Dan, Erynn and myself decided to climb to the top. Gina did make it up a few of the steps as you can see. Once on top, you can see the amazing view we were afforded. You may not be able to tell, but the wind up top was ferocious. Erynn decided to "make like a Mayan" and offer her sunglasses to the sun god, Quetzalcoatl. Dan saved the day by scaling the face of the pyramid to the next tier below to rescue her sunglasses that had been blown off while taking this photo. The glasses made it out of the grip of the sun god relatively unscathed so therefore, I must put in a plug for Maui Jim Sunglasses.
On the left is another photo from atop the Castle looking toward the Group of the Thousand Columns. And on the right is a picture overlooking the Ball Court.
Next to the Castle is the main Ball Court. The Mayans used to play this game, which is similar to soccer, but I think involved some killing, which means I think they were way ahead of their time. Today, they could have sold the rights to the game to Fox Sports and lived comfortably off the royalties. Anyway, the game involved kicking a rubber ball around this field between the walls. In the second picture you can see a small stone ring attached to the wall that the players tried to get the ball through. I must say it didn't look easy.
Once again, Dan showing his skills.
Some of the buildings were pretty cool. On the left is the ancient observatory. These guys were hardcore astronomers. On the right is the Nunnery. Apparently, they were serious nuns too...
The Mayans built Chichen Itza between two sacred wells. I think one they used for drinking water and the other was used to throw stuff in, err... make sacrifices. Here are a couple pictures of the Sacred Cenote, which is the well they found a bunch of skeletons in (i.e. not the drinking one). I don't know about you, but this is not what I think of when I think of a well. The thing is huge. And deep. But you can understand why ancient people would regard it as sacred.
Ahhh... how cute.
For Erynn, I think this was the highlight of the entire vacation. After surviving the heat at Chichen Itza, we had lunch at one of the local restaurants. This nice lady's job was to make the corn tortillas for everyone and to demonstrate the traditional methods. These were the best tortillas we've ever had. We love our Mayan Tortilla Lady.
We actually took this photo on the way back from Cozumel on the ferry, but I thought it was a fitting end to this site.
© 2003 Doug Rathburn