Adventure #1

Adventure #1 of the honeymoon consisted of a lot of sunshine and a very bad sunburn (oops)!
We were carted off to Cancun with 2 other couples from our resort where we met up with a group of others and boarded a catamaran.

Destination: Isla Mujeres.  This island is located across from Cancun and is 4.3 miles long.  Less developed and inhabited than Cancun, thankfully.



The sail to the island was very uneventful, while the return trip was another story (more on that later).  The best part of the trip there was our first snorkeling adventure.




We were in the middle of the ocean, crystal blue water, and got to see coral reef, a VW bug at the bottom of the ocean, scuba divers, and lots of colorful fishies.  We also drank a lot of salt water (another oops)!



It was very pretty, though relatively short.  Perfect for our first time out there though.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures of us in our gear, except this one of my foot :)



After snorkeling, we headed to the island to Dolphin Discovery, a dolphin theme park.  We were excited to play with dolphins!  It turned out to be one of those cheesy things that you really only need to do once but we had a good time.  And bonus, the lunch was great!

 After playing with dolphins, we took a taxi ride to the central area of the island for some shopping and relaxing.

It was very windy, which was perfect given the heat!

You know it is hot when all you want is shade and a nice cold glass of water :)

I'll post sailing pics later so you can see our wild ride :)

the food

I could be perfectly happy eating tacos for 3 meals per day and I admitted that before the trip.  So, it is fitting that we ate a lot of tacos and I temporarily "forgot" that I shouldn't eat much corn.
Chilaquiles were the next most popular item on my mind, and margaritas of course.  We also had our fair share of some of the best jugo de naranja we've ever had (orange juice).

Started the trip off right with breakfast at Anthony's at the airport: Salmon Scramble.

And then we toasted on the plane:

We had a well stocked mini bar in our room as well.  I must admit that I loved the m&m's and sparkling water with tequila most.  (wild lady, I know).

Here we are at breakfast on our first morning there:

My breakfast: a regional cuisine.  I am forgetting the name now.  It was refried beans, topped with egg, peas, ham, and fried plantain.  YUM!

Dinner on the beach, the second night.  They called it a white beach party.  :)  It was so humid that my camera fogged up regularly, sorry for the blurry pic.

White beach party dinner buffet.

Indian food in Mexico?!  Yes, we did!

I forgot to take a picture of the gluten free onion rings and coconut milk ice cream that I was surprised to find at the resort.

Here we are at Agave, the Mexican restaurant at the resort.

Salud!

Steak and eggs.  Incredible.

In Playa del Carmen, we found a cocoa coffee bar and had frozen chocolate drinks!  So perfect when we thought we would melt.

The best cheap eats we had!  Tacos at Don Sirloin.

Margarita on the beach.

Ready for a late-night dinner after climbing some ruins :)

Are you surprised?  I ordered tacos again!  At least Tyler ventured out.

Breakfast at 100% natural.  Drank a pitcher full of iced agua de jamaica.

I had chilaquiles, Tyler the aforementioned Yucatan peninsula specialty.

Are you hungry yet?  I promise we did more than eat!  More on the adventures later this week.  

honeymoon bliss

Tyler and I have now been happily married for 23 days, whawhoo!  We truly enjoyed our wedding day and feel very excited to re-count the stories.  Thankfully, I journaled on the honeymoon to help refresh my memory since I am so forgetful :)  I think that wait a bit until we have a few more pictures to share.  

The honeymoon, on the other hand, has plenty of pictures ready and lots of stories to share.  

We are so grateful to all of you who supported our honeymoon fund and made this trip possible.  It was exactly what we needed and we will cherish the memories for many years to come.

I have always wanted to go to Italy for my honeymoon.  Wisdom was on my side, however, when I took the advice of others saying that we need a place to relax on our honeymoon.  When we do travel to Italy, I don't envision much relaxation.  So...we chose the Playa del Carmen/Cancun area of Mexico?  Why?  This place has special meaning to me.  I studied abroad in Puebla, Mexico 13 years ago and with classmates, we travelled south throughout Mexico, ending our trip in Playa del Carmen.  I remember relaxation, incredible white sand and blue waters.  

My memory didn't fail me this time, the beaches were almost as beautiful as I remember them!  I wanted Tyler's first trip to Mexico to be in the most beautiful part of the country.  We both enjoyed the opportunity to practice our spanish, eat amazing food, relax and partake in adventures.

So how do I tell you about the best trip of our lives?  How do I break it down into words and do it justice?  I will do my best :)

First, I will blog about relaxation since that was the purpose of the trip.  Next, I will blog about food because you know how much I love food.  Third, I will blog about adventure.  Sound good?!

OK, here is the relaxation part!  Our friend Juliana helped us choose the perfect all-inclusive resort (thank you Juliana!).  We had a lot of questions being that it was our first time to an all-inclusive.  We wanted a place that was within walking distance of "real" Mexico (i.e. not a resort that was super secluded to the point where you only see Americans), a beautiful beach and good options for food.  

We chose Excellence Riviera Cancun.  It was hard not to relax here.  Except when I was so excited to see the sun rise from our room that I was jumping up and down in our room at 5:45am  :)  It was so worth the early wake-up.  And, yes, I did go back to sleep eventually.

These are views from our balcony:

A stroll on the beach:

enjoying the soft sand in Playa del Carmen:

pina colada at the beach near the Tulum ruins

The room at Excellence was large and ornate.  The bed was super comfortable.  Room service was included.  How can you not relax?!

One of TWO jacuzzis we had - one in the room and one on the patio!

First night of room service.

Breakfast room service on our last day:

The pools were immaculate and so relaxing.  

There were no lines for food, the staff were very friendly, and things like this made the experience so easy to enjoy.

The ultimate relaxation came when we visited the spa not once but twice!  Our first trip was the best since we splurged on 80 minute by-the-beach couples massage.  Nothing like the sound of waves and the wind blowing in the background to put you in relaxation mode.  This was Tyler's first ever massage and I think I can safely say he enjoyed it.  The spa also included something called aqua wellness which is very hard to describe.  Here is the website description

"This circuit lets you work directly in aqua exercises, massages with jets, and cascades, which contrast with the iced pool and make the perfect preamble to the Hammam, our arab style steam baths. This area also includes dry saunas, ice room and the biothermic and sensations showers."  

I know that this description does not do it justice.  It was an incredibly relaxing experience and very refreshing.  We were all ready to pay for our second trip to the spa for aqua wellness when we realized it was free, an even better bonus!

Our therapist joked that this was our ice bucket challenge.  After rounds in the showers, pools, ice bath and saunas, we stepped into this shower and "surprise!", the bucket was filled with ice and cold water :)  It actually felt really good!

Here is a view of the central part of the spa.  This is the pool used in part of the aqua therapy session. The right portion is the ice bath.  The left portion where you see the silver rounded things are jets that stream water for the circulation components.

Overall, day 2 and 4 of our honeymoon were the most relaxing -- they were spent in the spa and on the beach mostly!  Hope you've enjoyed this installment of our honeymoon recap.  More to come :)