Lillee

Our last day began relaxing at the pool. Manuel believes...and with a great deal of sense...to only drink from a bottle. Therefore, beer for breakfast when in Mexico. It was a great way to start the day, watching the ocean from the pool with a good book. I wanted to do a little last shopping so we headed to Mercado Venteocho where we were able to get in and out quickly and then on for a final meal in the Hotel Zone. Rebekah had not had a chance yet to see the Hotel Zone and it's one of the areas everyone talks about. The Hotel Zone is kind of like Miami Beach with building on top of building with a Hooters and a variety of other restaurants and gift shops wedged in between. There is a ... read more

After Chichen Itza I needed I day to relax. Rebekah and Manuel only needed a half of a day to recover so they headed off to Playa del Carmen while I read and dozed the day away at the beach and pool. I took a couple of photos from the back of the hotel. One shows the typical dwelling for the people who serve the hotels. It is a block of apartment buildings with more hotels in the background. If you look closely you will see a black barrel on the top of each section of the building. That contains the water for that apartment. Water is in high demand here so they have water allotments. When that runs out of the day, they are done with water for the day. during times of real scarcity ... read more

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 ... read more

Rain threatened all afternoon with off and on drizzling. As we drove to Arista Winery where the wedding and reception took place it seemed like we might be in the clear...so to speak. We were riding in a van with the maid of honor at the helm. Emily was sitting in the middle row with the back of her dress and her veil draped over the back of the seat to keep it from being crushed. MOB sat in the middle row with the two of the three bridesmaids in the back row. Emily had me sitting in front to prevent any motion sickness in the drive over. Rebekah joined us at the winery. With expert piloting from the Sarah in the back seat and the on board navigation system we made to Arista without incident. ... read more

I want to show you a couple of photos of the hotel at which we stayed, The Flamingo Inn. These are outside shots. I didn't take any photos this time of the rooms but the rooms had recently been redone. The restaurant breakfast and dinner that I had there were good and not overpriced. I think they really expect people to take advantage of all the fabulous restaurants in the area for dinner. It was interesting because most of the guest have a hallway door and a door that connects to the parking lot. To enter the building from the parking lot, a person has to swipe a key card so it is a protected entry. Each outdoor door opens to four rooms, two up and two down. This eliminated a lot of walking when you ... read more