Mexico

Mario's parents came into town for two weeks in May, and obligingly took care of our three children so Mario and I could go to MEXICO by OURSELVES for a week.  It was blissful.  We did fun things, but my favorite thing was just not stressing out or worrying about the million little things I have to do as a mother and housekeeper normally.  SO NICE!
We landed in Cancun and went to see Mario's aunt and her family.  It was fun to meet his dad's sister, her husband, and their three kids. We went out out to eat with them and stayed the night there before heading to our hotel the next morning.  I sadly did not get a picture!  I loved how they had fruits trees in their yard.  And one of their son's dogs loooved the pool.  (I did take a picture of that, for Dulce.)

We stopped at Playa Delfines on our way to tour hotel. Embarrassed at how long we stood in line to take this picture...

We stayed in nice little hotel, Riviera del Sol, in Playa del Carmen. It was a block from the beach and a block from la Quinta Avenida (where the restaurants and shops were).

View from the hotel.  See the beach? So close!

We picked a hotel right close to the beach because our plan was to just relax on the beach every day for a week but we ended up going once for like 30 mins to take a nap on an overcast day.  The afternoon we got to Playa I had some ceviche that tasted sparkly (for lack of a better word) and was OUT all Thursday - nauseas, etc.  Mario ate it too, but he was fine...

Friday we went to Xcaret and LOVED it.  I definitely would have planned for and gotten the two-day pass next time.  It was an ecological park with animals and plants and beach and they had a really cool show at night about the history of Mexico.  My favorite part was the underground river you could swim/float through.  I didn't take a ton of pictures, but we both really enjoyed it and hope to take our kids with us next time!

Saturday morning we drove two hours to Chichen Itza.  I definitely suggest getting a tour guide, which we did NOT do.  We met up with Mario's aunt (another one of his dad's sisters), her husband, and their three kids.  I had seen and learned a lot about Chichen Itza and it was neat to see it in real life. 

Mario and his uncle at the ball court

Mario's three cousins rode back in our car and I looked back once to see them all like this with their seat belts in a big complicated mess haha!

After Chichen Itza we drove to Merida (two hours north) and stayed with his family that night.  It was fun going out to eat in the city center and seeing people out and about late (by our standards).   I bet people who make the transition from that to Utah would be sad that the night life here is not like that!  We went to church with them the next day and then headed back to Playa!

With his Merida relatives!  (One cousin is taking the picture,)

Monday we went to Cozumel and went snorkeling.  In my opinion, the reef looked pretty dead.  We saw some neat things but I was a little disappointed.

In the evening we just went back to Playa, ate, and spent the rest of our pesos.  We left early the next morning, sad to leave the beach but very excited to see our kids!

I thought they only had these signs in Cancun, but they were everywhere!

At the Plaza by the beach near our hotel.