Sunday night we returned from Brad's special adventure of his choice down to Playa del Carmen in Mexico on the Caribbean coast. This was a pretty chill vacation at an all inclusive resort so we had all of our food and fun there with the exception of one excursion. I didn't take a million pictures of you can believe it! The Caribbean coasts are all battling sargassum blooms right now, so the beaches were pretty stinky and the water was gross. Unfortunately not a lot of time was spent on the beach which makes me sad, but we enjoyed many other things at the resort.
Our trip was booked through the JetBlue vacation bundle which gave us a few perks including free drinks on the flights! Of course Brad had to skip that one...but I happened to have a couple girlfriends with me so we had a sip for him! We headed out early Wednesday morning from Buffalo and after a layover in Orlando, we arrived in Cancun around 2pm and the shuttle dropped us off at the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort in Playa del Carmen by 3pm.
It was a beautiful resort with wonderful staff. Within 10 minutes of arriving we had already seen peacocks, coati, and monkeys!
We all shared a large family room which had a minibar and a patio. Another friend of mine grabbed a ticket at the last minute and met up with us later that day.
After resting and refreshing we grabbed some drinks then scouted out our food options. Other than some restaurants that required reservations, there was a large buffet and a taco bar. We ate some tacos then walked around the resort for awhile to get a feel for the layout. We grabbed dinner at the buffet, and knew we had to see the 9pm show which was a Michael Jackson tribute.
This show was absolutely amazing! The dancing, the choreography, the costumes, the live band, all with it being 90° and 80% humidity. I don't think he was really singing, but he was very convincing!!
We got some much needed rest after that.
The next day we all joined a kayak group for an hour as we explored a ways out from the beach. The guide didn't really give us any info...but it was nice to get out of the seaweed and into better water.
After kayaking Brad went on his way, and we all got the breakfast buffet! Very yummy.
The rest of the day we just mosied around the pool and the bars seeing where everything was. Brad enjoyed the water park for awhile so we meet up with him there and went down the slides as well.
We quickly learned there were coati everywhere! At night the racoons came out also.
The sad beach ...
Baby coati
Agouti
I managed to snag us dinner reservations on Thursday night for the Italian restaurant, so we all got cleaned up and enjoyed a nice dinner there. I ordered the chicken parmesan which was decent. Brad got grilled salmon and said it was good.
There were a few shops there so after dinner we checked them out and Brad discovered one of the local cats inside. They loved getting pets .
Friday started out pretty chill. I had coffee on the patio then we all went to breakfast. Brad and I rode bikes on the bike trail for a bit, then we met our shuttle at noon for our excursion off the resort. He really wanted to do something "adventurous", so I booked us a trip with ATVs, zip lining, and cenote swimming/cliff jumping.
The downside was they did not let us take our camera with us!! So I have zero pics of our fun except this one at the cenote, and of the fire dancers afterwards for a show. Brad got to drive his first ATV and did really well!
Back at the resort we rested for a bit then changed for dinner. On the way we saw several monkeys overhead! Dinner was at the buffet this night.
For Saturday all of us girls booked a private snorkel trip from the resort for the morning! Brad was not interested so he stayed back and did his own thing. We met the boat at 8am and hopped on and headed out to sea. They found us 3 different reefs to explore and we saw tons of great wildlife and coral. I got to swim with turtles, stingrays, and manta rays. I saw colorful fish, squid, and lionfish!
We met Brad for lunch once we got back, then we returned to the pool for the afternoon. Some clouds and rain moved in, but we didn't let it spoil the fun! Just cover your drink and enjoy!
I got us all a reservation at the Hibachi restaurant for our last night so we all enjoyed the dinner show and good food. It was super HOT in the restaurant which was the only downside.
The next morning we went left for the airport at 730am, had a long layover at JFK, and didn't land in Buffalo until midnight! Plus another hour to drive back to Albion made for a long travel day.
Another fun trip in the books, and Brad had a great time!
