Ah, vacation

Just after the New Year, Carrie and I took off for a much-needed vacation. Over the past couple of months, Carrie has been diligently searching all her travel deal websites, and came across one which featured a really good deal, including airfare, to Cancun, Mexico. Since we had never been there before, we decided that there is no time like the present.

So, early in January, we loaded up our suitcases with light clothing and swimsuits, and drove down to the airport. Carrie did such a good job because we had a non-stop flight both to and from Cancun. That made it a mere 4 hour flight. And as we flew, Carrie had the window seat. Here, you can see all the snow on the ground as we took off.

As we flew south, we started to notice a change in the color of the ground. No more white! Instead, the actual ground colors started coming through. Then the ocean, and finally, our destination came into view. Now, I should explain that there is a part of Cancun that is really an island, connected by two short bridges, one on each end. The island itself looks somewhat like the number 7. You can see it here.

As we flew by, we tried to see if we could pick out our hotel. Not really knowing how it would look from the air, we couldn't pick it out. However, you can see the lower half of the 7 as we flew by on our way to the ground.

We landed, passed quickly through customs, and then headed out to the transport. As part of our travel deal, transportation was lined up for us. However, since we had about a 45 minute delay taking off, we missed the initial shuttle for us, and ended up waiting for a bit. When it finally arrived, we had two other families in the shuttle with us, but we were, fortunately, the first ones to be dropped off.

Once we checked in, it was time for a little exploring. Believe it or not, directly across the street from our hotel was a McDonald's! I'll put more info about the McD's in my next post, but it truly showed us that there are quite a few places that cater to Americans. For dinner, no, we didn't stop at McD's that night. Instead, we went down the road a few more feet to a place called El Shrimp Bucket.

We were both hungry for some good Mexican food, or some good seafood. But we weren't ready for the friendliness of the place. Here is a picture of me with our server. His name was Luis, but he kept trying to convince us that his name really was Maria. He really made the meal a lot of fun, as we sat on the porch, overlooking the lagoon (the inside part of the 7, which is between the island and the main shore).

We went back to our hotel and slept for the night. The next day being Sunday, we attended the Anglican church that held a worship service in our hotel. It was a little different, though much of it was pretty similar to what we are used to. I believe there were about 12 of us there, which made it a fairly close-knit group, especially when it came to singing. Then, we set out to check out the area around our hotel. We put on our backpacks and headed up to the two nearby mall areas, simply to see what all was around. (For all you beach bums, no, we didn't go there to ignore the beach, but the day was overcast and a little on the cool side, so we figured we'd see better beach/pool weather later in our stay.)

As we walked toward the malls, there is one funny aside to share with you. As we've come to expect on our trips, you will always find those people/organizations that are trying to get you to come try their product and give you free things in return. One place had some people out in front, doing this. While the young man was asking where we were from, once we told him, he said that he had relatives who lived in the same town! We think we know the place that they worked locally. Kind of neat. The world really is becoming a small place.

One of the nice things about Mexico is that they aren't necessarily constricted by many of the regulations we have in place here in the USA. For example, as we wandered through one of the outdoor mall areas, we came across a little waterway. We saw a group of people gathered together, so we went to check it out. As it turns out, there was quite the interesting little operation going on. They had an inflatable ball large enough for 2-3 people to fit inside. So, the people would pay their money, get inside the ball, and the operator would then inflate it. Then, they would be turned loose onto the waterway. We had to stand there and watch for about 10 minutes. It was really hilarious to watch people as they, literally, walked on the water. A picture to show you just a small idea of what they were doing.

After all the walking around (just over 5 miles round trip), we were ready to head back to our hotel, so we began our march back to our hotel, stopping at the McDonald's for dinner. They had a great deal, a value meal for only 40 pesos (about $3.75 US). With the days of the week in Spanish, we didn't really know what value meal we would be getting, but it was a pretty typical American value meal. Then it was back to the hotel, where we checked out our purchases, and then called it a day.

Stay tuned for more of our vacation. You'll hear more about McDonald's, as well as some cool Mayan ruins, and maybe even something about some dolphins!