Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico January 2007

Part I: Saturday-Monday Dec 30-Jan 1

Playa Blanca[Note: Pictures were taken by Barb, Bekah and Katie.]

Saturday Dec 30: Actually the adventures for this trip started a couple days early when EasyWay Car Rental emailed and canceled our reservation for 3 vehicles!  Obviously, this took us totally by surprise since we had such a good experience with them last year.  After some quick research, Katie re-booked us with Caribbean Car Rental.  Then they called on Friday and said they didn't have 3 cars but could give us a mini-van and a car.  Beggars can't be choosers, so we accepted that.  (That story to be continued...)  

We had early morning wake-ups on Saturday since the flight left at 7 AM!  But we really wanted to get toVista Del Mar Norte Akumal before dark so we chose an early departure time on purpose.  The car folks were there, which was good, but they didn't have a van, which was bad.  They had rented "our" van to someone else just for the day and wanted to give us 3 cars, then they would bring us the van and trade at 5 PM this evening.  Again, we didn't have a lot of options with 10 people plus luggage to get to Akumal.  They were a little unhappier when they found out our destination was Akumal rather than Cancun, but still agreed to do that.  It took a looonnnggg time at the rental office sorting out these details, and then escaping the time share guy, but eventually we got arranged  in the vehicles.  One group stopped in Playa del Carmen for groceries and the rest of us headed on down to Akumal to get checked in, arriving about 2:30.

Girls in bayOur condos, which were next door to each other on Half Moon Bay, are shown in the pictures above (Playa Blanca left and Vista Del Mar Norte on the right). Sarah, Sean, Tyler, Kethra and Bekah were in center ground floor unit (#2) in Playa Blanca;  Barb, John, Katie, Dave and Branwell were in the 3 bedroom unit D on the second floor, right side in VDM Norte.  Our condo wasn't ready until nearly 6 PM so we were glad to have an alternate place to hang out while we waited!   We went to the Loncheria for a late lunch, then the kids changed clothes and hit the water (left) while the adults just baked in the sun.  The shoppers arrived about 4:30.  Some went to La Buena Vida for supper; others just had popcorn.  We crashed early.  Exhausted.  Only to be awakened by the car swap folks who showed up about 4 hours later than promised.  Fortunately, that was the only car adventure for the week!

Here we are (below) hanging in and around the condos.  Top row: Dave, John, Kethra; second row: Tyler and Bekah in condo, Barb on the beach; bottom row Sean and Sarah in their kitchen, John, Bran, Katie playing rummy in our dining room.  




Dave in condo John on balcony  Kethra in hammock    

    Tyler and Bekah       Barb on beach

Sean and Sarah   Playing cards
        sunrise
Sunday, December 31:  I was up before 6:30 today so saw the sunrise (picture from balcony at the right) then walked the length of the beach, got a smoothie at the Mango Cafe and sat on the beach reading (something like the picture above).  Bekah, Sarah, Sean, Tyler and Kethra went shopping (in "downtown" Akumal).  Bran spent time in the water then he and I went to lunch at the Lol Ha Snack Bar.  We had good conversation about teenage life in his new town compared to the old one (they moved in August) and he enjoyed the food so much that he talked his family and Bekah into going there for dinner.  Katie, Dave, John and I went to Que Onda - I think for the last time.  It wasn't great last year and was worse this year. They were understaffed and very busy so I can give them a break on service - but the scallops (their special) were overcooked and rubbery and the chicken was almost too dry to eat.

Since it was New Year's Eve, we wanted to have a zilch to celebrate.  Well, it was only partly a success.  John did manage to put one together but we had trouble getting it lit because of the breeze, then the bay was so noisy that we couldn't hear the "zwoop zwoop" noise.  We did, however, find some hermit crabs (that picture taken by Branwell), Mr. Penguin seemed to enjoy the zilch and Tyler made friends with a cat.
hermit crab    John's zilch

Moonscape  Zilch in progress  Tyler and friend 

Monday January 1:  We started out bright and early by arriving at Yal Ku lagoon before they opened (but we only had to wait a few minutes.)  It was perfect.  No crowds, lots of fish and the water was quite clear.   After lunch and a rest, we went back in the afternoon (the $7 entry fee is for the day so we thought we'd take advantage of that).  There were more people then and the water had gotten a bit cloudier but we saw lots of Sergeant Majors, Parrot fish, damsels, pipefish; Kethra showed me Feather Dusters she had found.  I'll just put a sample of pictures from both morning and afternoon here. 

At Yal Ku Damsel fish  
Rainbow Wrasse Barb at Yal Ku 

Blue fish Parrot Fish Sergeant Major

Pipefish Sean Fish
 Yal Ku  Yal Ku sculpture

Lunch at LolHa 
Balcony viewBranwell, Katie, Dave, John and I went to Lol Ha Snack Bar for lunch (left). On the right is the view from our balcony during after lunch "rest time."   I could easily sit there and look at that all day long!  

Following afternoon snorkel,  we enjoyed the sunset then had New Year's dinner at the Johnson condo -  Sarah and Sean's yummy bean/ ham soup, chips and ice cream for dessert.  I even got an early birthday present from Bekah - a pedicure!