So… I had ALL the fancy drinks the day before… so the next morning was a little shaky start.  Yes, I took the liquid IV, and yes it helped… no nausea or headache really.  Just feeling out of sorts.  I mean, I can’t drink from 10 AM to midnight without coming up for air and expect no ill effects…

We decided since we had come all this way to Mexico we should at least go see the beach.  One person in our group is a BIG beach person.  One is indifferent… and then there’s me.  I’m one of those people who likes to be in the ocean and SEE the beach… but even I figured we should at least go…  Even though there are 3 of us, there were only 2 towels in our room.  They left 2 towels every day.  I found that odd.  Couldn’t they see three beds?  Of course, you can always get more from your concierge, but they’re not always there.  Anyway, we decided we’d leave those there for later.  When we called to ask if we’d be able to get some at the beach, we were told we could.  That turned out not to be true.  I like how at Excellence they leave a towel rolled up on every single chair and have extra stations for grabbing towels EVERYWHERE.  But that’s a pretty minor complaint. It’s not like you need a towel card or anything.  Valentin is awesome!

We went to the breakfast buffet at Mar y Tierra.  It was going to be a hot day and it was HOT by 9 AM.  Mar y Tierra is all outside… and my sweat was making my sunscreen drip into my eyeballs.  And you know how that is?  Once it starts you can’t even open your eyes into the sun?   Not a great start to my day.  Plus, I find breakfast buffets overwhelming.  I end up getting like a croissant, a sausage link, 3 slices of cheese, and a mango because it’s just so much stuff!

From there, we decided to walk down to the beach.  We actually exited the “wrong way” from the back of the restaurant, but that turned out to be a happy accident.  We took the path to the right instead of the left, so we had to walk a long way down the beach to get to the swimming area…but it was a GORGEOUS walk.  I had heard that the seaweed the further south you get of Cancun has been really really bad for the last few years… and had  been really bad as recently as last week.  We had NONE of that.  It was GLORIOUS.  There was none on the beach OR in the water.

 

 

One of my friend’s coworkers mentioned to her before she went how bad he felt for her “having to go to Cancun” because of how bad the seaweed was.  At one point she picked up one tiny piece and said, “Look at ALL this seaweed.” and laughed at the silliness. Now, I know we just got lucky… but BOY did we.  We walked down to the beach bar with the swings.  (Sunrise?  Maybe?  I don’t know.  We never did really look at the map and that’s the only one we went to.)   It was all shady and literally cool in there with the breeze coming off the water.

 

Again, as soon as the bar opened promptly at 10 AM, there was someone coming by to give us drinks of the day to try.  (You can get drinks with breakfast before 10.  It’s just that the bars open at 10.)  From there, we went in search of towels.  The main pool is right up the pathway, and they have them at the water sports place.  So we grabbed some and walked down the jungle path right across (it felt like a secret passage) to get a spot on the beach.  The water was gorgeous, so there were ZERO open shaded spots in the swimming area at 10:30 AM, but there were plenty of sunny ones.  So we found three together and went in the water for awhile.  It’s not the clear, clear turquoise that I remember from the hotel zone in the mid 90s.  It was more of a mint green hue and slightly more milky than crystal… but still beautiful.  And it feels cool and comfortable in the water.

We went back to the beach and saw a palapa opening behind us.  We snagged it and ordered some drinks.  Drink service was VERY slow on the beach and size of the drinks was smaller than at the pools.  I only saw one server, and she needed to go all the way back to the pool bar to get the drinks filled.  I could have handed her my tumbler to have filled; then, I’m sure drinks would have been the same size.  I just feel bad doing that… making them carry those heavy tumblers on the hot days.  I usually just order the drink in the regular cups and pour it in to my tumbler myself.

After a little more time in the ocean, I really was getting hot.  I STILL had stupid sunscreen in my eyes.  I told my friends that I was all salt watered and sanded out, so I was going to hang at the main pool for awhile.  I was thinking I might go see what was happening at the party end.  I LOVE the feeling of an outdoor shower and getting all the sand and salt off…  I was trying to rinse my eyes the best I could, too.  As I walked over to the pool, I was kind of trying to see if there were open spots.  I saw all the reserved privilege beds.  I didn’t really see any bodies in them.  I saw no other spots with shade.  But then, I saw an open table right by the bar… and they were grilling HAMBURGERS!   Eureka!!!  I had literally only had a few bites for breakfast… and I was STARVING.  Hamburgers!   They had cheese and all the fixings out there, too!   Boy did that hit the spot!!!  My friends showed up quite quickly.  We decided since there really weren’t many places at the main pool, we’d just go back to our swim up and hang out there.

Again, the service at the golden pool was spectacular….  More mini beer shots needed to happen!   I discovered mango mojitos and LOVED them.  Late afternoon we were still hungry and ordered room service vegetarian quesadillas.  They were terrific.  All that sun, fun, and drinking made it a great afternoon to take a really long nap.  I think I slept for almost 2 hours?  By the time we all woke up and got moving it was significantly later than I usually go to dinner at resorts.  I’m usually a “when they open”  kinda person, and I’ve never had a wait.  I saw what happens when you don’t.  We left the room at around 7:30. We did our own personal photo shoot (channeling our 20-something selves, 20-something years later) for our last night there while we were waiting for our golf cart.

 

We decided we were going to go to sushi for an appetizer and then, since we were in Mexico, we were going to try some Mexican for dinner. We’re from Texas, so we have plenty of Tex-Mex, which we know isn’t the same.  We went to Ginger first.  There, they told us it would be an hour wait.  I said we just wanted to sit at the sushi bar… not a table.  They still said an hour.  So then, we walked over to La Hacienda to decide if that one was the same, what our plan would be.  The walk over was STUNNING.  Oh, the sunset.  None of these pictures have any kind of filter on them.

 

The courtyard at La Hacienda at dinner was so pretty!   The lights were twinkling.  It was just lovely!   And SO HOT.  We said we wanted to wait to sit inside. They said it would be about another 45 minutes and to come back.  We went back to Don Miguel.  We sat at a table and service was slow and sort of odd.  I think something must have been lost in translation.  I ordered a hibiscus martini, which I ended up not caring for.  My friends ordered “five secrets” martinis, of which they also were not particularly fond, but it’s fun to try new things.  When we got to the restaurant, my friend Heather wasn’t feeling well.  It wasn’t anything particular, just too hot, too many weird drinks, so she decided to go back to the room.  I’m not gonna lie.  It made me INCREDIBLY nervous to let someone go back to the room alone, but she assured me she was fine and would let me know as soon as she got to the room.  I’m glad that wifi generally work really well at the resort.  She let me know and was fine.

I had the octopus ceviche appetizer.  It was okay, but it wasn’t cold enough and the texture was odd.  The corn soup, however, was very rich with just one little wonderful dollop of goat cheese.  Finally, I had the chicken with mole.  The mole was absolutely fantastic!

When we were leaving, we considered going to the circus show, but wow that theater was hot…Plus we wanted to check on our friend.  We made our way back to the room and got ready to say goodbye to the resort the next day.