We left for Playa del Carmen on January 22nd, 2008 for a 6AM flight. Of course, we got up late, and had to rush out of the house, and I am sorry to say had a very crappy start to our trip. We got caught in construction, had to backtrack, so once we got back on course, we FLEW to make up time. And, guess who is apparently out in full force at 4AM? The PO-LICE! Yup, Sy got a big fat ticket for speeding, and that made us grumpy for the next 4 hours. Gosh, how romantic. ;)
OK, so once we got over that issue, we had a great flight, and made it in one piece to Playa. Needless to say, once we got to Shangri-La Caribe resort and saw our room, we felt MUCH better! Our room was on the top floor of a 3 story bungalow, with a thatched roof and everything! VERY rustic. And, a little bird (aka my mom) called ahead and told them we were getting married, and they made a little heart on our bed out of local tropical flower petals. AWWWRRRRR! That's our bungalow up there on the top floor!
We walked out on to our balcony, which was simply amazing. We spent most of our trip out on that balcony, listening to the ocean, watching the waves, napping in the hammocks, watching the sunset. The sunset picture I took the first night we arrived. It looked so amazing with all the other little 'huts' from the resort underneath them! The pics below are some of my favorite views of our beautiful balcony.
Friday was our first full day there. We slept in, and then spent several hours exploring Playa. Our immediate concern was finding someplace to 'bless' our wedding rings since we weren't getting married the conventional way, so we wanted to do that ourselves. We found this very small catholic church while wandering around the town that day. You could see the ocean through the window at the end of the church - it was really amazing. We went in and said our little prayers to bless the rings, and lit a candle in honor of Simon's late mom.
We pretty much went straight home after that and, at sunset, climbed up onto the platform roof edge of our balcony (below), said our vows, and exchanged our rings. Then, of course, we got all dressed up and went out to the bar to celebrate! Aw, the very first picture of Mr. and Mrs. Sisneros! AWR!
There is a GREAT strip of beachy bars/clubs in downtown Playa, and the streets were packed with people! My favorite was the swings that were at all of the bars. We saw this poor hammered dude slip 3 times while trying to get ON a swing at the bar (he was too short to get his rear up on the swing part), and once he got up there, he tipped over BACKWARDS, hit the back of his head on the bar, spilled his beer on his FACE, and only his feet getting tangled with the ropes kept him from falling down onto the ground. Dude, I wanted to take a picture so bad, but I didn't have the heart to. I took a picture of the swings after he stumbled away just to remember the event. HA HA HA! Of course, we got drunk food on the way home. :)
Well, with the wedding AND reception (tee hee) out of the way on the very first day we were there, we were left with nothing else to do but relax, drink, eat, and explore! Saturday we woke up just before breakfast ended, so we dressed and hurried down to the restaurant to be fed. Every morning we were there, we loaded our plates up with fresh fruit (the mango was to DIE for), and they would make us an omelet with chorizo, cheese, mushrooms, ham...whatever we wanted! We made great friends with the wait staff the first night we were there for dinner, and they knew to bring Simon his picante sauce at every meal, and we never had to ask for it again. Man, were we spoiled. Check the pics of the restaurant and my food, and weep.
After eating all that yummy food, we went straight back to bed. YEAH! After snoozing for a bit more and some relaxing on our balcony, we lugged ourselves down to the beach, and lounged on beach chairs and watched the waves roll in, the people roll by, and soaked up some sun. We took a walk down the beach to stretch our lazy legs, and then our waitstaff brought us out some lunch, which we ate laying down, and then lazed around some more. Yes, I gained 10 lbs on this trip. Mmmmm!
We called it an early night that night, since the next day we had booked a tour to go to the Tulum ruins in the morning, and then snorkeling at Sian Kaan in the afternoon. We got up early, and went down to the lobby at 7AM to catch our tour, only to find out it was CANCELED. Apparently our bus driver got in an accident. Dang, good thing we weren't already in the car! We were a little bummed about getting up so damn early in the morning with nothing to do, but we decided to go on our own adventure and make our OWN tour. Here was one product of getting up early that I do NOT regret:
Holy smokes, that was an amazing sunrise!! :) Well, the guy at the front desk told us where to catch a tour bus to Tulum, and then recommended a good place to snorkel after that. We took a cab across town to the bus stop, and had the most HARROWING ride in this PACKED little van out to Tulum. Dude, this guy was RACING past all the other tour vans on the highway - we were going like 160km an hour. Isn't that like 100mph???? Sy and I dug out our seatbelts and laughed out of sheer FEAR all the way there as he dodged people on scooters and swerved around cars. We kissed the ground when we got to Tulum.
Tulum was AMAZING. We hired a guide when we got there to give us our own tour, since Sy and I are history nerds. There is so much history there I can't explain it, but the most amazing thing was the astrology that was tied to this place. So beautiful!! There were couples EVERYWHERE, and Simon was the designated photographer, and when we would see a couple trying to snap a pic of themselves, he would so sweetly offer to snap their photos! In turn, they snapped one of us. We met some great people that way!
After we wandered all over Tulum, we took a cab to another nearby town called Akumal. This place had amazing beaches, and we were told that the snorkeling was amazing, so we were all in. We wandered into the small village, and hired a guide to take us out on his boat and take us on a snorkel tour. This place wasn't called Turtle Bay for nothing! We saw giant sea turtles, coral reef, TONS of tropical fish, barracudas, and got to hold starfish and sea urchins!
After an hour of snorkeling, we asked for the nearest restaurant, where we sat down for a late lunch and much needed beers! We both ordered shrimp over rice, and I swear it was the best meal that we had there. It was so simple, yet SOOOO tasty!!!! Mmmm!
After all the walking and hiking and swimming, it was right back to our favorite spots in our hammocks for some relaxing!!
After a nice long nap, we went downstairs for a late dinner, and sat at our normal spot by the edge of the restaurant by all the tropical plants so we could throw food out to the cat and raccoon that had discovered we were generous with our leftovers! After another amazing dinner with fantastic service, we headed out to the bars again for one last night out on the town. We ended up in a bar with live music, and this girl sang all the same covers my old band did! It was great! We met a couple from NY that were fashion designers, and they gave me GREAT advice on our little bag project! After that, we hung out with this almost-retired couple from Canada, and Simon was a TOTAL instigator and bought us all who knows how many rounds of shots. I barely remember stumbling back to the hotel. Hee hee!
Of course, it was a late morning once again, and we woke up right before breakfast, went down and ate, then right back to bed! At about 1:30, we dragged ourselves down to the beach for our last day of sunning ourselves, since we were to leave the next morning. :( After some beach time, we headed down 5th avenue to do some shopping for souvenirs, and ate some dinner on the avenue instead of at our hotel. Then we packed, and crashed out, the waves lulling us to sleep for the very last time. *sniff sniff*
The next morning was HOT and MUGGY and OVERCAST. Yup, time to go home! ;) We went to breakfast, and said goodbye to Manuel, our favorite waiter (pictured below). We left an extra big tip, since a few nights before (over tequila shots), he was telling us that he worked from 7AM to 11PM for 24 days in a ROW, then had 4 days off! And, he made a whopping $6 a day!!!!! Dude, that guy would have to work for almost $40 years to make what we make in a year. That is just nuts! We took one last walk down our beach, said our goodbyes to our ocean, loaded ourselves in the shuttle, and made our way back home.
We had the most amazing time together here, and we will never, ever forget how amazing it was! Nor will we ever forget how very, very luck we are to simply be together. :)
Well Narrated Mrs A. Amazing write-up!
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