Hello out there, welcome to another adventure with the Findlaters.
This Blog is the first part of our adventure-packed week in Mexico. I have decided to break it up over several blogs as there is just so much going on and I want you to be able to read about all of it.
So without further adiu lets get straight into it.
This trip is completely courtesy of Kyran's boss who decided that all the boys had worked so hard that they deserved a holiday so he paid for the boys and their +1s to go to Mexico for a week. An all-inclusive resort in Mexico - I guess I'll go if I have to!!!
So in total there are 16 in our group of people and the only rule is that we have to try to meet up for dinner every night. Aside from that we are free to roam wherever we want and probably not see each other (the place is huge!).
Arrival
I came in from England and everyone else came in from Canada. As you will know from our previous blog Kyran has been in Canada working hard for the past month so it was just me coming from England.
I arrived the day before everyone else so I needed to get my own hotel for one night before meeting up with the rest of the team the next day.
This trip was my second time in Mexico. My first time was when I was 12 and I crossed the US Mexico Border with my family. My first experience of Mexico at the border at such a young age had me a little worried about arriving by myself in the middle of the night.
I did have one card up my sleeve though. I speak Spanish! so at the very lest I can explain myself.
So I arrived an hour or so before midnight and managed to get the airport shuttle to the hotel that was nearby (Courtyard hotel by Marriot). I spent the next day by the pool laying in a hammock and even fell asleep and managed to wake up just before I got sunburned.
I can't really describe the relief it was to have the sun on my face! As well as the salty ocean air! England is very nice, don't get me wrong, but after being there with the humid winter where the cold goes straight to your bones it was so good to just sit in the sun. I have been in mexico two days now and I think that my bones are just now starting to thaw.
Anyways onward!
I returned to the Cancun airport two hours early as I had to check out of the hotel by 2pm and Kyran with the rest of the work team arrived at 4ish which ended up being a bit later.
I was waiting that the airport so long that the locals that were standing around with the signs started to mock me. They were like "Lady are you sure they are even coming?" but in the end they did arrive, and we caught our bus transfer to the resort we will be staying at for the next few days.
The resort ended up being about an hours drive from the Cancun airport. The hotel that were are staying at is called the:
Barceló Maya Colonial 5-Star Hotel
If you want to check it out I have added a link to their web page below
www.barcelo.com/en-us/hotels/mexico/riviera-maya/barcelo-maya-colonial
Below: Photos from around the resort.
If you follow our blog you will know that we were also recently in France and I took my cousin and Kyran to see the palace of Versailles and I can tell you that these resorts in Mexico put the palace of Versailles to shame.
I guess what I am trying to say is that this place is huge and the opulence in contrast to the local poverty stirred a sort of sick feeling in my stomach. But as with everything, you do get use to it.
I don't know what the wage is here in Mexico but I would think that it is pretty low because there are so many staff bustling about like worker ants. They are everywhere! You sit down on a couch some where and there is suddenly someone asking you if they can bring you a drink.
I guess this is probably a good time to mention that this is an all inclusive resort so all food and alcohol included.
I think there are around 4 buffet restaurants that you can just walk into and eat till you want to throw up. There are bars and waiters that will walk around the hotel and keep all the fluids up to you. Even out on the beach there are boys that bring you drinks.
So lets start with the first story about Kyran and his "Hot chilli" (a Habanero Chilli Pepper) encounter.
So the Buffet as I have mentioned is in keeping with the rest of the resort - it is huge and with way more food then probably exist in the rest of the country altogether (I know i'm exaggerating).
Well out of all the food on offer kyran managed to find this sliced onion and chilli thing and decided to have a go at it... he didn't know it was hot in his defense...
He ate half one of the green chillies above , and then sat there quietly focusing on trying to stay alive. We kind of noticed Kyran had gone quiet and looked white like a ghost. When prompted he informed us that he just might fall off the chair and die.
It was hilarious as I have not (until this day) seen Kyran meet his match with a chilli but it seems that the Mexican chillies have won this round!!
The joke ended up being on me too because this morning for breakfast I thought I spotted Guaccamole and added it with gay abandon to my plate - all over everything - and then spilled a bit on the side of my plate. I used my finger to clean it up and licked it and nearly keeled over and died myself!! Turns out this green goo was not guaccamole, it was a sauce made from the same deadly green chilli as Kyran encountered the night before.
So if you are ever in Mexico watch out for anything green or with the word Habanero in it - they like to hide their little chillis in everything just to watch us white fellas sweat!!
OK just some more quick photos from around the hotel:
Above: Kyran and I at the check-in desk
Below Left: One of the many statues around the hotel
Below Right: Table center pieces like this were all over the hotel.
Below: Kyran and I with Captain Morgan at one of the many buffets/ bars around the hotel.
Above: One of the many flowers that are out and about.
Below: A fancy outside part of the Mayan Mall bar.
Above: Kyran in the pool
Later in the afternoon we decided to go and sit in the sun like the white lizards that we are and we came across the rest of our group who were playing beach volley ball so Kyran got in and had a play and I hid in the shade trying not to get sunburned on my first day. Turns out I had the right idea and everyone else started their holiday with rather unhealthy looking burns.
One last story before I go.
The Photo to the left is of the inside of the roof of one of the Buffets. One of the first things that I noticed was the distinct lack of pigeons and doves (feral birds that show up whereever there is food) etc.
I thought "geez this is wonderful I wonder how they do it!?". Later one day we came across the girls in the picture below who are walking around with predator birds (Not sure what species) so I guess the answer is, if you are a big enough resort you can afford to have trained predator birds to keep the other flying pests away.
What a great way to control the pest population!
Ok well that is the end of this blog for now, as I sit in the spacious open-plan and open-air hotel lobby with water fountains trickling all around me. It is a quarter to 10 pm and there is a Circus show on in the theater /auditorium where the Fantasia show was yesterday so I am going to meet up with the team. I have also been warned that there might be some skinny-dipping in the dolphin water fountain tonight!
I will try to keep you updated day by day but it is going to be a jammed packed adventure filled week.
Until the next blog, thank you for reading!!
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