Family Trip to Cancun – Part 1

Hola! Como estas?

I’m taking a break from all the R&R happening here to do a little work and type up a post.

It’s been FANTASTIC. I’ve been loving the sun, the food, the drinks, the people, the quality R&R time.

Let’s recap.

Sunday:

I landed in Cancun around 3PM after a pretty turbulent flight, but was greeted by some lovely humidity and thousands of people in my face asking me whether I needed a taxi. Eventually, I found my sister, aunt, and uncle who were waiting at a restaurant attached to the airport (seriously, what did people do before cell phones?). We ordered some food and drinks and waited there for an hour until my parent’s flight landed. Once we were all together, we hopped into the shuttle to head to our home for the week.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in a resort this fancy. Growing up, we would always go on Club Med vacations (which are all inclusive as well), but they seemed so simple compared to this place. Sister and I spent the first night exploring the resort and, although there wasn’t too much to see, it was gorgeous and we were super giddy about having some quality relaxation time.

We went to dinner at Aroma and were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. We didn’t partake in any drinking (because the family doesn’t drink and I had had 3 Xanax to survive the plane flight).

But we did get to enjoy some live Mariachi music. The band approached our table and asked us what song we wanted to hear. My uncle asked them if they knew any Bollywood songs. They ignored our request and started to play “Tequila.” My aunts screamed “Tequila!” (during the more appropriate times where the song called for it and then throughout the song – when it really wasn’t appropriate at all). They also got up from the table to start dancing to the music. Only my family. I love it.

After dinner, Sister and I went to look at the daily schedule to create our agenda for the next day.

I love that they have activities for us to do because I don’t know if I could sit at a bar or read a book for 6 consecutive days (even though my Instagram pictures illustrate otherwise).

Monday:

We woke up early, but didn’t head down to breakfast for another 1.5-2 hours. Traveling with a ton of people and trying to do everything with everyone is a guaranteed way to get nothing done. But we do it anyway.

After breakfast, we moseyed on over to the beach to get some reading in.

I finally started reading our book club book, Moloka’i. I finished The Fault in Our Stars early on during my flight here, but I was in a ‘book hangover’ of sorts and couldn’t get myself to start reading another one. Not because I was tired of reading, but because I still felt a sense of attachment to the story line and the characters of The Fault in Our Stars. I can’t hop over from one world to another that quickly. I need time to let my heart and mind settle. Weird, I know.

After reading for a bit, Sister and I went to the fitness center. We are on Half Marathon Training Week #4 and on the schedule for Monday was a 4 mile run. I would have much preferred to do it outside, but there’s not really the space for that here unfortunately.

But it was a nice break from the sun and a solid workout to make up for all a small fraction of the food and drinks we’ve been having.

After lunch, we walked over to Isla Grill, which is the restaurant closest to the beach. I ordered a chicken burrito

With an endless supply of pico de gallo and guacamole. Um – why can’t all Mexican restaurants adopt this philosophy?

After dinner, Sister and I went exploring again, but somehow managed to find ourselves at the Lobby Bar.

With our new favorite bartender, Heyden.

We decided to try out Lupita Lounge for dinner and somehow the sweet tooths (teeth?) of the family ended up at the dessert cart even before dinner was served.

They are the cutest.

Tuesday: 

Sister and I went down to breakfast by ourselves while the parents ordered in room service. After breakfast, we got ready to go on a bike ride tour.

It was probably only 6-7 miles of actual bike riding, but it was really fun to be out of the resort and see everything!

We saw at least 10-12 iguanas on the trail, but they all tried to scurry away and hide. Everyone is afraid of human beings.

We got to hang out with some parrots.

And the nicest one of them all, Diego, climbed onto my arm. Scary. But way cool.

Before the end of our tour, we climbed up a tower to get a glimpse of the city.

Pictures don’t do it justice, but it was beautiful. So clear and sunny.

When we got back to the resort, we did a quick workout at the gym and then went to Isla Grill for ALL THE pico de gallo and guacamole lunch again.

Then, we somehow managed to find ourselves at my favorite place. Sister doesn’t drink mojitos. So I happily drank two.

There was some more reading, some family pool fun, some more eating. And I ended up falling asleep by 9PM. Thank you, sun + alcohol.

Wednesday:

This morning, we woke up early again (most likely because I fell asleep before the sun went down) and went down to eat breakfast. We did a quick workout in the gym and then rehydrated with some smoothies from the Nature Bar.

We got the Green Smoothie, the Tropical Nature Smoothie, and the Power smoothie.

Sister and I then plopped ourselves in front of the pool and got some major reading done.

Our BFF bartender made us these:

But I just had a couple sips and decided to call it quits. We’ll be up early tomorrow morning to leave for our day trip to Tulum. I love this place but it’s a nice little break in the week to see something different!

 Now I’m off to hang out with the fam in the jacuzzi!

Have a good night! 🙂