Mexico

Mexico

I have been putting this post off for awhile knowing it would take me some time to write. Cody and I spent a very relaxing week in the Caribbean January 28th through February 4th with his parents, my parents and Cody's brother and wife. Cody did some trade work with his hygienist's husbands family for a house they own in Akumal, Mexico. It is located between Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. Cody and I actually stayed in this town on our honeymoon almost 9 years ago. We were so excited that I was healthy enough to take the trip and that we were able to share it with our family. After all the stresses associated with the surgery and my tumor, we were very anxious to get away and relax.  We had this vacation planned since last summer, but when I was diagnosed with a tumor, we weren't sure I would even be healthy enough to still go.  Thankfully my surgeon gave me the good to go, as long as I physically took it easy and didn't dive under the water and be exposed to that pressure.  The house was right on the beach and had 4 bedrooms, so there was plenty of room. We left on a Saturday morning and had direct flights into Cancun. We met Carson and Marisa at our car rental place at the airport and then we zipped down to our house. The first night I was amazed by how many little crabs were EVERYWHERE!!! Of course, Cody has to touch everything, so he picked one up for a picture.

This was our view from the beach looking up at the house Sunday morning. Just gorgeous!

We had kayaks available to us, so one of the first things my parents did was try them out. They really were a lot of fun!

The Calderwood men. Cody worked out for a couple months prior to this vacation and you can tell. He's had many people joke that he did spray on abs. Nope. He really has them. Too bad he can't tan, lol.  His brother, Carson, is on the left and his Dad is on the right.  No Carson isn't a giant, the way the photo turned out makes him look a foot taller than the other two.  It's kind of funny.

My parents and me.

The snorkeling was awesome right in our little bay. The coral reef is right there. We saw many tropical fish, most of which I don't know the name.
This is Cody snorkeling. He went every day and saw lots of different animals like octopus, sea turtle, manta ray, barracuda, and many of the typical colorful fish like sergeant major, butterfly fish, blue tang, and more .

Our pool. I think only half of us actually used the pool. It was too cold for me vs. the ocean. I love the turtle on the bottom with the blue tile.

One of the best past times of the trip. Reading in the hammock or on the lounge chairs.

Again, Cody has to touch everything and managed to capture this little gecko one night. Too bad Tucker wasn't there, he would have loved the animals.

So Sunday we hung out at the house and got some much needed relaxation.  On Monday we ventured out. Cody's parents and brother went to Tulum and Coba. Cody and I have been there twice  before and my parents have been their before as well. Cody took us to a ruin that isn't visited as much called Muyil. It is about 20 minutes south of Tulum.

I tried to catch some rays whenever the sun was out!  The weather was fantastic the first 5 days, then some rain clouds rolled in at the end of the trip.

Look how much hair I have! I believe this is about 3 weeks of growth. Way more than Cody!

We drove to Playa Del Carmen one day and took the ferry over to Cozumel. We took all our snorkeling gear so that we could check out some of the best diving places in the world.

We saw barracuda, needle fish, angel fish, parrot fish, stingrays and many little colorful fish. 

This is a crazy rock fish of some sort. Surprise, surprise that Cody is holding it!

 

This one is probably our favorite fish we saw. It's a juvenile damsel fish and it had very fluorescent blue spots.  The reef and water off of Cozumel was fantastic!

 

After snorkeling we took a taxi back to downtown Cozumel to do more shopping and we ate lunch at Carlos and Charlies.  It was a very festive environment.

 

The following day we split up again. Cody's parents went to Chichen Itza and the rest of us hungout at the house. Then on Thursday his parents and Carson and Marisa went to Rio Secreto while Cody and I and my parents went to a free shipwreck museum in Puerto Aventuras. It was interesting to see the equipment that scuba divers originally used to use and it was so cool to learn of the shipwrecks through the ages that happened off the Yucatan coast.

 

So many ships sank because of the reefs and there were many artifacts that had been brought up on display.

 

Of course more shopping was involved after

 

One of the days we were there, I think Wednesday, all the men went on a deep sea fishing excursion. I really wanted to go, but the waves and rocking boat would not have been good for me. Unfortunately they didn't catch anything, but they had a great time and no one got sea sick. We bought dramamine for the boat rides. Us girls hungout at the house, layed out when the sun was out, went into Akumal for more shopping and had fun together.

And that's it for our Mexico trip. It was a lot of fun and we did Skype with some of the kids almost nightly, but the trip was a bit too relaxing for me. At this point I'd been sitting around for almost 3 weeks and was ready to go for a run on the beach, the boat ride or anything else. I know it's good for me to rest, but sometimes too much drives me stir crazy. Thanks everyone for a great time!