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.