The Best Two Years Thus Far. Part Dos: Cancun

Part Dos

We left Puerto Morelos on Sunday morning and traveled to Cancun. Tonio has a friend who lives in Cancun so we planned on attending his ward so that we could meet each other. Finding the church in Cancun was very challenging because the streets had no names! We had looked up the address on line and we even wrote directions, however, once we needed to make a right turn on a particular street we realized that not only did the streets lacked names, not even the locals knew where the street was. We became like Nephi of old, going without by faith knowing where to go. Eventually Tonio felt like he needed to make a right turn and lo and behold we arrived to the chapel and on time. Talk about miracles!

Cancun Chapel

That Sunday Tonio met with his friend Gabriel. They grew up together in the same ward in Mexico City. Gabriel is now married (his wife’s name is Zuemia) and has one child and one more on the way. After church, Gabriel’s in-laws invited us to come over to their house for dinner. We ate carnitas (roasted pork) with tortillas, guacamole and salsa. It was truly delicious. After dinner we visited for a little bit with the family. We talked about how we met each other. Gabriel and Zuemia also talked about how they met and their adventures in Cancun. Zuemia’s mother gave Katrina a little purse she made with the little things at the top of soda cans used to push them open. She is very talented and loves making all kinds of crafts like that one. Before leaving, they invited us to come over the next day to see Zuemia’s father play softball. He and some co workers played in a small local league and the final game was being played on Monday.

Gabriel y Tonio

We accepted the invitation and we took off to our hotel over the Hotel Zone in Cancun. Zuemia’s parents insisted on coming with us to help us get there (considering the difficulty that it is to navigate without road signs). They were very kind to us.

We stayed at the J W Marriott Resort in Cancun. It was a very elegant and fancy place. Given Tonio’s Platinum status our room was upgraded to the 12^th floor. The view was so incredible we could not believe our eyes. We took lots of pictures from our balcony. We thought we could see Cuba from our room!

Care for a swim?

Room with a view

That evening, we celebrated our anniversary by going out for dinner at Lorenzillos (a high-end lobster and seafood restaurant). We went there because Gabriel and his family recommended the place as one of the nicest in the Cancun strip. It was certainly nice, and pricey. However, we decided to indulge ourselves in an expensive place this one time since it was our anniversary. At the end of our meal, we were surprised by the waiters when they brought us a little dessert with a little caramel legend that said “Feliz Anniversario”. That was a nice little detail.

Happy 2nd Anniversary

Upon returning to our hotel from the restaurant we went for a little swim in the hotel’s pool. It was a really nice pool with several sections and bridges. Since it was late at night, very few people were present which made it a very romantic night.

The next morning we went down to the hotel beach. Our beach’s section had lots of chairs and umbrellas made out of “palapas” (palm tree leaves). Summer time is the slow season in Cancun, hence, the beach was quite empty. This was really nice. Katrina was working on a tan for her legs while Tonio read her a biography on Thomas Jefferson. Eventually we made it to the water and stayed a little too long. We put our snorkels to a good use and played getting “beached” (just like the whales get beached at the seashore) a couple of times. Unfortunately, the sand was not as soft as we would have liked it.

Should I be on a postcard or what?

Donde esta el salvavidas?

You might wonder how many other exciting things we did in Cancun. Well, we decided to go to a mall and watch two movies in a row. That is right. Cancun is a lot like Vegas so we did not feel so inclined to experience the party lifestyle of the city. We did, however, have a lot of fun at the mall. We ate at a restaurant called “Chocolate City”. Katrina was very happy to be there. We not only got good food for lunch but a delicious caramel brownie and a dozen chocolate covered strawberries (courtesy of the house).

Since movies are less expensive down there, we decided to watch the movies “Salt” and “Inception” (for the second time). After the movies we made our way back to town to meet up with Gabriel’s in-laws for dinner and the softball game. We had a lot of fun at the game. Prior to the beginning of the game we were told that a lady would normally come to sell her home-made tamales. When the tamal lady arrived a swarm of hungry fans surrounded her. Gabriel braved the crowd at the request of his mother-in-law in order to get a couple pieces of the precious food.

Pre-game dinner

Champion of the Tamales

The game was pretty quiet for most of the time. However, as we approached the final innings the excitement picked up quickly. Katrina was yelling at the top of her lungs (I cannot write the things she said for decency’s sake). It was very cool to see our team win the championship.

After the game we said good-bye to Gabriel and his family and headed back to our hotel. Our stay in Cancun was very short but we did not mind it. Our hotel was so luxurious that we felt a little guilty for staying there. There is a huge gap between the hotel zone and the real Cancun that makes you come to the realization of the poverty of that area.

The next day we made our way to Chichen Itza but that is another story full of joy and pain…