Post 17 - MEXICO

So, I guess it's been a while since our last post, and Julie says it's my turn to do the blog.  Here it goes.  Basically, the Mexico trip trumps anything else that I could talk about, so it's going to be all about Mexico.  We went on a week-long all-inclusive trip to the Mayan Riviera.  It was our second time in 6 months...we obviously enjoyed it the first time.  Julie had the week off from work because her dentist was going on vacation, and she didn't want to waste her time off at home, so we (I) really had no choice.  We stayed at a different resort this time.  

It was the Iberostar between Playa del Carmen and Cancun.  It was an absolutely massive resort compared to last December and it came with some obvious pluses.  There was about a kilometre of continuous pool at our resort, with swim-up bars dispersed throughout.  It was nice to be able to be in different places each day and to spend time exploring the pool instead of just sitting in the one little corner.  Plus, the water was soooo nice.  It was the perfect temperature to just sit in comfortably for hours.  

Same goes for the ocean during June.  Water was perfect, and the beach at our resort was amazing!  Julie has been to a lot of beaches in her days, and she says it's easily one of the best she's ever been to.

 The resort was actually 5 resorts all connected together with a little mall area in the middle where you can go shopping, and they also had a taco place, hamburger place, and a crepe and ice-cream place there as well that were all included in the all inclusive deal.  We got tacos and crepes a few times, even though it was kinda far from our place.  

We got to choose 3 a la carte restaurants to eat at, so we chose Japanese, Mediterranean, and the steak house.  They were all pretty good, but our favourite was probably the Mediterranean place were we both got the steak and lobster tail.  

We also went on a snorkelling excursion where we went to 2 cenotes, which is part of an underground system of fresh water rivers in the area that run from the mountains out to the sea.  Sometimes they form underground grotto-type things of fresh water that you can go snorkelling in.  The underground cave part was cool with all the stalagmites  and stuff.  We also went to one were the roof collapsed ages ago so that it's all open air now.  It was pretty cool.  

After lunch we went to Yal cul, which is cool because it is where a couple of underground rivers empty out into the ocean, so the fresh and salt water mix there, except that they don't really mix.  It's like oil and water for some reason, and the salt water is denser so it goes to the bottom.  There fresh water is much colder, so it is really cool how you can be going along and feel some really cold water, but if you just stick your hand down a few feet the water feels really warm.  The only annoying thing is that sometimes the mixing water can make everything cloudy and make it hard to see, but did manage to see a bunch of really cool fish, as well as a couple of sting rays.  

 
 

 All in all, our trip was really great.  Next time I would try to be smarter and avoid getting burnt the first day, and I would prefer to come home without some travellers diarrhea, but I doubt we'll ever go again, so I probably don't have to worry about it.  We've been home a couple of weeks now and had time to recover and get back into the swing of things, and only one really noteworthy thing has happened.  I finally got my official offer to study medicine at UQ in Australia, so now it's official!  It's nice to KNOW where we're going to be for the next little while, even though moving to Australia seems completely daunting.  We're just worrying about one thing at a time and working through it all.  We are excited for all that's coming: baby, move to Australia, medical school...so stay tuned!