Mexico!!!

Ole!

Hola our dear friends and family. We missed you all very much. I can sum up our latest adventure to simply amazing. In celebration of Scott’s graduation from pharmacy school we (and several others of his classmates) headed south of the border. We stayed in a resort 45 minutes south of Cancun and about 20 minutes north of Playa Del Carmen. The Hotel Catalonia Maroma was the perfect tropical get away for us to get to relax on the beach in the Mexican sun, eat all the delicious food we could manage, and make some amazing memories with wonderful friends.

There is so much that I want to tell you all about so, I feel it would be best to break it up into three sections: Food, Friends, and Fun.

Food

Since it was an all inclusive resort there was no shortage of great food. I’m fairly certain I ate my body weight in watermelon every day. There were five restaurants on site and we got to enjoy each of them. They ranged in formality from the ever casual buffet line to the super formal that only serves tiny food on oversized plates. All of it was delicious! I didn’t eat much meat while we were there but Scott reports it was all fantastic.

Every night we all went back to our rooms, cleaned the sand out of our nooks and crannies, and got gussied up for dinner. I think my favorite restaurant was Tortuga. They had this great green soup that made me hesitate but turned out delicious (still not sure what was in it but I was led to believe it was supposed to be veggies)! Scott’s favorite was the Italian place called Toscana’s and their great desserts.

Speaking of meat in Mexico… the resort had quite a bit of wild life roaming the property. Some of the most popular residence was the Quati Mundi. They reminded me of raccoons, but somehow cuter. They were everywhere ranging in size and age from the obviously older and fatter “Papa” Mundi (as we fondly called them) to the tiny litters curious babies. There were also iguanas, lizards, and supposedly a jaguar somewhere in the forest that bordered the resort. Raar!

Friends

Our group had a total of seven on the trip. None of us got arrested or killed; I think this qualifies the trip as a great success. But seriously, we managed to have blast doing nothing! There was plenty of time to read good books, soak up the sun, and enjoy a few cold drinks. Five of the seven were graduating pharmacy students so this group really deserved to relax.

I don’t swim in the ocean due to a paralyzing fear of things sneaking up on me, but the water was gorgeous to look at. Once, I was basically carried out into the water and if you want to know how that ended-- find a cat, fill up your bathtub with water, and throw it in. The only time I “willingly” got into the water was to go snorkeling (something Scott has always wanted to do and desperately wanted me to do with him). If that boy didn’t believe I loved him before… There was one time we saw a huge fish and I jumped out of the water and over Scott to get away from it. Not my thing to say the least.

We brought sleeping in, lying around doing nothing, and sun bathing to a new level. Bliss!

Fun



Sexy Euro Speedo

 Now, at the resort we knew we would be in a language minority, what we didn’t know was that while about half the people spoke Spanish, as expected, the other half spoke French. While the language was beautiful the European Speedos on overweight, hairy, aging men was not. But something the French did do right was beach activities—more specifically, volleyball.

At first we approached it as a spectator sport but were eventually drawn in. The language barrier didn’t matter when all you have to do is hit a ball. After a day or two, some of the guys started taking it seriously and volleyball became more than a past time—it became a mission. It was a great way to lose yourself while having a blast in the sun.

The resort also made sure to have games and activities each day. Somehow, all three of us girls got roped into an obstacle course around the pool one afternoon.  It involved a surfboard, jump rope, flippers, and lots of water. On another occasion Scott got up to get a drink and didn’t come back for a while. Eventually, I got curious and went looking for him. To my amusement I found him with his feet tied up and staff members throwing balls at him and seven other bound people. Turns out it was a harmless game of human bowling. You had to dodge the ball and be the last man standing. 

Everything went smoothly. We had perfect weather and an all around wonderful time. My high school Spanish blended with my college German did us next to no good, but a friendly smile went a long way. We had the graduation trip they greatly deserved.

All our love,

S/A