A story of excess.

We had left off in Bariloche, Argentina...

1 bus, 5 planes and 3 days later?

Goin' to Mexico

Viva Mexico!

So we have decided to finish our trip in style, with an all inclusive vacation! Ahhh, margaritas by the pool, a choice of delightful French, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean or Asian Cuisine, beautiful sunsets, clear blue water…. This is the life.

Sitting at the sunset

Not that all we did was sit around. No no no, 11 am was pool volleyball! Gotta burn those calories off right? Oh and don’t forget beach volleyball at 3 pm! I know, the schedule was very tight. It was tough to fit in breakfast before pool volleyball, and then getting lunch in before beach volleyball. At times it could just be a down right rush to finish lunch… But all in the name exercise. Oh and let’s not forget the dance party after dinner. Tough life.

 In case I am painting a pathetic picture of laziness and gorging, I should point out that we did fill our time with some actual activities. Scuba for instance. After carrying our scuba books all around South America, we would finally use them to finish our open water certification. Or so I thought. While I spent hours and hours and hours studying on the plane, Andrea barely cracked the cover.  It didn’t matter. We didn’t even get to see the test questions. We were given a bubble sheet and the answers, and told to finish it quick, because we were leaving in 30 minutes to finish our certification in the ocean. Oh don’t worry though, we splashed in the pool for at least 20 minutes  in our official pool session.  But hey, 1 hour, 2 dives later and you are now looking at 2 officially certified divers. Bazinga!

Mayan ruins and cenotes. First let me rewind and tell you a little story about how we scored a free car rental.  We must have been the only backpackers at this 4 ½ star resort, and while we tried to hide it, little things like walking through the lobby with our big backpacks while everyone else uses the concierge to carry theirs really tipped our hand. Oh and then there was the fact that we bused it to town, then sent 4 taxis on their way because they cost too much, negotiated the set rate down 50 pesos and spent 2 hours to get to a resort 30 minutes from the airport, all in the name of saving 10 bucks. Oh ya the car rental. In exchange for a car rental all we had to do was let the resort sell us on a lifetime package to their resorts for an hour and a half. Ha, an hour and a half with a private salesmen.  I almost felt bad at the end when we told him we were broke and had no jobs. He believed us right?

Mayan ruins and cenotes. The cenotes are sinkholes formed from underground water systems. So cool! Take a look at the pics!

Dos Ojos Cenotes

We’ve seen lots of ruins on this trip, spectacular ruins, so it was hard to get excited for the Mayan ruins in Tulum. But built on the side of a cliff facing crystal clear water, these ruins were pretty cool. Once again, take a look at the pics!

Mayan ruins, Tulum, Mexico

Mayan ruins, Tulum, Mexico

Mayan ruins, Tulum, Mexico

Alas all good things must come to an end. But we ain’t leavin this resort until we wring all the free food out of it that we can. 11 am checkout? Just tip the bell boy, he’ll keep our bags safe till we leave at 11 pm. In the meantime, its 10:55 am, pool volleyball starts in 5 minutes!