Jen and I were traveling to Cancun as a delayed celebration of our first anniversary, and it was worth the wait. The days leading up to it were filled with frantic trips to Target to get items we needed and wrapping up projects at work. Finally we went to bed Wednesday night, setting our alarms to 4am and setting our intentions on a great trip.
Thursday:
We got up around 4AM to go to the airport. My sister-in-law Tara was kind enough to take us to the airport at that hour (thanks, Tara). We were flying out on USAir and we fortunately avoided having to pay for our luggage because we booked before they started charging "per bag" fees. Lucky us. After waiting at the airport for an hour or so, we took off from Nashville at 6:20AM. Although our flight to Charlotte, NC was very brief, US Air decided to serve beverages. We were surprised to see that US Air charged for sodas and water on their flights. In-between the luggage fees and this, I felt like USAir was gouging their patrons a bit. It could be worse, I suppose, but that kind of thing sticks with you when you think about planning other trips.
So we got to Charlotte, NC quickly and found a Starbucks. I got my usual coffee and we tried their new oatmeal that they serve for breakfast - not bad! We went to the boarding area where they double-checked our passports and then we got on the plane to Cancun! The movie was "Maid of Honor" - USAir still charged for the 2-prong headphones (I can't believe they still make those - I don't think ANYONE bought those on either flight they sold them on).
After a few hours in the air watching McDreamy move "mime-like" on the small screens overhead (by the way, he gets the girl at the end of the movie - shocker), we landed in Cancun. This was my first experience going through immigration and it went pretty easily - and I got my passport stamped! Then we grabbed our luggage and went through customs. We got the green "pass" light, getting out of the bag search. And we were on our way!
I wanted experience using a foreign currency, so we changed out some cash for pesos. Then we booked a ride on a shuttle to our resort through Gray Line. On our way out a lady wanted to "help" us find our shuttle. she ended up "helping" us to a timeshare condo (oh, I mean a "privately-owned" resort) stand where the very nice woman failed to sell us anything, but wasted about 15 minutes of our time. I actually read about this tactic online (they call them "pirates"... clever, eh?), and can't believe I still fell for it. After we freed ourselves from the saleslady, we found the shuttle, hopped aboard and made the relatively quick trip to Le Meridien Resort in Cancun. Finally!
Once we got to Le Meridien, we checked in and were greeted with towels and mango juice - a nice first impression. We were also upgraded to a room with a balcony that had a great view. If you've never been to Cancun, the resort area is in a unique area. Wikipedia describe it like this: "The city center is located on the mainland which connects over the...lagoons to a narrow "7" shaped island where the modern beachfront hotels are located." We were on the long part of the "7" about 2/3 of the way down. A very quiet area and close to the airport. Our room faced north with gave us a view of the lagoon to our left and the blue Caribbean waters to our right. All I can say is that it was amazingly beautiful water - so blue and so clear!
Once we settled in, I flipped on the TV. It was my first experience with TV in another country, and flipping it on and seeing SpongeBob speaking fluently in Spanish was a kick. Fortunately, we also got stations out of Miami, which came in handy keeping an eye o Hurricane Ike later in the trip.
Having only eaten the oatmeal at breakfast, we were starving. We went down to the resort's cafe by the pool and got some guacamole & chips plus we split a small pizza. It was all good, and it hit the spot. Then we grabbed some chairs by the pool, dropped our books off and went down to the shore. The waves were choppy and it was very windy, so we didn't spend long in the water. We went back up, sat in some chairs by the pool and relaxed for several hours. We spent the day reading and swimming in the amazing pools at the hotel. We decided we needed to have Mexican food our first night there (duh). We went to Hacienda Sissal, a 15-minute walk from our hotel. I had a chicken mole enchilada that was good but rich and Jen had a chicken dish that was also good and much lighter. The restaurant was empty (I think we were the only people there) and on the way out, we figured out why... in a separate dining area was a place with a terrible lounge singer performing on stage while the dining area in front of him filled with retirees just eating it up. It was the cheeziest thing I saw on the trip and looked like it belonged in Vegas, not Cancun. Glad we were in the nice dining area.
We then walked to Kulkulcan Plaza mall and browsed around. Nice mall with some stores I wish we had at home (Oakley in particular) right next to stores that sold tacky souveneirs. Interesting juxtaposition. We stopped in an art gallery and spoke with the owner for awhile about an artist that we mutually liked. Then we saw a Ben & Jerry's and decided to share a scoop of tira misu ice cream. I also got a "Mexican" Coke, that was sweetened with real cane sugar, not corn syrup. Even though I'm a Diet Coke drinker, I could taste the difference immediately.
We walked back to the hotel and went down by the pool. An event was taking place in a pavilion with acapela singers that was quite beautiful. The lighting outside the hotel at night was amazing and it was very relaxing. We retired shortly thereafter, thoroughly exhausted from our first day.
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