I'm a little sore. I seemed to have countless run-ins with my lower extremities and my feet, toes, shins and ankles are cut up and very bruised. Take your pick on the source of the injuries... kicking corals while snorkeling, stepping on corals while swimming, tripping on lawn chairs after too many cerveza's or just wearing crapping sandals with no arch support for too many consecutive days.
But the most pain of all comes from my own stupidity. Over the first 6 days I'd developed what I felt was a really nice tan. Some days I put on a boat load of sun screen... other days... since I'm not really a burner usually I didn't bother with it. So... on our last day there... I decided to go without.
We were in the pool all morning and in the ocean all afternoon. It was also the hottest day of the trip. I fried like chicken on a BBQ. My shoulders...back... and belly are the tender spots. Worse yet... had I done that the 1st day and been in the humid air for 6 more days... I suspect that burn would have turned to a nice tan. Instead... I'm drying that fresh burn out in Saskatchewan today so I'm expecting to be shedding my old exoskeleton for a new one any minute now. Praying for no blisters. Nothing yet.
The trip was good. I'm not looking forward to getting back to work. I turned my phone on in the airport parking lot and had 108 emails to sort through. Got it down to about 40 heading in to work tomorrow. And like a dummy I booked a full day tomorrow before I left so this week is going to be nuts.
The trip had a few strange moments. First, the 6.5 hour delay on our flight out of Canada. Then, I convinced the crew to go to a different location to go zip lining because it was cheaper. The brochure also said if you booked through the front desk you'd get a free ride in a cab to the location. Our Taxi driver and I got in to a little debate over the "free cab" ride, then halfway there in the middle of the jungle with no cel service and no 2-way radio service, our cab drivers car overheated.
So we sat in the middle of the Mexican jungle with a cab driver who I don't think really liked me stranded for about an hour.
Amazingly, our cab driver discovered that putting his head under his hood gave him cel service!!! Who knew?? After a very hot wait another cab came along and completed our journey.
The place must not be that well known as we only saw one vehicle pass us by during our prolonged wait. That said... everyone was in agreement that we saved money and had a really good time.
We had about a 45 minute flight delay coming home which completed the tri-fecta.
Planning a vacation to Mexico?? Time for Thumbs up, Thumbs Down.
RESORT - Gran Bahia Principe - 2 Thumbs up (With and Astrix beside it... read on)
TIPS -
WHERE TO SAY - There are 3 areas to the resort... Tulum, Akumal and Coba. Stay in Coba or Akumal. Tulum is the oldest of the 3 wings and is a little dumpy when it comes to the bars and walk up anytime food places. Akumal is a little nicer and centered between the other two so getting around is simple. Coba is the newest. Has nicer rooms, nicer pools and is just generally nicer all around. And the best part is... your all-inclusive bracelet gives you access to all 3 resorts so you can check out the best parts of all 3 without having to live in the crappier parts. We stayed in Coba.
THE BEACHES - TWO THUMBS UP! Coba's only downfall is that it's the only one of the 3 with no ocean beach. Akumal's beach is great for kids. There are sand breakers all around it so the VERY ROUGH Caribbean Sea is a gentle giant by the time it reaches the swimming area. This makes it good for snorkeling (Bring your own - I'll discuss later), swimming with the kids or just soaking with a beer in your hand. Akumal's beach also has a Swing Bar on the beach. (Swing... Not Swinger) The Tulum beach is more for the party crowd. They have lots of beach volleyball and water sports going on... the DJ is laying it down all day at poolside and it's a pretty fun place to spend a day. The water however is no place for children. The Caribbean Sea unleashes hell on the beach all day and while it's fun to go out there and get slammed around by the ocean it was probably much more dangerous than we realized. They have sand bars but they're staggered one in front of the other so basically you go between two of them and try to keep your lungs filled with air while bouncing back and forth off two immovable objects and some times right over them and consider that fun. (Hence most of the injuries to my legs and feet) Fun for a while but unless you're over 5 foot 6 and have a reasonably good grasp on swimming... this probably isn't a smart idea. Come to think of it... probably wasn't a smart idea period. Especially since the red flags were up at all of the beaches the whole week. I'd estimate the waves were between 6-12 feet at times. Most of the water sports offered at the resort are included at no charge but with the red flags out they don't give you the equipment. So even though I wanted to snorkel in the very safe Akumal beach... they wouldn't give me the gear so bring your own. The one good part about the beaches is even a good 100 yards out... the water was never deeper than I was.
FOOD - TWO THUMBS UP! The food was for the most part OUTSTANDING. Some of the Ala Carts oddly weren't outstanding but the inclusive buffets were always good. Arlequin and LeGourmet are must visits for Ala Carts. Avoid Mediterranean and Dolce Vida (1 of 2 Italian). The Japanese Ala Cart was the talk of the resort but we couldn't get in. BOOK ALL OF YOUR ALA CARTS AT ONCE THE DAY YOU GET THERE OR YOU MIGHT MISS OUT. Avoid the Snack shack near the beach in Tulum. Really gross. Dirty tables and chairs and the food is just greasy crap.
THE BAD PART OF THE RESORT - TWO MASSIVE THUMBS DOWN - For some reason we could never find any people part about midnight. The place kind of shuts down. There is a disco on the resort but even that was thinly lined with people the one night we went there. We paid extra to be a "GOLDEN GUEST". We had people tell us as a golden guest in other places they got exclusive restaurants, private buffets, private pools, private beaches, etc. We pretty much got squat. As GOLDEN GUESTS we received 1 extra Ala Cart Restaurant Meal. We got 4 total... the peasants get 3. And we had a "Golden Reception" building with a bar and 4 internet connected computers that were supposed to be exclusive for our use. Truth is... no one was checking anyone's bracelets so anyone who happened to stumble across the place and realized there were computers inside could and WAS using them. Besides that... most of the resort had wi-fi so if you brought a laptop you had internet without waiting in line for someone to read email jokes to their friend for a half hour.
Another brutal part was their "Baggage Security." Our flight was at midnight. We had to check out at Noon. So for 12 hours our luggage sat in limbo. We were told they had a "Secure" area to leave our luggage that we would have access to if we needed it. The first two times we accessed it there was no one there monitoring anything and it was litterly sitting in a room with a door wide open to the outside. I accessed our bags to get a change of clothes but quite frankly I could have accessed just about anything I wanted no questions asked. And the one time I went in there when someone was working there he asked me if I was leaving. I said no... just getting something out of my bag and he said... OK. Didn't even need to prove it was mine. BRUTAL!!
OFF-SIGHT LOCATIONS TO VISIT -
Xel-Ha (Shell-Hah) - TWO THUMBS UP! Very cool water park with outstanding snorkeling, Swimming with the dolphins, inclusive bars, cliff jumping (We lost one of the water cameras... not sure if I have a pic) and restaurants and a "neat idea at the time" tubing experience. Basically, you go to the far end of the place... get in a tube and float to the other end. Or at least that's the idea. When there's a hurricane blowing in your face... you paddle your ass of for 3 hours till your arms and legs feel like they're falling off and you're miserable then crawl out of the water and go home. By the way... the people at the resort will try to get you to go to Xel-Ha for all these wonderful reasons. But, they forget to mention swimming with the Dolphins. They do this because they're trying to get you to do another place with exclusive swimming with the dolphins stuff. Save your money and hit Xel-Ha. Really great place to spend a day. Booked through a tour it was about $90 bucks a person for a FULL DAY 9AM-5PM including a bus ride there and back. We looked at our options to get there ourselves for cheaper but unlike some of the other places... you're hard pressed to do it much cheaper yourself. Their pamphlet says it's $79US for admission so we basically paid $11 for a return bus trip. (SWIMMING WITH THE DOLPHINS IS NOT INCLUDED IN THAT PRICE - Cough up another $150US)
- Aktun-Chen - ONE THUMB UP! Free ride from Bahia Principe to and from... and only cost us $50US per person to go on about 1KM of zip line fun... and snorkeling in a 3000 year old Cenote (Underground water cave). I'm sure there are MUCH bigger Cenote's elsewhere that you could spend forever in but you're allowed as long as you want in this one. An hour and a half tops is probably as long as you'll want to be there. We didn't do it... but you can also go on a guided walking tour through a cave as well. Everything cost a pile of money to do in Mexico and this was about as affordable as it gets.
- Town of Playa Del-Carmen - ONE THUMB UP! It's the town everyone goes to for shopping at it's famous 5th Avenue. Tip - Avoid Senor Frogs unless you don't want your money. They'll take it. And while it's pretty much essential to complete any trip to the Mayan Riviera... you'll find the best deals there for shopping but be prepared to feel uncomfortable. They are aggressive and in your face and don't like to take no for an answer. Sometimes they're very rude. We took the Collect-a-Bus there. (Collectivo) It's only $3 each way and while it's affordable... it's a little tricky to find the Collectivo when you want to leave. They're a little off the path. Most of the shops there will bargain with you ALOT. The first place we went to I hadn't even said no to a guy. I picked up an item and asked how much. He said $40. As I starred at it he said... "for you $35." I set it down and looked at something else and he said $30... then $25... then $20. When I left blocked me on the street and offered it to me for $15. I promised him we would be heading back in his direction again and that I would return. The same item was available in almost ever shop but no one would come even close to his offer. The lowest I could get was $25. I returned and bought it from him and he thought that was pretty great. I had a Canada hat on and he had plenty of good things to say about Canadians. I wore my Rider jersey there... don't do it. Everyone wants it and will badger you constantly to get it. I had one guy ask me... "how much did you pay for that jersey?" My answer was "$160." His reply... "I'll give you $20." Now I know how they feel on a daily basis... perhaps he was making a point. And while it's pretty safe on the main strip you should probably stick together. I was offered drugs on more than one occasion... everything from marijuana to cocaine. And a couple of dudes tried to get us to come in to a darkly lit building to eye up a few of their ladies.
Tulum Ruins - TWO THUMBS UP! Take the Collectivo. Cheap to get there at $3US each way... there is a little bit of shopping in the town and the ruins are a must see. Only $5US per person to get in to the Ruins. There are other Ruins such as Coba and the legendary Chichen-Itza (One of the 7 Wonders of the World) but sadly we didn't make it to these. It was very expensive and we thought it would be a "Maybe Next Time."
More pictures to follow soon.
Good to be back!
DAR
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