Off to Mexico

Buenos Diaz, here is the story of our fantastic trip to the Riviera Maya, South of Cancun in the state of Quintana Roo, on the Carribean Coast of Mexico, for those who haven't been there, its a must to put on your "to do list". We left a rainy Hong Kong and arrived in LA, our flight to Cancun was booked for 12h20am, so yip in the middle of the night, we flew Mexicana Airlines to Mexico City and there we had a 3 hour layover till our flight to Cancun, it wasn't the best time to book a flight, no way you can sleep on an A320, but at least we arrived in Cancun at 11am, so we still had most of the first day left.
When you land in Cancun, its nothing like you would expect,you cannot see the beach, all you see is a mass of trees, actually the vegetation is quite odd, there are no palm trees, the road from the airport to the hotel is away from the sea and since you have come to paradise you are like a little kid, all you want to see is the blue sea but you don't see anything. Mexico is quite a diverse country, like all paradise islands around the world, its very poor on one side of the street and the other side all you see is lavish hotels.

We were headed for Playa Pariso which is north of a beautiful town called Playa del Carmen, we arrived at our hotel called Iberostar Pariso Beach Hotel, and we were not disappointed. After a cocktail at the check in desk we headed for our room. The hotel is an ALL INCLUSIVE resort which means everything is paid for in the price of your trip.. so we could eat and drink as much of whatever we desired. By the way even the gratuities are included.

As we walked to our room, we were surrounded by beautiful gardens, the hotel utilises nature as its decor...all around us were a multitude of birds, pink flamingos, peacocks, African Grey and Macaw parrots, swans, and other creatures such as lizards and tiny iguana's.

Our room had a very island feel to it, it was half way between the beach and the reception, given that the chamber maids use golf carts to clean the rooms, that might help in understanding how big or rather spread out the hotel is. By this stage we were starving and very tired as we still hadn't slept but adrenalin was kicking in. We changed into cool clothes since it was about 32C outside and we set off to the poolside restaurant, the pool as you can see is fabulous, it winds its way around the hotel and at the end there are "swim up to bars" with bar stools in the pool, very cool.

Lunch was a buffet, we had delicious nacho's, oh yes Mexico here we come, great food, lots of calories ha ha. When we saw the beach we were so amazed, the beautiful turquoise water and white soft sand for miles and miles... warm water with small waves so you can just loll around in the sea for hours relaxing, after a swim we hit the bar at the beach and celebrated our arrival with Pina colada's however after a few of those we both fell asleep. We eventually left the beach at around 7pm, and headed for a delicious dinner, wine was californian plonk but food was a blend of Mexican, Italian, Greek actually there was every type of cuisine, beautifully presented...and of course eat as much as you like.

The next day we went to Playa del Carmen, its a great little place especially 5th Avenue ( the main street), lots of shops selling traditional Mexican goodies. There are great restaurants and bars all over town, we headed for the famous Senor Frogs restaurant right on the beach, we ordered a starter portion of nacho's but check out the picture, that plate is almost bigger than the table, the drink by the way is a strawberry daquiri, devine!!!

Well today is the 2nd of June, probably not such a special day to anybody else, but to me it sure was, read on and find out why???

Pauli and I decided that we were far to white and had to spend a whole day at the beach to get some colour, but of course it was over 35C that day so we slapped on lots of sunscreen and ended up under the thatched hut for most of the day. I was dying for a swim,and asked Paul to come with me, but he said he will in five minutes or so, off I went thinking how strange?? as he was always the one trying to drag me into the water, anyway after the swim I wasn't paying attention to anything, when all of a sudden my darling boyfriend gets down on one knee, which by the way I didn't even notice, he started to ask me to marry him, I was giggling away thinking he was joking around, but then when I saw the one knee thing, knee full of sand, I started to cry, I had no idea he was going to propose, I was so surprised I almost fell off the chair, so of course I said YES, Paul was shaking like a leaf, the four empty drink glasses consumed while I was swimming obviously had no effect. I think lots of people were watching but I didn't care, the next thing I knew is he was fiddling in his pocket and out came the most beautiful ring, it fitted perfectly, the tears flowed again. The rest fo the day we were both on cloud nine, when we got back to the room, we were amazed to see that the chamber maid had made a heart shape swan out of towels with red petals everywhere, wow love must be in the air.

Later that evening we went to town and had a delicious Mexican dinner, sombrero's, fajita's etc... A mexican band was playing right next to our table, wearing full mexican costumes, it was unforgettable. After dinner we went to a bar on the beach called The Blue parrot, very cool, instead of having bar chairs they have swings hanging from the thatch roof. A perfect ending to a perfect day!

On Sunday we hired a car and drove to a place called Tulum, where we explored the ancient Mayan Ruins, Paul and I are not into history, but of was fascinating all the same. Beautiful setting, right on the beach.

After Tulum we drove to Cancun and were a little disappointed. There is an area of Cancun called the Hotel Zone, or the Cancun strip, and that's all it is, miles and miles of hotels and apartment buildings for as far as the eye can see, very commercialized and just not Mexico, full of teenage Americans too. There was just no question about it, our hotel was the perfect choice and perfect location. In Cancun the water is as you can see "picture perfect blue".

Tuesday was an extra special day, I had a surprise for Paul, today we were going to Swim with the Dolphins (-:

We were both so excited, we were picked up from the hotel and taken to Xcaret, about 25km's away. The Dophin sanctuary is called Delphinus. we were given a briefing first about the dolphins, a bit about who they were, their names, and how they came to being in the sanctuary. Because we were allowed to touch the dolphins they have to teach you which areas of the dolphins anatomy you may not touch, obviously the blowhole and the eye area. Once that was complete, we headed for the water, the dolphins came right up to us, they are so soft, we then each got a turn to kiss them. When Paul leaned forward to give the dolphin a kiss, she opened her mouth and gave him the biggest smile as you can see. The best part of the day was the "Foot Push" and Pauli was the first to go, what happens is you swim to the middle of the pool and lay on your stomach, you have a life jacket so it helps you stay afloat, then you keep your legs straight and your feet flexed. With a signal from the trainers the dolphins are off, two of them swim towards you and with their snouts they push you under your feet, one dolphin per foot, its amazing!! They lifted Pauli right out of the water, incredible to see, when they did it to me I almost lost my bikini (ha ha) but it was a terrific feeling, better than any thrill ride. We had an amazing day, the swim ended to quickly but luckily we were able to buy a DVD which captured the whole ultimate experience.

Back in LA, we spent time visiting Paul's Uncle, Paul hasn't seen him for about 6 years and it was my first time meeting him.
We had a great time, his African Grey Roxy took an instant liking to me, I think it was because I was drinking red wine, on about the 3rd daythough , she took a bite out of my finger so I reckon it was the wine she liked and not me after all ha ha !!!



We visited Universal Studios, very interesting especially Whisteria Lane where Desperate Housewives is filmed, it is so small. Thank goodness for a wide angled lens. The Mummy Ride was pretty scary but best of all was Shrek in 4D. The movie set for War of the Worlds was also unbelievable, they used an actual 747 and tore it to bits, they have left it there as part of the Universal Studios Tour.








Universal Studios football "Player of the year"










The rest of LA wasn't to great, we liked Orange County the best, the Californian Beaches are average , Cape Town I can tell you is a million times better.

Well after an awsome holiday we are back in Hong Kong, yes still on cloud nine.
Hope you enjoyed our story!!!

"LOVE DOES NOT CONSIST IN GAZING AT EACH OTHER, BUT IN LOOKING OUTWARD TOGETHER IN THE SAME DIRECTION."

"MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE, NEITHER CAN THE FLOODS DROWN IT."

Cynthia and Nige in Hong Kong

My Mom and Dad visited us in Hong Kong for a week, and besides a typhoon warning, the weather wasn't bad at all. We saw the light show from "The Avenue of The Stars", visibility was great.




Popped in a photo of Saikung Bay never seen the water that blue, and a picture of the golf course, Paul and my Dad went there to hit a few balls.