Mexico 2007

Hi there! I decided to keep Craig and I up with the times and create a blog. With all the trips we do I never get around to sharing our pics or anything, so here goes.

I've just returned from warm, sunny Mexico to freezing Sydney. I was there for 8 days at a conference (of which I didn't have to attend much of) with my boss Rosemary. The area we stayed in wasn't highly cultural, but we didn't leave the resort alot, which was probably why. The nachos is good though...and I'm hardly going to complain about sitting by the pool sipping cocktails now am I?

We were staying at the Aventura Spa Palace resort in Playa Del Carmen, just over an hour south of Cancun airport. The pic left is one side of one of the massive pools that was there. You've got to love a swim-up bar. You could order whatever you wanted and didn't have to pay a cent. The hotel was an all-inclusive resort, which meant even room service and the mini bar, as well as dining at any of the 8 restaurants, bars or cafes was free (cool huh!)

This is the main shopping strip in Playa (called 5th Avenue). The area is catered extremely towards American tourists, and unfortunately has lost a little of it's traditional culture, but it was a beautiful shopping strip, with lots of jewellery and tobacco shops.

The beach at Playa Del Carmen

These are a few of the great aussies I met on the trip, Pav, Kelly, Ben, Monique, Don, (?oops), Ellen, Bill and Kyle. (we're at the International Dinner by the beach). I met lots of nice people...the aussies were definitely the best party people out of the crowd.

One of the tours we all went on was to XCARET, which is a mixture between a zoo and a marine park. It was really hot, so everyone headed for the limestone swim throughs. It took 50 minutes to swim all the way through, but it was so beautiful and the water was so clear. You could also snorkel, or book in to swim with the dolphins - we could've easily spent a day here, but we only had the afternoon.

There were these big beautiful birds all over the park...they were pretty friendly too.

In the evening we headed to this massive covered arena where we were all seated to eat dinner and watch a cultural show. They started out with ball games using flaming balls, then headed into native singing/dancing etc. I think the Mexican's were blessed with the same vocal abilities that the black americans were (jealous!). It was really entertaining and I enjoyed it alot.

On one of the days I went for 2 dives in the Caribbean Sea (just sounds divine doesn't it?). I saw some pretty cool things - a huge crab, lobster, squid, lots of tropcial angel fish, parrot fish, and barracuda. The water temp wasn't too warm where we were. So I was a little cold in the water, but it was a fun experience.

We also went to Tulum Archaeological Site to look at Mayan Ruins. They are all limestone temples, built right on the coastline. I'm surpirised anyone could worship in them because I would've been distracted by the amazing view. We were able to head down the big timber stairs to the beach to swim here. The water temperature was divine and the sand was like paste (free facial anyone?). And the colour of the sea was so Aqua it looked fake. I would fly back there again just to swim in the water.

The last night was a Caribbean Night, and this is Monique and Kath.

It was a real treat to see Craig at the airport when I arrived in Sydney...for a few short days before he headed off to Malaysia. He'll be home tomorrow, so it's not so bad. Well that's all from me. Quite a long first blog I suppose, now I just have to figure out how to forward the darn thing haaa...