In the beginning of May, Spencer and I had the opportunity to go to Mexico for a week with my Dad and Dianne, and by far one of the most popular questions I get asked is, "How do you afford to go on so many trips?" I'm sure people assume we are going into major debt so we can vacation, but aren't, and we don't! We fly using miles we earn. Most of the time, such as this trip, our resort is through my parent's timeshare which doesn't cost us any money. And when it comes to cruising we always book cruises last minute when they are discounted by 82%. That is how we can afford to go! It also helps when your luggage is lost and several of the items you would have bought as souvenirs anyway gets reimbursed to you. That's a definite plus! But there is stress involved in that one ;-) I just don't want anyone to think that I am an advocate of going into debt for a vacation.
Anyway, so in May we were invited by my parents to vacation 30 minutes south of Cancun in Playa Del Carmen. I had never stayed on the Caribbean side of Mexico before so I was really excited. I found there to be a huge difference between Cabo and Cancun. Cabo, where we usually go, is sunny year round, and a desert. Cancun, is opposite. It's green jungle, very muggy, with occasional torrential rain clouds that pass by. Now when I say jungle, I literally mean thick, you could get lost in jungle. It was cool. Both destinations are beautiful in their own right!
The resort we stayed at, The Grand Mayan in Riviera Maya, was gorgeous! It was just outside of Playa Del Carmen and we shared a two bedroom condo with my parents. One of the things I absolutely loved about our resort was the wildlife. We saw iguanas everywhere, a moth almost the size of my hand, crocodiles, and flamingos. Our room faced the jungle and a small lake and it was so relaxing just to sit on the deck and listen to the sounds of nature. The other highlight was the pools. The entire resort was surrounded by pools and they all connected. The pools had built in chairs for sunbathing, and beds you could relax on if you wanted to be in the shade. And then of course, you had the beautiful, vibrant Caribbean Sea right behind you.
Another really cool part of our trip was having our very own personal taxi driver/tour guide. Her name was Monica and we just loved her! We met Monica on our second day of vacation when we got in her taxi to go into town. After we told her some of the things we wanted to do during our stay, she offered to be our personal tour guide and for a flat fee she would take us on tours to all the must-see sites. It sounded like a great deal and so we booked a tour for the following morning. Her tour was amazing, so we booked two more with her. She even went as far as giving us her personal cell number and anytime of the day or night she would pick us up and take us where ever we wanted. She even picked Spencer and I up at Midnight after hitting the town. She was AMAZING!!! There was nothing Monica wouldn't do for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment