Playa Del Carmen, Mexico Vacation - January 6-13th, 2011

Since Ethan was going to be 2 we decided to have a vacation before he turned two to take advantage of the free flights and stay at a hotel. We booked the trip to the Sandos Playacar resort outside of Playa Del Carmen just before Christmas from January 6-13th, 2011. We had a little break to clean up the Christmas mess and then off we went to Mexico.



The flight was to leave at 10 am on the 6th so Jamie's dad came to get all of us at 5:45 am to head to the Toronto airport. Everything went very smoothly as everything was packed (so no last minute things to forget) the night before and Jamie had done the advance check-in the day before. Ethan didn't have a nap but was great on the plane on the way up for a 2 year old. We got to Mexico in the early afternoon and had to find our ride to the hotel. We had been warned that there were several people at the airport that would try to sell us timeshares. We made it outside and did find the correct tour buses. We were in a larger van for about an hour. Both Ethan and Kendra fell asleep in the van on the way there. We got to the hotel at about 4:00 pm and the lobby was all decorated with Christmas Trees and Decorations. The 6th of January was a holiday in Mexico called "Three Kings Day". We met with Vicki who tried to get us to go to a timeshare meeting but otherwise was very helpful in getting us a map of the property and showing us where our room was. We hadn't had lunch but all the snacks we brought seemed to do okay. We decided to get to our room and the kids wanted to go swimming right away since dinner wasn't until 6:30 pm. There was a pool right outside our room so we went there. Micah and Kendra both went in but it was quite cool for Jamie, Ethan and I. We just waded our feet in the little kid section.

We got ready for dinner and walked down towards the beach area where all the action happens. Since it was a holiday there was decorations and streamers hanging everywhere. Some of the food outside the buffet area and there was lots of seafood too, even mussels just for Micah. They had a troubadour band playing too that came around at lunch and dinner times. We weren't too sure of the water so we had a lot of soft drinks while we were in Mexico.


The best part for the kids was discovering there was a games centre with ping pong, air hockey, Foosball tables, pool tables, a large chess set and a connect 4 set. They also played kid movies every night before dinner. The kids club was great for the kids. Kendra was in a fashion show and both of them were in the Disney show on the Monday night. Micah was a mouse in Cinderella and Kendra was Cinderella before she was in her ballgown. Micah was also a statue from Herules.





The next day after we got there we went to the beach. THe water in the ocean was a lot warmer than the pools but there were quite a lot of waves. The first day it was a yellow flag but we didn't realize it would be a red flag for the rest of the trip otherwise we would have went into the water more. The kids mostly just waded in and out near the shore.



























One day I took a walk down the beach (about 1 km) when the kids were at kids club and I discovered many igauna, a lizard and a hermit crab. The views of the untouched jungle were fabulous too. I did take the kids on the walk another day but they didn't make is too far. Ethan wasn't so fond of the water. When he did try to venture out a big wave came by and he fell in the water. So he liked to play in the sand mostly.




One morning we took a guided tour to the Coba Mayan ruins. The ruins were just over an hour away. We took two bicycles (like a rick-shaw) down the 2 km pathway to get to the pyramid (we wouldn't have made it there and back with the kids in time if we didn't). I stayed with Ethan at the bottom (although he wanted to climb with everyone else) and Jamie took Kendra and Micah up to the top. They had a rope to hold onto to get back down. The one bicycle driver spoke English quite well but the other one did not. After seeing the ruins we did some quick shopping outside. Micah and Kendra got some necklaces and I got a little statue of the coba pyramid to take home. We got back around 1 pm and Ethan had a nap in the van on the way back. I held him in a chair afterwards but he stayed asleep. I finally got to the point where I wanted to put him down (he's about 33 lbs). I patted his bum and he went back to sleep again. He was a very tired little boy.




We also did a full day tour to the XCaret Park. We saw lots of animals for the first part of the day, we had Mexican buffet for lunch and then I took Ethan to the ocean (tried to get him to sleep with no luck) while Jamie took Micah and Kendra on the underground river tour with their snorkels and masks. They floated down the river and near the end Kendra saw a fish. Micah says, "Get me out of here". Not sure what the big deal was but Jamie convinced him to stay as it wasn't much longer until the end. We finally meet up again and decided not to stay for all the night shows. So we had to rush to get back for the bus at 5 pm. Jamie went to get all our stuff in the lockers while we made our way to the front exit (which is confusing). Ethan didn't want to sleep on the bus and was a bit cranky. Jamie just took him to bed without dinner that night. So the rest of us had dinner for Mexican Fiesta night. There were shops to buy things (Kendra got a purse and Micah got a drum). Then Micah and Kendra had a pinata to hit and then a bunch of games to play. They had a blast.

The last day was rainy most of the morning so we played in the games room most of the time. The afternoon was a bit better but cooler.




We also got a few pictures from the resort before we went home. They had different animals come and you get your picture taken with them. The pictures were expensive at $12 US each but some of them were great pictures.

The week was great, relaxing in parts and adventurous in parts so it was a good balance for all of us. The weather was warm most of the time. Only the one day it rained a bit and was a bit cool just before we left. Ethan did well and seemed to get enough sleep other than the one day at XCaret. Micah is still talking about wanting to go back (and it;s now March) so I know he enjoyed himself.