Mexico Barcelo holiday recap – Days 1, 2 & 3

I could write pages and pages of stuff about our vacation, but I’m going to try to narrow it down to the highlights.  As you may already know, we are not just “sit around the pool” kind of people on vacation, so we did a lot of activities!

Our trip started out with the usual excitement of getting to the airport just in the nick of time.  Partially our fault (we were a little slow getting out of the house), and partially due to the parking lot bus driver – she was gabbing with a person on the bus and missed the exit for the airport, so we had to circle around the airport twice!  Ugh. Wasted time.  That didn’t help my stress level.  But eventually we made it through the check in and were on our way to Mexico.  A short 3 1/2 hour flight, which was only 2 1/2 hours with the time change.  We should go to Mexico more often… it’s so close!!!

We actually did just hang out at the pool mostly our first day and check out the resort because we were tired from waking up at 4am.  This was a view of the beach from my pool chair.  Ahhhhh!

One of the first things we saw at the beach was a lifeguard moving some sea turtle eggs that had been laid the night before.  Cool!  They move them to a protected area of the beach so tourists and animals don’t bother them.

Dinner at the hotel restaurants is a little “formal”.  The men had to wear collared shirts, long pants, and closed toe shoes.  Everyone else could wear whatever they wanted (of course, you wanted to look nice).  Poor guys, it was hot walking around in those outfits!

For dinner we had some very excellent cuisine – lobsters!  The food at our resort, Barcelo Tropical, was really, really good.  Loved it!

I think we were asleep by 9pm that night.  But that allowed Alan and I to wake up early the next day and go for a run!  I don’t skip running while vacationing in Mexico because I eat so much food, I’d feel guilty if I didn’t run!  Seriously, I had 2 (or cough, cough, 3) desserts for every meal.

After dinner we opted to take the Party Bus for a little ride to our hotel.  It was only called the Party Bus by us.  It was really the transportation around the resort (yes, the resort was THAT big!).  But look, the whole top of the double decker bus is open.  How cool is that??

Looks like a party to me!!

There was a really nice guy who took our picture, and we took his family’s picture.  He was really nice because he had actually swapped the lens on my Cannon DSLR with his wide lens while we were getting arranged for the picture.  I never even noticed he did it until our picture was over.  Super nice of him, because the wide lens was definitely needed!

The next day was spent running in the AM, and then we went to Tulum.  Tulum is an ancient Mayan city which is now just ruins.  The advice we got was to go early.  By early, we ended up arriving at 10am, but we found out that “early” really meant “be the first people there when it opens at 8am or you will find yourself with a ton of other people arriving on tour buses!”.

Tulum is along the ocean and is breathtaking!

It’s also a LOT of sun, so if you’re not into super sweaty sightseeing, you might want to skip this one.

But, still, beautiful history.

And big iguanas that we fed flowers!  They really like to eat flowers.

Well, I think that sums up our first three days in Mexico.  More adventures to follow soon!  I love looking back at these pictures and telling you the stories.  We had a great time 🙂

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Q:  Anyone ever been to the Rivera Maya region of Mexico?

Q:  Do you prefer lobster or shrimp?

I think shrimp.  Less work!

Q: Do you prefer to sit by the pool, or at the beach if both were available?