Jay-B's Reflections: Mexico Trip

Ashtyn's Birthday and our first full day in Mexico. It was so fun to watch the wonder and awe in they eyes of the kids. They really enjoyed the experience!!

Ashtyn turned 13! How fun to spend your birthday in a tropical paradise! We spend the morning exploring the hotel and scheduling excursions and our rental car. The hotel complex itself was set in the trees and felt like a jungle - so cool for kids (and adults!). While there we saw many tropical birds, iguanas, monkeys, turtles and coatis on site. There was a big waterfall in the lobby with fish in the pond too. After lunch we went into the Xcaret Park which was adjacent to our hotel complex (The Grand Occidental Xcaret). Unlimited entrance to the park was part of our package. The park is hard to explain: Disneyland quality but the activities are more outdoorsy and cultural. This day we swam in an underground river through the park (there are three). The water was a bit cold (another being-glad-Jarrett-wasn’t-with-us moment) but so cool to swim in the river. Many patches were underground and it was kind of dark but you also popped out at various places in the park and the jungle scenery was just so cool - like looking up the Narrows but in a jungle with moss and trees and vines growing everywhere. While we were in there there was an enormous thunderstorm - what luck! We were totally protected from the rain and watched it coming down in sheets from between the crevices of the rocks with people running for cover. We came out on the ocean side after the storm has passed and enjoyed standing in the sun to dry off and watch the waves. This day we also passed through the zoo-like areas where they had alligators, sharks, huge sea turtles, lots of fish and other marine life. We had dinner at the hotel. Ashtyn chose the Italian restaurant for her birthday. I was feeling so good about having used my Spanish all day. I encouraged everyone to order in Spanish by reading off of their menu on the Spanish side, not the English side. Well, I was the one who messed up! When it came time for dessert, I went first and I ordered a “gateaux de queso”, thinking i was ordering the cheesecake. I forgot that sometimes the French word instead of the Spanish word comes to my mind and I didn’t double-check my menu. “Pastel” is Spanish for “cake” and “Gateaux” is French for cake. Unfortunately, “Gateaux” in French sounds just like “Gato” in Spanish, which actually means “cat”. So, I ordered a “cat of cheese” for dessert instead of a “cake of cheese”. Oh, the waiter laughed and the kids kept reminding me of the little snafu all week long. It was pretty funny!

We had breakfast down but the beach at "The Beach Club". The photos of the beach were our view from breakfast. Great food as well!

For lunch, we really enjoyed the buffet - great food and we ate here often for the convenience.

For our first time into the Xcaret park, we took the boat ride. This is only accessible from our hotels as the little River runs directly into the park. A very unique way to get to the park and SO much fun for the kids.

A day-time view of the stadium that is used for the night shows, which we did on Day 3.

We got to see these little guys all over the place - very cool. We learned later that they love bananas!

A definite highlight of the trip, we jumped in the underground rivers that go through the park. There are 3 different rivers and we did 2 of them throughout the week. The following photos were taken from my iPhone, which was in a waterproof case. Later in the week, we used our GoPro in the river and it took awesome photos. But - I forgot to charge the batteries, so for Day 2, the photos are from the iPhone.

I snapped a photo of the map of the park - it's a very big place, but super fun!

A view of the beach from the east side of the park after we finished the underground river.

A huge crowd of people snorkeling. We are glad we did this later in the week at Xel-Ha - too crowded at Xcaret - but it was also a record setting day at Xcaret! They had to have 2 night shows due to the crowd size!