Postcard: Mexico

When I had visited my college friend in San Diego in 1997, she and I made a day trip to Tijuana. Since then, when people asked if I had visited Mexico, my answer had been "Not really." Fortunately, I got a taste of better parts of Mexico when my now husband and I went for Labor Day weekend 2007.


It would have been our engagement trip, except that it took 5 weeks for my engagement ring to be ready. Five weeks!! That's okay because Australia is a more exotic engagement celebration. Instead, it was our first international vacation together (yes, Mexico is international even if it seems silly to call it that). We prepared for the beach vacation by getting up at 6:30AM every morning for 5 weeks straight to go to the gym before work. We looked great! Those were the days.


As usual, I went all out in my research to determine the best places to go, the best flights, and the best itinerary to achieve all of my vacation goals. I do have my spontaneous moments during travel, but I like to be prepared before I step on the plane. I decided on beautiful Playa del Carmen and historic Chichen Itza after consulting with my co-worker friend who is Mexican. Playa lies on the Caribbean Sea and is an hour south of the Cancun Airport. I would like to visit Cancun someday, but I may have already missed the prime age to go there. Maybe when I'm reliving my college days.


Since Mexico is so cheap, I found an all-inclusive resort, Royal Hideaway Playacar, where we stayed for three days. Neither of us had visited an all-inclusive resort before and we quickly learned that this was the life. For one thing, they address you on a personal level every time they see you. This was funny because I had booked the reservation and my then boyfriend was Mr. MyLastName for the whole trip. This is also funny because, technically, he should be Dr. MyLastName. ha.


The resort had restaurants, bars, beaches, kayaks, tennis courts, etc. We ignored most of the water sports and activities and lounged on the beach all day in cabanas set up by the attentive staff. We talked about doing the activities but never got around to it. Bartenders brought us drinks right into our cabana. We only interrupted our lazy, beach time to go to the fabulous restaurants to eat our gluttonous meals. One day we walked down the road (well, we taxied there and then walked back) to Quinto Avenida (5th Avenue), the main street of the town. Not much going on unless you want to take the ferry to Cozumel or tour to Tulum. Really, there was no need to leave the Royal Hideaway.


One funny incident to note...We were oblivious to the strict dress code enforced in the hotel's three upscale restaurants. We should have read the details, but who brings formal dress attire to 90 degree heat and, for that matter, to Mexico? We had a lovely lunch at the resort's casual Spices, which featured local cuisine. We made dinner reservations at the 4 diamond pan-Asian cuisine restaurant, Azia. We arrived on time only to have them take one look at my husband in his cargo shorts and flip flops and tell us that we couldn't be seated. My flip flops were fine (reverse sexism?), but gentlemen were required to wear pants and shoes. We protested that we weren't told this only to have them point out out the mention of dress code on their website and on Expedia where I had booked the trip. Oops. Luckily, they had spare slacks for people like us and we came back after my husband changed into his borrowed pants. He had to put the flip flops back on because that's all he had, but we figured they'd let that go now that his offensive legs were covered. Wrong again. They were still unhappy about the lack of shoes so they ushered us into a private room that had a low table and pillows on the floor. That way, we had to take off our shoes and, I guess, the other diners would be saved from looking at us. Anyway, the food was awful. Maybe because we're from NYC or maybe because of our ordeal, but we did not like one thing we ate. We skipped the rest of the upscale restaurants and ate at Spices and the other casual place, The Grill, for the rest of the trip. Now, whenever we travel ANYWHERE, my husband brings dress clothes.


We left the Royal hideaway on our third day by private car to Chichen Itza. I was excited that the site was recently named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. Check that off the list. The ruins of Chichen Itza are in the Yucatan and were built by the Mayan people. The three best known monuments are El Castillo, Temple of Warriors and the Great Ball Court. "El Castillo" (the castle) is the dominating center pyramid, which is said to cast a shadow of a serpent during the Spring and Fall equinoxes.

The Great Ball Court was the largest ball court of the time for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame. The interior walls have scuplted panels of players, serpents, a winding plant, and the games.



At night, we went to the Chichen Itza Light and Sound Show. The entire ruins area is lit up in colorful lights and sounds while you listen to the history of the area in Spanish. Unfortunately, we didn't get the headsets to translate because we didn't know the show would go on for so long. The show was spectacular.