The Honeymoon

We went to Rivieria Maya which is somewhere at the end of Mexico.  Right end, if that makes a difference to anyone.  Playa del Carmen and what not.  Fantastic.  Blue water.  Warm sun.  Random rain showers.  Ocean breeze.  All inclusive drinks and food. I mean fantastic.

 

I think statistically Houston is the most air-conditioned place on Earth.  So it was a bit of an adjustment for us to be in all of these open air spaces.  The hotel lobby view was a straight shot to the ocean.

Macaws on display, which lead to us singing a LOT of songs from Rio (we’re still parents).

 

 

And some cousin of the raccoon that just roamed around freely and stole sugar packets from tables.

Small dinosaurs

 

Lovely.

We decided that while the beach and resort were beautiful, we needed to take advantage of the location and we opted for excursions.  Snorkeling*, Mayan temple, and zip lining.

*I bought an underwater disposable camera and had to send it off to get processed.  It takes like 2 weeks now according to Walgreens AND they don’t even give you negatives anymore.  CDs are free! The future is now!

Snorkeling was not as easy as you’d think.  There’s lots of thinking to it because the water is “refreshing” (Mexican for “freezing”) and you tend to want to breathe.  Our excursion guide was fantastic though and we ended up in a cave where I was 75% sure an ancient cave eel was going to ascend from the depths of the earth and consume us all.

 

Wednesday we went into the city to do some shopping and drinking and take in local culture.  Well psuedo culture I guess.  5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen (12 minutes or 20 pesos in a cab) is like your 6th Street or Bourbon and really just for tourist to spend moolah.  That’s fine.  That’s what we were there for.  BONUS POINTS: There were like 4 Haagen Daas shops on the street and I haven’t had a proper Bailey’s shake in YEARS. So I indulged.  There was also a restaurant we ate at that took our picture and put it on a bottle of tequila.  So I got that too.

 

Brownlee really wanted to zip line so our Mayan excursion included 90 minutes in a van, an ancient Mayan city, then a hike through the woods to see a shaman, then rapelling into a new cave, and zip lining across two lakes, then hopping in a canoe to go eat.

Real life.

I was very much wanting to do the Mayan pyramid.  Mostly for photos but also because I mean it’s historic and when would I have the chance to be close to one again?  We learned some stuff and I kept telling Brownlee it was like the Road to El Dorado, which he has not seen, but that didn’t stop me.

The tour guides were all “this is a smaller pyramid so it’s only 152 steps” and we’re like oh cool but then you realize 139 ancient Mayan steps are uneven and just giant pieces of granite or whatever.

Fortuntalely there are Mayan Limos waiting to take you back to the van.  It’s just one of those dudes on the bike with the carrier in the front, but I gladly paid my $7 and also bought two Powerades and got back to the van.

Then we drove off into the Mayan rainforest for the shaman and zip lining which I planned to sit out on but there were no options.

However, rapelling into a cave was awesome.  On some Batman shiz.  Brownlee was a little more cautious but I took it like a champ and went on down into the tube.  Except there were bats.  I don’t care if that’s where bats live and I was in their space.  All I kept thinking about was that episode of The Office when Meredith had the bat on her head.

Then we were lifted out of the cave and hiked over to the zip line area.  You’d think there was a sophisticated method to it but one guy straps you in and yells over to the other guy like “ok” and off you go.  The other guy has his foot on a brake to stop you from careening into the cliffs.  Fantastico.

Then you do it AGAIN across this lake. Then we had to hurry because a storm was coming.  Hooray for not getting struck by Mayan lightning! (I assume it is ancient and therefore more powerful).

Friday morning I woke up to take sunrise pictures and then we went to breakfast and then I fell asleep on the beach then we went back to the room and then slept till about 1 then ate then got back in the bed and watched subtitled Friends and Two and Half Men for hours.  It was fantastic.