Valentin Review

I am not an expert traveler by any means. Not yet.  I’m working on that.  However, I have been to a few resorts around Central America. So far out of the seven resorts I have been too, The Valentin Imperial Maya so far has been my favorite. Everything about the place exuded class and charm. In fact, this is the first place I’ve been to that I really want to go back to. 

The grounds

The first thing anyone would notice about the resort would be the grounds. The resort was just off the main highway from the airport. It was a short little drive, maybe 35 minutes from airport to front desk, so that wasn’t all that bad.  As soon as the van we were in turned into the resort, there was an audible “oh wow,” from the others.

The grounds look amazing.  There are beautiful flowers, well taken care of paths, and the beach was swept and taken care of.  All in all, it was top notch.

I would highly recommend taking one of the bike tours around the resort.  While you are riding a bike, it wasn’t too taxing and it allows you to see parts of the grounds that you wouldn’t normally see.  With the grounds comes the wildlife as well. 

The wildlife never got in our way, I want to get that out of the way first.  On the bike tour, we got to see an alligator on the grounds.  Apparently there are two.  For a second I was afraid they had set a trap for us (Clever Girl), but we were in a large group on the driveway up to the lobby when we found it down in revine, so there wasn’t any reason to be scared.  Plus, the alligator was only 2-3 feet long, and just a baby.   

The Coat

The coolest animal to me was the coati.  It is a cross between a raccoon and an dog.  They would come out at night on the paths around the resort.  Again, I never felt like I was in danger or anything.  The Coati were freakin’ cute anyway.  They were like a cool little treat at night to see. 

Please remember that the animals are wild.  Be smart, and don’t try to touch them or chase them. 

The area the resort covers is very vast.  Luckily, there are paved paths that connect all the buildings, and plenty of signs and shade all over.  The paths were well taken care of, and pass by some cool things to look at like the pool, or a marsh. 

If walking isn’t your thing, and who would really want to on vacation?  They have carts that you can request come pick you up and take you places on the grounds.  Or as we called it: El Ubero

All told, they grounds were awesome.  It definitely felt tropical, and cool, and upper class but not snooty. 

Rooms

While we only saw one type of room, it was one of the up-sell rooms with a beach view, the room was pretty amazing.  The bed was big and spacious, there was a large flat screen TV for at night while we were going to bed.  Our room also had a couch, which didn’t really get much use, and there was minibar that got stocked daily.  The all inclusive part of it let us get things out for free as much as we wanted. 

The bath room was all tile and it was gorgeous.  When entering the restroom part, you enter to a double sink and mirror section.  The resort provided soaps, shampoos, and lotions and they all smelled really good.  To the left was a closed off section for the toilet and bidet.  To the right of the sink were the shower and bath.  The shower was a dual head system.  One head had some pressure, while the other was rain shower that trickled down.  

I want to make a couple of notes here.  We assumed that every room would have a hairdryer so Nova didn’t pack one.  Our room did not have one though, and we requested one, but it took a very long time (45 minutes to an hour) to get it.  Another night, we had an investation of ants, but we called about it when we saw it, and they came and took care of it while we were gone.

The bath was more of a jacuzzi.  While we did try to use it once, it took forever to fill.  Around the bathtub, the wall turned into a one way window.  There was plenty of privacy looking in, and looking out you could see the beach.  It was very romantic.  The windows also opened if that’s your thing as well. 

Outside the room on our balcony were two comfortable outdoor chairs, a side table, and a hammock.  This was probably the best part of the room.  The view of our room (because of the upgrade) looked right out onto the beach and the ocean, but it still felt very secluded. 

The Beach

A quick walk down to the beach, and it was a little bit of a disappointment.  While the area was well taken care of, and there were cabana and chairs for the people that upgraded to the beach view room, the beach itself was rocky in this area.  There wouldn’t be a way to get into the water really here.  A short 5 minute walk down the beach however, afforded the beach goer a pretty nice beach.  But the view from the room more than made up for the section of beach there.

View from our room

The sand was never too hot, and there were plenty of cabana’s but most were a walk away if you didn’t get there early enough.  They had a sand volleyball pit roped off, and daily organized games.  The sand merged into the beach after a ways, and it can be a bit steep to get to the water, however it isn’t bad, or difficult to get to it.  The water was very clear and blue, with a pretty heavy riptide. 

Strong swimmers wouldn’t have any problem, but weak swimmers would want to use caution.  The waves weren’t large or clean enough to really surf on either, but fun to jump into and try to body surf a little.  The swimming area is also roped off so that no one goes too far out. 

The resort did have vendors walking up and down the beach, but they very rarely came and interacted with you.  A quick shake of the head, usually kept them off for a while.  The waiters on the other hand were very welcomed.  There were a handful of guys that would walk up and down the rows of cabana’s cleaning up and taking drink orders.  They were always friendly and delivered drinks.  The only problem was with how much area they had to cover and the time between order and deliver that would cause.  Again, it was only a minor headache.

The Pools

If the beach isn’t your cup of tea, (why would you come to a beach resort?) there were also a few pool options.  The main pool was giant, with plenty going on.  This pool had two swim up bars a good distance from each other, a water volleyball area, some lounge in the pool areas, and some water features.  The entertainment team would often have dancing and music going on here, and some lunch options were provided. 

There was a smaller pool that was quieter and close to the main pool, and there was also a pool that had a lazy river attached.  We didn’t spend much time at either of these pools, but the time we did spend was pleasant.  The lazy river was close to one of the snack bars, which allowed you to order food when you wanted, and the sm

The Foam party

aller pool was nice for relaxing away from the beating heart of the main pool.

 

The only complaint I had about the pool, and this seems to be a common complaint at resorts:  the seating would go fast.  That being said, there was still lots of seating provided, it just went quickly.

Food

Breakfast and lunch were handled mostly by a buffet.  The food on the buffet was really good quality food, and you could have as many trips as you’d like.  At breakfast, everything was laid out in a way that kept like things together, like waffles and pancakes were next to each other, etc.  There was also someone making omelets, and fresh egg dishes like scrambled or fried. 

At the lunch buffet though, the buffet was a little more confusing.  I had to hit three different tables in three different zones to make a hamburger.  I wasn’t really sure why things were separated so much, however, it didn’t impact the overall quality of the food.  We only ate at the lunch buffet once during the week as well, so I’m not sure if it was just the day or what. 

The lunch buffet was not the only option though.  Every day there was an outdoor location, by one of the bars that served food.  There was also the snack bar.  All resort food, but it was some of the best resort food I’ve tasted before. 

Dinner was different though, and I liked the difference.  This resort had multiple restaurants which to choose from at night.  During our stay we ate at the Mexican, Thai, Japanese, and French, and there were at least two others that we didn’t get to eat at.  I know there was a steak house, but I don’t remember what the others would be. 

Sunset at the Mexican restaurant

These dinner restaurants have an a la carte menu, but being an all inclusive, you can order all you want.  The menus are all divided by starters, salads and soups, main courses, and dessert.  While the portions seem same, they were enough to fill me up (and I’m a pretty big guy). 

The French place was actually my favorite of all that we went too.  I got a fillet mignon that was one of the best cuts of steak I’ve ever had before, but really nothing disappointed.  Every place had a great selection of proteins (fish, steak, or chicken) and sides.  It all seemed expertly made, and was a very fresh change from the prepackaged and warmed up food that we see in the USA all the time.

The food

One note I want to make that I never saw in all my research: Men are expected to wear pants to the restaurants.  I had no idea, and luckily I packed away a pair of khaki pants that got worn ever night.  So men, bring some nice dress up clothes if you are eating here.

The drinks at the resort were also great.  They didn’t confine those on the all inclusive plan to the cheap stuff.  I was able to order top shelf drinks and watch them be prepared right in front of me.  The cups that were used were also bigger than most of the other resorts I’ve been too as well.  While I didn’t notice any resort special drinks, they had a great selection of stuff.  We never stumped a bartender with our order.  I’d like to recommend a Dirty Monkey if you’ve never had one.  Every resort seems to make it a little different, and this was one of my favorite versions ever.  Wine and drink didn’t stop at dinner either. 

Entertainment

Finally, I want to highlight the entertainment at the resort.  I’ve already mentioned the entertainment team earlier in the review.  For those that have never been to a resort with an entertainment team, these are the guys that are out at the resort from sun up to sun down making sure that you have the chance to be entertained.  They would do this by running games, playing music, pulling people up to dance, etc.

There seemed to be four or five members of the team during our stay.  They were all very nice and active.  Marco was our tour guide on our bike tour.  He was humorous, and very talkative.  He genuinely wanted everyone to have fun.  He answered every question that was thrown at him.  He was the one we interacted with the most, but there were others.  The ladies of the squad were very good about grabbing people that seemed to want to interact and leaving those that didn’t alone. 

We witnessed a belly dancer, belly dancing lessons, and a belly dancing competition one of the days we were there.  They did a really good job of making sure that everyone was comfortable and having fun and not just being made fun of. 

At the end of the day, the entertainment team would pass the torch so to say to the entertainment of the night.  Every night the resort would put on some sort of show.  We got to witness a great variety of shows from acrobatics to musical.  Most were great.  The acrobatics we saw during the first night were incredible and highly entertaining, as well as the Mexican night with the mariachi bend.  The leader of the band put on a show pretty much by himself by interacting with the audience, starting a conga line, and the like.  We also caught the end of a fire show which was pretty cool, since they were playing with fire.  We sadly finished up our trip on a sour note though.  The Elvis show they had was pretty bad.  We stayed for maybe ten minutes and then had to leave it was so bad.  I’m not sure if it was an off night, or what, but “Elvis” was just mumbling words and stroking the chins of the older ladies in the crowd.  Not a fan.

The shows

Before the nightly shows and after, the resort had bands in the main square of the resort playing music.  All the bands were very different, there was a blues band, a reggae band, and some pop music played.  All the bands were very good, and really got the (sometimes too rowdy) crowd going. 

There was always something going at this resort, and there was never a dull moment.

Other Stuff

There really isn’t much else to say.  Sometimes in the square there would be local vendors trying to sell knick knacks.  They weren’t harassing anyone that I could see, and they didn’t really approach us. 

I will say that this was an adults only resort, and it definitely felt like it.  We were one of the youngest couples there it felt like.  The resort definitely was filled with folks 50+ years of age at the time (March and Spring break time), however we never felt too out of place, just part of the minority.

All told, this was my favorite place that I’ve ever been too.  The place was beautiful and had a great mix of active and relaxing.  The beach had some waves and a beautiful place to relax.  There was always something going on.  And the food was great.  I’d definitely come back here; but I’d probably bring more friends to experience it with.

The end

Buffalo bayou bike ride

One of my goals with this site is to write about my travels and experiences.  When sitting down to figure out what to write, I realized that I don’t travel enough to sustain something like this. Even though this is Jarrva World Wide, I could write about some of the fun stuff I do at home as well.  I know that after living somewhere, even somewhere as big as Houston, we fall into a rut and never really branch out, so I hope this will encourage people and myself to get out there and try new things. 

So we found ourselves in the situation Saturday. We had both been out in the morning and had reconvened at Nova’s apartment and struggling to find something to do besides sit there and watch Netflix. The weather outside was almost perfect and we wanted to be outdoors. We thought about going and doing a picnic, but we had both already eaten. We thought about taking Kimber the dog for a walk, but I had already done that during my morning stroll. So we decided to go riding bikes at Buffalo Bayou Park. 

I haven’t really ridden a bike in a while (unless you count the bike ride on our last vacation) and i thought it’d be something fun and different. 

Luckily, to ride a bike in Houston, you don’t even have to own one if you live downtown. There’s a bike share system called bcycle. We had never used it before and we were excited to try it out. We drove over to Buffalo Bayou park just by the skate park because we knew there was a kiosk there for the bikes. There is also a shop there where you can rent bikes from as well. We checked out the shop to see how much it was a rent a bike there. The shop had bikes for $9/hour with a minimum of 2 hours. We felt like that was too expensive so we went over to check out the bcycle kiosk. 

The only problem with the kiosk and the system is that renting a bike is very dependent on there being bikes there. There were four bikes there, but there were three people in front of us so we weren’t going to be able to check out a bike for both of us. If there had been bikes though, it would have only cost us $5 a person for a 24 hour pass. With the pass, you can check out a bike for free for an hour as much as you wanted. But if you had the bike out for longer than an hour, you’d be charged an extra $2 per 30 minutes. However if you returned the bike within an hour and checked it out again, you’d get a new hour. It was slightly confusing, but ultimately it was cheaper than renting from the store. 
We were waiting on some friends to show up too.  One of our friends was in the process of buying a new bike and we weren’t sure how long it was going to take to get there so we went and checked out the goings on at the area by the skate park. There had been some live music playing since we left the car and there was a stage just above the bike shop. So we walked up there and saw that was a bayou bash crawfish festival. They had some tents from a couple of breweries and eateries around Houston, and a live band playing. They also had some games of corn hole and a cool giant pool table that you played with soccer balls. It was a pretty happening place, and we decided to hangout in the shade for a while and watch. As we made it over to the shade though, I noticed that the bike kiosk had two bikes now. We didn’t want to lose the chance to get a bike out so we hustled down and rented us some bikes! 

The process was pretty simple, just buy a day pass and pick your bike.  The system unlocks the bike and away you go. With our bikes freed, we jumped on and pedaled around the park. 

I’ve been to Buffalo Bayou a few times now. It’s a really fun park in the middle of downtown Houston. It’s like our own little Central Park, not that I’ve been there before or anything.  There are grassy areas, and paved trails for walking and biking, a skate park, a bayou for kayaking, volleyball pits, dog parks, and art. If you’ve never been, you should check it out for sure. It’s worth the trip. 

We biked around, getting the hang of it and making our way to where we were going to meet our friends. It really sucked trying to pedal uphill, but getting some speed on the downhills made it worth it. We made it to the spot where we would wait for our friends. So creative genius had designed some Poet Trees here. The author had left some tags and some pens for people to create their own poems and then they were to stick them on the tree. I thought it was a really cool idea. 

beautiful view

We finally heard from our friends that they were taking longer than they thought, so we decided to ride around while we waited.  We rode around the park, traveling next to where the dog parks used to be. Because of the recent flooding we’ve been having in Houston, the dog park was shut down. Usually there is a pond the dogs can swim in, and some grassy areas for them to run in.  After the flood though, the water from the pond was running over, and all the grass was gone. It was shocking to see just how high the water had traveled in the storms. The bayous in general were higher than normal, and the damage done was unbelievable. 

We rode around the park some more making it to one of the cooler fountains and waited for our friends whom were finally here. 

With our group finally together, we headed out to make a lap around the entire park. All together the lap around was about 6 miles according to my Apple Watch. The views were awesome, the bike paths were really nice, with some uphill a that made your legs burn and some downhills that keep the wind in your face. 

If you’re looking for some fun activity to do outside, I’d highly recommend getting a bike and riding around the park. I look forward to going back and exploring some of the areas that were closed because of the flooding. Consider checking it out. 

Thank you

Thanks to all who have visited the site so far. I hope you’ve enjoyed our world travel. There is more to come, and if you have any ideas that you’d like to see, please let me know. 

Just a little sneak peak at things to come though: I’m going to do a full review of the resort we stayed at during our last Mexico trip, I’m going to review my GoPro hero session and how it can help you on your trips, and I’m going to be giving some insight into some of the things in this great city of Houston, where I currently live. 

I’m also hoping that Nova will start writing about her travels soon. She recently went on a cruise with her friends, and I’m sure they have some stories to tell. 

We also have a couple of trips coming up in the next few months. We are going to travel to East Texas for a family reunion this coming weekend, as well a Austin/Gruene trip at the end of May, and then we head to Seattle for a week the first of summer. 

My real job, for those that don’t know me is a tennis coach/ teacher. I’ve been pretty tied up with tennis all semester, but our season is over, so I’m hoping I can start committing to writing and traveling more now. 
Thanks for reading, and see you soon. 

Day 5

Well this is it.

The trip is over. 

We slowly woke up, and started to stir.  Neither of us wanting to face what was coming.  We started to gather the last of the things we had out, things we hadn’t packed away.  We scoured the room to make sure that we didn’t leave anything of importance.  Satisfied that we had everything packed and ready, we called reluctantly for El Ubero.  It came rather quickly, and the bellboy grabbed our suitcases and drove us up to the front where we were given a ticket.  They would hold our bags until we left.

With that accomplished, we headed off to our last breakfast.  I stuffed myself full of waffles and sugary delights, since I would be trying to get back on the healthy kick when we got back.  With breakfast consumed, we walked the grounds heading for the beach for one last  time. 

We wandered down the beach, hand in hand, until we got to about the same spots as yesterday.  We put our stuff on our chairs and walked across to the water for one last time.  We stuck our feet in the sand. 

The water was cool as always.  We wrote our names in the sand, and took a bunch of photos as if we didn’t want the experience to end.  We made our way back to the cabana where our stuff was and sat down.  I stared out at the water for a while, Nova grabbed the last bit of caribbean sun she could.  Eventually she fell asleep, and I started to work on thing on my phone.   

The entire time, I was sure that our shuttle to the airport was scheduled for 10:40 AM.  I had the number in my head since the rep had given us our ticket and told us when it was supposed to pick us up.  So I let Nova sleep until about 10 and then we started to make our way back to check out.  I wanted to give us time to get a last minute drink, check out, and not feel rushed.

We ordered a final dirty monkey and took the last pictures.  We checked out without a problem in just minutes and headed to the driveway.  Nova needed to stop for a minute, but I went on ahead. 

Once there, I found out that I had been dumb.  Our shuttle had just left without us.  I checked the ticket we had and sure enough the scheduled time had been for 10:20.  They had waited for ten minutes for us and left.  We had missed the shuttle by 3 minutes.  I was ashamed and upset.  Now we were going to have to take a taxi to the airport and that would cost $40.  I will say that the bellboy that told me all this was a bit sassy about it, but it could have just been that my pride was hurt. 

At least in the taxi, we wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to sit next to each other.  We rode got in the taxi and headed for the airport.  It was a pretty silent drive, neither of us wanting to leave things behind. 

We got to and through the airport with no problem.  The flight home was pretty easy, not nearly as much turbulence as the way there.  I took a little nap for a moment.  The only little bit of an issue was that Nova had packed her headphones in her checked bag so we had to figure out a way to watch a movie on the iPad. 

Customs was a breeze as well.  It all took about 20 minutes and then we were on our shuttle back to the Spot parking. 

This was by far one of the best trips I’ve ever taken.  I enjoyed every bit of it.  The only  thing I would change is extend the length of the trip (which I almost did on accident since we missed the shuttle), and I would go explore more.  Maybe we should have taken the shuttle to Playa del Carmen or Cancun.  Next trip, I want to explore more, and I’m going to make a point to do it. 

Valentin was a great hotel, the location was awesome, the food and drink were great, I’d highly recommend it to anyone!

Day 4

 The day of relaxing or, our last full day

The morning was a rough morning.  I awoke with parts of the night before missing, a killer headache, and regret in my stomach.  I’m guessing the wine at dinner mixed with drinks at the show mixed to kick my butt.  I laid in bed worried for a while that I wouldn’t be able to do anything on our last day, but some medicine started to make me feel better.  I was happy I was able to rally, and soon we were walking out the door to breakfast. 

Once again, the food was amazing.  The coffee was much needed, and we topped it all off with a mimosa.  For the first time, we had to wait for a table.  I’m not sure why, there were a couple of parties in front of us, but there were plenty of open tables.  Regardless, it didn’t take long to get a table. 

Our next stop was the beach once again.  We found an empty cabana a ways down that was a front row one.  From here we were closer to the water and the sound of the crashing waves.  Between us and the beach was the sand volley ball pit, and as soon as we got lathered up with sunscreen, the entertainment team came out and tried to get a volleyball game going.  I thought about it for a while because I didn’t want to push myself too hard after the rough morning I had, but I ultimately joined a team.  Nova had really hurt her foot the night before when we were dancing so she didn’t think she could play. 

Every game was close.  I really enjoy beach volleyball and I don’t mind throwing myself around to get the ball.  In fact, I dove for the ball a couple of times caking myself with sand.  We played three very close games.  We split the first two games and lost the third by 3 points.  All in all it was a fun time.  I moved to the water as soon as the game was over to clean up a bit.  The tide was calm like the day before, but I went back to the cabana and Nova, whom had gotten some good snaps of me playing. 

We spent some time in the water and tried really hard to get a picture of us by the water.  One of the workers helped us out and took our picture, and I’m not going to fib, we look good. 

After a little while had passed, another volleyball game struck up.  This time, Nova wanted to play.  She felt like her foot was okay, and she jumped in.  This time I got to play photographer.  They played 2 games, and she won both.  She was definitely the MVP.

We took another quick dip in the water and then dried off and decided to go get some lunch.  Despite this being the last full day/ last lunch, we actually hadn’t had a buffet lunch the entire time we had been here. 

The food here was lackluster, but normal food affair.  The layout of the buffet didn’t really make much sense with things that go together spread out and separated on different tables.  I ate some American food for the first time in a while, pizza and a burger.  It was much needed. 

After food, we decided to change the scenery up some.  We went to the pool and floated around there for awhile.  Just as we got there, the entertainment team brought out a belly dancer.  She was really getting into it, and the older people around the pool were really into it as well.  She performed a few different numbers, brought the sword out and balanced it on her head and hips, and then before she was done the entertainment crew jumped back out there and said she’d be teaching people how to belly dance.  Of course she pulled up the drunk older man first, and he pulled up someone from his group. There were a few other women pulled up and they went through a few routines.  It was very comical, but the dancer never wavered in what she was doing. 

After the lesson, they put on a competition for all the students.  Once again, it was very entertaining, but everyone knew before it started who was going to win.  All in all, I was laughing my ass off.  After the show, we floated around the giant pool again, drinking our drinks and just relaxing.  There was a game of tequila volleyball being played, but we wanted to be lazy and not get hammered. 

After being exposed to the sun, I got out and reclined in the shade for a while.  Eventually, Nova joined me and we just soaked up some peace and quiet.  It was helpful that the resort had wifi covering all of the pool so we just played on our phones, updating our social media pages (follow me @JSSmith83 on twitter and Snapchat). 

We went back to the room to clean up for the final time and start to pack.  Dinner time rolled around again, and with it we cleaned up real nice.  Nova is so pretty all the time, but she looked even better tonight.  Tonight we planned on going to the Japanese restaurant, we wanted to see the hibachi but we didn’t reserve our spot in time.  Regardless, the food was great like always.  We had some sushi, fried rice, and some glazed chicken and steak. 

We finally made it out of dinner in time to make the beginning of a show, which we hadn’t done since the first night.  Unfortunately for us, it was by far the worst show we saw.  It was an Elvis show, and the Elvis was just mumbling the whole time and walking up and down the isles flirting with the older women.  We couldn’t stay long it was so bad.  So we started the walk back to our room, but instead of the path back, we went out to the beach and walked along the shore. 

You could see the lights of Cozumel and Cancun out in the distance, and there was no one else there.  It was as if the beach was all ours. 

It was a nice way to say goodbye to it all. 

Jarrva in the jungle

Day 3

Day 3: Repelling

Early morning

the damn alarm went off this morning and I hated it. I’m supposed to be on vacation after all. However, it was for a good reason. We were about to go explore and go on our excursion.  We slowly got dressed, and loaded all the GoPros and snorkel gear in a bag and left the room before 7am.

We were one of the first ones in the dining room since the place opened at seven, and since we were there just after seven, but we had to hurry still because our ride was supposed to pick us up at 7:20. We scarfed our food down quickly, and made way for the motor lobby where we were to be picked up.  We were a few minutes late, and we saw a van that was decorated with Cenotes decals.  The driver jumped out and shouted out “Xecart!” and Nova thought that he said Jarrett and so we jumped up.  Fortunately, they were checking receipts to make sure people were getting on the right bus, because that wasn’t the ride we were supposed to get on. Slightly ashamed, we slowly scooted away and found as seat while we waited for our tour to get there.

Finally, a tall lanky guy drove up and exited his van with gusto.  This was our driver, and after getting our tickets checked, and loading the bus, we were on our way with Guillermo, or as he called himself Memo!  Once again, we were the last to get on the van, but this time there was plenty of space.  We got on the road, but didn’t realize that it would take almost an hour to get there.   There was one group of three that was from Canada, and another couple from New York.  We would come to bond with these guys as we faced our expedition.

The location we arrived to was pretty.  The area was well manicured and very colorful.  This was the farthest out we traveled from the resort, but it was hard to tell since it was still taken care of, unlike some of the view on the way there. 

We stopped for a moment at the first little building there.  It was an open air rest stop type place.  It was mostly for a bathroom break and water.  The restrooms were as well taken care of as the landscape.  There were shared outside sinks though.  The water was fresh and store bought we’re told often.  No one seemed to get sick. 

While waiting, more groups appeared.  I was worried that we were going to combine into a large group, but luckily we did not.  Our fearless leader told us about what was about to happen, laid out what we were about to do, and then reassured us that we would have fun today.  The plan was to ride this 4×4 jeep deep into the jungle where we would be given lockers, and where we would suit up for repealing, snorkeling, or zip-lining.  He would have to look into the schedule and see which we were scheduled for first. 

The 4×4 arrived, and we had to climb up into it.  It was about 5 feet off the ground, but the door to the truck bed where we would be riding was also fashioned into a step.  It was awkward, but not difficult to climb up into it. 

The ride itself was very bumpy.  Everyone was sure that the driver was trying to hit every pothole that he could in the trail.  He went pretty fast, although, I don’t really know how fast it was.  We had to grab hold of this bar was ran down the middle of the truck bed and hold on for  dear life.  I quickly tried to grab one of my GoPros and strapped it to the back of my head so that it could record the footage.  I had placed the floaty backdoor on it so the angle wasn’t very good.  Nova kept telling me so, and she was right, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

With a little whiplash, we arrived deep into the jungle area.  We were given a shared locker and told that the only cameras we could take with us from this point on had to be strapped down.  We mounted up our GoPros and locked the rest of our stuff away. Memo lead us to the next section where we would put on our life vests, and receive our towels and mesh bags to carry around with us. He gave us a brief description of what we were about to do. The schedule looked like this: repel into a cave, trek through the jungle to the first zip line, hit the second zip line, and third zip line would go into the water. We would snorkel through one of the cenotes, have lunch, then zip line back, and finally we would be part of a Mayan ceremony.

So, off we started. We first had to take a shower to rid ourselves of any man made chemical. The waters we would be swimming in were all natural and the chemicals would destroy the ecosystem. So we had to shower off in these cold outdoor showers, in our swimsuits, but for the rest of the time, we went without insect repellant or sunscreen.

Our guide led us to the platform where we would descend below the earth.   We were given a safety/instructional demonstration which was very informative. They definitely had done this many times, and even had tips for how to best take pictures as you plummeted.

The one bad aspect of the excursion was that while the company running the event had plenty of photographers, the prices of the pictures were way too steep. The cost was probably driven up by people like me that come equipped with their own camera. However there were many pictures taken and they were of good quality.

After our instructions, our group made our way over to and up the scaffold above the pit.  We gathered around the railing that went around the pit, some careful not to look down. Mèmo picked the couple from New York to go first.  One went on either side of the pit, and got clipped in. They leaned back and started to slowly drop in to the darkness below, with stops every so often for added suspense and a quick photo op.

We were selected next. I had repelled before, and for some reason, the fear doesn’t overcome me like it should. I enjoy the challenge. Nova on the other hand seemed slightly frightened. We got on either side of the pit and got strapped in. I was quickly on the pit and leaning back. Nova was parallel to me in moments, and they asked for us to kiss and pose for a picture. Then we started downward. I went quickly, picturing myself as a soldier or batman going quickly without fear. I could see Nova above me moving slower. I laughed the entire way down. And soon, I found myself in the cold water in we would be swimming through shortly. The cave was dark and the water was cool. It was a pretty surreal experience. Once detached from the cables that bound us, we swam over to this ledge where we took more pictures and waited on the rest of our crew to make their way into the cave.

Once we were all together again and everyone had their pictures taken, Mèmo led us through the cave again to this really neat underground garden. We were told about the formation of the cave and how the water would come through and be filtered and help create the stalagmites and stalactites over time. The light in the cave was very sparse, only coming through the holes in the ceiling. The cameras didn’t do too well in this setting.

Next we went back above, and took our life jackets off while grabbing our shoes. We trodden through the jungle for about 10 minutes. It was pretty cool to be in the thick of the jungle on the trail, but it would have been nice to have a shirt on and some appropriate footwear. When we had booked the  excursion, our Best Day rep had told us to wear flip flops, and that we would be able to tuck them into our equipment. While this was true, the hiking through the jungle and the climbs up the towers to zip line were made difficult because of the footwear.

Finally, we made it through the jungle to our next destination. We were at the base of a tower that was at least 7 stories high. We put our harnesses back on, grabbed a helmet, and embarked up to the tower, still in our bathing suits. The sun was beating down on our already burnt skin.

The climb up the tower was arduous but safe. We also had a safety line attached to us, and the planks seemed securely fastened. It was like a suspension ladder. We climbed to the top and got to see the beautiful view from up top. There wasn’t anything but jungle under us for miles. It was a sight to behold. And soon, we would be beholding it as we sped through the sky just above and sometimes through the jungle. We were the first in line, so we didn’t have to wait long.  I watched as Nova was attached to the zip lines and then without fear, she launched herself into the jungle.  I watched as she faded off into the distance.

I was next, I was strapped in quickly.  I leaned back and felt the harness tighten.  I grabbed hold of the rope and lifted my feet.

I have done zip lines about 3 times, and I even had a smaller version in my home growing up.  The thrill of speed and the fall is always exhilarating.  This one was no different.  The lines were fairly long and provided a great rush.  But the rush was cut by the blocks that started my deceleration.  I was quickly unclipped from the line and directed to the side where Nova was safely waiting. 

We would repeat this process again.  Climb up a tower, zip line into the jungle.  The last zip line however was something new.  We didn’t have to climb up a tower, instead we were given a life jacket and walked over to a zip line that ran into a cavern. 

Our group made its way over to the last zip line and waited.  We weren’t the first this time, but we watched as the couple before us individually flew into the cave.  Soon we were strapped in and launched.  This was one of the coolest things about the entire process.  As we glided over the surface of the water and sloped downward, we flew into a cave mouth.  As we travelled further into the cave we lowered into the water with a giant splash.  Again, we were photographed on the way into the cave, and there was a guide there to unclip us and direct us out of the cave.

We swam out of the cave onto a wooden deck where we would traverse through another cenote.  Mèmo showed us a map of all the discovered tunnel that connected underneath Mexico, and gave us an idea of what we were about to do, and how important the caves were to the Mayan people.  Soon we were jumping into the water again and swimming through this dark cave. 

My one little complaint about the entire adventure was here.  While it was very cool to swim through the caves it was very easy to get separated from the group.  Not enough so that you were lost, but because of the lack of light, and some flashlights stationed around the cave, it was easy to lose the tour guide because you were trying to swim to one of these lights. 

Despite that, the diving in the cave was very cool.  The water was crystal clear, the caves were slightly spooky.  We went pretty far into the cave, and Mèmo told us more about how the caves were formed.  We swam started to swim again, and took all of it in.  Soon we were at the platform again. 

We toweled off, collect the whole group and made our way to lunch.  The lunch was the most authentic Mexican food we had.  It was made by the people that actually lived on the land.  There was a soup (which was slightly bland), some empanadas that were delicious, mole chicken, and beans and rice.  We also had a selection of teas and infused waters.  The whole things was great (minus the soup). 

Once lunch was consumed, we made our way back to the first tower we zip lined from, suited up in our harnesses, and climbed the tower again.  We zip lined down the same zip line we did first but once we detached from the line we went took a left instead of a right.  There was one more zip line that got us fairly close to the main hub of the place that we took once again, so for those keeping track at home, it was five total zip lines trips. 

We landed safely and then we had one more thing to do.  We followed our tour guide into one more cave, this one had a walking strip of rock.  We went deep into the cave, which had been lit by candles to meet a Mayan Medicine man.  We were told some Mayan words, and how the Mayan’s believed in the balance of the earth and elements and then the Medicine Man burned some amber and chanted some Mayan prayers.  We then turned and exited the cave. 

We were given some margaritas that were very watery, but free, handed back our towels and shown all the pictures that the company had taken.  They photos were action shots and very well done.  We were able to see all the photos they had taken and given the option to purchase them.  However, as I mentioned, the prices were outrageous.  $30 for one picture, $70 for a CD of all the pictures, or $90 for a USB drive with everything on it.  We debated for about a minute, because the pictures were nice and shots that we didn’t have, however the prices weren’t even close to reasonable.

We sat for a minute and drank our watery margarita and waited for our groups to be done with looking at photos and drinking.  Then we climbed aboard the 4×4 jeep again and whiplashed our way back through the jungle.  We boarded the van and headed back to the hotels.  Within moments, it seemed all of us had fallen asleep from the excursion.

We were the first to be dropped off after the 40 minute drive. As soon as we got there, we headed straight for the beach.  We had been away from it for too long.  A dirty monkey in hand, we claimed a spot under a cabana and watched the waves.

The surf had calmed down greatly from the day before.  It was still a pretty strong swell, but it wasn’t as scary as the day before.  We lathered up with sunscreen and swam for a while.  Eventually, we made our way back to the cabana and relaxed with our drinks.  I also had time to look at the GoPro footage we got by streaming it from the camera to my phone.  Technology is amazing sometimes.  Everything we got looked pretty great except for the cave diving.  It was too dark, which is too be expected when there is really no light.

Finally, we had enough and went to clean up for dinner.  We had planned to try the steak house now that we knew where it actually was, but once we got there we found out that it was closed on Mondays.  So we had to find a new plan.  We looked at all the different options and ended up going to the French restaurant.  While the menu had been populated by lots of seafood dishes, which I’m not that fond of, there was plenty of other options on the menu that were great.

The food really was superb.  The French onion soup was amazing, and the filet mignon was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had to eat.  All these great foods, and a constantly filled glass of wine.  We topped off dinner with some desserts, some even with fire! The food was all great.

With dinner now in our bellies, we walked over to where the nightly show was being preformed.  It was a Mexican show.  We missed most of the first part, but caught the next act which was a mariachi show.  They only really performed about 5 songs, but the entire show was very entertaining.  There was dancing and a conga line.  The lead performer was pulling up couples and really putting on a show. 

As the show wrapped up, we got some fresh drinks and headed into the sports bar where there was supposed to be karaoke.  We waited while they got stuff set up and played a couple games of Jenga.  Sadly, only one guy stepped up to sing a song, so we left and went back to the room to sleep.

It was a long day, but very active.  We fell asleep pretty quickly.  Our sunburns still keeping us warm, and our bodies exhausted. 

Day 2

Day 2

Today has been pretty active so far. We woke up and got ready quickly because we wanted to get food and then do a bike tour.

We got to breakfast, and I let loose a little. I ate more stuff than I’ve eaten for breakfast in a long time, but it was all so good. The potato and sausage was my favorite so far.

We then found our way to the gym where the bike tour would start, but we had the time a little wrong. Finding that we had some time to kill before the tour, we played a little ping pong. It was fun, but Nova got up on me 15-5. Luckily, I made a miraculous come back and won 21-19. We finished just in time for the tour, and got suited up.

I hadn’t really ridden a bike in a long time, and despite what they say, it’s not just like riding a bike. It took me a few minutes to adjust and remember how to do it like I used to. I also took my new tiny GoPro and it was kind of difficult to hold and control, I can’t wait to see how the footage looks.

The tour was really neat. We went all around the grounds with Marco our tour guide. He  was pretty funny. The grounds are still really beautiful. We even saw a baby alligator!

We got some exercise, saw some cool stuff, and hopefully got some good pictures.

After the tour, we had to meet with our travel rep to get our return shuttle. We got that all taken care of, and booked a excursion to the cenote for tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it.

Then we went to the part of the beach where you can actually get in and started to relax.  The beach is beautiful, and the waves were super strong and large. I’d say they were ranging  between 3-5 feet, but it was a rough break. The impact zone is pretty much right at shore, and it feels like you are getting swept away. It wouldn’t be good surf, and it’s very hard to enjoy a swim if you’re not a strong swimmer. But strong swimmers and those that like to fight the waves will enjoy. I know I did.

It also seems that no matter how much sun screen I put on, I’ll still get burnt. While I didn’t feel it at the time, by the end of the day my stomach and legs became tender to the touch. 

After the beach, we started to go back to the main restaurant to get lunch, but we got distracted by the foam party going on in the pool. All of the chairs were taken at that pool, so we had to go to the next one and walk. At this point, Nova and I got mixed up in our plans. I thought we were just going to put our stuff down and go jump in the foam party for a few minutes. But since we were headed for lunch and they were serving stuff right there, she thought we were just going to sit down for lunch and then get in the pool. I was fine with food, but I just wanted to be quick and get in the foam. Sadly, we ended up missing the party, but we got some good tacos and ice cream.

We swam around the pool for while and then moved over to the lazy river where you can order food. We ordered some snack bar food, and Nova impressed all the workers with her Spanish. We chilled in the pool for a while, just floating around. We decided to go get ready for dinner. 

When we got back to the room and started to clean up, we started to see and feel the effects of the sun.  We weren’t as red as lobsters or anything yet, but we were getting there. The pain was real too. First full day on the beach and we managed to get pretty crispy. We put sun screen on 3 times and stayed in the shade a much as possible, but the sun down here is just too strong.

To make matters worse, the room we upgraded to didn’t have a hair dryer for Nova. We looked all over to no avail. Nova called the front desk and they said they would bring one, but it took way too long. We were both getting hangry and we thought we were going to be late for the show that night. Luckily, the schedule we were looking at was for Monday night.

Once the hair dryer made it here, we began to walk to the restaurants and caught a ride with one of the workers on his golf cart, or as we call it: el ubero. We chose the Indonesian place for dinner, and once again the food didn’t disappoint. I had the BBQ pork ribs, pad Thai, duck, and some tandoori chicken, followed by some cheesecake. Luckily the portions are small.  The four course meal usually fills me up. We finished dinner just in time to catch the end of the fire show, which was really cool to watch, but very hard to video.

We finished the night doing some people watching in the main area with some drinks. There was a reggae band playing, and a bunch of older people getting funky.  The older people are making song request for things like Elvis and Play That Funky Music and the singer wasn’t really having it. He was a good sport, but he seemed to make a much bigger deal about it than it really was. He also kept saying he was from Kingston, Jamaica and that his songs were from Kingston Jamaica. The first time it was funny/cool but by the 5 time in 30seconds I had enough.

The guy that requested Elvis did get his wish, but got so much more. The singer asked him if he was married, and the guy replied that he didn’t know. This seemed to really piss his wife off. They fought the entire night, and she told him at one point to go find a whore and stormed off but seconds later they were dancing together again. These old people crazy.

We watched for a while before we returned to the room and nursed our burns with lotion before we fell asleep.

Favorite drink of the day: Dirty Monkey

Riviera Maya, Day 1

The alarm rang way too early, and it took me a minute to realize why it was even going off. I reached over and turned the thing off and examined life for a second. The sinus infection that had been kicking my butt for the past week had finally started to subside, but I still felt very rough. My stomach was turning a little, and I was still struggling to breathe through my nose.  This was no way to start a vacation

I laid in bed for a moment and thought about what was coming up. We needed to wake up and get to the airport for our VACATION!  Suddenly, the aliments began to fade away.

I jumped up and started to fiddle around hoping to wake up Nova. I hated waking up her up, especially after celebrating her birthday day so hard the night before. Ultimately she finally started to stir, and we both started to get ready.

We got on the road fairly early today. I’m still pretty paranoid that the line through the check out at the airport was going to be really long, so we got there extra early. It was Spring Break after all, and I’ve been burned before.  There was no way I was going to miss this much needed trip.

Checking in and Secuirty didn’t last that long though, and we got through with ease.  Thank goodness

The A terminal at IAH is fairly small, and there weren’t that many options for breakfast, so we got some Wendy’s.  It was mediocre, and we hit the ATM. With our busy schedules it had been hard to find time to get cash.  Who really carries cash anymore anyway?  The only reason I ever carry it around anymore is for tips.  That made finding change for all the twenties I just withdrew difficult.  It was difficult to find any shop at 8 in the morning in the airport that would make change for a twenty. So we had to over spend on  something small, like gum, to make change for tips. Note to self for next time, make time to take care of that before you get to the airport.

We had never flown Spirit airlines before, and we weren’t sure what to expect. It wasn’t all that bad, but know that they nickel and dime you on options. Plan early, and pay early.  You’ll save lots of money. The flight was crazy though. It was the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. Someone screamed on one bump. Luckily, it was a short flight (less than 2 hours from Houston to Cancun).  The entire time, I kept imagining the first few minutes of LOST.  It was that bad.  It wasn’t the pilots fault or anything at all, but bad weather it seemed like.

The line to get through customs was really long. I’ve been through this airport a couple time in the past and this was by far the longest I had ever seen it. So many spring breakers.

Don’t forget to fill out the lower part of the immigration form.  There were tons of us that didn’t realize we had to fill that part out too.  Also, don’t lose it, they will ask for that lower part when you leave.

We made it through, the agents were very friendly, and eventually got out luggage. Then we had to push the button of Death. Nova pushed the button and got red so she had to have her suitcase searched. I pushed it and got green, but they wouldn’t let me wait on her. They shuffled me through the building, and I had to wait on her past some doors so I couldn’t even see what they were doing. A few minutes later and she finally made it through, all in one piece.

The next obstacle was finding our ride to our hotel. As crazy as customs was, the race  and mess to get to the hotels was worse. There were people everywhere. A few of the workers at the airport tried to grab us and get us to the right place, most likely just for a tip, they continued to ask us if we were honeymooners. After about twenty minutes, and thanks to Nova’s ability to speak Spanish, we finally found the right place for our shuttle; unfortunately, there were already five other people on the shuttle that had already claimed their space so we weren’t able to sit together for the ride there.

Once again, the ride was short and we arrived at our hotel!  The grounds are immaculate, and the entry way into the hotel was longer than expected. We were the first in the van to be dropped off and the others were in awe of  what they were seeing.

We walked into the building, and I saw one of the fanciest lobbies the in all my hotel experience. The place exuded class. We were promptly directed to a desk to check in. Of course the guy tried to up-sell us on our room. For only $52 a night we could upgrade to a fancy beach view room, or for $30 we could have a room with access to the lazy river. We debated for a while and even asked if there was a discount because we were on our honeymoon (oops. We had talked about pretending to be different people when we met new people at the resort, but this was fun too). There wasn’t a discount, but the hotel guy made sure to note that it was our honeymoon, and we played along. Ultimately, we decided to upgrade to the beach front room.

They collected our bags and put them and us on a golf cart and drove us to our room. They gave us a quick tour of the place on the way to our room and a tour of the room and then let us go.

I have been to seven resorts in the past, and this view has beat every single one of them. The view from our porch is unreal. there is also a hammock swing which we definitely  will use.

We explored the beach, which out in front of our room is slightly disappointing despite the view. The entire coast by us is rocky so you can’t get in. But further down and
away it looks nice, however we were impeded by a wedding ceremony on the beach.

We walked around the resort and tried to get the lay of the land, but the resort is pretty giant. We did get in the giant pool and got a drink from one of the two swim up bars.  The blender was already shut down for the night (It was past 5pm by the time we got to the bar).  Nova ordered a Mojito, and I panicked and ordered a rum and coke.  Both drinks were nice and strong, so a good way to begin the trip.

We went back to the room to unpack and clean up and then went to grab dinner. It was a 4 course meal at the Mexican restaurant. There are 7 different places to get dinner at night at the resort, and we wanted to start authentic.  All dinners are al a cart style. The food was amazing. Some of the best resort food I’ve ever tasted. In the mean time, they had a mariachi group playing for us.

We left the restaurant and went to the main square where a live band was playing blues music. We ordered drinks and watched them until the nightly show started, and then we and most of the others in the square headed into the theater.

The show was crazy impressive. It was a troop of urban circus performers. It was a mix of dancing, break dancing, and feats of strength. It was very entertaining, and we found out that the show was like their audition for a spot on a nightly rotation. I hope they got it because it was the best show we saw the entire vacation.

After that, we were pretty tired so we went back to the room to lay in the hammock. At first, The hammock was so low that we dragged on the ground, but we tightened it and made it just right. We laid there listening to the waves on the beach and drifted off for a while.

It was a pretty good day.