mexico. yes, again!

2010 has been a busy (travel) year so far! i've now been to mexico twice, skiing in sun valley (idaho - did i tell you guys my friend thought that i meant the valley in ca and had no clue i meant idaho and was wondering why i was so excited to go to the valley which she thought was ghetto ca?!), LA and during all that time i've also been to two weddings!

my second trip was a decidedly different kind of mexican trip as trips with the fam usually are. week 6 is my parents' timeshare week in the riviera maya (v. close to playa del carmen) and so mom, dad, my brother and i set off for a week in mexico. the resort is lovely! the food could be better, but i still managed to eat way too much. and the view? well the view and the beach could not get much better! i will concede that the weather could have been better. while the east coast was getting pummeled and the US had generally lower than normal temps, so did mexico. and we did get some rain too. so it was warm enough for the beach, but it was too chilly by 4 to be out there and i was never really hot enough to go swimming which is a shame b/c that water is crystal clear!


so the picture looks washed out... but that's how white the sand is...gorgeous!!


if you look at the second floor, far right side of building, you can see our 'villa'... one of the balcony's is being blocked by a palm tree.


the floor plan: my brother and i shared the double room. there are also 2 murphy beds in the living room, and yes, that is a jacuzzi tub on the balcony off the master bedroom!

a lot of the days i spent relaxing on those lovely loungers listening to the sounds of the ocean and reading some books. i finished bright lights, big ass (very funny) and the slide which sarah macschwindy gave me - a pomona grad wrote it (kyle beachy). i'll give a book review another time...


dad and me at 100% natural which is a restaurant in playa. it has a great outdoor area in which to eat. yum.

on tuesday, the family was picked up by our driver, daniel, who we happened to have done a tour with the year before. and off we went to go explore coba, a mayan ruin. once there, we walked around, learned about the culture saw the ruins and then, we rented a bike. we were able to ride around the roads of the ruins and see even more since they were rather well spread out. and then the best part: climbing the tallest ruin! the mayans had built steps and the mexicans had put a rope to help the fat american tourists climb to the top and come back down again (at your own risk, of course). the day was hot, hot, hot! but, not too hot for dad and me to do some rock climbing! mom & andrew have a fear of heights and were also too hot and so they stayed at the bottom with daniel. i love to climb things as does dad so we thought it was a blast bounding up the stairs around the fat americans (i mean, come on! it's true! we are a fat fat nation) and up to the top.

as a side note: dad and i have always loved to climb stuff. if it looks climbable, great! the house in maine basically sat on a pile of rocks and the both of us used to love to climb them... and we were fast... we could scurry from the bottom up to the house or from the house back down to the beach in seconds...mom was never good at climbing the rocks. she never cared much. and my brother would climb them, but not like my dad and i. we would race to the top to see who'd win. while i was home over xmas, i found a very old video of my parents on the beach in maine from probably mid 70s - before me - and my dad is bounding up the rocks very gracefully and quickly to the house. then there is video of my mom. bless her, but it took her about 12x longer and definitely with less grace to get to the top, but she did! i love old home videos.

and then, once we were at the top we took some pictures, stared at a vast amount of scenery, and then eventually started our descent where we took some more pictures as proof of our bravery and climbing feat. once i got to the bottom (i was slightly ahead of dad b/c of our staggered picture taking), this weirdo guy said he had a picture of my butt. excuse me?! at first i didn't realize he was talking to me... but then he was all i'll show you...ummm, ok. so there are a few of me climbing down and then he shows a picture of yes, my rear end. i had turned around towards the top so dad could take a pic...of my face...and this guy snapped a pic which when unzoomed was just another pic of a bunch of people on the ruin. however, then he wanted to show off his amazing zoom lens and he zoomed in... on my ASS!!! total close up and i was all, awesome.. that's great... and before i could really think what to say, he said and look, i have a pic of your husband too, look how close up i can get on his face and he proceeded to zoom in on my dad's head.... to which i quickly corrected, um that's my dad. and then my dad was at the bottom and the guy was showing him...all proud of his camera zoom lens... and i couldn't get away fast enough... had i thought about it, i would have told him to erase the picture, but whatever... like i said it's a normal pic... til you zoom waaaaaaaaaaay in on it. really?! who says stuff like that to total strangers???


my brother, daniel (our guide), my dad and mom... he was telling about one of the ruins here.


all of us at the bottom of one of the ruins. and yes, my brother has a horrible beard... for what reason i have no idea. with his hair down, my mom thinks he looks like jesus!


mom on her bike


the one ruin they allow people to climb. so fun!


me and dad on top. for you claremonters, dad's hat is a mt baldy one. it was originally bought for my gpa on a trip to ca since he didn't have much hair and the sun was burning his head and they happened to be up on mt baldy checking things out. so now i guess my dad wears it (never seen him in it before) and yes, i know... the bill is super flat... i tried to help him with that!


on my way down... this is when the creepy dude must've taken my derriere shot...


and here's dad on his way down.

after the ruins, we ate at a restaurant with very yummy pork pobile and homemade tortillas... yum! and then we headed to a cenote (a swimming hole created by an underwater cave... lots of diver's like to explore them). the water is extremely clear in cenotes and this one was a fairly large swimming hole. perfect for cooling off! and then we stopped by a honey shop. all things honey. bought a few things and then headed back to the resort... i'll finish the rest of the trip in another blog....