We had to get up brutally early because I booked us on a 6:00 a.m. flight with the idea that the earlier we left, the earlier we would get to Playa and the more time we would have to enjoy our first day. I hate arriving at a destination just in time for bed and losing the whole first day. Unfortunately, this meant waking up at 2:00 a.m., so we could leave the house by 3:00 a.m., so we could drop the car off at the parking lot (Central Parking) and get to the airport by 4:00 a.m. WTF was I thinking!?
We had two smooth flights – in fact, they were so smooth, I nodded off to sleep for a bit. First we flew from Philadelphia to Miami and then we got a connecting flight to Cancun. This is the view right before we landed in Cancun. Ah, just look at that turquoise water – a sight for sore eyes!
Once we arrived at the Cancun Airport, the first thing we did was look for an ATM machine so we could withdraw some pesos. Unfortunately, we had difficulty with the machines. Each time we tried to get money, the machine told us “We cannot process your request. Please contact your bank”. After 3 different tries on 2 machines, I was able to get one relatively small withdrawal - the equivalent of about $50 USD. This had me worried! Almost ALL of our travel money was in our checking account and we had planned to access that money via ATM machines. Now we had to figure out how we were going to get in touch with our bank.
We negotiated our way through the airport, carefully avoiding the timeshare sharks who pose as tourist information clerks, and got our tickets for the ADO bus to Playa del Carmen. The ADO costs about $11 USD/per person one-way and got us to Playa in about 45 minutes to an hour - a very pleasant bus ride. Here we are pulling into Playa on the bus.
When we arrived at Mahekal Beach Resort at around 2:00 p.m., we were so excited to see that it was even more beautiful in person than in all the photos we had seen. We checked in at the front desk and were promptly escorted to our room #57B in the Gardenview Pueblito section. A lovely porter helped us with the luggage and gave us a quick tour of the room. These are the cheapest rooms at the resort because they are the farthest from the beach front, however, we decided that after assessing the entire resort, and despite the lack of ocean view, we actually preferred this section over the more expensive oceanfront units. The Gardenview Pueblito section was more quiet and private, with less people walking by, and we noticed that our room appeared to be significantly larger than the oceanfront rooms. We really loved the big pool with the fountain in front of our unit (this pool was for looking at only, not for swimming). The fountain ran all day and then would shut off at night. It was so soothing to hear the sound of the water fountain – it felt like being at a spa retreat. Also, this section had a less claustrophobic feel to it than the other sections where the units were kind of squashed together along narrow winding paths.
Our room was spotlessly clean, simple, rustic and nicely appointed. I took a video of the room before we unloaded all our crap so I could capture what the room looked like when we first arrived.
Once we were settled in, Mr. Sassy was ready to collapse from exhaustion from too little sleep, so he plopped himself down on the bed and took a nap. I immediately went to the bar area where there is a public computer with internet access and logged onto our bank’s website to send them a message about the problems with the ATM machine. I was particularly irritated about this situation because I had contacted our bank a week or two prior to the trip to alert them we would be travelling to Mexico and using our ATM card. There was no reason our card should be “flagged” for suspicious activity.
Another problem, which was a little more serious, was that somehow I had sprained my right foot the day prior and it was hurting me quite a bit, and was a bit swollen. God knows how I did this, as I do not recall doing anything to hurt my foot…and never in my life have I ever had a sprain, but of course as luck would have it, I suffer this injury right in time for our Mexican vacation. Ugh.
After I sent the email to the bank, I was too excited to nap, so I unpacked our bags and put everything away. I also walked around the resort a little and got to see where everything was. I loved the layout of the resort…the 2 pretty pools (one by the ocean and smaller restaurant and one by the bar in the center of the resort). I walked to the beach and stuck my toes in. Ah, the water was cool and refreshing but not cold – just right! The weather was beautiful too. It was brilliantly sunny and about 80 degrees with a bright blue sky and soft breeze. Perfect Mexican weather! I also visited both swimming pools and soaked my feet in them. They were cold, so I figured this would be good for my sprained foot.
I was a little disappointed that the mini fridge I had requested when booking the hotel room (a $5/day extra charge) was not in the room. When we checked in, I mentioned it again and they said they would bring it up to our room. Our plan was to head to the Mega supermarket and load up our fridge with beverages and some snacks so we could save some $$$ during our stay, since most drinks were not included with the room rate.
After my mini tour of the resort, I headed back to the room and joined Mr. Sassy for a little nap. We woke up just in time for the end of happy hour, which runs from 5-6 p.m. every day at the hotel, and which offers buy-1-get-1-free on all drinks. I had 2 Miami Vice cocktails (which are half pina colada, half strawberry daiquiri) and Mr. Sassy had a couple rum & cokes. We took our drinks down to the beach and relaxed on a couple lounge chairs for awhile.
Since my foot was hurting, and since we did not have a significant amount of cash on us thanks to the ATM debacle, we decided to have dinner at the hotel instead of walking into town. Our room rate included 2 meals per day: either breakfast and lunch, or breakfast and dinner. Our plan was to spend each day at the resort, hanging on the beach and have breakfast and lunch at the hotel, and then get showered and head into town at night for dinner. But we made an exception on our first night.
Because it was low season, the hotel informed us that all meals would be in the Aventura Restaurant, which is the small restaurant by the beach. Fine with us! For dinner, Mr. Sassy had the special appetizer which was a tomato stuffed with tuna fish – I passed on this as I am not a fan of tuna fish. He said it was tasty. We both got the vegetable soup, which wasn’t anything to write home about. It kind of reminded us of Campbell’s vegetable soup, only it was a little more tart (lime juice?). We both got the fish platter for our main entrée. It was a mild fish that was topped with a creamy sauce and came with as side of rice and some vegetables. The entrée was good, but nothing spectacular. For dessert I got a piece of Napoleon cake and Mr. Sassy got chocolate ice cream. The desserts were okay but again, nothing to write home about – at least not the spectacularly delicious food we expect when we come to Mexico. We likened this dinner to something you might get on a Carnival cruise, as far as quality – a bit over-salty and mass-produced tasting.
After dinner we were completely exhausted so we went back to our room and were in bed before 9:00 p.m. It had been a lonnnnnng day!!
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