Shammy's Trip Report! (hope ya have some time to kill!) - Page 4

**Shammy** · 05-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by miso

Sammy, great report and thanks for posting pics. Forgive me for my next question. Which resort did you go to? How were the beds and air conditioning in the rooms? Did they have any jacuzi's outside and was it heated?

TIA,
M

Ohhh, don't mix me up with "Sammy"! Been there, done that and it wasn't pretty! (remember Steve?

) SHammy..with an "H"!

Anyway, I went to the Bahia Principe (which I think I must have said somewhere in these last 3 pages!), the beds were hard but didn't bother me or anyone else in the family, the A/C in our first room was a tad "off" but in the second room it was fine and no, there were no heated jacuzzi's outside that I saw. They did have "jacuzzi's" built into the pool but they were pool temp. In the summer, they'd be plenty hot though!

OK, after 14 hours, I'm done for the day, can't type another word.

But I shall get up tomorrow and add to the report before I start working on anything else! I, just like everyone else, hate when these things get drawn out!

Sarah....I certainly CAN see Evee and Seanee in that underwater picture!
How cute!

And Don, thanks for filling in the missing part of the van ride that I wasn't on, so obviously couldn't tawlk about (like that's ever stopped me from tawlking?)
Your ayuda is mucho appreciated senor!

TnJ · 05-17-2005

not 2 worry, Shammy. the suspense is building, like in a MichaelHolmes report

**Shammy** · 05-17-2005

WEDNESDAY APRIL 27th

Tour day!

Pick up was scheduled for 8:15AM so we got up bright and early in order to catch some breakfast before the trip to Tulum. Lunch was bound to be hours away and we knew the kids couldn't last so we stuffed them up but good. Bet ya didn't know a 9 year old could polish off a bottle of syrup all by himself, did ya?

We waited outside the lobby but by 8:30, there was no sign of the van. Many vans pulled up, lots of Alltournative vans and some big busses, but none of the vans were ours. The kids were beginning to get nervous but I was a rock, knew they'd be there because they said they would...no worries mon! Shortly after the third or forth kid panic attack, a van pulls up and who gets out but my pal Don (ynotbnplaya)!

I had not seen Don since last November and ran up to give him a big hug! We got in the van and saw Don's wifey Nancy, Sarah and dad, Pam and Tim, Chris and Tim (will we be able to keep the Tim's straight?), Mitch and Jesus (golly, I hope that was the driver's name!). So many great people made this day even more fun than any of us Shammy's could have ever imagined! Awesome indeed!
We head off to Tulum, Mitch gets us the best guide ever (and he had to fight for him too!) and we set off into the steamy world of the Tulum ruins. We walk, sweat, listen, sweat, take pics, sweat, feed an iguana, sweat, stand in a sprinkler trying to wash the sweat off, realize we should not have worn flip flops here as now we have VERY muddy feet, sweat, see the pj4texas clan, rumored to see Sideways (although I must have blacked out from the heat because this I don't remember this!) and finally, sweat. I do need to mention that it is very hot in Tulum but knowing that we were getting ever so close to dunking into Gran Cenote made it MUCH easier to take!

Here's the Shammy family in Tulum:

Another friend in Tulum:

We leave Tulum behind and next land at Gran Cenote, where Jesus heads off to pick up our lunch and we got to bathe...I mean snorkel in the crystal cool waters of the cenote.

Yes, the water was a tiny bit chilly but there are no words to describe how good it felt after the heat of Tulum. The 40 pounds I sweated off were immediately gained back the minute my body hit the water! The only one that had trouble getting in is my skinny son Sean, who usually required thermal underwear when we hit the beach here in Joisey. Maybe a little more meat on his bones would help, but he was reluctant to get in the water because it was too cold for him. We told him this may be a once in a lifetime thing so "get your ass in the water and enjoy it" and with some wonderful help from Mitch, Sean was got in and began to snorkel. He's not very good at it yet but he tried and again, Mitch was great with him. If anyone has worried about how this tour would be for kids, just know that you can't find a better guide than Mitch and he will do EVERYTHING in his power to make your child as comfortable as possible!

Evan getting into Gran Cenote:

Time to move along to the beach in Tulum. I asked Mitch if we would be seeing the same long haired naked guy that Nerak saw and he just gave me a blank look. See, I read Nerak's report so I knew that there was a possibility that I also get to see long haired naked guy! But if not, a beautiful beach and a great lunch would be just fine with me!

We ride down the dustiest road I've ever seen, past lots of small hotels and hostel type places and finally pull into a sandy driveway. This is where we get out. Everyone grabs something from the back of the van and we head past tents pitched in the brush toward the beach. 'What IS this place?" I ask myself. It looks sort of like a commune where I once stayed in Daytona Beach is the 70's! It was a true nature lovers paradise, that's for sure!
We arrive at the beach and the very first thing we all see is two young, naked women dashing out of the ocean and past us, more or less running for cover! The kids were like "Mommy, those girls are NAKED!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Everyone cracks up, 'cept the girls of course, who then come BACK, still naked, to collect their clothes. Well that was interesting, but still no long haired naked guy I thought.

Then to the left of us is a topless woman breast feeding a baby while selling jewelry.
No big deal, the first time my kids hit the beach in another country, this is what they saw so this was not an issue for them either. Still no naked guy though and I was determined to see if this person really did exist. As the others set up lunch, some of us head right for the beautiful ocean for a swim.

This was just a great time, eating a fantastic lunch of roasted chicken, avocado, beans, tortillas, mango, bananas, and a few other assorted goodies. All were VERY good and even Sean, the picky, skinny kid LOVED the chicken! We swam, chatted, relaxed and Chris mentioned how nice it was not to be sitting by the pool at the Bahia listening to the screaming meemies, and I agreed completely!

Lunch time!:

When out of the woods comes long haired guy, but not long haired naked guy...yet!

This was soon accomplished when he stripped down and began to frolic in the waves. This continued for quite some time and then he emerged for some yoga on the beach. Then second naked guy joined in, but no long hair for him. Gotta love it really. *sigh* No desk job for him I thought, and I wished I could stay here forever, free of schedules, busy lives, stress...AND clothes!

Here's something Evan thought would be a lot of fun...until he needed help getting down!:

It was time to pack up and head for Cenote Azul, where we snorkeled more. We fed some mighty big catfish and there were more fishes here than there were in Gran Cenote, so a big more to see.

Chris in Cenote Azul (those black things in the water are catfish!):

Here is where you can jump off the cliff, and this is what Evan had been waiting to do ALLLLL day! He and Chris went up and jumped two times, while I took pictures.

Evan:

Chris:

No jumping for me thank you...I'd like to think I had my last out of the country injury so I took a pass.

I could tell that Sean wanted to, but just couldn't bring himself to do it. As we started to get ready to leave, Sean went missing. Did he head for the woods to go potty, where was he?

We hear him call, look up and there he is standing at the top of the cliff ready to jump! I 'bout freaked because no one was with him, so I sent Chris up. Sean climbed down to a lower cliff area and...and....and...come on Sean, we have to go...and...and....JUMPED! I swear this is something that he will always remember! He wanted to do it again but we were out of time and it was getting late.

Sean...finally!:

We were supposed to part with the group here and take a collectivo back to the Bahia as taking us back down south was really out of the way for the other peeps, but Mitch and Jesus asked the rest of the group if they minded if they took us back. They figured we may have a tough time getting a collectivo that had room for 4 at this time of the day (rush hour!) and they didn't want to leave us on the side of the road with two kids. Everyone agreed that this was OK and we were SOOOO grateful as it was just nice to sit back, take the ride back and not worry about catching a collectivo!
Muchas gracias to Mitch, Jesus, James and Anna for running such a wonderful tour and all those that we met that day. We will never forget what a great time we had! And after finally taking the tour myself, I'm SOO happy that I tell my clients to skip over the "generic" excursions offered by the tour companies and head to Playa.Info and look into taking one of their tours because.....it's absolutely the only way to go!

It was all we could do to pour ourselves out of that van, get a tram from the Hacienda to the Akumal lobby, and then another tram to our building, but we managed (but were dragging!). We showered and went to dinner, which we really should have skipped as we were SO beat from the long day of fun, no one really ate much of anything. We quickly finished and went back to the room to get ready for bed as tomorrow was FAT CAT day, and also the day we would hook up with Evan's friend from home who I had just booked into the Barcelo a few weeks before! Damn, the fun never ends!

On that note, I should mention that we don't think anyone ever came to spray for those ants because when we got back this night, the ants were now on BOTH beds!

The kids were freaking out! I made hubby march over to the Golden Club lobby and tell them we HAD to switch rooms because this was getting ridiculous! The kids BOTH had to sleep with us in ONE bed that night and I won't even get into how difficult it is to sleep with FOUR people in ONE king sized bed! We also has issues with our A/C from day one...didn't work at all the first day and then after they "fixed" it later on that same day, it worked better, but still not great. So a room change was definitely in order. He came back and said they would have something for us in building 66 but not until tomorrow after 3 PM...and they would send someone up ASAP to spray for the ants. A few minutes later came a knock at the door. When Chris opened it, there stood a girl with a can of Raid, and she handed it to Chris and left!

OK, I'd almost rather do it myself anyway. I sprayed the heck out of the wall, took the mattress off the frame and sprayed the frame, sprayed about everything I could. Now we were gagging from the fumes! There was a mighty big wind blowing out there since we were directly in front of the ocean, so we opened both the sliding door to the balcony and the front door of the room and let this wind whip (and I mean whip!) through the room for about 15 minutes! It was like "Auntie Em, Auntie Em...it's a twister Auntie Em!" as everything started swirling off the tables and out the front door! That's OK, we didn't need those pesos or that map anyway!

We had to leave our bags packed and in the room tomorrow so we could have them switched to the new room so at that late hour, and being SO tired, I had to pack up EVERYTHING that I had unpacked several days earlier and that kinda sucked, but I also figured it was sort of like "pre packing" for the way home as we did only have 3 nights left after this one.

We all snuggled into one bed and thank goodness we were exhausted because everyone but me actually was able to sleep most of the night. I was too paranoid that Evan's elbow, that loomed over my head all night, and that I caught about to come crashing down on my nose more than a few times, would kill me before I woke, so I slept with one eye glued on his arm and the other glued on the clock so we wouldn't miss our Fat Cat pick up.

SarahB · 05-17-2005

Shammy, great report again! I can't wait to hear about the Fat Cat, but I am still sad I missed it! That damn wedding in NJ!

**Shammy** · 05-17-2005

THURSDAY APRIL 28th

Fat Cat day! Yeah!

Pick up was at 9:15AM so we had time for some breakfast without being as rushed as we were yesterday. I arrived later at breakfast because I was turning in the keys to the old room and when I got there, I noticed the kids had plated piled high with pancakes, waffles, French toast and Lord knows what else. So much for my instructions to Chris to have them eat light because we were going on a boat that tends to rock JUSTTTT a bit when the weather is kind of windy!

I choose to skip coffee and breakfast and just ate a roll and some yogurt. Yep, when they're all puking in the "White Angel" (seasick buckets on the Fat Cat), let's see who the smart one in the family is! When we finished, I gave everyone a seasick pill just in case and these must really work because NO ONE, even after that giant Fat Boy breakfast, felt even slightly seasick on the boat!

The Fat Cat van arrived almost exactly on time and we were the first ones in. We then headed to the Barcelo to pick up Paula and Steve:

and the Ciaston's, our friends from home, and their two kids Nick(13) and Jeffery (8):

Stacy and Ed:

Nick, Evan, Sean and Jeffrey:

After telling the driver that these folks would be on the Beach side of the resort and still having him pull into the Caribe side and wait, and wait, and wait for someone who wasn't going to ever be there, the driver did listen to me and go over the the Beach side. And as I told him so (but I never say "told ya so"!

), there was everyone ready and waiting. We then head off to the Aventura Spa Palace to pick up two more people, but I didn't catch their names, but they were a VERY nice couple from Canada.

We arrive in Puerto Aventuras and are walked to the Fat Cat dock, where there are already quite a few people waiting to board the boat. We flip off our flip flops and get on the boat, where they take a picture of each group behind the steering wheel that you can purchase for $10 after the sail is over. I don't much go for these organized picture deals but I did buy this one as it came out pretty good (and I hate any and ALL pictures of ME so this was surprising!). Our Captain for the day (besides Kimba) was Diego and I then asked Diego if Jez was coming as I had never met Jez and and I really wanted to. But he says that Jez is taking out the afternoon group so I'm stuck with him, and I wondered if he took my question as an insult so I made a point to explain who I was and why I was asking about Jez later in the day and he then understood. All was well and he had not taken it as an insult.

As we pulled away, Diego introduces the crew and goes over some safety lessons and some do's and don'ts.

The crew:

Capt. Kimba:

Diego:

The Sunshine punch is served and the sail begins.

As I mill around a bit, looking to get out from under the sunshade and get a seat in the sun, I hear someone say "Are you Shammy?" LOL!!!!!!!! Lord help us all when I have become known to strangers on a boat in Mexico!

But these were no strangers, these were my clients, Marty and Tony from Phoenix, who were there for two weeks on their honeymoon!:

I did not know that they would be on the Fat Cat that day but they told me when they realized what day I had booked, they switched their reservation from the day before to the same day as me! I was quite flattered and I think meeting clients while in Mexico, which ALWAYS seems to happen to me anyway, is SUCH a wonderful thing! They then asked why we never had the party at the ****** the past Monday and I informed them that we did indeed have the party.

Marty says "Well, we showed up at 6 PM and waited about an hour but never saw anyone". I then told Marty that the party began at 8PM and NOT 6 PM and that would explain the lack of familiar peep faces!

We anchored at Xaac cove and snorkeled for some time. I was off all by myself almost the whole time, exploring over by the rocks, which were a bit far away from the boat for some of the newbie snorkelers on board, including hubby and kiddies too. It was very peaceful out there, all I could hear was my breathing, and I loved every minute of it. I didn't get to see any stingrays, turtles, barracudas or anything remarkable, but it was all good.

Back on the boat and it was time to head back and also time to drop the boom net! This is again something that Evan had been waiting all day to do so it came as no surprise that he was first in line to do it and had dragged me along with him. Diego told us all many times that it was very important for the men to double knot their bathing suits so that the force of the waves didn't pull them off while in the boom net. He mentioned that this has happened many time before and if it happened today, he'd put your lily white ass on a web site somewhere for all to see. All the men began checking their knots right quick..or so I thought they ALL did. Since Evan and I were first up, we headed over to get our life vests on. Mine must have been fitted to a child, or a very small breasted woman before me because we did have to do some loosening up to get it to go over my, uhhhh....chest area.

After a few tries, the guy who was putting my vest on then said to me "Oooo, BIG ones!", and everyone just cracked up! As every woman who went after me, and had boobs as big as me got fitted, most on the boat chimed in boat said in unison "Ooooo, BIG ones" and it kind of became a running joke from then on.

Diego gave us strict instructions on how to get in and out of the boom net so that we didn't get hurt and we followed them to the letter. It was a great ride and was over all too quickly.

When it was Chris and Sean's turn, I watched carefully because Sean IS kind of small and I was a bit nervous that he would get washed away with the tide. He did very well and again, a helpful, child friendly crew is a huge plus here.

But Sean must have been the one and only person who did not listen (gee, imagine Sean not listening to a grown up? How odd!) to Diego and obviously did not double knot the string on his bathing suit because when he emerged from the boom net, he was half sans his shorts! Was he ever red in the face and white in the hiney!

We all got a good laugh and too bad I didn't have my camera ready. Everyone went (no one else lost their bottoms!) and when all were done, I asked Diego if I could go again, this time with Chris so someone could get a picture of Chris and I together.

I probably should have left well enough alone as he said yes, we went and then when I was climbing out of the boom net at the end of the ride, a wave knocked me down from the top of the rope and I had to use both hands to pull myself up, instead of one hand on the top of the rope and one hand on my bathing suit bottom! Diego thought I was goin overboard so he literally hoisted me out of the net (not an easy task to hoist me anywhere!) me by the back of the life vest and as I made it to the steps, I felt a mighty strange breeze down below and realized that I too had partially lost me bottoms!

Now, I have yet to see any pictures of this, although rumors are swirling that some do exist. Heaven help us all if they ever surface!

We then sail on to Ritchie's Island......

.....and we have some free time where Diego tells us it's OK to dive from the side of the boat into the ocean. Much fun but ladies, I will warn you that when boobs smack against the water from that high up, there may be some pain involved. It begins to rain pretty hard right then and it was kewl to swim in the water when it was pouring. Diego told us we had about 30-35 minutes here but after about 10-15, he told us we had to go. The kids conjured up the thought that he saw a Great White shark in the water and that's why we all had to get out of the ocean! Of course, that's not true but it sounded good when they told the story to their classmates back home.

Sadly, we motor back to the marina and our wonderful day had come to an end. I do finally catch Jez bringing in th afternoon group and yell after him "Jez, hey Jez!" to which he spins around and gives me this blank look like "Who the dickens is this bloke?". I run up, tell him that I'm Shammy!!!

He lifts the sunglasses from my eyes, tells me it was difficult to recognize me without that Boston Red Sux hat and kisses me on the cheek. Awwww....what a kewl guy!
Thanks Jez...and thanks to the rest of your wonderful crew for taking us on a wonderful sail! Hola to Kimba tambien!

We grab the same van and driver back and was are last to be dropped off this time. Tired and a bit hungry, we now have to check back with the Golden Club lobby folk and get the key to our new room. We knew it was in the building next door so I send Chris and the kids over to wait while I grab the key. We enter the room, see no ants, feel cooler air than what was in the previous room, see all our luggage and plop down on the bed barely able to do more than unzip the bag that holds our toiletries so that we can shower and run out for a quick bite to eat. The view from this room (6621) is even more amazing than the last room as there is no building closer than this to the ocean. If you fell off the balcony, you'd land right on the beach! We only had three pillows (as opposed to 8 in the last room!) and were missing towels and those slippers we loved so much so we called to ask them to bring them up. We did get the towels but no pillows or slippers for the rest of the time we were there. But we lived and Chris was able to swipe a pair of slippers for Sean (he loved them most!) the day we checked out as someone has mysteriously left a bag with about 100 pair of slippers right outside our door! The slipper fairy perhaps?

I was plum tuckered out, as losing your bathing suit in front of 20 or so other people is quite an experience, so I made the kids and Chris shower before me while I grabbed a nap. I honestly was too tired to get up, too tired to eat and would have preferred not getting back up at all but they convinced me to wash off the salt and head out for some dinner. So I did, and we did, and then were back in the room, in bed, within 90 minutes! I knew I should have let them go on without me as it wasn't worth the whole getting ready to go out ordeal. We were also missing the third bed in this room and only had the one couch that had never been made up into a bed for Evan so we did have to wait for someone to bring us some sheets. But luckily, the ants that came out at night in the other room did not appear here so Evan was able to sleep in the one bed while Sean took his usual place in-between Chris and I. The whole trip, there was one or both kids sleeping with us! Argh!

**Shammy** · 05-17-2005

FRIDAY APRIL 29th

Today is "do nothing and recover" day! We planned a day at the pool and then wanted to head over to the Tulum side of the Bahia to see how the other half lived. Chris was none to pleased, after having two days off from the towel game, to head out early to reserve a few chairs by the pool. Again I believe I heard the "You suck" comment as he strolled out the door at about 7:30AM but I may have been dreaming.

I was up and on my way out by 9 this morning, a bit later than usual and waited down by the pool for the others to show up for breakfast. Today I was starving, normally I didn't do a breakfast or if I did, it was a small one, but I was really looking forward to eating today as I guess the past two busy days peaked my appetite. Well, breakfast was over at 10:30AM and not having any idea what time it was, my tummy was telling me it was getting very late, and it was also getting very loud with all the rumbles and grumbles going on in there! But no Chris and no kids, and I was beginning to stew as I knew it had to be getting close to the time they would stop serving breakfast.

Lo and behold, after keeping my eyes peeled for them to come around the bend ANY minute, they finally show up...and it was after 11AM! Grrrrrrrrrrrr..........wonderful, now we all have to wait for lunch because no one felt like walking over to the snack bar and eating just munchies. Our tummies were screaming for food! I ask the lady next to us what time lunch starts (we didn't even bother with lunch most days so didn't know when it started) and she says "12PM in the main buffet and 12:30PM in the other restaurants". Great, we're right next to the main buffet and we only have an hour to wait...I can make it. A few before 12, we make our way up to the main buffet only to find out that it too doesn't open until 12:30. Cripes...now I'm gonna die!

A cranky mommy is a nasty mommy so it's about now when the troops begin to scatter expecting the next eruption of Mt. Mother. I compose myself, wait for the buffet to open and when it does, make a mad dash for a table and ask for a cappuccino! Ahhhh....that's what I had been missing, my morning java fix! No wonder I was rude, nasty, short tempered....you get my drift. They make a VERY good cappuccino at the Bahia so I was in heaven and would have been happy with this and not the food if it would have come down like that. But we all did eat and I don't even know what it was but it all tasted great. Can't recall when I had ever been that hungry after 7 days eating resort food.

After lunch, we packed up and walked via the beach to the Tulum side. After about 15 minutes of walking, we figured we had to at about the right area to where the pool was located so we headed upwards. Nope, still no pool so we kept walking via the walkways, which BTW were mighty hot on our bare tootsies. We found one pool, but it was small so I knew it couldn't be the main pool area. We kept going on (and on) and finally asked someone where the next pool was. We were told it was riggggght around the next bend! Just how big WAS this place anyway?

Sheesh! We finally found the pool and of course, there were no chairs left. Nice to know the chair hogs don't all live on the Akumal side!

We dropped our stuff and jumped in the pool because it was mighty hard work walking in the hot sun all the way from the Akumal side! In the past few days, right about when the humidity began to increase (it was quite dry when we arrived), the pools really started to warm up. Well, I don't know if it was because we first jumped into the pool where the swim up bar was, but this pool was downright warm, too warm actually!

We grabbed a drink from the bar and floated around for a few. The Tulum pool is set on three different levels and according to the boys, we had to jump in all three...just to say we did I guess. Ahhh, what do I care? If ya been in one pool, ya been in them all but since having my java for the day, I was a much more peaceful creature and willing to go just about anywhere.

Tulum side swim up bar:

Next level of the Tulum side pool:

More pool:

It was getting late, we were getting toasty from the sun and since getting back to the Akumal side would now require a tram ride or two, we packed up our stuff and headed on back. We walked out through the Tulum lobby, which was very nice and I think I decided that I actually liked the pools and lobby over on this side better.

Entrance to Tulum lobby:

Tulum side lobby:

The Akumal side is newer and the rooms are nicer but the Tulum side has it's own strong points too. Two tram rides later, we're back to our room where we shower and get ready for dinner. It was only the buffet tonight, tomorrow was to be our last ala carte dinner but they did have some girls stationed in the center of the dining area who were making flaming coffee drinks to order, anything in them you'd like. I couldn't get through the food part fast enough, I wanted one of those coffee drinks with the fresh whipped cream and all...YUM! I wanted Bailey's and last time I tried, Bailey's wasn't one of those liquors you can fire on up, so I asked for a snifter of Balieys from the rolling after dinner drink cart that comes around every night and then our waiter brought me a coffee in a nice big glass, with fresh whipped cream and a rim dusted with chocolate flakes. Heaven couldn't have been much closer and it was about the best coffee drink I've had anywhere including home!

Full and not all that sleepy, we decided to head up to the Hacienda Dona Isabel as we had yet been abe to stay awake long enough to get there...AND....had not done one bit of shopping or bought one thing since we had arrived! We've all been to the Playa area enough times that we don't really need anything, but hubby wanted to get his Mom, who was in the hospital fighting tough against a brain tumor (gutsy lady she is too!) a gift from Mexico for Mother's Day. We check a few shops out but are sidetracked watching the guy who makes the spray painted pictures (his friend does this on the streets of Playa so you may know what kind of art I'm speaking of). I've seen this done while in Playa before but the kids are fascinated beyond belief! We watch as he paints a picture of palm trees and a sunset over some waterfalls, all done in shades of gold, brown and white, which was an unusual color combo. It was quite striking so we decided to buy it. Cost for this handmade art is ONLY $20, which really is too little for such talent. Our purchase in hand, we are off to check out a few more stores but many had begun to close. I guess we didn't realize that we had been standing waiting the artist guy for a pretty long time. The band begins to play and we decide to sit and have a few beers while watching a big wedding party dance with the animation team to some hokey line dance thingys. It was OK, they were having a blast so that's all that mattered. By midnight, the kids were fading, but Chris and I had a second wind. Kids win and we decide to head back to the room, but not before waiting for two rounds of trams that kept filling up before we could get on one. As we sat on the steps waiting for the net tram, out of the corner of my eye I see something crawling toward me. Lo and behold, it's a scorpion! Yikers! Mad dash to move and the security guy helped the little fella off the steps and headed him who knows where? As long as he wasn't crawling up my shorts, he was free to go anywhere ELSE he liked! We finally get on a tram and by the time we get to the Akumal lobby, the tram that would take us to our building was done for the night (it was after midnight) so we have to hoof it. Quick wash up and off to bed. Tomorrow is our last full day!

(yes people, I'm almostttttt done!

)

Hacienda Dona Isabel:

05-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shammy

We head off to Tulum, Mitch gets us the best guide ever (and he had to fight for him too!) and we set off into the steamy world of the Tulum ruins. We walk, sweat, listen, sweat, take pics, sweat, feed an iguana, sweat, stand in a sprinkler trying to wash the sweat off, realize we should not have worn flip flops here as now we have VERY muddy feet, sweat, see the pj4texas clan, rumored to see Sideways (although I must have blacked out from the heat because this I don't remember this!) and finally, sweat.

Hey Shamster ......... you may not have seen my post from Sideways' report, but we never WENT to Tulum!!! lol .... hmmmmmmmm, you "saw" me and I wasn't there, and didn't "see" Sideways, and he was. Me thinks the heat gotcha! Or Iguana osmosis (where your brain is mesmorized by the sun ... look straight ahead, just keep looking -- oh wait - FOOD!!! sluurppp!<SLURPPPP>). Our butts were at the pool bar at the El Dorado Royale .... throwing back shots of Scooby-Doos and drinking cervezas! After a few of these combos, hell - I can't SPELL Tulum!!!!

Your trip report is an absolute HOOT, and I am thrilled I got to meet you and some of the other peeps at the BP bash. Warm beer be damned!!! Nothing was gonna ruin a peep party!!

My beliefs::

** there is a special place in HELL for people who must reserve their chairs, yet never use their chairs!!!
** ants are not our friends!
** 'Sweet Home Alabama' must be the official song of Mexico -- they play it everywhere, many, many times.
** fifteen minutes by Mexico time is really forty-three minutes (must be some strange exchange rate!)
** that steak may not have come from a cow named Bob
** some tourists should not be permitted to leave their back yards, yet alone wander thru airports and hotels unescorted!
** crying babies on planes makes one want to stuff cheap Mexican t-shirts in one's ears!
** BEER is our friend!!!

05-17-2005

Shammy-I am lovin' your trip report! Sounds like you and the fam all had a great time (cept for the whole suit bottoms hangin off)

Can't wait for the rest!

05-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj4texas

Hey Shamster ......... you may not have seen my post from Sideways' report, but we never WENT to Tulum!!! lol .... hmmmmmmmm, you "saw" me and I wasn't there, and didn't "see" Sideways, and he was. Me thinks the heat gotcha! Or Iguana osmosis (where your brain is mesmorized by the sun ... look straight ahead, just keep looking -- oh wait - FOOD!!! sluurppp!<SLURPPPP>). Our butts were at the pool bar at the El Dorado Royale .... throwing back shots of Scooby-Doos and drinking cervezas! After a few of these combos, hell - I can't SPELL Tulum!!!!

Your trip report is an absolute HOOT, and I am thrilled I got to meet you and some of the other peeps at the BP bash. Warm beer be damned!!! Nothing was gonna ruin a peep party!!

My beliefs::

** there is a special place in HELL for people who must reserve their chairs, yet never use their chairs!!!
** ants are not our friends!
** 'Sweet Home Alabama' must be the official song of Mexico -- they play it everywhere, many, many times.
** fifteen minutes by Mexico time is really forty-three minutes (must be some strange exchange rate!)
** that steak may not have come from a cow named Bob
** some tourists should not be permitted to leave their back yards, yet alone wander thru airports and hotels unescorted!
** crying babies on planes makes one want to stuff cheap Mexican t-shirts in one's ears!
** BEER is our friend!!!

Oh !! This is to hilarious!!! So!! Shams Saw someone who wasn't there....and didn't see someone who was...Me thinks "Oldtimers" is kicking in:p

Also PJ....I about choked when I read your Sweet home Alabama portion of your sig. I think it was the night of Festivus that when we left the ASP, the lobby band was playing it. As soon as we exited our cab on 5th In PDC, another local band was playing it...LOL...too funny!!

The trip report is outstanding though Shams!!!!! Great J.O.B.

pmb · 05-17-2005

Shammy --- your trip report is so much fun to read and your photos are wonderrul! I hope to be able to do the Tulum and Cenote tour with my family when we are there next month and I am going to share the photos of the kids with my daughter and family members so they will see how much fun it is. If we get to do the Fat Cat tour I will make sure that the females wear one piece bathing suits! Bet you are now Queen of the Fat Cat tour!

**Shammy** · 05-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj4texas

Hey Shamster ......... you may not have seen my post from Sideways' report, but we never WENT to Tulum!!! lol .... hmmmmmmmm, you "saw" me and I wasn't there, and didn't "see" Sideways, and he was. Me thinks the heat gotcha! Or Iguana osmosis (where your brain is mesmorized by the sun ... look straight ahead, just keep looking -- oh wait - FOOD!!! sluurppp!<SLURPPPP>). Our butts were at the pool bar at the El Dorado Royale .... throwing back shots of Scooby-Doos and drinking cervezas! After a few of

OMG!!!!!!!! This has to be a joke!

Maybe I wasn't at Tulum either? Wait, I was there, I have a picture to prove it!

Well, there must have been some ancient Mayan voodoo in that sprinkler because that's when I saw....errr....ummm....well, whoever it was I saw that said to me "Hey, it's what's her face!"

Now who said that? THAT'S the person I saw!

This is too weird really!

Ok wait, let me add one more thing.....

Evan just walked in, and he was standing with me in the sprinkler...so I JUST asked him: ""Evan, remember when we were standing in the sprinkler and someone came up to me and said "Hey, it's what's her face!"? WHO WAS THAT?""

Evan said.......it was, it was....ummm...that guy Sideways!

Oh brotha, what the heck? I'm heading to the doc to see if there's a test for Alzheimers!

ynotbnplaya · 05-17-2005

You are the Queen of trip reports.

05-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shammy

OMG!!!!!!!! This has to be a joke!

Evan just walked in, and he was standing with me in the sprinkler...so I JUST asked him: ""Evan, remember when we were standing in the sprinkler and someone came up to me and said "Hey, it's what's her face!"? WHO WAS THAT?""

Evan said.......it was, it was....ummm...that guy Sideways!

Oh brotha, what the heck? I'm heading to the doc to see if there's a test for Alzheimers!

Gonna get some milage out of this one.....

The gal who said "Hey there Whats her face" was Joanne (Mrs. Sideways) we exchanged a few words and ran to catch our respective groups.

Your still aces in my book Shams!!

Even with the deteriorating mind

**Shammy** · 05-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sideways

Gonna get some milage out of this one.....

The gal who said "Hey there Whats her face" was Joanne (Mrs. Sideways) we exchanged a few words and ran to catch our respective groups.

Your still aces in my book Shams!!

Even with the deteriorating mind

Well, thanks Forrest, I appreciate that!

And ya know what Momma always said.....

Momma always said, "A mind is a terrible thing.........."

05-18-2005

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!

OK kids ....... let's start this over. HI everyone! My name is Paula and my husband's name is Mike. We were just in the paradise that is Playa ............ would LOVE to meet y'all someday!!!!

05-17-2005	#48 (permalink)
Shammy Moderator Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: The Joisey Shore Posts: 10,480	WEDNESDAY APRIL 27th Tour day! Pick up was scheduled for 8:15AM so we got up bright and early in order to catch some breakfast before the trip to Tulum. Lunch was bound to be hours away and we knew the kids couldn't last so we stuffed them up but good. Bet ya didn't know a 9 year old could polish off a bottle of syrup all by himself, did ya? We waited outside the lobby but by 8:30, there was no sign of the van. Many vans pulled up, lots of Alltournative vans and some big busses, but none of the vans were ours. The kids were beginning to get nervous but I was a rock, knew they'd be there because they said they would...no worries mon! Shortly after the third or forth kid panic attack, a van pulls up and who gets out but my pal Don (ynotbnplaya)! I had not seen Don since last November and ran up to give him a big hug! We got in the van and saw Don's wifey Nancy, Sarah and dad, Pam and Tim, Chris and Tim (will we be able to keep the Tim's straight?), Mitch and Jesus (golly, I hope that was the driver's name!). So many great people made this day even more fun than any of us Shammy's could have ever imagined! Awesome indeed! We head off to Tulum, Mitch gets us the best guide ever (and he had to fight for him too!) and we set off into the steamy world of the Tulum ruins. We walk, sweat, listen, sweat, take pics, sweat, feed an iguana, sweat, stand in a sprinkler trying to wash the sweat off, realize we should not have worn flip flops here as now we have VERY muddy feet, sweat, see the pj4texas clan, rumored to see Sideways (although I must have blacked out from the heat because this I don't remember this!) and finally, sweat. I do need to mention that it is very hot in Tulum but knowing that we were getting ever so close to dunking into Gran Cenote made it MUCH easier to take! Here's the Shammy family in Tulum: Another friend in Tulum: We leave Tulum behind and next land at Gran Cenote, where Jesus heads off to pick up our lunch and we got to bathe...I mean snorkel in the crystal cool waters of the cenote. Yes, the water was a tiny bit chilly but there are no words to describe how good it felt after the heat of Tulum. The 40 pounds I sweated off were immediately gained back the minute my body hit the water! The only one that had trouble getting in is my skinny son Sean, who usually required thermal underwear when we hit the beach here in Joisey. Maybe a little more meat on his bones would help, but he was reluctant to get in the water because it was too cold for him. We told him this may be a once in a lifetime thing so "get your ass in the water and enjoy it" and with some wonderful help from Mitch, Sean was got in and began to snorkel. He's not very good at it yet but he tried and again, Mitch was great with him. If anyone has worried about how this tour would be for kids, just know that you can't find a better guide than Mitch and he will do EVERYTHING in his power to make your child as comfortable as possible! Evan getting into Gran Cenote: Time to move along to the beach in Tulum. I asked Mitch if we would be seeing the same long haired naked guy that Nerak saw and he just gave me a blank look. See, I read Nerak's report so I knew that there was a possibility that I also get to see long haired naked guy! But if not, a beautiful beach and a great lunch would be just fine with me! We ride down the dustiest road I've ever seen, past lots of small hotels and hostel type places and finally pull into a sandy driveway. This is where we get out. Everyone grabs something from the back of the van and we head past tents pitched in the brush toward the beach. 'What IS this place?" I ask myself. It looks sort of like a commune where I once stayed in Daytona Beach is the 70's! It was a true nature lovers paradise, that's for sure! We arrive at the beach and the very first thing we all see is two young, naked women dashing out of the ocean and past us, more or less running for cover! The kids were like "Mommy, those girls are NAKED!!!!!!!!!!!!". Everyone cracks up, 'cept the girls of course, who then come BACK, still naked, to collect their clothes. Well that was interesting, but still no long haired naked guy I thought. Then to the left of us is a topless woman breast feeding a baby while selling jewelry. No big deal, the first time my kids hit the beach in another country, this is what they saw so this was not an issue for them either. Still no naked guy though and I was determined to see if this person really did exist. As the others set up lunch, some of us head right for the beautiful ocean for a swim. This was just a great time, eating a fantastic lunch of roasted chicken, avocado, beans, tortillas, mango, bananas, and a few other assorted goodies. All were VERY good and even Sean, the picky, skinny kid LOVED the chicken! We swam, chatted, relaxed and Chris mentioned how nice it was not to be sitting by the pool at the Bahia listening to the screaming meemies, and I agreed completely! Lunch time!: When out of the woods comes long haired guy, but not long haired naked guy...yet! This was soon accomplished when he stripped down and began to frolic in the waves. This continued for quite some time and then he emerged for some yoga on the beach. Then second naked guy joined in, but no long hair for him. Gotta love it really. sigh No desk job for him I thought, and I wished I could stay here forever, free of schedules, busy lives, stress...AND clothes! Here's something Evan thought would be a lot of fun...until he needed help getting down!: It was time to pack up and head for Cenote Azul, where we snorkeled more. We fed some mighty big catfish and there were more fishes here than there were in Gran Cenote, so a big more to see. Chris in Cenote Azul (those black things in the water are catfish!): Here is where you can jump off the cliff, and this is what Evan had been waiting to do ALLLLL day! He and Chris went up and jumped two times, while I took pictures. Evan: Chris: No jumping for me thank you...I'd like to think I had my last out of the country injury so I took a pass. I could tell that Sean wanted to, but just couldn't bring himself to do it. As we started to get ready to leave, Sean went missing. Did he head for the woods to go potty, where was he? We hear him call, look up and there he is standing at the top of the cliff ready to jump! I 'bout freaked because no one was with him, so I sent Chris up. Sean climbed down to a lower cliff area and...and....and...come on Sean, we have to go...and...and....JUMPED! I swear this is something that he will always remember! He wanted to do it again but we were out of time and it was getting late. Sean...finally!: We were supposed to part with the group here and take a collectivo back to the Bahia as taking us back down south was really out of the way for the other peeps, but Mitch and Jesus asked the rest of the group if they minded if they took us back. They figured we may have a tough time getting a collectivo that had room for 4 at this time of the day (rush hour!) and they didn't want to leave us on the side of the road with two kids. Everyone agreed that this was OK and we were SOOOO grateful as it was just nice to sit back, take the ride back and not worry about catching a collectivo! Muchas gracias to Mitch, Jesus, James and Anna for running such a wonderful tour and all those that we met that day. We will never forget what a great time we had! And after finally taking the tour myself, I'm SOO happy that I tell my clients to skip over the "generic" excursions offered by the tour companies and head to Playa.Info and look into taking one of their tours because.....it's absolutely the only way to go! It was all we could do to pour ourselves out of that van, get a tram from the Hacienda to the Akumal lobby, and then another tram to our building, but we managed (but were dragging!). We showered and went to dinner, which we really should have skipped as we were SO beat from the long day of fun, no one really ate much of anything. We quickly finished and went back to the room to get ready for bed as tomorrow was FAT CAT day, and also the day we would hook up with Evan's friend from home who I had just booked into the Barcelo a few weeks before! Damn, the fun never ends! On that note, I should mention that we don't think anyone ever came to spray for those ants because when we got back this night, the ants were now on BOTH beds! The kids were freaking out! I made hubby march over to the Golden Club lobby and tell them we HAD to switch rooms because this was getting ridiculous! The kids BOTH had to sleep with us in ONE bed that night and I won't even get into how difficult it is to sleep with FOUR people in ONE king sized bed! We also has issues with our A/C from day one...didn't work at all the first day and then after they "fixed" it later on that same day, it worked better, but still not great. So a room change was definitely in order. He came back and said they would have something for us in building 66 but not until tomorrow after 3 PM...and they would send someone up ASAP to spray for the ants. A few minutes later came a knock at the door. When Chris opened it, there stood a girl with a can of Raid, and she handed it to Chris and left! OK, I'd almost rather do it myself anyway. I sprayed the heck out of the wall, took the mattress off the frame and sprayed the frame, sprayed about everything I could. Now we were gagging from the fumes! There was a mighty big wind blowing out there since we were directly in front of the ocean, so we opened both the sliding door to the balcony and the front door of the room and let this wind whip (and I mean whip!) through the room for about 15 minutes! It was like "Auntie Em, Auntie Em...it's a twister Auntie Em!" as everything started swirling off the tables and out the front door! That's OK, we didn't need those pesos or that map anyway! We had to leave our bags packed and in the room tomorrow so we could have them switched to the new room so at that late hour, and being SO tired, I had to pack up EVERYTHING that I had unpacked several days earlier and that kinda sucked, but I also figured it was sort of like "pre packing" for the way home as we did only have 3 nights left after this one. We all snuggled into one bed and thank goodness we were exhausted because everyone but me actually was able to sleep most of the night. I was too paranoid that Evan's elbow, that loomed over my head all night, and that I caught about to come crashing down on my nose more than a few times, would kill me before I woke, so I slept with one eye glued on his arm and the other glued on the clock so we wouldn't miss our Fat Cat pick up. __________________

05-17-2005	#47 (permalink)
TnJ añejo Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: vuelo corto al PDC Posts: 2,045	not 2 worry, Shammy. the suspense is building, like in a MichaelHolmes report

05-17-2005	#49 (permalink)
SarahB añejo Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Playa...now Iowa Posts: 2,897	Shammy, great report again! I can't wait to hear about the Fat Cat, but I am still sad I missed it! That damn wedding in NJ!

05-17-2005	#50 (permalink)
Shammy Moderator Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: The Joisey Shore Posts: 10,480	THURSDAY APRIL 28th Fat Cat day! Yeah! Pick up was at 9:15AM so we had time for some breakfast without being as rushed as we were yesterday. I arrived later at breakfast because I was turning in the keys to the old room and when I got there, I noticed the kids had plated piled high with pancakes, waffles, French toast and Lord knows what else. So much for my instructions to Chris to have them eat light because we were going on a boat that tends to rock JUSTTTT a bit when the weather is kind of windy! I choose to skip coffee and breakfast and just ate a roll and some yogurt. Yep, when they're all puking in the "White Angel" (seasick buckets on the Fat Cat), let's see who the smart one in the family is! When we finished, I gave everyone a seasick pill just in case and these must really work because NO ONE, even after that giant Fat Boy breakfast, felt even slightly seasick on the boat! The Fat Cat van arrived almost exactly on time and we were the first ones in. We then headed to the Barcelo to pick up Paula and Steve: and the Ciaston's, our friends from home, and their two kids Nick(13) and Jeffery (8): Stacy and Ed: Nick, Evan, Sean and Jeffrey: After telling the driver that these folks would be on the Beach side of the resort and still having him pull into the Caribe side and wait, and wait, and wait for someone who wasn't going to ever be there, the driver did listen to me and go over the the Beach side. And as I told him so (but I never say "told ya so"! ), there was everyone ready and waiting. We then head off to the Aventura Spa Palace to pick up two more people, but I didn't catch their names, but they were a VERY nice couple from Canada. We arrive in Puerto Aventuras and are walked to the Fat Cat dock, where there are already quite a few people waiting to board the boat. We flip off our flip flops and get on the boat, where they take a picture of each group behind the steering wheel that you can purchase for $10 after the sail is over. I don't much go for these organized picture deals but I did buy this one as it came out pretty good (and I hate any and ALL pictures of ME so this was surprising!). Our Captain for the day (besides Kimba) was Diego and I then asked Diego if Jez was coming as I had never met Jez and and I really wanted to. But he says that Jez is taking out the afternoon group so I'm stuck with him, and I wondered if he took my question as an insult so I made a point to explain who I was and why I was asking about Jez later in the day and he then understood. All was well and he had not taken it as an insult. As we pulled away, Diego introduces the crew and goes over some safety lessons and some do's and don'ts. The crew: Capt. Kimba: Diego: The Sunshine punch is served and the sail begins. As I mill around a bit, looking to get out from under the sunshade and get a seat in the sun, I hear someone say "Are you Shammy?" LOL!!!!!!!! Lord help us all when I have become known to strangers on a boat in Mexico! But these were no strangers, these were my clients, Marty and Tony from Phoenix, who were there for two weeks on their honeymoon!: I did not know that they would be on the Fat Cat that day but they told me when they realized what day I had booked, they switched their reservation from the day before to the same day as me! I was quite flattered and I think meeting clients while in Mexico, which ALWAYS seems to happen to me anyway, is SUCH a wonderful thing! They then asked why we never had the party at the ****** the past Monday and I informed them that we did indeed have the party. Marty says "Well, we showed up at 6 PM and waited about an hour but never saw anyone". I then told Marty that the party began at 8PM and NOT 6 PM and that would explain the lack of familiar peep faces! We anchored at Xaac cove and snorkeled for some time. I was off all by myself almost the whole time, exploring over by the rocks, which were a bit far away from the boat for some of the newbie snorkelers on board, including hubby and kiddies too. It was very peaceful out there, all I could hear was my breathing, and I loved every minute of it. I didn't get to see any stingrays, turtles, barracudas or anything remarkable, but it was all good. Back on the boat and it was time to head back and also time to drop the boom net! This is again something that Evan had been waiting all day to do so it came as no surprise that he was first in line to do it and had dragged me along with him. Diego told us all many times that it was very important for the men to double knot their bathing suits so that the force of the waves didn't pull them off while in the boom net. He mentioned that this has happened many time before and if it happened today, he'd put your lily white ass on a web site somewhere for all to see. All the men began checking their knots right quick..or so I thought they ALL did. Since Evan and I were first up, we headed over to get our life vests on. Mine must have been fitted to a child, or a very small breasted woman before me because we did have to do some loosening up to get it to go over my, uhhhh....chest area. After a few tries, the guy who was putting my vest on then said to me "Oooo, BIG ones!", and everyone just cracked up! As every woman who went after me, and had boobs as big as me got fitted, most on the boat chimed in boat said in unison "Ooooo, BIG ones" and it kind of became a running joke from then on. Diego gave us strict instructions on how to get in and out of the boom net so that we didn't get hurt and we followed them to the letter. It was a great ride and was over all too quickly. When it was Chris and Sean's turn, I watched carefully because Sean IS kind of small and I was a bit nervous that he would get washed away with the tide. He did very well and again, a helpful, child friendly crew is a huge plus here. But Sean must have been the one and only person who did not listen (gee, imagine Sean not listening to a grown up? How odd!) to Diego and obviously did not double knot the string on his bathing suit because when he emerged from the boom net, he was half sans his shorts! Was he ever red in the face and white in the hiney! We all got a good laugh and too bad I didn't have my camera ready. Everyone went (no one else lost their bottoms!) and when all were done, I asked Diego if I could go again, this time with Chris so someone could get a picture of Chris and I together. I probably should have left well enough alone as he said yes, we went and then when I was climbing out of the boom net at the end of the ride, a wave knocked me down from the top of the rope and I had to use both hands to pull myself up, instead of one hand on the top of the rope and one hand on my bathing suit bottom! Diego thought I was goin overboard so he literally hoisted me out of the net (not an easy task to hoist me anywhere!) me by the back of the life vest and as I made it to the steps, I felt a mighty strange breeze down below and realized that I too had partially lost me bottoms! Now, I have yet to see any pictures of this, although rumors are swirling that some do exist. Heaven help us all if they ever surface! We then sail on to Ritchie's Island...... .....and we have some free time where Diego tells us it's OK to dive from the side of the boat into the ocean. Much fun but ladies, I will warn you that when boobs smack against the water from that high up, there may be some pain involved. It begins to rain pretty hard right then and it was kewl to swim in the water when it was pouring. Diego told us we had about 30-35 minutes here but after about 10-15, he told us we had to go. The kids conjured up the thought that he saw a Great White shark in the water and that's why we all had to get out of the ocean! Of course, that's not true but it sounded good when they told the story to their classmates back home. Sadly, we motor back to the marina and our wonderful day had come to an end. I do finally catch Jez bringing in th afternoon group and yell after him "Jez, hey Jez!" to which he spins around and gives me this blank look like "Who the dickens is this bloke?". I run up, tell him that I'm Shammy!!! He lifts the sunglasses from my eyes, tells me it was difficult to recognize me without that Boston Red Sux hat and kisses me on the cheek. Awwww....what a kewl guy! Thanks Jez...and thanks to the rest of your wonderful crew for taking us on a wonderful sail! Hola to Kimba tambien! We grab the same van and driver back and was are last to be dropped off this time. Tired and a bit hungry, we now have to check back with the Golden Club lobby folk and get the key to our new room. We knew it was in the building next door so I send Chris and the kids over to wait while I grab the key. We enter the room, see no ants, feel cooler air than what was in the previous room, see all our luggage and plop down on the bed barely able to do more than unzip the bag that holds our toiletries so that we can shower and run out for a quick bite to eat. The view from this room (6621) is even more amazing than the last room as there is no building closer than this to the ocean. If you fell off the balcony, you'd land right on the beach! We only had three pillows (as opposed to 8 in the last room!) and were missing towels and those slippers we loved so much so we called to ask them to bring them up. We did get the towels but no pillows or slippers for the rest of the time we were there. But we lived and Chris was able to swipe a pair of slippers for Sean (he loved them most!) the day we checked out as someone has mysteriously left a bag with about 100 pair of slippers right outside our door! The slipper fairy perhaps? I was plum tuckered out, as losing your bathing suit in front of 20 or so other people is quite an experience, so I made the kids and Chris shower before me while I grabbed a nap. I honestly was too tired to get up, too tired to eat and would have preferred not getting back up at all but they convinced me to wash off the salt and head out for some dinner. So I did, and we did, and then were back in the room, in bed, within 90 minutes! I knew I should have let them go on without me as it wasn't worth the whole getting ready to go out ordeal. We were also missing the third bed in this room and only had the one couch that had never been made up into a bed for Evan so we did have to wait for someone to bring us some sheets. But luckily, the ants that came out at night in the other room did not appear here so Evan was able to sleep in the one bed while Sean took his usual place in-between Chris and I. The whole trip, there was one or both kids sleeping with us! Argh!

05-17-2005	#51 (permalink)
Shammy Moderator Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: The Joisey Shore Posts: 10,480	FRIDAY APRIL 29th Today is "do nothing and recover" day! We planned a day at the pool and then wanted to head over to the Tulum side of the Bahia to see how the other half lived. Chris was none to pleased, after having two days off from the towel game, to head out early to reserve a few chairs by the pool. Again I believe I heard the "You suck" comment as he strolled out the door at about 7:30AM but I may have been dreaming. I was up and on my way out by 9 this morning, a bit later than usual and waited down by the pool for the others to show up for breakfast. Today I was starving, normally I didn't do a breakfast or if I did, it was a small one, but I was really looking forward to eating today as I guess the past two busy days peaked my appetite. Well, breakfast was over at 10:30AM and not having any idea what time it was, my tummy was telling me it was getting very late, and it was also getting very loud with all the rumbles and grumbles going on in there! But no Chris and no kids, and I was beginning to stew as I knew it had to be getting close to the time they would stop serving breakfast. Lo and behold, after keeping my eyes peeled for them to come around the bend ANY minute, they finally show up...and it was after 11AM! Grrrrrrrrrrrr..........wonderful, now we all have to wait for lunch because no one felt like walking over to the snack bar and eating just munchies. Our tummies were screaming for food! I ask the lady next to us what time lunch starts (we didn't even bother with lunch most days so didn't know when it started) and she says "12PM in the main buffet and 12:30PM in the other restaurants". Great, we're right next to the main buffet and we only have an hour to wait...I can make it. A few before 12, we make our way up to the main buffet only to find out that it too doesn't open until 12:30. Cripes...now I'm gonna die! A cranky mommy is a nasty mommy so it's about now when the troops begin to scatter expecting the next eruption of Mt. Mother. I compose myself, wait for the buffet to open and when it does, make a mad dash for a table and ask for a cappuccino! Ahhhh....that's what I had been missing, my morning java fix! No wonder I was rude, nasty, short tempered....you get my drift. They make a VERY good cappuccino at the Bahia so I was in heaven and would have been happy with this and not the food if it would have come down like that. But we all did eat and I don't even know what it was but it all tasted great. Can't recall when I had ever been that hungry after 7 days eating resort food. After lunch, we packed up and walked via the beach to the Tulum side. After about 15 minutes of walking, we figured we had to at about the right area to where the pool was located so we headed upwards. Nope, still no pool so we kept walking via the walkways, which BTW were mighty hot on our bare tootsies. We found one pool, but it was small so I knew it couldn't be the main pool area. We kept going on (and on) and finally asked someone where the next pool was. We were told it was riggggght around the next bend! Just how big WAS this place anyway? Sheesh! We finally found the pool and of course, there were no chairs left. Nice to know the chair hogs don't all live on the Akumal side! We dropped our stuff and jumped in the pool because it was mighty hard work walking in the hot sun all the way from the Akumal side! In the past few days, right about when the humidity began to increase (it was quite dry when we arrived), the pools really started to warm up. Well, I don't know if it was because we first jumped into the pool where the swim up bar was, but this pool was downright warm, too warm actually! We grabbed a drink from the bar and floated around for a few. The Tulum pool is set on three different levels and according to the boys, we had to jump in all three...just to say we did I guess. Ahhh, what do I care? If ya been in one pool, ya been in them all but since having my java for the day, I was a much more peaceful creature and willing to go just about anywhere. Tulum side swim up bar: Next level of the Tulum side pool: More pool: It was getting late, we were getting toasty from the sun and since getting back to the Akumal side would now require a tram ride or two, we packed up our stuff and headed on back. We walked out through the Tulum lobby, which was very nice and I think I decided that I actually liked the pools and lobby over on this side better. Entrance to Tulum lobby: Tulum side lobby: The Akumal side is newer and the rooms are nicer but the Tulum side has it's own strong points too. Two tram rides later, we're back to our room where we shower and get ready for dinner. It was only the buffet tonight, tomorrow was to be our last ala carte dinner but they did have some girls stationed in the center of the dining area who were making flaming coffee drinks to order, anything in them you'd like. I couldn't get through the food part fast enough, I wanted one of those coffee drinks with the fresh whipped cream and all...YUM! I wanted Bailey's and last time I tried, Bailey's wasn't one of those liquors you can fire on up, so I asked for a snifter of Balieys from the rolling after dinner drink cart that comes around every night and then our waiter brought me a coffee in a nice big glass, with fresh whipped cream and a rim dusted with chocolate flakes. Heaven couldn't have been much closer and it was about the best coffee drink I've had anywhere including home! Full and not all that sleepy, we decided to head up to the Hacienda Dona Isabel as we had yet been abe to stay awake long enough to get there...AND....had not done one bit of shopping or bought one thing since we had arrived! We've all been to the Playa area enough times that we don't really need anything, but hubby wanted to get his Mom, who was in the hospital fighting tough against a brain tumor (gutsy lady she is too!) a gift from Mexico for Mother's Day. We check a few shops out but are sidetracked watching the guy who makes the spray painted pictures (his friend does this on the streets of Playa so you may know what kind of art I'm speaking of). I've seen this done while in Playa before but the kids are fascinated beyond belief! We watch as he paints a picture of palm trees and a sunset over some waterfalls, all done in shades of gold, brown and white, which was an unusual color combo. It was quite striking so we decided to buy it. Cost for this handmade art is ONLY $20, which really is too little for such talent. Our purchase in hand, we are off to check out a few more stores but many had begun to close. I guess we didn't realize that we had been standing waiting the artist guy for a pretty long time. The band begins to play and we decide to sit and have a few beers while watching a big wedding party dance with the animation team to some hokey line dance thingys. It was OK, they were having a blast so that's all that mattered. By midnight, the kids were fading, but Chris and I had a second wind. Kids win and we decide to head back to the room, but not before waiting for two rounds of trams that kept filling up before we could get on one. As we sat on the steps waiting for the net tram, out of the corner of my eye I see something crawling toward me. Lo and behold, it's a scorpion! Yikers! Mad dash to move and the security guy helped the little fella off the steps and headed him who knows where? As long as he wasn't crawling up my shorts, he was free to go anywhere ELSE he liked! We finally get on a tram and by the time we get to the Akumal lobby, the tram that would take us to our building was done for the night (it was after midnight) so we have to hoof it. Quick wash up and off to bed. Tomorrow is our last full day! (yes people, I'm almostttttt done! ) Hacienda Dona Isabel:

05-17-2005	#53 (permalink)
Playaherewecome Guest Posts: n/a	Shammy-I am lovin' your trip report! Sounds like you and the fam all had a great time (cept for the whole suit bottoms hangin off) Can't wait for the rest!

05-17-2005	#55 (permalink)
pmb beachaholic Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 321	Shammy --- your trip report is so much fun to read and your photos are wonderrul! I hope to be able to do the Tulum and Cenote tour with my family when we are there next month and I am going to share the photos of the kids with my daughter and family members so they will see how much fun it is. If we get to do the Fat Cat tour I will make sure that the females wear one piece bathing suits! Bet you are now Queen of the Fat Cat tour!

05-17-2005	#57 (permalink)
ynotbnplaya way into it Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Southern California Posts: 157	You are the Queen of trip reports.

05-18-2005	#60 (permalink)
pj4texas Guest Posts: n/a	HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!! OK kids ....... let's start this over. HI everyone! My name is Paula and my husband's name is Mike. We were just in the paradise that is Playa ............ would LOVE to meet y'all someday!!!!

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