8 Days in Mexico......on Tuesday!

October 19th-26th, 2008

Gran Bahia Principe, Tulum
Mexico

The main lobby of our resort

The main pool

Aaahhhhh......the beach!
We spent as much time here as possible,
though the weather wasn't perfect.
We had rain, at some time or another,
and in some quantity or another,
every day.
Still....30 degrees every day....can't complain!

We decided to make the best of our time and
plan some activities outside of the resort.
What fun would it be to just sit in the room?
We were in the Mayan Riviera for goodness sake.....how bad can it be?!


Day 2.
Aktun Chen
We saw some of the most amazing
underground caves and cenotes.
And lots of wild animals.

This little dude greeted us and
Hayden enjoyed feeding him bananas.

We were 15 feet underground looking up at the trees!!

We got some amazing pictures of the caves.
We had to trudge through water
because of all of the heavy rainfall, and poor Hayden
was up to his waist in some places!

You won't see those pictures, or any of the other
fabulous ones we had taken up to this point,
because we lost our camera.
* See Day 4. *

Day 4.
It started out like the rest.
Rainy.
We decided to go into Playa del Carmen for the morning.
We had a really nice morning, and when the sun came out after lunch,
we decided to go back and hit the beach.
I will go over the next hour in my head a million times.
Each time, I feel like throwing up.
Pure stupidity on our part.
Why we were so relaxed? I don't know.
Why wasn't I harping about the location of our belongings? I don't know.
Why didn't we double check our spot when getting off the bus??
We got off on the side of the highway.
We were so concerned about having a good hold on Hayden.
15 minutes later.....
I realized we didn't have the camera.
(Or the video camera that was in the same bag.)

Good luck trying to communicate the severity
of the situation to Mexican strangers.
Ralph and Eveline tried for hours to get it back.
Nothing.
Ralph offered a reward.
Nothing.

I don't even care about the camera.
It's the photos.
The beautiful family pictures we had taken at the beach.
Our amazing Mexican dinner.
The caves.
Hayden in the pool with his first pair of water wings.
Us building sandcastles.
Nauseating.

*~*~*The rest of our photos are courtesy of the Kodak Fun Saver*~*~*

Day 5.
The Mayan Ruins at Tulum.

It felt like about 800 degrees.
600% humidity.

The views were breathtaking.

And we were sweaty.

Hayden was on Iguana patrol the entire vacation.
We saw every shape, size and color.

Wouldn't want to meet this gang
in a dark forest!

Days 6, 7 and 8.
Soaking up the intermittent sun!

Ralph decided he wanted to be buried in the sand.
So, he dug himself a nice big hole.....

we helped cover him up.....

...and Hayden tended to the property around his daddy's head.
He even fed him lunch!!

Hayden's favorite pastime was walking the stones
around the pool.
We all had to take turns.
Many times.

How did a whale get into the pool??

Hayden loved the water and the independence
of floating around on his own.
I was so proud of him for being such a big boy.

What a nice way to cool off!

Friday night we stayed out after dinner to see the
Michael Jackson tribute show.
It was awesome.
Hayden was tuckered out
and slept right through the entertainment!

Bathing beauties

Hayden's turn to be buried.....
up to his waist!
We had a busy last day on the beach collecting
seashells, building sandcastles and
enjoying the sunshine.

Our last photo-op on the beach.

We had a great time......
and still managed to pull off pretty good tans!!