Miss Manda Pants: October 2012

Well I've been saving up for quite a while, and have been getting ready for months. I finally have a stamp in my passport. Wait, I finally have a passport as well! This month I went to Cancun, specifically, Playa De Carmen (which is really just down the coast from Cancun). I went with BreAnn, Gabby, and Jeremy from October 10-15. We stayed at the BlueBay Grand Esmeralda all inclusive resort.

What I learned:
Always go with all inclusive.... it was awesome
Take bug spray!
Look up hurricane season
Schedule excursions before
Figure out the currency rate
Take lots of books
Take small cash for tips (everyone wants them)

Would I stay at the BlueBay again? Probably not, just because there are so many other resorts, that I'd like to try a new one, possibly with better bug control in the rooms. The customer service was horrible. The grounds were beautiful. Food was decent. It was far from the airport, and far from the city. The beach was beautiful. The drinks were great. It wasn't a horrible experience, however i think they could have done better.

So how did I spend all 6 days?
The first day was TRAVEL, all day. We left around 5:45 am, got in around 8 at night (hooray delays). We had dinner and went down to the beach and the swing bar (literally swings) and then went to bed
The second day: CHICHEN ITZA!!!!! The actual site was amazing. The tour itself could have used some work. It was a LONG drive out to the site, and the tour guide spoke Spanish and English, and would switch back and forth between the two without any warning so that was rather annoying. The actual pyramid was so amazing! We made a few annoying stops along the way, but were again gone from around 7:00 am- 8 pm (I still hadn't seen the ocean from our hotel!)
Third day: Who knew doing nothing could be so exhausting. We laid by the pool. Ate food. Drank delicious drinks of pina colada and daiquiris. Ate more food. Checked in on home. More sun time by the pool and by the ocean. Bed time
Fourth day: Jungle Maya expedition. This one was SO fun. We woke up early, but had a great tour guide, and the site wasn't super far from our hotel. We did so many activities! Swimming, repelling, zipline, had authentic Mayan meals, and my favorite part was snorkeling in the Cenote called Nohoch Chich Cenote System. Wow, words can't really do this justice. I didn't have a waterproof camera, but I googled this sytem, and found some pictures OTHERS have taken, just go check those out! http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Nohoch+Chich+Cenote+system&FORM=HDRSC2 Amazing right?! So we wrapped up that tour and were home by around 3, giving us PLENTY of time for more sunshine!
Fifth day: More doing nothing, I think the biggest thing I accomplished was reading a whole book. We finished all of our tourist shopping, and just laid around in some sunshine! It was so fantastic
Sixth day: MORE travelling. This time however we left the hotel around 9 am, and I was back to my house around 7:30. We only had an hour and a half layover in Dallas, but had to go through customs. We BARELY made our next flight. That's with running through the airport. It was exciting and oh so stressful. I just wanted to be home. And what did I come home to? Well actually I was picked up at the airport by Taylor. I don't think I've ever seen someone so excited to see me :) He made me feel so loved and missed, and it was just wonderful to see him. When we got home, we just relaxed, opened presents, and he showed me all of the hard work he'd done around the house. He re-arranged my room! Not only that, but he deep cleaned it, vacuumed years of dust from the floor boards behind my bed. Ya wanna know somethin else? He got Bella to eat food! Her food. Not cat food. No one has ever been able to get Bella to eat her real food other than me! So we were all a bit excited about that.

So being in Mexico was awesome. I had a true relaxing vacation. I came home and felt slightly stressed with everything I had fallen behind on in my days of absence, but felt rejuvenated. I do not miss the bug bites, I came home with probably near 100 (not exaggerating). Now, here are LOADS of pictures!