Mexico

Dan and I have been using our american express card for every single purchase (house remodeling included) for the past couple of years and finally decided to use all our points. We went to Playa del Carmen in Mexico this past weekend and it was fabulous.

Lorna flew in all the way from Utah to play with Alta while we were gone (thank you, thank you, thank you!). She came a day before Dan and I left so Alta could warm up to her. It only took Alta about 30 minutes to decided she really liked Grandma (also known as "uh-mah").

I'm pretty sure she didn't miss us at all. She was too busy absorbing all the attention she could get.

So we said goodbye to Alta and flew down to this:



Pictures can't do it justice, it was so beautiful! I've never been to a beach that had perfectly clear, warm water. And no rocks, just sand. We would sit on the beach and read until it got too warm, then jump in the water and swim, then go back to sitting on the beach. We tried snorkeling once but there weren't any fish near us (and I just about hyperventilated anyway). The resort had a hobie cat that we took out twice. This isn't us, I just wanted to take a picture of what it looked like:

Dan's never really sailed before but he figured it out pretty quickly. He claims it's because he's read the Hornblower books.

On one of the days we ventured out to Tulum where there are some Mayan ruins. Taking a taxi or tour bus costs about $35 (one way) so we decided to try the way Dan's brother recommended and used the local bus system. Actually, calling that is a bit generous. There are vans that take people up and down the main highway and if you want to get on, you stand by the side of the road and get picked up. Tulum is kind of far away so I thought it might take a while to get there, but when the speed limit is 80 km/h and the van is going 150, it takes no time at all. We would speed past all the other cars and then when the driver would see someone standing by the road, he'd slam on the brakes and pull over to pick them up. It was crazy. But it also cost us about $3.

Tulum was fun to see, and very beautiful:

We saw these big iguanas everywhere in Tulum. Taking a picture of one was probably the equivalent of taking a picture of a squirrel or a deer in the US, but I thought they were cool.

All in all, a very nice relaxing trip. Now we are back in cloudy Virginia, but it's so good to be back with the little Alta girl again!