Sunday, December 20, 2009

Cancun Trip 12/11 to 12/17

Well here it is...the post about Cancun, so beware...it's a long one. I didn't even put all the pictures up, so maybe that will have to be another post. As stated in the previous post, we got free flights from Jet Blue and we were in Cancun from Sat. Dec. 12th to Thurs. Dec. 17th.
We flew from Long Beach to Boston to Cancun. We left Friday night and arrived Sat. afternoon. We got these cool night time eye covers and ear plugs and luckily no one was sitting in the seat next to us! We lucked out the whole way there and were able to lay down!

Here's from the plane...almost arriving in Cancun! The water was amazing even from that high up!

When we arrived, we got our rental car and headed for Playa Del Carmen about 40 minutes South of Cancun. This was our cool little European car. We cracked up everytime we saw it!

By the time we got there, we just wanted to walk around and check out the area. The hardest part in the beginning was trying to figure out how much we would be spending in pesos. We were staring at the menu forever...finally we decided on...
Mucho Nachos! They were BOMB!
Then we got in our swimsuits and walked around Playa Del Carmen. The first night we got there, we were looking for just a random hotel. We found this cute little place on the shopping strip and it was exactly what we were looking for for that night.
The next morning we saw a Starbucks and I had a gift card! So wahoo..free breakfast! :)

This is in the hotel before we left. Then we left Playa Del Carmen in our cute little funny car and headed to Tulum which was BEAUTIFUL!
These are some of the Mayan Ruins that are talked about in the Book of Mormon. It was amazing to actually see them first hand.



One of the amazing sites was what Tulum was on...the beautiful beach!! Check out this view!

The huge Iguana's were all around...
Love this picture

After we left Tulum, we headed to Chichen Itza. On our way, we were really craving some Mexican tacos. Low and behold....we drove pass this little village and we were in heaven! "Eric y Louise Tacos" and they were muy yummy! As they were cooking the carne asada...we saw this little monkey!! How cute is he?!! We were laughing so hard and he kept jumping around because we were giving him attention. Kev has always wanted a monkey, so this was definitely a highlight to see! :)

We arrived in Chichen Itza!! The best part was that we arrived there about an hour before they closed, so we didn't have to pay the entrance fee! Yea, we were pumped! :) This was so awesome to see!! Look at all these Mayan Ruins!!






After Chichen Itza, we drove back to Cancun and returned our car. The shuttle from our hotel picked us up and then we went to our resort. Here's the thing...we bought this 5 day/4 night resort stay in Cancun about a year ago. We bought it because at Sams club, it was this ridiculous deal. We weren't positive if we were going to be able to use it, but we thought that we would be stupid to not get it. It was the resort stay for $150. Yea, now you see why we had to get it. Then, when we got free flights to anywhere and found out Jet Blue flies to Cancun, we had to make this an anniversary get away. It was definitely the best decision and brought so many memories! Before we got to Cancun, Kev had set up with a PADI Scuba instructor when our diving days would be. We found out that our hotel has 4 sister resorts that shuttles come and go and we can hang out at those resorts whenever we wanted. To our surprise, one of the sister resorts actually is where our SCUBA instructor was! Monday morning we met with our instructor, Octavio and he was such a stud!! Seriously, if anyone wants to ever get certified, Octavio is the man! We spent the first couple hours in the pool going over rules and regulations and then got in the boat and headed toward Isla Mujeres. The ocean was amazing. Our first day was 2 reefs 40 minutes each at 30 feet deep. It was awesome!! Then, we came back to the resort to this....
We went to those little couches and fell asleep until the sun went down. We were amazed at the beauty!

Tuesday, Dec. 15th we went diving again. We met up with Octavio and went to another dive site. Tuesdays dive was 50 feet and was even better than the first day. We were so amazed and it was so beautiful!

Octavio and Kev before leaving on the boat.

All suited up..yes we know we are sexy! :)
After our last dive. We just saw a huge star fish, lobsters, a massive eel in a cave, tiger fish, baracooda, amazingly beautiful fish and even a sting ray! I'll post pictures of some of the things we saw in a later post. This has been such an accomplishment for us to do. We are so excited that we are certified!!!
Cancun's water is definitely the most amazing water I have ever seen. I have been to Hawaii and the water is beautiful, but I have never seen so many different colors in the ocean! The sand was so soft!!!
After our second dive, we relaxed to the beach and took a quick and much needed nap. It was so nice! Then we took another shuttly to another sister resort and enjoyed the beautiful ocean some more. The waves were massive!
I picked this up thinking that it was a shell...but it was moving...and it was cool..hence I took a picture.
Wednesday we had to go to this "membership" thing to see if it was something we wanted to be a part of. (Which is why we got a good deal on the resort...kind of like a timeshare thing.) We did that in the morning, and then later that day we went on a jungle tour. It was a lot of fun! We rented this two seater boat and had an instructor and 2 other boats. We road the boat about 20 minutes each way, and before we turned back we headed to a snorkeling spot for half an hour. It was a lot of fun.
This was our cool boat!

This was outside our hotel. Wednesday night, we hung out at downtown Cancun and just walked around and ate. We left Thursday morning and flew to Ft. Lauderdale. Then right before we were suppose to fly out, a storm came and they closed the airport. We were on the plane for about 3 hours before we could fly out. It was very long, but a good flight once we were in the air. Luckily we had TV's! It was so nice to have spent this week together, especially since we have been away from each other these past 4 months. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas and our anniversary!! On the 30th, it will be 3 years! Wow how time flies when you are having fun..and that is DEFINITELY what we have been having!

10 comments:

Sundbergs said...

Looks like an awesome trip. Glad you guys had such a great time and got such a good deal.

Ruan Silva Alves said...

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Whit said...

Wooohoo! What a blast! I want to do that so badly. Congrats on meeting your goal... you are certified! Yay!

Lisa said...

Wow, what an amazing trip!! I'm so, so happy you got to have a wonderful week together (and I'm only a TINY bit jealous, hehe).

So, what's next? Are you moving to Roosevelt? Are you coming to LOGAN???!?!! Are you staying in California? I want to know!

Jill Duncan said...

what a fun vacation- and it sounds like a much needed vacation too! I don't know how you have survived the past 4 months! oh and I can't believe you guys got such a good deal.

Jessica said...

oh my gosh, that sounds like and AMAZING trip. I'm convinced that i want to go and do all that stuff now too, except the scuba diving, a massive eel? uh uh, not for me! haha I'll stick to the pool-lame i know! glad you had so much fun with your husband and that you returned safely!

Anonymous said...

Glad you had fun. Your pics are amazing. Mom said your underwater pics are really cool too. Talk to you soon.

Trent, Taraleigh & Taven said...

Oh my goodness- I'm jealous! What an awesome trip!!! Merry Christmas you two:)
-Taraleigh

Amy Lou said...

SO FUN!!!!! I want to go there :) P.S. I like your hair best blonde.. SO CUTE!

Zach said...

Awsome trip! It looks like you guys had so much fun. That's where Jenny and I went on our Honeymoon. Hey...So I never look at our Blog and I noticed that you posted a comment awhile back. Where not PADI certified but we are SSI certified (good enough); so heck ya if we are ever in the same neighborhood we can be little SCUBA buddies. To bad we live in Kansas. One day though.