Beach Time

 It is the most relaxing feeling on the planet to lay under a cabana and listen to the waves of the ocean crash against the shore.  We enjoyed beach time almost every day we were there.  We stayed for a sunset, and also got up early for a sunrise.  It was incredible.  We also spent a couple evenings at the beach after dark.  The stars were beautiful!

The colors of the ocean are simply gorgeous.

We saw multiple weddings while we were there.

Rebecca even painted on the beach one of the afternoons.  Joel and I read quite a bit and just relaxed.

The hermit crabs came out at night.  They leave little tire tracks behind on the sand.  They were all over, so we had to use our phone lights to make sure we didn't accidentally step on them.

Into the Jungle

We last minute signed up for a half day excursion into the jungle to a wildlife preserve and underground cenote, and I'm so glad we did, because it was so much fun and such a great way to experience a cenote.  We got up early on Saturday and rode buggies to the wildlife preserve.  We got up close to spider monkeys, the Mexican version of warthogs (I can't remember what he called them), deer, 2 different types of loros (parrots), and we even saw jaguar tracks.  I was more than happy to avoid an actual siting of the jaguar. 

The resorts donate their leftover produce to the wildlife preserve. 

This guy welcomed us as we walked up to the gate.

We had the most amazing experience snorkeling in the cenote.  We had the entire cenote to ourselves!

We found really cool cell phone covers you could use under the water, and it was great to use them while we were swimming in the cenote and at the beach all week.

The whole experience was amazing, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. 

Food, Glorious Food

Part of the joy of an all-inclusive resort is the food.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was really surprised by the quality of the food.  There is one main buffet with breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours.  It changed slightly every day and it was fantastic.  Joel spent most of his time at the Mexican section.  He was in heaven with all his favorite foods available in abundance.    There was a second buffet available at the Coba resort.  It was a little bit different than our main buffet, so we went their twice during our stay.  The final night was an Italian-Theme night, so that was pretty fun.  

On the other side of our resort was The Truck.  It has burger, fries, tacos, and other basics with a snack section.  Rebecca and I were thrilled when we found out they had soft served ice cream cones.  This is open all day, closes during dinner hours, and then opens back up for late night snacking until 12:30am.

We had 3 reserved dinners as well.  There are multiple restaurants you an choose from that are located around the 3 connected resorts.  The first reservation we chose Tequila.  It was some of the best Mexican food we've ever had.  It was a buffet and it was delightful.  Joel was in pure heaven.  There was a woman there making fresh tortillas that pretty much just melted in your mouth.  

The avocado crema was my personal favorite, but all the dips were really good.  

I don't typically love Mexican hot chocolate, but this man knows how to make a mean hot chocolate.  It was SO good!

We had such an amazing experience that we chose to return there a second time.  I think we probably shouldn't have tried to recreate it, because it wasn't quite as good the second time.  I think we had too high of expectations.  The third night we chose Nikkei.  It's a Peruvian Japanese fusion restaurant.  It was a four course meal of goodness!  Everything looked just as beautiful as it tasted.  

I particularly liked the dim sum and chicken udon. 

The dulce de leche was also delightful.  Our waiter was amazing, and he really made the evening so wonderful!

One of my favorite things was the free drinks.  On the first day we asked what fun drinks they had that didn't have alcohol, and we quickly realized we could have a lot of the same drinks just without the booze.  The bartenders and waiters all were taken aback each time we asked for drinks without alcohol.  Haha- I think we were the only ones not getting drunk the whole week.  We had piña coladas, strawberry, mango, and lime margaritas, but my absolute favorite was the mojito.   Yum!  I lost count of the number of mojitos I had.  It was so fun, but now I have to detox from all the sugar that was flowing freely through my veins.