Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 4 & Last

On our last day in Mexico we woke up early to take a last walk at the beach. It was sad to say good bye  to Playa del Carmen so quickly. After these pictures were taken, we got back to the room to get ready and left for the airport. 

The beach early in the morning

I bought this pic from the hotel photographers. It was taken from a parasail

That was our hotel in the middle

Our last pic in Playa del Carmen

Looking at these pictures makes me want to book a trip to Mexico ASAP. Jetblue suspended the Tampa to Cancun flight shortly after we returned from this trip.  I always make fun that this is an International Airport with no international flights. I think British airways now has direct flights to London and maybe Cayman Airways has a flight to Grand Cayman and that's it. I wanted to take a girls only trip before getting married. However, I have to pay for the wedding and honeymoon first before booking another trip. 

I once heard that pictures are "frozen happiness" and I think they really are. Mexico Lindo I will see you again and hopefully sooner than later.

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 3

We were only in Mexico for 3 nights but I knew that I had to go to Chichén Itzá one day even if it meant that I would miss a whole day of relaxing by the beach. The problem was that I left this day trip for our last full day in Mexico and the night before we had too many tequilas. There was no option to postpone our trip to visit the Mayan ruins. The bus picked us up at 7:00AM. The 3 hours in the bus were painful because I had the worst hangover of my life. I wont give the details of the hangover but I finally started to feel better when we arrived to Chichén Itzá. Just in time for the high heat and the walking tour of the ruins. It was all worth it, I was amazed by the pyramids. I expected them to be smaller and to be in worse shape. In 2007, the Kukulcan pyramid was declared one of the world new seven wonders. They don't let people climb the pyramids as they did just a few years ago.

Kukulcan Pyramid

El Caracol



My dad in 2006 going to the top of the pyramid


The tour that we chose also included a typical mexican lunch and a stop at one of the cenotes in the area. We forgot to take our bathing suits that day. The water looked nice even though we were told that they were used for human sacrifices.  Our tour was $99 included pick up and drop off at the hotel, breakfast in the bus, the entrance to Chichen Itza, lunch, a cenote visit, and a Corona. I can't remember the name of our tour but it was great. We booked them using the hotel's service desk. They picked up people from all the hotels in the area so if you need a tour your hotel will be able to find you a good company. I'm sure that we could have found a tour for less money but this was very nice and convinient.

One of our guides

The Cenote

We returned to the hotel at around 7:00 PM, had dinner with our other 2 friends who had spent their day in Xel-Ha snorkeling. From what I saw in their pictures this is a must do while in the area. I will definitely try to make another visit to the area and make sure that I see Xel-Ha, Tulum, and Xcaret.

Back at the hotel

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 2

On the second day in Mexico, I decided to go to the hotel spa for a body treatment. It was a massage and a scrub. After this relaxing way to start the day I went to the beach with one of my friends. We must have had oil left from the spa because we both got sun burned at the beach. After a few hours in the sun, we took the rental car to drive to Tulum. I was driving and I am used to agressive Latin American drivers, but I'm not used to speed bumps that were under intead of above the road level. When we got to Tulum it was already 4:00 PM and they didn't let us in to see the ruins. They closed at 4:30PM. We drove back to Playa del Carmen to see the town. We walked around the cutest church I've ever seen, 5th avenue,  bought souvenirs, and then stopped by Senor frogs for a drink. The bar was almost empty as well as most of the restaurants in the area. I'm sure the swaine flu had all the tourist away. We ordered one of the famous yard drink. We became friends with the bartenders and had a few more drinks that we had planned. Then we went to the hotel to have dinner with our other 2 friends and took advantage of the all-inclusive rate at the bar. 

At the beach

Playa del Carmen

The bar stools at senor frogs

Fun bar stools

This quote in spanish was in the ceiling at senor frogs: "to find your blue prince, you first have to kiss 1000 frogs"

The Yard

Our new friends

Our favorite bartender

One of many rounds of tequila shots

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 1

Just 15 days before the following pictures were taken, I convinced 3 friends to go to Mexico for Memorial Day weekend. It was during the swine (H1N1) flu scare and the prices were very low. At the time, Jetblue had direct flights to Cancun from Tampa. We used the Jetblue website to book a vacation package. We each payed, on a holiday weekend, less than $370 for our flight, 3 nights at an all-inclusive 4-star hotel in Playa del Carmen and an additional $100 for the 4 days of rental car. We stayed at the Viva Wyndham Azteca. Playa del Carmen was about one hour from Cancun and a very easy drive from the Airport. I had seen pictures of Playa del Carmen before, but the beach that I was about to see was above any of my expectations. The first day we just relaxed at the beach, had dinner at the hotel, and went to bed early. Two of my friends went to Coco Bongo that night until 6:00AM. I wanted to use this trip to relax instead of coming back to work even more tired than when I left. 

Tampa to Cancun

The welcome sign at the airport

We didn't have a radio in the car but we used the ipod speakers and enjoyed the drive.

Tequila Corralejo

at the beach outside our hotel

Playa del Carmen

Looking at the Ocean

I'm curious to know how true are the news about the safety issues in Mexico. They compared it with the drug cartels in Colombia during the 1990s. Living in Colombia at that time was not easy, but we knew where to go and how to take care of yourself. There are always safe zones and places that nobody needs to see. I also believe that the media makes the news worse than they actually are. Mexicans were extremely nice and friendly during our stay. I hope that their tourism industry does not suffer from inadequate media coverage. Actually, Mexico was our first choice when we looking for places to do our wedding. One of my coworkers got married in Playa del Carmen and I loved the laid back theme and how her pictures came out. I decided not to do it in Mexico because I was afraid that our guests decided that it was dangerous to go. I would not put them in risk and since I don't live there I can't tell them where to go and how to be safe.

Jetblue doesn't fly direct from Tampa to Cancun since 2009, but I am sure that I will be back. There are many things to do and many places to visit in this area that I didn't get a chance to see during this trip.

Sunset Sunday

During 2009, Sunset beach became my favorite beach. It is close to Tampa, not as crowded as Clearwater, and Caddy's is close which means easy access to clean restrooms and ice cold drinks. When two of my best friends from Colombia came to see U2 in concert I took them to Sunset Beach. These are the pictures from that day.

Sunset Beach, Fl

At the end of a nice beach day

almost gone...

I love this picture. I think he is saying "Thank you" to the sun

The Sunshine State

After complaining for U2 having their concert in Miami on a Wednesday night, I found out that Luis Miguel, my all-time favorite singer will do a concert in Miami on a Thursday night!!! What happened to the days when the good concerts were on Friday and Saturday nights? Shakira also had her Orlando concert on a Tuesday night!!! I was falling asleep at work the next day (totally worth it but hard for a Tuesday night!!!). The same day that I found out about the concert, I received a pre-sale code for Luis Miguel's concert. When I saw the seats I could buy, I considered using 2 of my vacation days in Miami. I had until 10:00PM to buy the pre-sale tickets but I decided not to go. I can't use them in a City that I can easily go on a weekend. Furthermore, I am getting married in less than 5 months and requested 17 days off for the wedding and honeymoon. Days that I don't have which means I will be taking non-paid time off. Most people in the US (including me) only have 2 weeks of vacation and 5 days to get sick a year. There are only 5 or 6 holidays in the year!!!! Now you can understand why I refuse to spend my days in Miami. 

I love Miami, I love going there for the weekend and going out to a decent club. Tampa is nice to live, but the night life isn't good. I like the beaches, the lack of temptation during the week, and the short distances for the everyday life, but from time to time it would be nice to have a fancy lounge to go out. I'm actually planning my bachelorette party in Miami and more than a bachelorette I want to have a nice, relaxing weekend with my best (girl) friends. We will be staying at the Viceroy Hotel in downtown Miami. I heard their spa is amazing! We will be recovering at the pool and the spa during the day and going out at night. Everything in Miami looks like someone actually cared to make it unique and better than the place next door. 

Martinis @ Segafredo Brickell

@ The W hotel Bar, Ft Lauderdale

@ the W hotel (restaurant behind the aquarium)

@ the pool @ the ShoreClub Hotel

South Beach

I love getting out of town for the weekend but we have been saving for the wedding so we are very limited with our plans.  My boyfriend is taking me to Orlando tomorrow for an art show happening this weekend. The art show is actually in Winter Park but we will be staying in Orlando. We don't know if it will be good or not. I love it when he does things like that and surprises me with a plan to change our routine. This week I was going crazy trying to find an excuse to get away from our day to day. It is very expensive to stay at the beach this time of the year because spring break in Florida is THE highest season.  There are many things to do in Florida and I enjoy living here. I get bored easily but tomorrow we will be doing something different. If you need any travel advise for Florida just let me know and I will be happy to recommend some places to stay and things to do.

The Florida Aquarium in Tampa is one of my favorite local attractions

Busch Gardens, Tampa 

Epcot Center, Orlando, FL

Lesson Learned: Mojitos will fix just about anything