Playa de Akumal

Jonny, Annika, and I have been studying Marine Zoology this year. Right before our vacation, we were reading about "aquatic herps", specifically sea turtles. The kids were so excited when they learned that at least two different kinds of sea turtles could be found in Mexico. They were sure that meant we'd be seeing lots of sea turtles while on vacation. I just winked and went along with it, thinking that the odds were not good. (If only I understood Mayan, I might have known better.)

As it turns out, sea turtles like to eat the sea grasses that grow in the bay at Akumal. I saw five. Two of them were at least as big as me! It was amazing. It took Tony two tries to get Annika to see a turtle, but they did it!


The Akumal beach was a mile or so away, but you could snorkel, swim, play in the surf, or just run after the seagulls. Something for everyone.


Jonny was thrilled to be life-vest-free for once. Anthony was constantly embattled in sand fights with his cousins and sisters.


BooBoo put a lot of time into his "surfing".


It took Cozy a while to warm up to the whole beach thing. During the first visit, she was ok with playing in the sand....chasing birds and dogs.


After some forced interaction with the surf, she decided that running in and out of the water wasn't too scary.

By our last visit, she wanted to walk into the water and play where she could barely keep her chin above water - me hovering over her, to pick her up when she went under...or the waves went over. (Scary.)


Cozy also picked up a new phrase, to go with our new swimming lifestyle. "I want a tow-el. I want a tow-el. I want a tow-el." It means, "Wrap me in a towel, so that I can cuddle up, get warm (it must be hard to having minimal body fat), and take a nap!"

I'm worried that this trip has ruined me for all future vacations.

Swimming

Although the houses were nice in and of themselves, the big draw of that particular location was snorkeling. (In Tulum, they were advertising snorkeling trips to Akumal - where we were!) Instead of a beach, we were on a saltwater lagoon - just full of fish waiting to be harassed by us. (One of them harassed us back. There was a little fish living in the entrance steps that would give you a little nibble if you stood there too long. Sofia did...on purpose...to bug it. It blew on her several times - as a warning- and then bit her. She also discovered a stinging anemone. I told her to quit touching things!)


I'm not sure why snorkeling feels to effortless (especially since we never bothered with the fins), but when oxygen isn't a concern, swimming is a much better pastime. What was amazing to me was that I could stand in the crystal-clear water, looking down, and not see a thing swimming around. ...but once I stuck my face in the water (masked), there were all sorts of things swimming right near the surface!

Sofia and Anthony spent a lot of time exploring the lagoon. When I went out with them, they had already named various landmarks (such as "the bottomless pit" - a deep pool which could only be reached by hiking over a bit of sharp, rocky island). And Sofia pioneered the art of talking through her snorkel, so that she could tell me exactly which fish she was looking at. It was a mumbley, but I've already been decifering their mumbles for years. At first, I didn't believe her claims of having seen a baracuda...later, I saw one swim right by her! (And my nephew caught one fishing...not in the lagoon...but same sea, right?) We saw lots of seargent majors, blue tangs, and princess parrotfish. Not a single snorkeling picture...because I was wet and cameraless every time.

The smaller hooligans weren't very interested in the lagoon. They went in once of twice, but preferred swimming in the pool at the main house, with Grandma and Grandpa to watch them.




Cozy didn't even want to swim there. She just sunbathed and occasionally threw things in the pool.


...but she did seem to enjoy it!



No, as far as Cozy is concerned, lagoons are for throwing rocks and flipflops in...and maybe the occasional fake-fishing.




...back to the pool...


...and Grandma.

They've got my number

Did you know that Tulum is populated entirely by iguanas? I think spotting them was probably the most exciting part for the littler kids. I could also tell that it took a lot of self-restraint for the kids not to chase those iguanas all over the place.


So, when someone asked if we'd like to have our picture taken with an iguana for 50 pesos....Jonny turned his big, pleading brown eyes on me!


Of course then the girls wanted to get their picture take with the monkey....and what could I say? "Yes, I will pay money, so that you can potentially get pooped on by a monkey...but, no, you may not get a pet monkey."


...unless you use it to earn a living....


....by letting crazy tourists take pictures with it. Don't they look charming with their monkey accessories?

Tulum

We couldn't be so near Mayan ruins and not go see them....especially since it was Tulum, the city Sofia was "assigned" in her social studies class. (Besides, a trip to Chichen Itza would have taken all day, whereas we could see Tulum before lunch and then go swimming.)


As soon as we got there, we let the kids each pick a giant hat to protect their dear little faces. I didn't force one on Cozy, but I should have. Her little scalp got burnt. Annika insisted on wearing her hat backwards for most of the day. (Here's one of the few moments it wasn't.)


There was a huge pole where you wait to take the tram to the ruins...topped with Mayan musicians.




We were impressed even before they started to do this...


It spun, the roped unravelling further and further, until they reached the ground. It was cool, but I seriously got dizzy just watching.

We didn't take the tram. Our theory is "walk down, ride up" (when you're extremely hot and tired). I tried to impress James with the "train". He looked at me like I was crazy. "That's a tractor dressed like a train." (Moms can be so dense.)


Entering the city....


Being really hot...


Taking cool pictures...


Not letting kids get sandy and wet ("We'll go to the beach when we get home!")....


Neat to see the ruins, but I think my family came to the consensus that we only wanted to learn about them in the shade.

Lucy's

Just to warn you, I'm going to be droning on about my vacation all week. Feel free to ignore me for however long you need to. :)

Tony and I think ice cream is an important part of any vacation (which could explain my desire to go to Italy), so how relieved was I when I saw a "homemade ice cream" sign as we were driving by the beach! Thank you, Lucy's!


They had new flavors every day. You heard me - every day. You have to be committed to maintain a figure like mine. (Also, it was an effective way to get kids to leave the beach - "Come on guys, we're going to get ice cream!")

Among all of us, we tried mango, carmel, ginger, nutella, chocolate (some of my kids are pretty boring that way), butter pecan, vanilla nut crunch, vanilla (ditto on the boring) and strawberry.


Complete with homemade waffle cones...and I'm pretty sure we only used the last of the cones once (leaving my sil's family with cups - I hope they aren't grudge-holders).


Yum.

Our Townhouse

Behold - Casa Romero. Seriously. That's what it's called. It was built by the Romero (of no known relation to us) who founded the town of Akumal. I know it sounds and looks very historic but...


...it was founded in 1975. (In all fairness, that was before I was born.)

We were staying in one of the townhomes on the other side of the circle. French Angel? Blue Tang? I can't remember which. It was perfect. Two big bedrooms: one with a king, one with two fulls (for the kids). Three bathrooms for de-sanding and rinsing the saltwater out of your hair.


...and do you see the balconies? They lead to the roof. Show 'em, Sofi!


A pool on each house...in case you're tired of the fish nibbling your bum when you swim in the lagoon. :)

Also, it was shallow enough for the kids to swim without life jackets.


...and, as it was a family reunion, we had built-in playmates. Odie had two big cousins to get into trouble with. There were 2 other 7-year-olds for Jonny to pal around with. Sofia and Annika had to share Lizzy...but at least they shared nicely!


...and friends for grown-ups as well! I think Missy taught us at least four new games over the week: nerts, farkle, hand and foot, and bananagrams (which I've had since Christmas...and have been too lazy to read the directions.) So fun!


From the roof, we can see the lagoon...so that we don't forget to get our daily snorkeling in.


Did I want to come back home? Not really.

Up in the air...

On the 12th we began our trip to Mexico. I was super-nervous about taking a multi-flight, out-of-country trip with the hooligans, but my husband was sure it would be great. ...and if he wasn't sure, he has a very good poker face.

We left early, parked in the new, ultra-luxurious Wally Park Garage (seriously - it was posh...and only a dollar more a day than the outside lot, with their grand-opening special).


Clearly we don't travel much (except in the van), because the kids were were super-excited about the shuttle ride to the airport.

Cozy climbed onto a seat and was so happy to be buckled up like a big person.


Sofia (like the new do? Shockingly similar to Odie's haircut - don't you think?), before the word "Shuttle" reminded her of Star Trek...


...and she stared making everyone do this....



Oh yea, we were on the party shuttle. It could only be downhill from there. The first flight went ok. We passed the credit card around so that everyone could watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Boo was predictably good (give him food and tv...). Cozy was predictably restless.

By the time we got to Houston, I felt like I had taken the kids on an all-day shopping trip and reasonable questions like "where is our gate?" and "Can we get pizza?" where making me want to scream. To make things worse, Tony (with our passports and boarding passes) was nowhere to be found when they started threatening to oust people from the flight if they hadn't had their passports verified before boarding!

Luckily he arrived in plenty of time, piping hot pizza in hand (seriously...we boarded the plane with a giant pizza box), and got us all squared away with the passport police. James and Cozy slept thru the last leg to Cancun, and all surrounding passengers expressed their gratitude (though relief might be more accurate).

We landed in Cancun at 10pm, Tony was unhappy with our rental car situation, so we sat around (car-less) for about an hour until he rented us our dream car...a Sienna (just like the one we left at Wally Park). We started driving south with Cozy screaming and everyone else sleeping. (How do they sleep through that?)

At this point, I did not have very good feelings about our vacation.

All of those feelings just melted away when we arrived at the "family compound" in Akumal. Met by Tony's wonderful family, at a beautiful, beautiful place (even in the dark) - how could you not be excited and happy.

The kids obviously felt the same way...and expressed it by trying to climb the palm trees after tempting coconuts. Thankfully, one of the caretakers got a ladder before anyone got hurt, and they cracked open coconuts to their hearts content. Behold the devastation:


Coconut Apocalypse 2011

Oh, Snaily Me!

Things I've been slowly finishing:


Pillowcases for my sister to take with her to China. (She and my niece are going on the world's coolest field trip: China and Korea. The pillowcases are for the orphanage they'll be helping in.) I think she made thirty...I made nine.


..and...

Cozy's toddler bed. Not my fault...weather has not been cooperating. When it isn't raining torrents, it's too windy for spray-painting. (...and I've been banned from painting in the garage....and justly so.)



Slow and steady, Mamalia, slow and steady....

On an unrelated note, does anyone local want these fingerpaints? The sooner they're gone the better.