Trip Report, March 21st – March 25th, 2009 This trip report is a little later than I usually do them, so I hope I am able to remember the things that we did. This year was a little different, we went with another couple to Cancun as my husband and myself and the other couple were both celebrating 15 years of marriage within 6 months of each other and we thought it would be fun to go on a trip together. (We had been in each other’s weddings) We had an early morning flight on Sun Country, leaving Minneapolis at 6:05 am. We did not do a direct flight this time, but only had a brief stop in Dallas to pick up people and then continue on to Cancun. We arrived in Cancun and we were pleasantly surprised that the line to clear Immigration did not take nearly as long as we thought it would. We made it thru, got a green light, and were ready to see if our ride with Cancun Valet was here. He was and we quickly headed to our hotel. This year we stayed at the Presidente (we had stayed there one time before) since we wanted to be able to be in the water, and the other hotel that we like the last year the waves were too rough to be in the water at all. We checked in to our hotel with no problems, and then we were in search of some food. (I didn’t know that Sun Country had stopped serving free food on the flights, so we were a little hungry) We had some food and drinks in us, and then were ready to change and then get in the water. Our rooms were not ready yet as the check in was a couple of hours after we got there, but the hotel did lock our stuff up for us. We hung out at the beach probably until about 4:30ish, and then went and found our rooms. After we were all refreshed and unpacked, we headed out to Isla Shopping Center to show our friends. We took some of our “annual” pictures and did a little shopping. We then decided to go eat at Carlos ‘n Charlies for dinner, which was fun, but not the same since our friend no longer works there. We were a little disappointed though that when we ordered our drinks the waiter automatically had them in a yard glass, and then the price for the drinks were way higher than we expected. We didn’t say anything, at the point of getting a bill it is too late, but that was a little disappointing. We then actually walked around for a while and then walked back to the hotel since it was a nice night. (And we felt perfectly safe too) The next day, March 22nd, my husband and I got up early and went for a walk in the morning down to the hotel zone behind Forum by the Sea. (We usually go back there and just stare at the water) We took a bunch of pictures and just refreshed ourselves with the view. We went back to the hotel, and our friends wanted to go to Wal Mart. (we had never gone to Wal Mart in Cancun before, and this was our 7th trip) I was surprised to see chicken breasts just laying out, fish, etc., but it was kind of interesting. J We stocked up on some stuff, groceries to make guacamole in the room, beer, etc. and then headed back to the hotel. This was just a beach day at the hotel, and we enjoyed it. I tried a Miami Vice drink that some people had told me about, yummy! When we were done on the beach, we headed up to the rooms to get cleaned up and then went to our friend’s room for some homemade guacamole and chips before we headed out to dinner. First we stopped off at Kulkukan Mall for some shopping, there is a store there (I forgot now what it is called) that I always go to and buy stuff for family, friends and myself. We then went to go out to eat at Hacienda Sisal, which was new to us this year. We were surprised at how nice it looked inside, and the food was wonderful. I had a Special Burito, and my husband had the Shrimp & Lobster Enchiladas. We were kind of tired from our beach day all day, so after our great meal, we just took a bus back to our hotel and crashed. The next day we were going to do a Jungle Tour, and we had looked online before we came down to find the best price. Well, my friend had tried to call the place we found online (with a local Cancun number) and had no luck even with the hotel person helping her. So March 23rd, when we got up, we decided we had better find a place to help us with booking the tour, and the day before we weren’t real happy with the hotel staff that tried to get us a “good” deal on a tour… but we had to listen to a timeshare first. We walked from our hotel just a little ways and found a travel agency (I am bummed since I can’t remember the name of it, would definitely use them again). The woman said she had tickets for the jungle tour; it left from Sunrise Marina, and was not a timeshare presentation at all. We couldn’t do it until 1:00, which was just fine, as we hadn’t had breakfast yet. We went back to the hotel and had their breakfast buffet, which was very good, and then just relaxed a little. Hubby and I at the beach, and our friends at the pool. Then we took the bus down to the marina, and checked in for our tour. It was pretty fun riding on the two-person boat, and being out on the water. I don’t snorkel so I just hung out on the boat, and my hubby and friends did the snorkeling. They said it wasn’t the best snorkeling, maybe because it was windier that day, but my husband did see a barracuda, which was the largest one he has seen before. That night then, after eating some more homemade guacamole and chips in the room, we were going to go out to eat at our “fancy” restaurant to celebrate our anniversaries. We had decided to go to La Habichuela, after much reading online on the board and reviews. We took a cab there, as we weren’t sure if we could find it by taking the bus, and we were glad to take a cab. We went down alleys and side streets, and all the while, we thought there was no way we would have found it. The cab dropped us off, and we walked in and we were blown away. You are in Cancun City, and this beautiful restaurant with an open roof and trees growing, lights on the trees, it was just beautiful. My husband had ordered the Cocobichuela (which was their specialty) and I had a Chicken Breast Veronica, stuffed with banana and prosciutto in an Hawaiian sauce. The meals were wonderful, the drinks were great, and the atmosphere was perfect. After the meal my husband and friends had Mayan Coffee, and I had some vanilla ice cream. (I don’t drink coffee) It was a very nice night; the presentation of the food was just great. Wow!! March 24th, was our last full day. We had decided to take a day trip over to Isla Mujeres with our friends, as they had never been there before. We took the bus down to the ferries, and made the 8:30 ferry over to Isla. We rented a golf cart this time; we had never done that before either. We first headed out on the golf cart to show them the view from Garafon, and then went to Punta Sur. Then we went to Garafon Beach Club for some snorkeling, they had some lunch while my husband and I just had a snack, and hung out there for a while. Then we showed them the Turtle Farm, which is cool to see. We did some driving around on the island, and they had some print outs for Isla for geocaching. We actually found one of the geo caches (is that the right word?) and that was pretty cool. We took some pics of the Shell House that I never saw before, and I would love to go inside of that house. J We then returned the golf cart around 5:00ish, and did some looking around. We went to Don Chepos to get some Crazy Monkey drinks, and some snacks. The waiter that we had actually recognized us from last year, which was kind of funny. We did some more shopping, and just looking around. We ended up eating at Rolandis for dinner; we all had either Mexican pizza or Cancun pizza and drinks. We had a great time, and then went to the ferry to come back to Cancun. We had never been on the ferry in the dark before, so that was another new experience. We got back to the hotel and had a couple of drinks in the lobby bar, and went and hung out by the pool. It was getting late and we had to get up early the next day, though our friends were still staying longer, so we said good night. When we got up to our room though, Expedia (who we booked our trip thru) had sent some desserts to the room from them, which we haven’t had in the past. Nice little treat. March 25th, we got up and got ready for our day. I wanted some Mexican Coca Cola (it is so much better than what we have here), but the grocery store across from the hotel wasn’t open yet. L We got ready for Cancun Valet, took a couple more pics at the hotel, and went to check out. We checked out and our driver was already there, there may have been a little confusion as he was there about 25 minutes early. J Oh well, we got to the airport then with plenty of time to spare. We couldn’t figure out what to eat for breakfast, so we ended up getting a Dominos pizza. It was filling, which was a good thing. Our plane was on time, but up in the air there was going to be some bad weather. We were told on our way to Dallas that we were going to need to circle around for about 45 minutes, but then later we were told we would have to go to Waco Texas to refuel instead. I guess there were some bad storms in Dallas, and they had actually shut the airport down. Then we were going to go up again to get to Dallas, but no, the airport was shut down again. Finally we did get to go up again, made it to Dallas, went thru customs and everything there, ran and got some food to take on the plane, and then headed for home. We arrived home about 2 hours later than we planned, but I would rather have plane problems on the way home instead of the way there. We had a really nice trip, and I never felt unsafe once. All of the talk about how unsafe it was going to be was crazy. The only problems we had this trip that we didn’t have before was that our hotel, the Presidente, was much more pushy this time with wanting you to go to a timeshare presentation. The weather was about 80-84 the time we were there, it was windier than it has been in the past, but it felt great. We had a great time and I loved it like I usually do!! Here is a link to our pictures, hopefully it worked out since I was having computer problems. http://community.webshots.com/user/amerswarren/albums/most-recent
