Mercado Venteocho

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Monday

We greeted Monday morning with a free breakfast because Manuel agreed to listen to information about the property we are on. Rebekah and Manuel own a timeshare within the group that we are at but, of course, the owners always want the people to own how they could "improve" their ownership so for an hour of time we got a free breakfast. I enjoyed fried bananas which I had not had before. They were quite yummy!

After breakfast we caught a shuttle to Mercado Venteocho...Market 28. It is a Mexican flea market in downtown Cancun. There are two parts two Cancun: downtown and the hotel zone. Downtown is where you will find more of the Mexican type shopping. The hotel zone is where a lot of the tourists shop. Again, Manuel was priceless in the flea market. As soon as he said "soy paisano" everything changed. "Pesos, for you? Oh, well" and then the vendors would drop the price more than half and the negotiations would begin. Each of us walked out of there with a few bags in our hands.

We also enjoyed another truly Mexican lunch. Rebekah had chilis relinos. I had something that was like an open faced enchilada but not. They were homemade tortillas...I may never go back to store bought. Manuel had this amazing shrimp cocktail. Ours look like mini cocktails in the US. This area where we had lunch had seven restaurants all lined up next to each other, like a Mexican food court. Each restaurant had servers holding menus in their hands shouting to come down to their food. There was a Mexican band sitting at a nearby table playing music while we ate. We asked the servers to take our pictures and one ran off saying he was going to take the best "freaking'" photo ever. That's the photo of us in sombreros.

After lunch we went back to Villa del Palmar for pool time and relaxing. Playtime in the pool and a little hot tub...there are three hot tubs surrounding the two pools. Neither of the pools are more than 4' deep. There is a smaller one that is an adults only pool and the larger one that is shallower that allows the kids. That night Manuel made dinner which we ate on the balcony and watched the night come in and the lights in the hotel zone come on. Peaceful, relaxing, everything a vacation needs to be.

Tuesday is Cenote and Chichen Itza day.

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Photos

lunch
This wider angle gives you a better look at the area.

Bird
I don't know what kind of bird this is, but they float over the resort looking like kites.

Rebekah relaxes further
in fact she fell asleep a few minutes after this photo.