7 days in Paradise- Day 4

Day 4 (Wednesday Aug. 5th)

We started off this day at 5:30am and kept going for next 16+ hours. We jumped in the car a little after 6am and headed for the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza. We were able to take a toll roll for 99% of the trip and maintain a pretty good rate of speed. The only time we had to slow down was for the toll booths, people riding bikes in the wrong direction on the road, and a few stray cows. After 2 1/2 hrs. of driving across the Yucatan Peninsula, we arrived at our destination.

The toll road

The toll booth

Traci enjoying the ride. The Jolly Ranchers - not-so-happy after sitting in the sun

We we were approached by several of the locals offering their services as a tour guide. Based on the research that Michael conducted, it was recommended that we wait until we get inside as we could find one cheaper. The plan was to walk around until we heard a "PSST" and then we would get the deal of a lifetime. As we wandered around looking for our deal, we were accosted by several people trying to sell us their wares and were approached by an older man with a cane who waved a newspaper at us and said something in Spanish. We ignored him and continued to look around like lost puppies. Finally, we made a decision to go back to the main entrance and grab a guide. As we were leaving, the paper wielding man said "You need a guide?". And so the negotiations began. He offered to take us around the old and new sections and spend no more than 2 1/2 hours with us for $500 pesos (about $40 U.S. dollars). We agreed and our tour began.

We made it

Ernesto our tour guide

The High Priest Temple

Bill and Traci in front of the temple

In front of the observatory

There were lots of Iguanas around

Incredible

Seated in one of the ruins

See the snake head at the top?

The Tiger and the Eagle

The temple of the Warriors

See the face in the mouth of the snake?

The Rain Gods

The Castle

A Cenote

Skulls everywhere

The Great Ball Court

Put a rubber ball through the hole, you win and you die... Congratulations!

A distant view of the Castle

Enjoying the view

One last photo on our way out

Our guide, Ernesto, had been in the touring business for 48 years and did a great job explaining the history of the Mayan people. He stopped at every pile of rock, wall and temple and explained the significance of the structure and pointed out details that would definitely have gone unnoticed. 4+ hours later, our tour wrapped up and Ernesto went on his way to find another group of tourists to show around. If you make it to Chichen Itza, I recommend going early before the sun or crowds show up.

Our next stop was about an hour away and it was a restaurant that was recommend by a fellow traveller on line. There is a restaurant that overlooks Cenote Zaci that is in Valladolid. The ambiance of the restaurant was pretty cool but the food was average at best.

Unfortunately, we were unable to climb any of the ruins at Chichen Itza as someone slipped and died a few years ago. Coba was on our drive home and we could climb to our hearts content. In order for us to get to Coba, we had to take a different route that was a single lane highway and wound through several small towns. As luck would have it, it began to rain very hard and we wound up behind several slow vehicles. There were several signs that indicated that you should not pass; however, being in Mexico, is was more of a recommendation. Needless to say, we started passing a truck and Michael stepped on the gas to ensure we made it around the truck and not into the dashboard of the oncoming traffic. The second he applied the gas, the tires spun and my life started to pass before my eyes. NOTE: Never ever try to pass a truck in the rain with bald tires on a two lane highway where people do not obey traffic laws. :-)

After another hour of driving, the rain let up and we reached the ruins of Coba. We paid the entrance fee and were notified that they closed at 5:30. We had about an hour to get to our ruin, climb it and get back to the main gate... how hard could that be? We tried to rent a bike but they said it had to be in 30 minutes before closing time and they knew we wouldn't make it. So, we started on our speed walking journey. We found a sign that pointed to the "Grande Temple" and indicated that it was 2 Kilometers away. As we neared the temple, Michael agreed to stay at the bottom and take pictures as we all raced to the top and then I would take some when he started his climb. We spent a few minutes enjoying the view and then descended to begin our 2 Kilometer walk to the front gate. We made it with time to spare and were completely wiped out from the walk and climb.

Map of Coba

The ruins

We begin our ascent

Almost there

Michael and Catherine at the top

We made it too :-)

Going down

Traci and Bill

A gorgeous walk back

We arrived back at our resort about the time it was getting dark and were ready to relax. It was a full moon and we couldn't think of a better way to enjoy it than to chill out in the pool.

Day 5, we go snorkeling

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 3

Day 3 (Tuesday Aug. 4th)

Day 3 was to be the "Day -O- Shopping" and not the normal shopping that most of you are used to but Traci Vega style. That means you go into every shop, turn over every item, and you don't leave until all the shopping money has been spent. :-)

Shopping of course means we need shopping money. Unfortunately, I had been unsuccessful at withdrawing any money from the local ATMs and received a message on each machine that indicated that there was an error and I should try again later. Rather than make any more attempts at the same ATM, we went to the resort next to ours and tried their machine. Everyone who approached the machine was able to pull out some dough except for us... I spoke with the concierge and asked if he had ever seen this problem before. He mentioned that sometimes a bank would put a card on hold if they saw charges from a foreign country. He asked for the international number on the back of the card and made a collect call to BofA for us.

I spent the next 1.5 hours on the phone waiting for someone to pick up. I was afraid that I might have ended up on a line that would never be picked up and asked Traci to call the number on another line. Within 10 minutes we had a live person on the other phone discussing my problem. I learned that there were two levels of "Mass Compromise" that morning and that my card was at the level where it needed to be inactivated. The person on the phone explained that someone had made several attempts to take out money. I told her that every one of the attempts was me trying to get cash. She said she understood but that my card still needed to be inactivated. At this point I was yelling into the phone "DO NOT INACTIVATE MY CARD" and asking for a manager. She put me on hold while she searched for her manager and came back about a minute later to let me know that she could not find her manager and that she was going to inactivate my card and get a new one out to me. Again, I started with the yelling and told her to get her manager's manager and if she couldn't find them to keep looking until she found one. I finally got a manager on the phone and with a click of a mouse we were able to take out some money. YESSS!!!

On hold with BofA

We rode the shuttle into town and had lunch while Traci strategized her afternoon attack on the stores. We had 5 different cups of chili to choose from that ranged from tomato sauce to fire in your mouth. I tried the whole range and paid for it in sweat. After finishing up our meal, we were ready to hit the shops.

A tasty lunch

yummy cow

We spent the next 4+ hours going in and out of every shop looking for that ever elusive "perfect item". For those of you who have been to Tijuana and know how aggressive the shop people are, this was no different. I was accosted by every shop keeper wanting to know if the happy honeymooners wanted a necklace, t-shirt or wooden mask. The only thing I wanted from our day of shopping were postcards and a picture of me with a parrot. We never found the parrot; however, were able to find a monkey named Lola who was willing to take a photo with me.

I settled for a picture with the monkey

Lola liked Traci more than she liked me

Traci, Lola, and Bill

We then spent some time at the beach watching the locals and enjoying the ocean breeze.

The shops near the beach in Playa Del Carmen

The terminal to Cozumel

We walked back to meet our shuttle and headed back to the resort. Once at the resort, we went to the pool and swam until our fingers shrivelled up.

The plan was to turn in early as Day 4 was going to be a long day and would start at 5:30am. As we were getting ready to head to bed, there was a knock at the door. It was the maid with four Hershey's kisses in her hands. I took them from her and we enjoyed the chocolate before turning in.

On day 4, we explore the Mayan ruins.

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 2

Day 2 (Monday Aug. 3rd)

The day started off with me waking up at 6am and wanting to go for a walk on the beach. That thought quickly vanished as I lay my head back on my pillow and crashed out for another 2 hours.

Traci and I walked down to the pool by the beach and spent the next 4 hours floating, bobbing, and swimming around. The resort coordinated several events throughout the day and one of them was a trivia contest. Traci and I had no intention of participating; however, when I heard the first question I knew I was destined to take it all. This is how it went down: The person running the event would ask a question and if someone knew the answer, they would yell "aqui, aqui, Raul". There were over a hundred other swimmers participating and 90% of the questions referenced American music or T.V. shows. When a question was answered correctly, the winner received poker chips and the person who had the most at the end won. I ended up in a tie with some other dude. So we went head to head for the final question. We both were stumped by the first two questions and I finally overtook him by correctly identifying "don't let the sun go down on me". For my efforts I received a coupon for a free drink at the bar.

Traci by the beach

We had our own little pier

Prior to travelling to Mexico, we made plans to rent a car. Based on the research we did, it would be cheaper and save us a bunch of time to drive ourselves around. Michael was designated as our Mexican driver and I was to be his navigator. We ended up getting a sweet 4 door compact. Michael picked up the car in the afternoon and we took a drive into Playa Del Carmen to do some shopping and eat dinner.

We ate dinner at one of the local restaurants in the market area and checked out the shops. The dinner was nothing spectacular; however, hanging out and checking out the local scene was very cool.

Dinner

It says Heart Street for those of you who don't' habla

People everywhere

Tuning up their instruments - eye, eye, eye, eye

As luck would have it, there was a Walmart in Playa Del Carmen. The Walmart was much like one you would see in the in Kansas City, except everyone spoke Spanish... O.K. so that wasn't too different. We purchased food for breakfast and picked up several jugs of drinking water. We heard the water was safe to drink at the resort but didn't want to take the chance. The bread department was an interesting stop. As you entered this area, you were given a pair of tongs and a pizza tray. The bread was made daily and put into baskets around the walls. When you found something you liked, you simply used the tongs to put it on your tray. They even had pizza slices and cake sitting on a table for the taking.

Anyone need some cake?

Lots of food

Lots of agua

We almost died twice while driving around town. The locals do no obey stops signs and drive very aggressively. It was just a taste of what the rest of the week was going to be like.

Our bed was once again turned down and the kisses were waiting for us.

Day two was all we expected it to be and more! Day 3 go shopping.

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 1

Traci and I just returned from a 7 day journey to Mexico. After turning 3 shades darker, sampling some of the hottest chili ever, and floating around in the pool until our fingers pruned up, we returned home. Rather than write about every day in one posting, I will spread it out over a handful of posts. :-)

Day 1 (Sunday Aug. 2nd)

After staying up until about 1am, Traci and I dragged ourselves out of bed at5am and made out way to the airport. Our flight would take us from Kansas City to Houston and finally to Cancun. We made our first leg without event; however, once in Houston the games began. We travelled from one end of the airport to the other to make our connection and upon reaching our gate learned that our plane was being worked on and would leave about an hour later than expected. The flight was overbook so they were offering $300, food, and a hotel room to leave the following morning. It was a very temping offer and we would have taken it but we had to meet up with our friends Catherine and Michael in Mexico.

After 30 minutes of waiting for the repairs to be completed, an announcement was made that our plane had been grounded and we needed to head to an alternate gate for a new plane. The new gate was of course on the other side of the airport where we initially landed. At this point, the airline had sweetened the overbooked deal and was offering $500, a hotel room, food and first class tickets on the first flight in the morning. Had we been able to call our friends, we would have gladly given up 24 hours of our vacation.

Once we boarded the plane, there was a newly wed couple who were sitting apart and wanted to be seated next to each other. Ahhhh, how sweet... The lady was sitting next to us and her husband was a few rows up. The flight attendant offered a seat in first class to anyone who was willing to move so these two could sit together. As I leaned over to tell Traci to go for it, she was already half way down the aisle with all her personal belongings ready to jump into her big comfy 1st class seat. Needless to say, most of the peole on the flight burst out laughing at her willingness to leave me sitting alone.

Minutes before she left me for 1st class

Off the coast of Cancun

Jungle, jungle, jungle, runway - whew

This trip had been in the works for the past 6 months when Catherine and Michael invited us to join them on their Mexican get away. I went to college with Michael and we both took a job at Cerner in 2003. I worked with Catherine during my first year at Cerner and they met at a Halloween party. They ended up getting married and now live in Phoenix... Ahhh, yet another sweet story.

We met Catherine and Michael outside of Customs at the Cancun airport and boarded a shuttle that would take us to what was to be our home away from home. We arrived at The Grand Mayan and checked into our room. We each had our own room complete with Jacuzzi tub, a kitchen, living room and a pool on the balcony. Directly behind our room there was a jungle and to the East a view of the ocean .

The Lobby

Check in desk - check out the thatch roof

Welcome to the Jungle

Our room

The bed was so big it was almost like having the bed to myself

The kitchen

Living room

The balcony pool

We spent the remainder of our day walking the grounds gawking at how beautiful everything was, checking out all the pools and eating our first Mexican meal at the hotel restaurant. We were treated to a lightening storm and were amazed to see all the crazy people swimming while it was going on. When we got back to our room, the bed had been turned down and a couple of chocolate kisses had been left.

It is as awesome as looks

Pool side beds for maximum relaxation

They even brought the beach to this pool

A 15 minute rain storm

Our little Paradise

Michael and Catherine

The pool at night during a severe lightening storm

We look forward to sharing the rest of our time with you!

Bill and Traci