Friday, December 31, 2010

Dream Vacation 2010

Tulum Mexico 2010
Bryant and I went on a week long trip to Tulum Mexico the First week of December.
Thanks to great planning, Perfect Weather, Good friends, A Great sister-in-law, and a sense of adventure,
we had a fabulous time!!
We are sharing some of our photos here and since we see very little of our family we have posted more photos than necessary for a blog post :) so please forgive us :)

At this fun place we walked about a mile down the beach and found a bubbling spot about 15 feet out into the sea, it was likely a place where there is an underground cave, that alows the fresh water to empty into the sea, it was so warm where i was standing but the water closer to the black spot in the photo was freezing cold. It was so cool!

A great feature about the place where we were visiting was that this resort wasn't on a "strip" or near alot of other hotels or resorts. We walked about a mile or more on each side of the resort and the beach was empty except for people from our resort. The farther we walked we ran into a few huts that looked cool to check out but were likely "eco" rental homes, so we stayed on the beach.
We played beach volley ball and had a ton of fun, this is a picture before we went in to play so you won't find us in this photo. Bryant was a hero, and made tons of good plays... I was there for a good time!


We went to a class that taught fruit carving, I was a natural ;) and it was realy fun and totally easy to do! Bryant and I both had creations that turned out lovely, (as you can see here).


Here's Bryant signaling to a "colectivo" that we wanted a ride.
We saved tons, I dare say hundreds of dollars by taking the local bus service as apposed to a taxi service. It's nice that bryant speaks fluent Spanish, and it took only a conversation or two for the language to come back to him full force and he was talking to everyone. You could tell that the locals were glad and somewhat relieved that he could speak the language.
One of the first things people would ask us when they had heard that we went to an all-inclusive resort was a hesitant... "so...how was the food?"
The first night I got filet mignon, it was so good, I had to send my compliments to the chef... outstanding. We had salmon, steak, chicken, veal, Asian, French, Italian, and of course Mexican.
The food was the BEST FOOD I'VE EVER HAD at a restaurant, I of course have made food as good here at home but thats expected ;)


This little number was outstanding, the shell you see there is a caramel crisp it was insainly good. This night I decided to get dessert first since I was always stuffed and couldn't really enjoy it before.
Here posing like you can only do on a ritzy vacation ;) with the beautiful Hibiscus that bryant picked for me on the way to dinner.

The shows were entertaining and were always different every night.
They were a bit random, and one of the photos at the end is of the american Whippit champion, doing whip tricks and songs it was cool, DAD you would have LOVED it!!


Bryant my cute little husband was such a sport when they pulled him onstage for a dance!! He was awsome!


Here's me showing the animal in me as we get on the freeway in Mexico.
Driving a stick-shift is a little like riding a bike, it only took a few minutes and we were up and at em :) We rented a car and took to the City of Coba. We love doing tours off of the beaten path so to speak and did something similar when we visited Jamaica a few years ago, so we were ready for what ever adventure was waiting. ( going on a spendy tour where I have to eat a tuna sandwich and down it with a juice box, and wait in line with 40-60 of my closest friends I have yet to meet just isn't my idea of a good time)


We laughed all the way there and loved every minute exporing this cool city. Knowing that the City's in the Book of Mormon, could have been alot like these made the exploring even more enjoyable. It's amazing to see this and that it's lasted for so long and even more amazing that it hasn't all been discovered yet.
Here's quite a few photos from our journey...enjoy:


There ants were huge and there walking left a huge trail that you could see just walking by.


This was an amazing view... breath taking... I cried.
I'm sure we'll come back so we can take the boys to the top!


After Deciding to sacrifice bryant to the Vacation Gods, in hopes to never have to leave I realized last minute that I'd loose my comrade and that I'd rather stay just a few more days and have him forever... so They allowed him to come back down and we ran away before they changed thier minds.
OK Miracle story: The whole trip I've looked forward to going to Punta Allen and walking along
the beach and picking up Conch Shells.
The sun was setting, we were in a natural habitat Sian Ka'an which contained jaguars and over 100 other species of mammals. We were on one of the worst roads in a little rental and were thinking that any second the car was going to loose a wheel to a pothole and there were 2 for every 10 sq. ft. on the road.
So we stopped a bit short of the goal and pulled over to walk on the beach as the sun was quickly vanishing, and walked around, my spirits were a bit low I have to say since we had driven for sooooo long (I was driving) on the horrible road, and the realization that we couldn't possibly make our goal with daylight to guide the way was hitting hard. So we walked around and I was kind of taking in the sights while the wind tried to blow me in to the sea. We turned to go home empty handed and Aparently had been looking in all the wrong places for the conch shells because on our way back we found a pile of 15+ conch shells some small some huge not all in perfect condition but all amazing!!
We gathered a few and found that the shells get washed up in the high sand and brush area... we left hundreds of the shells on the beach the sight was amazing!! What a fun day!!






A horrible Photo of us, but we didn't get another, we had to return the rental car and wanted to get a photo of the LDS Church meeting house in Tulum before we left. We forgot our camera on sunday... sadly! The building was so great and must be pretty new, it was defiantly nicer and newer than my building here.

Finaly Saying good bye to our room. We loved this place... it was amazing. SO quiet, so kind, yummy and peaceful.
We will miss you Tulum!!
Hopefully we will have more great experiances like this one on our next travels... and suggestions as to where to go?

5 comments:

Gramy Lynda said...

wow!! I guess dream vacation!!Looks like you had a great time!!Im glad you were able to go!!!Loves
PS Im jealous of the conch shells

Heidi B. said...

SO FUN!! It looks like you had a great time! It makes me want to take a tropical vacation with Jerrod. I am so glad that you guys had such a great time together.

Natalie said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Thanks for posting all of the pictures!

Kaela said...

SO. MUCH. FUN. ACK!!! I am so happy that you guys made this happen!! You always have a way of making things happen- and they always seem to be amazing:) Way to live the good life. Count us in next time you need travel buddies (I hope... we will start saving our pennies now, k ;) ). Thanks for posting all of these. You look gorgeous by the way!!!

Keri said...

Awesome Pictures!!! We did a quick day trip to Tulum when we went to the Mayan Riviera two years ago. A great vacation spot! And so fun that you could enjoy each other, alone :)