Monday was a fairly simple day with not a whole lot planned. Prior to leaving for PDC while browsing the forum we saw a post that Shawn and Mitch from Yukatreks was looking for someone to mule down a gift for Christmas. Figuring that there is nothing better then good karma and making friends we obliged. We woke up and ate at the breakfast buffet which is located at the main buffet. We found there to be plenty of choices with your usual breakfast staples, all sorts of different sausages, a fresh build your own omelet or eggs station, a fresh french toast and pancake station and plenty of pastries and baked goods to keep your interest!
After breakfast we headed off to town, first stop was to drop off the gift to Yukatreks. We easily found their office on 10th Ave and spoke w/ Mitch for a few minutes about our trip and plans for the week. It was nice to get some insight into our trip to Akumal and Xplor. What was even better was seeing just how happy it made Mitch to be able to get the gift in time for X-Mas, of course we didn't leave empty handed, Mitch and Shawn had a gift for us that had us fending off the locals everywhere we walked.
I mean I knew it was great beer, I didn't realize how popular it was until everyone we passed tried to get one from us! We strolled 5th Ave for a little while poking our heads into the shops, and walked the beach back north to the Real scoping out the menus of the beachfront establishments looking for a bite to eat. We made it down to the Real with nothing really catching our eye so back onto 5th we went. We ended up stopping at the Tequila Barrel. I had seen it mentioned on her for Peepmeets so we decided to check it out.
I have no pictures of our actual meal because quit frankly we weren't impressed. She was craving some Nacho's so we decided to have the Nacho's with ground beef as our main course, I opted to have some Buffalo wings as well. We were disappointed that the beef on the nacho's was not really seasoned well, and the chicken wings, well I think they starved the chickens on whatever farm it came from as there was not much meet. Overall it wasn't bad, but at the same time it wasn't great. We decided after lunch to head back to the resort to explore a little.
We got back and threw on our bathing suits and decided to check out the pool. When we got there we noticed an ominous sign, no one was in the water?! Such a gorgeous pool but no one in it?
Well as soon as we stuck a foot in it we found out why, it was freezing! We decided to just walk around a little bit more and found ourselves getting sleepy, time for another nap!
We woke up a little while later and got ready for our first Al La Carte dinner! We made reservations for the Italian Restaurant on property The Venecia. We were given the option of sitting inside or outside on their little terrace. We decided to be adventurous and brave the chilly temperatures outside, after all 50degrees is still warmer then home.
We were awarded with a nice view of the man made pond and waterfall outside that had an Italian style Gondola in the middle with the beautiful main walkway all lit up behind it. The service was impeccable with very attentive waitstaff. The menu seemed to have a bit of everything on it, she opted for Lobster Ravioli and I decided to try Red Snapper for the first time ever. Both of our dishes were delicious and did not disappoint. I apologize for not having pictures, we were far to into eating the food then stopping to take a picture, plus we're new at this whole trip report thing. What stood out the most to be about this dining experience is unlike other resorts it simply not a choice between Red vs White wine, but instead what kind of wine, what vineyard, we actually had a choice and wine menu! Expecting to only get a glass we were again surprised to have them uncork the bottle at the table and keep it table side, big thumbs up on that
After dinner we hung out at the Lobby Bar and looked for the infamous Daniel that Andrea has talked of. We sought him out and ordered up a few drinks and hung out there until the 10pm show. Tonight's show theme was Magic, I walked in expecting a half lousy put together magic show, I was wrong. The show again was top notch and even had me, the realest, trying to figure out how he pulled off some of this stunts. Rebecca (The nurse) even got pulled up on stage for one of his tricks
After the show, like most people we made our way back to the room. That was one thing we began to notice about this resort, once the show is over at 11pm, the action dies down, everyone heads to bed. Tonight we didn't complain we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow as it was my Birthday. The original plan was a day trip to Akumal, but the weather was still looking a little bit chilly, so we decided tomorrow we'd go to Xplor and what a great decision that was!