Hola, Mexico!

View from our balcony ... loved drinking our morning coffee to this sight!

I can't believe we've been back for five days already from our getaway to the Riviera Maya in Mexico!  This "escape" was long overdue.  In just the past two months we attended (and worked on for 2 months prior) our daughter's wedding, played tourists in New Orleans, participated in the "World's Largest Crawfish Boil", attended our daughter's graduation from LSU, rode bikes through the streets of New Orleans for a good friend's bicycle wedding, evicted a tenant from one of our rentals & dealt with the filth they left behind, and have been dealing with the on again/off again (on when we left, off right in middle of our trip, and back on for now) sale of our largest rental.  (I hadn't mentioned too much about this, because it's been very stressful and very unstable.  It would be a huge step towards cruising).  This was all while working 5-6 days a week!  Our minds and bodies needed this vacation.  And, we were also celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary a little early ... it's tomorrow!  In some ways it doesn't seem like we've been together for most of our lives.  We're glad we're able to celebrate so many years together, and the future looks pretty exciting.

With thinking (that always gets us in trouble) that the real estate deal was "sealed" and just waiting for closing, we left everything behind for paradise.  On the evening of Thursday, May 29th, we arrived at the all-inclusive "Catalonia Riviera Maya" resort in the gated community of Puerto Aventuras.  It's just South of Playa del Carmen and North of Tulum and Akumal, which was the perfect location for exploring all three areas.  It's also just across the Gulf of Mexico from us, but for some reason we had to fly from New Orleans, to Houston, and then to Cancun ... all day.  Where's the direct flight?!

The grounds of the resort were beautiful ... very lush and tropical!  There were five pools, a swim-up bar (a must for us), free bicycles to tour the area and check out the nearby marina, about seven restaurants, and free sails on Hobie cat sailboats!

Ken walking to the main lobby ...

Another view from below the lobby ...

We found this nice welcome for our anniversary ...

and this cute little lady!

There were several areas to lounge and enjoy the views ...

and we spent a good bit of time at the "Pure Chill Out Bar".

This was our view from our chairs ... perfect for "chillin' out"!

The first morning we grabbed some bikes and rode about five minutes to the marina.  It was very pretty and quiet, with a lagoon that had dolphin and manatee.  While we wouldn't pay to swim with either, it was fun to check them out.  We also went to the marina's office to see how much they charge for liveaboards ... for our 30 foot boat it would be $600 per month.  We didn't think that was bad for such a nice marina in a resort area.  The clerk asked what date we wanted to book our stay ... I wish we knew!

We then returned the bikes, had lunch and then hung out on the beach for most of the day, while waiters would bring us cocktails and snacks ... heaven!  We also started saying "Hola" ... the Mexican greeting.  I swear we must have said it about twenty times a day.  Everyone was so friendly.

This is an overhead view of where we hung out that day ... the "Pure" lounge area by the beach.

and this was the entrance, with the bar to the right of the picture.

While waiters attended to us, we weren't far from the bar!

This was our view!

Later in the day we moved to the pool ...

and the pool bar.  There's Ken sitting at the end, on the right ... his favorite spot!

It took a while, but by the end of the day we could feel our worries melt away.  The next day (and next post) ... the Mayan ruins in Tulum!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!