Luna de miel en Playa del Carmen, Mexico

We slept for TWELVE hours the first night of our honeymoon. Twelve!

I don’t think either of us had truly rested since January. It was so refreshing. Rest—such a simple concept.

No phones. No computers. I left my watch at home. The epitome of disconnecting. The resort gave us three free international calls, so five days into our ‘moon, we decided it would be fun to call our parents. Other than that, we tried our best to pick up a few Spanish words and phrases—you know, act like locals…riiight (if only I would have studied Spanish instead of French back in high school), and we made a concerted effort to soak up every moment of our newlywed bliss.

And so, that’s why I don’t have thousands or even hundreds of photos. I wanted to live the moment, rather than try to capture the moment.

Taylor’s parents have a timeshare in Mexico, so we got to take advantage of a new-ish resort in the jungle a smidge north of downtown Playa del Carmen, part of the Yucatan.

We had no plans heading into this vacation. We just wanted to vacate for an entire week.

Upon checking in, we were greeted by a VIP concierge, a wonderful Italian woman named Andy. She showed us the ropes, made some activity suggestions, and escorted us to our room. We got settled and comfortable just in time to hit the welcome dinner—an authentic fiesta. May I remind you we flew in on Cinco de Mayo? Turns out the Mexicans don’t really celebrate this day, but it sure satisfied our need to devour Mexican food ASAP...sampling a bit of this and a whole lot of that from the overwhelming buffet offered that night. We had our first of many—I'd go as far as saying countless—margaritas, and Taylor sampled a few new tequilas. We entered a raffle and won a Mexican blanket, the perfect souvenir.

After the aforementioned marathon sleep session, we called for room service because, well, it was the first day of our honeymoon, and we thought it was rather apropos. We decided to get a couples' massage because, well, we thought that was pretty honeymoon-esque, too.

We worked-out a handful of times on our vacation, but we didn't want time on the treadmill to interfere with sun-ray-soakage, so some days those exercise sessions just didn't fit into our schedule.

Let me rewind and talk a bit about the accommodations. As I mentioned, Taylor's parents graciously gifted us our all-inclusive stay. We were pam-purrred. The service was exquisite. We never strained ourselves to reach a poolside waiter or have our drinks refreshed. At one beachside dinner, the waiter even brought two cocktails for each of us…just to start the evening.

To say we indulged a bit was an understatement, so you can imagine my sheer delight when a couple co-workers told me I looked thinner post-honeymoon. Perhaps it was the killer tan? (Don't be jealous--it's gone now. Thanks, Portland!)

Here's a day-by-day recap, mostly for my own recollection…for days when I'm worn down and in need of a virtual vacation. Go ahead and gloss over the words and just check out the handful of photos we snapped. I don't even want to mention our camera broke Thursday of our 'moon. But, I guess I just did. It's embarrassing. Everyone knows how terrible I am with photography, cameras, and most any other tech-related gadget. Even reading information about technology gives me a rash. And, that's another tangent…

Please forgive this stream of consciousness. I've been working on this post for a while, and I just want to get it up. More photos to follow later, I'm sure. Once we get them all together.

Sunday

- 3:30 a.m. :: wakeup call in unseasonably warm and sunny Portland

- 5:50 a.m. :: flight to Cancun by way of Houston...special shout-out to the Texans!

- ? :: ((at this point, our "no phones, no computers, no watches" rule went into effect, so I have no idea what time it was until we returned to America the following Sunday)) arrive and shuttle about an hour south to Hacienda Tres Rios, nestled in the jungle of the Yucatan, just 15 minutes from the heart of Playa del Carmen

- WARMTH

- HUMIDITY

- POST-MARITAL BLISS

- Fiesta dinner, raffle prizes, drinks, and as much celebrating as we could before we hit the wall and slept for a full clock-hand's revolution

Monday

- Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

- Room service! Café con leche!

- Couples' massage

Tuesday

- Resort grounds exploration via mountain bike (um...to say these were mountain bikes is highly overstating what they were, but we'll go with it for the mental picture)

- Kayaking the cenotes, a total Little Mermaid lagoon moment

Wednesday

- Non-stop beach day at Playa del Carmen...

- Haggle with the Fifth Avenue shop owners

Thursday

- Deep. Sea. Fishing. 

There are no words for this day. To make a long story short, I got outrageously seasick. So seasick the only thing that felt good was when Juan (the captain? first mate?) put an ice cube on the back of my neck as I hung over the side of the ship. I prayed the rosary. I counted the seconds. Once I realized I was sick, that four hours was by far the longest four hours of my entire life. Ugh. But! We were on the boat with a really cool couple, and Taylor had a great time. Once we hit land, all of us grabbed lunch (the fish we caught cooked up right before us!), and they sent us a bunch of photos from our day since our camera broke...

Friday

- Taylor meets a buddy, Rick from Calgary, who conveniently...just so happens to be a fly-fisherman ... Taylor departs at the crack of dawn (on honeymoon time, the crack of dawn is 7:30-ha!), and I really don't mind my uninterrupted pool lounge time

- Finish said book (yeah, read a book cover-to-cover in just a couple of days...who knew this could be accomplished?!) ...work on tan

Saturday 

- We go rogue...off the grid...secure an all-day taxi driver, and head south to the Mayan ruins at Tulum

- Snorkel with giant turtles, grouper, bonefish, stingrays (scary), trigger, etc. etc. etc. at Akumal (one of the most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen!)

- Authentic Mexican dinner...our "last" supper in Mexico 

Sunday

- Depression sets in...homeward bound

I know I'm going to need to edit that play-by-play about six times before I'm happy with it and as I look at the notes I jotted on a hotel notepad, still buried in a pile of magazines from the trip. 

How about some photos?

Hotel lobby (total tourist, flashing my peace signs!)

Welcome fiesta dinner...couldn't resist the total tourist photo opp!

View from 1309.

Towel animals! Honeymoon towel animals!

Pre-tan...

Pre-tan...

Tilt your head...sushi!

Sara! How have I forgotten to tell you about this?! Michael Jackson entertainment show!

Tina and Tom from Detroit...our true blue friends at the resort through Thursday...they really missed meat and potatoes and even rented a car to get some McDonald's and sneak in a trip to Wal-Mart. I kid you not. 

!!!

Just your typical poolside pet...

Maya Riviera cocktail... 

LOBSTER DINNER, Y'ALL!!!

We made some great friends at this restaurant bar...

There's that beautiful water! 

For Yvonne! 

For Allison!

The calm before the storm of the century (figuratively speaking)...

Get it, T!

Our friend Joanie from Ohio.

Joanie's sweetie, Jason, and his barracuda.

Ruins at Tulum.

Jason Mraz at Tulum.

A finger and a frown at Tulum.

Quite a hunk at Tulum.

Lizards, iguanas, geckos...everywhere! 

Adios, Mexico! You sure were good to us on our luna de miel!