mangosteen dreams & other stories: Back from MEXICO!!!

David and I just spent 6 nights in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. It's a small fishing town south of Cancun, to which people often refer as the beginning of Riviera Maya. Excellence Riviera Cancun, which was our first experience with an all-inclusive resort. It is also a "grown-ups only" all-inclusive resort -- by which it means there are no children under the age of 16 or something along those lines. In fact, there were no teenagers at all, mostly honeymooners, anniversary-celebators and other married people, with a sprinkling of other kinds of couples and groups of couples. It was overall a very classy resort with fabulously attentive staff. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather.

On our Mexican trip, we engaged in some adventure activities: ziplining through the jungle; mountain biking through the jungle to a cenote (a fresh water sink hole); diving into cenotes (by cliff jumps and zipline), snorkeling (not the best we've done elsewhere - probably the most disappointing activity we did this trip); driving an ATV onto the Mexican highway and the dirt roads to visit more cenotes; visiting Chichen Itza, a site of Mayan ruins and a new Wonders of teh World. We loved our various activities, and felt sufficiently sportivo on our holiday.

We also had time to relax, sit on the beach, sip cocktails and sample some serious tequilas. We met some lovely couples -- mostly Canadians, who seemed to dominate the resort (or who we seemed to attract). David mingled with the staff and other guests by playing beach volleyball.... and was affectionately nicknamed around the resort as "White Guy." In fact, on our final night, the social director-ish guy of the resort challenged David to a dance-off at the packed resort disco. This energetic social director (think John Leguizamo) knew that the White Guy (David) had some moves, but he did not know that the White Guy (David) was a professional dancer. White Guy (David) whopped his ass at dancing, and all the other White Guys (normal non-dancer ones who are all David's age) cheered and hollared and worshipped David for representin' the White Guy-ness on the dance floor so heroically. It was a beautiful evening, and David was beaming. It just like in the movies... a combination of "Bring It On," "Step Up" and "Rudy," with, of course, some "Dirty Dancing."

Here are a few snapshots of our Mexican getaway: