Craig found a company, Tropical CE's, that specializes in planning trips to you guessed it, tropical places, to get the Continuing Education credits that you need for the year. Last year we went to Hawaii and I told Craig that he now needed to take me somewhere tropical each winter, so Tropical CE's came in right at the right time. One of the locations that they were offering this year was Akumal Mexico. By going to these conferences it allows us to stay at really nice resorts at a discounted price. We were at a Secrets resort that was all inclusive and adult only. It was definitely the nicest resort I had ever stayed at. We got the kids settled at my Mom's house Friday night, January 19th, because we flew out very early Saturday morning. The flights were super easy and we made it in to Cancun that evening. We had about an hour and 15 minute drive south to get to our resort. We were actually only about 20 minutes away from where we stayed with Craig's family last summer for his parents 50th anniversary. By the time we got to the resort it was dark so we didn't get to see much, but we headed to our room and ordered some room service, cuz why not, while we got settled in. We were both pretty tired after a long day of travel so we headed to bed early.
Sunday morning we were up early getting ready to head out on an excursion that Craig planned. We first headed to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. We walked through the ruins with a guide while he taught us about the life of the ancient Mayans. Luckily it was a little over cast that day so we didn't get too hot walking around. After the ruins we got back in our little tour van with our group and then headed to a lagoon for some snorkeling. We got to see a lot of beautiful fish and even a spotted eel. After snorkeling we then drove to a cenote and had lunch before we took a tour/swim through the cenote. It really is amazing the thousands of cenotes that are scattered through out the area. There are no above ground rivers, only the the underground river and cenotes. It is quite interesting that they can be privately owned. Tourist companies own them, private owners with them in their backyards and then there are ones open to the public. Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable and entertaining. We had a really fun day with little group and even made it back to the resort in time to grab another lunch and head down to the beach and read and grab a virgin daquiri before getting ready for dinner. That evening we tried out the Steakhouse for dinner. The resort had a dress code so men had to wear collared shirts and most women were in dresses. We each had a delicious steak and I of course had to try the dessert. Each specialty restaurant, there were 7 in total (Steakhouse, Seafood, Mexican, Asian, French, Italian and Greek), had a small menu but everything we ate was delicious.
Monday morning Craig was up early to get breakfast before his meetings started at 7:30am. I headed to the gym before going to the Buffet for breakfast. Now this was no ordinary buffet. For breakfast they had a crepe station, omelet station, European breakfast area, a donut wall (a legit wall covered in donuts), every kind of Mexican pastry, smoothie and juice station, every kind of fruit imaginable, pancakes, waffles, bacon and every kind of American buffet item you could think of. To say there was a nice selection would be an understatement. After eating breakfast I headed back to the room to get ready to head out to the beach. After a walk on the beach I tried to sit on the beach to read, but the wind was so strong, as it was most of the week, that it was blowing sand in my eyes while I was trying to read, so I relocated to one of the pools. Craig was done with classes in time to join me for lunch. We decided to check out what the lunch buffet had to offer. It most certainly did not disappoint, my favorite part was the sushi bar. The rest of the afternoon we spent by the pool and walking on the beach, drinking fruity drinks and reading our books. We eventually headed back to the room to get ready for dinner and order a little appetizer of pico de gallo and guacamole, as we did most afternoons. This evening we decided to try out the Seafood restaurant. We had the best coconut shrimp either of us have ever had.
Tuesday morning was much of the same, which I have no complaint of. Craig met me after his classes by the pool, it was still pretty windy so we didn't spend much time on the beach and passed the day about the same. In the afternoon we did head to the spa for a complimentary session of water therapy. Neither of us had ever done that before. They started us in steam room for 5 minutes and then took a cold shower and then headed into a sauna for 5 minutes, again followed by a cold shower. We then did a very short cold plunge in a cold pool. They then took us to the massage pool that had a bunch of stations with different jets at them that would massage different parts of the body. After we finished all of those we then sat in the hot tub. It was interesting but pretty cool. Glad we didn't have to pay for it, but also glad we got to try it. That evening we decided to try out the Italian Restaurant for dinner. Everything was delicious as always. This was the only time that it rained while we were there, which was lucky because the week before it rained quite a bit.
Wednesday Craig didn't have any classes so we scheduled a full day excursion. When we went to Mexico last summer I had spent a lot of time researching things that the entire family could do and one of the things we had to pass up because not all the kids were old enough, really caught my eye. It was a cenote tour, so we decided that now would be a great time to try that out since it was just the two of us. They picked us up bright and early Wednesday morning and we were off to our first of 4 cenotes. At the first Cenote we got to go down a slide into the water and then do a zip line into the water. We then swam down the river to a point where we could jump off a cliff. I think Craig and I jumped off twice as much as the rest of the group combined. We then grabbed a quick snack and were off to Cenote numero dos. The next Cenote we got to repel into the water. I may have accidentally stood on an ant hill while I was waiting and got a good amount of bites. After we repelled upside down we then got to jump off some shorter cliffs and swim around for a little bit, Craig may have even jumped over top of me off the cliff (we got a few looks for that one). Off to the third we went. At this one we kayaked and snorkeled. We also ate lunch at this point. At each Cenote they had built really nice bathrooms and changing rooms and had a bunch of pavilions with tables, They had soup and sandwiches for us. Once we finished lunch we headed to the last of the Cenotes, this one may have been the most fun. After a short swim we came to several big zip lines. They let us go pretty much any way we wanted and we also jumped off the cliff, which was probably about 25 ft. high. Because we had a smaller group we got to go a ton of times. There was a photographer that followed us the entire day and it was worth every penny for those pictures. Since Craig and I went on everything so many times there were a ton of pictures of us. We were actually the only ones in the group that English was our first language, luckily most of the group spoke English as well, so we were able to chat with them. We had such a fun day and we kept saying how much the kids would have enjoyed it. If we ever go back to that area again with the kids we will definitely take them to do this tour. We got back to the resort just in time to take a shower and head off to dinner at the Mexican Restaurant. This restaurant actually had a dessert that Craig liked, the good ol' Churro. He liked it because it wasn't overly sweet. The resort also had a big art show that evening and so we walked around that for a little bit before heading back to our room.
Thursday was our last full day. We got up and went to the gym and then grabbed some breakfast. We then headed off to the spa for our couples massage. Craig had not had a massage since our honeymoon 15 years ago. It was glorious. It seriously felt so good. After the massage they took us to the locker rooms and they had outdoor showers that we could rinse off in. After we changed we headed to the buffet for our last lunch, I wanted sushi one more time. We spent that afternoon by the pool, walking along the beach, reading our books, eating more food, and Craig even played some water volleyball. That evening we had reservations at the Hibachi grill. We were put with another family and had a blast watching the hibachi chef. Everything was so tasty and it was very entertaining. After dinner there was a show going on by the main pool that we watched for a little while. We also enjoyed a beautiful full moon. We headed back to the room and started to pack up.
Friday morning we got our workout in and ate breakfast before finishing our packing. Once we were packed up we headed back to the lobby to catch our ride back to the airport. We got to the airport plenty early, so we got to hang out there for a while. We both tried really hard to not finish our books so that we could still read them on the airplane. We flew back through Dallas and customs was a piece of cake. We eventually made it back to Boise just before 10:00 pm. It was a long day of traveling and we were happy to be home. The kids of course did great while we were gone. They stayed at my Mom's house the first half of the trip and then stayed at Mark and Paige's the second half. It is so nice knowing that they will be safe while we are gone and that they are with people that love them and they even get to play with their cousins more when we are gone. It definitely allows us to enjoy our trip more knowing they are having a good time while we are gone. We had such an enjoyable time on our trip and I have really grown to love these trips to warm places during the winter. It was especially nice because this year there was about 6 inches of snow in our yard when we left and it was all melted by the time we got back. Craig is by far my favorite travel companion and I love the time we get to adventure together.
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