Dolphin Swim Pictures

I, honestly, did absolutely nothing all weekend. I was fighting off horrible stomachaches and praying that I wasn't getting sick. These pains were a sharp, knife-like pain in the middle of my stomach. Pain I had never experienced before. Yes, I whined like a little baby! Drew offered little support and told me that I better not be that bad when I'm pregnant cuz he won't want to hear it. The pain kinda came and went and he was lucky enough to say that statement at a moment when I was experiencing quite an amount of pain. Otherwise, he would have gotten a swift smack!! Seriously though, Drew did do a pretty decent job taking care of me. He would get up and get me anything that I asked for. He's such a good hubby!!

I did scan the pictures from our swim with the dolphins. I'm sure you've all been anxious to see those. If you remember me saying, I had looked forward to this day for a long, long time!

I'm actually very proud of Drew. He does have a fear of big fish (what a baby, right?) and he took the whole experience like a champ. He didn't really act too nervous but I could tell that he was. These pictures were all taken by staff at the Dolphin Swim Experience place and I'm sure that if they find them on here I'd get sued or something. But seriously, we paid $100 for these so whatever. At least I said who you were.

Our Very Busy Final Day!

Drew and I went to Tulum today. Tulum is a city that is about 35 or 40 minutes south of our resort. There are ancient Mayan ruins that we toured there. We woke up at 7:00 AM, got ready, ate breakfast, and got picked up for our tour. Our tour guide's name was Antonio. He is Mayan, and was very funny!

This is an alter, I think

There were quite a few steps leading to the ruins, which you'll see why in a little bit.

This wall was built by the Mayans, obviously many years ago. If you look on the left side, the wall has crumbled. Antonio said that that happened about a month ago from the trees. The purpose of the wall with the gate was to keep people that didn't belong there out. There was a village on the inside of the gate, and villages on the outside of the gate. Only privledged people were allowed through the gates. The wall was also built for defense purposes. Antonio said that when Mayan babies were born, their heads were tied with boards in order to make them flat like the Mayan gods. If a baby came out deformed, they were already godlike. He said that Down Syndrome existed and those people thrived out in the jungle. They developed the skills that are necessary in order to survive.

We walked up some more steps and entered the ruins through another gate.

When the ruins were being reconstructed, they found a decorated skeleton in that hole.

These next two pictures were taken right inside of the gate, looking in to the ruins.

Do you see the waves breaking out in the distance?

They are actually breaking against a coral reef that the Mayans dug out.

This picture is of the sacrificial temple.

The stone in the front, at the bottom of the stairs, is where the sacrifices took place.

Antonio took us to the top of the cliff and we were able to look down and see this beautiful beach.

My screams, that you hear at the end, are because I was trying to write in the sand and it just kept getting washed away. I wanted to write "Just Married" and take a picture with it, similar to our picture from the cruise. I came close at one point!

And seriously, what is it with these people and their big lizards!?!

That picture, the one that you just looked at above, I hope you enjoyed it! That sucker cost us $5. Stupid people just plunking animals in my hands and stealing my camera.

Guess what else we found at Tulum? We went inside the little supermarket store to see if they had ice cream and Drew found a Dr. Pepper!!! Oh, I was one happy girl. I haven't had a Dr. Pepper in over a week and I was starting to have withdrawals. We got two and I'm actually sitting here drinking one as I type!

We stopped at a Mayan craft stand on the way home and we bought a very big blanket that has the Mayan calendar on it. I thought it was pretty cool and Drew liked it too.

At 4:00 PM, we had a kitchen tour.

This tour took us to all the kitchens of the resort and showed us what went on behind the scenes.

We ate dinner at Ventanas on Thursday (?) night and we had a fantastic waiter named Oscar. (Remember the flaming coffee?) He told us to come back tonight and he would make shrimp for us. He also told Drew that he'd have a cigar for him. So, back to Ventanas we went. Oscar was so happy to see us the minute we walked through the door. He led us to a special table that he had set up just for us!

How cute is that, right?? It was so sweet and romantic! Too bad Drew doesn't do stuff like that for me! This guy walks around the restaurant and plays for everybody.

Oscar made us a fantastic dinner of grilled shrimp with steak and steamed vegetables. Mmmmm, it was so good!!!

And so, tomorrow, we leave. I'm sad to be leaving such beautiful weather. But I am oh so glad to be going home. I am ready for some good, normal food again. Granted, we've had some great dinners. But, I'm ready to have Drew cook for me again. I'll see you back in the states!

Two of My Favorite Things

What would those be I hear you asking. Why, sleeping and shopping of course. And that is exactly what we did yesterday. Drew and I didn't wake up until a little after 11:00 AM. By that time, we had missed breakfast, so we just got ready and headed to Mundaca for some lunch. Mundaca has been quite the favorite for us for breakfast and lunch because it's very close to our room. I decided to get some dessert and picked this up.
It's a chocolate eclair and is for the music lover in all of us I suppose. I thought it was pretty cute.

You probably can't tell by the picture, but the reason that I took this picture is because of the water. It was sparkling like crazy! It was absolutely beautiful!!

After lunch, Drew and I decided to take a taxi to Playa del Carmen. This town is about 20 minutes away from our resort and is popular for shopping.

You know that saying "Only in America"? Well, only in Mexico can you buy medicine and tequila in the same place and actually have it advertised on the store front. And, I took this for my sister, who would have been right at home.

After we had wandered around some of the stores, we found a spot where the beach was. What's the first thing I do? Find a spot to get to the water and promptly go stick my feet in, of course!

Playa del Carmen is also a spot where people take the ferry to Cozumel.

Obviously, you can see the ferry, but look at the sand and sea too. Gorgeous, right? And again, the picture really does no justice.

Ya know, sometimes that is the hardest part about traveling. We see all of these beautiful sites and take tons of pictures, but the pictures can, in no way, capture the true beauty of what we are seeing with our eyes.

Drew and I began wandering around the shops some more. After walking for a while, we run into a guy holding two iguanas. He pulls us over, plops the one iguana on Drew, plops the other iguana on me, and takes our camera. I think that at that point we had no choice but to smile.

How terrified do I look in that picture? I was just waiting for that iguana to piss on my head. That would have been pleasant, right?

After escaping that guy (and paying him $5 for capturing us), we walk some more. These next pictures were taken at an intersection and is shooting down each way.

We talked to Drew's dad one night and he said that we definitely had to go to the town to experience it. Well, I experienced it. You couldn't walk more than ten feet without someone harrassing you to come into their store and buy their stuff. Towards the beginning, I actually had some guy pull me to his stand and put an anklet on me, a necklace on me, and begin searching for earrings. After an hour of being harrassed, I was very ready to leave.

We did get a couple things before we left Playa though. We stopped at one store that had those wool poncho things, but with sleeves (my brother wears one) to look at what they had. My mom had mentioned at one point that my brother's was falling apart. So I wanted to get him a new one. While in there, we looked around some more, and they had beautiful painted glasses. We bought a set that has a wrought iron holder, a decanter, and six shot glasses. (I'll take a picture when we get home because it's all wrapped and taped up.) And Drew got a Cuban cigar. All for the bargaining price of $58. Drew sucks at bargaining, we probably could have got it for less.

My Wedding Present

I have to apologize to you faithful blog readers. I didn't blog last night. We didn't do anything extremely exciting on Friday so I just decided to skip a day.



Friday was Halloween of course. From what I hear, the weather was very un-Halloween like at home. Apparently, the temperature got up to 77. It would too! Only because we're on vacation.



We learned earlier in the week that there was a jewelry factory just a few minutes down the road. Drew has been hounding me to go all week. We finally decided to go on Friday. The store is called Lapis. There are two smaller shops here at the resort, but this is the big factory. They make all of the pieces right inside of these doors.

Once you walk through the doors, you see straight in front of you a rather large plexi-glass-ish wall. On the other side of that wall are stations where workers make all of the jewelry pieces that are for sale. You can actually watch as the pieces are made right before your eyes.



Drew and I were ushered into the showroom and were handed off to a sales associate. We began to browse through the different cases and were explained all the different pieces. We found a super cute silver necklace with a freshwater pearl that I really liked. We decided to get that, and then found the earrings to match. After we had looked at all of the cases in the main room, we were led to the colored diamond room. I have to admit that I was most excited about this room. Our sales associate immediately pulled out a gorgeous blue diamond ring with two white diamonds on each side. The band had some very victorian looking scroll work on it. It was extremely pretty, just not for me. Then, our sales associate pulled out another blue diamond ring. We both fell in love with it! And Drew bought it for me as my wedding present.


I know that this phrase is pretty overused, but the picture really does it no justice. It sparkles like crazy when the sun or any lights hit it. The blue diamonds in the picture look dingy, but they are completely the opposite in person.



The resort puts on a special dinner for honeymooners and that dinner was on Friday night. We got dressed up and headed over to the Convention Center. Once we got there, there was a guy outside that took our picture. Then, we were sent inside and handed a glass of champagne and hor's doevres. I took one look around and my only thought was "Prom"!!! Complete with balloon arch over the door to the ballroom room and everything.

Dinner was good though. There was salad, that had way too many colors for me to eat. Then, came some soup. It was a tortilla soup and was very delicious. It was pretty spicy for me. I hate when that happens... when I get something really tasty, and I really want to eat it, but it's so spicy that it hurts to eat. Boo! Our main course was some kind of stuffed chicken with spinach in it maybe. I dunno what it was, but it was good. There was also a rice pilaf and steamed vegetables. Dessert came after that.

Isn't it cute?? I loved the hearts! I think it was some kind of banana cream cake. It was pretty tasty.

After dinner, we walked to the South Lobby where they were having a Halloween Party in the Discotecque. It was alright. Nothing too fantastic, but it sure beat sitting in the room. That was the reason I didn't blog last night. We didn't come back to the room until about 11:30 and we ordered some room service and went to bed.

Drew took this video and I thought that I'd put it on here to share with you. There is a rather large concrete platform with rails that you can stand on between the south and north lobby and look out at the ocean. We were standing on that platform when he took the video.

The Experience of a Lifetime

Drew and I actually left the resort today. As promised, here is a picture of the sign at the entrance to the resort.
Drew and I woke up at a decent time this morning and went to Mundaca for the breakfast buffet. After breakfast, we went back to the room to put our suits on because we were going to swim with the dolphins today!!! Oh, I have waited so long for this.

We took a shuttle to the resort next door to us called Puerta Aventuras (not affiliated with this resort) to go to Dolphin Discovery. It was only us and one other couple from the resort. Once there, we got our tickets and had some time to kill before our swim. We were able to walk around the tanks and take some pictures of the dolphins.

And how cute is this little guy??

We weren't able to bring the camera with us to the swim, however they did have two photographers and a videographer there to record our swim. After the swim, we were offered the package. Drew was quite the sucker and spent $100 on seven pictures and a ten minute DVD. He figured that it was ok though because we didn't spend anything for the swim. I guess I have to agree since we probably would have paid between $200 and $300 had we spent money. (We were able to get that swim for free since we sat through the presentation.)

After the swim, we went back to the resort and grabbed some lunch. After lunch, I was obviously exhausted, and grabbed a nap.

After my nap, we had dinner at Ventanas. This restaurant was a pizza and pasta buffet. It was pretty nice; there was a guy walking around playing the violin during dinner. Once we had finished dinner, the waiter asked Drew if he wanted a Flaming Coffee. Since Drew is usually game for anything, he agreed. We had no idea that it would be so cool.

I've been asked to include more pictures of our room and the grounds. And since I aim to please, here you go. Enjoy!!