We Are The Three Amigos...and other songs that keep playing in my head while in Mexico

Playa del Carmen – with Sunshine

Playa beach at night

Well, we’re now in the last week of our trip to Mexico. This has been more of a relaxation holiday than a travel holiday so unfortunately not too many more pics of amazing sites for you. However, it has been really nice and last week the weather got sunnier and a lot, lot hotter. Each day I manage to get burnt on a new part of my body, somewhere I missed putting sunscreen. Keeps things interesting trying to remember which side I can’t lie on while trying to sleep but I am slowly but surely, day by day, piecing together a complete tan. Should be all together by the time I leave. Such is the extent of my worries while here in Mexico!
The Reef Club

Last week was mostly lazing in the sun at the beach and the reef club, trying different places to eat down on 5th Avenue, except for Friday which was me and Nics anniversary. We took a ferry to Cozumel, an island about 25km off the coast of Playa, and spent the night at an all-inclusive hotel. If you aren’t familiar the all-inclusive means you pay one price and all meals, snacks, activities and drinks (including cocktails) are included.
The Cozumel Hotel

Cocktails in the Pool

A quick nap

More Cocktails by the Pool

More cocktails in the Pool

Hotel Cozumel by moonlight (with Cocktails)

It was great! We spent all day and night in the huge pool, breaking only to have cocktails and food which was plentiful and really yummy. Nic’s eyes were bulging and way bigger than her stomach. I have photographic evidence of her eating exploits at dinner where she had two big plates of food, then a huge plate of dessert and then a big khalua sundae on top of that. (she did feel a bit sick after all that)

I must say it was difficult trying to keep yourself from overdoing it. I felt the whole time I was there I was just teetering on the edge of too much but managed never to quite overflow. The next day we were supposed to check out by 3pm but they let us stay until 7pm, still with food and drinks, awesome! We were able to enter the ping pong competition which I won and scored a small bottle of Tequilla for a prize. (It wasn’t difficult to beat the half cut Texan who refused to put down his drink while playing)
Cozumel

Cozumel Island itself is not that nice but is hugely popular for diving and snorkeling. It is surrounded by reef that has apparently been protected since the 1950’s so it’s supposed to be a great place to dive. If the number of people on the Island carrying diving equipment and snorkeling gear is anything to go by then it must be pretty amazing!
A Cozumel street

Freaky Spider
I forgot to mention the spider incident on the second or third day I was here. Nic and I returned home from town and there was quite a large spider that crawled into the front hallway when we opened the door. It was maybe 5cm long and had a huge abdomen. Frank tried to hit it with a shoe and when he finally made contact the spider just exploded. About 200 tiny little spiders burst out of it!!! It was completely freaky and also a little bit sad to discover that it was a mother. If that’s how many babies those things have each time then I don’t think they’ll be in danger of extinction any time soon. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Scary!
Niklas’ Birthday at Tankah

A couple of days ago it was Niklas’ 4th Birthday. Frank and Norma organized a little party at a bungalow they often hire on the beach. It’s situated in a beautiful bay called Tankah about 10km north of Tulum. It really was spectacular. The bungalow (if you could call it that) was surrounded by palms and only 20m from the beach, with deck chairs and hammocks directly on the sand. The water was crystal clear and had small reefs about 100m out which was really nice for snorkeling. The best thing about it was that it was so secluded. Nic and I went for a snorkel and we realized that we were literally the only people swimming in the entire bay. We had the whole thing to ourselves. Amazing when you really think about it. Not often you get a chance to have a swim all by yourself in such a beautiful place. One strange thing though was the three military dudes who walked along the beach with huge big machine guns doing a routine patrol. That’s crazy!

The party was nice, about 4 of Niklas little buddies came with their parents and everyone had a really relaxing day. Niklas and his little gang had fun throwing water balloons around and at one point they beat the crap out of a Piñata. Cool to see a traditional Mexican Piñata bashing! Niklas had a really great day so everyone was really happy.

As promised, we are probably going to Chichen Itza on Saturday so I will throw some pics on the blog as soon as we get back.
Until then…