Just a quick post on our time in Mexico, which I must say has been an unexpected gem.  Still travelling with our good mates the Bosco’s the 8 of us arrived into Cancun airport.  This would be about as much of Cancun as we would see as we were travelling about 40 minutes south to our house in Playa Del Carmen.  I had originally thought about staying in Cancun until I realised Spring break had come and gone for the year.  I had envisaged been a star on The Real Cancun Part 2 but alas it wasn’t to be.

I didn’t hold high expectation of this part of the world (probably due to The Real Cancun Part 1) but after arriving into Playa, this quickly changed.  We had a house in the gated estate Playacar named the Grotto.  It was cave like inside, swim up bar outside and an only 2-minute walk from an idyllic beach (never thought I’d use that word in a sentence, idyllic, not beach.).  It was fun times in Playa.

• Perfect beach days. The water was about 30 degrees, a perfect green with a slight wave.  The kids loved it. The pool at the house was closer to 20 degrees…I can say, only Zara loved that. One day we also got caught in the middle of a bit of an amateur modelling photo shoot on the beach. Let’s just say there were more duck pouts than Chinatown.

• Saw some Mexican dudes swinging upside down, hanging by ropes from a long pole (La cock aracha?). Some tradition they say. Piper was mesmerised and asked if she could have try

• Fun night out drinking beers, margaritas and tequila shots and having the Mariachi band belt out a little La Bamba. The kids drank their ‘fancy’ drinks which resulted in them carving up the non-existent dance floor.  By the way she was moving you would have thought Evie had done more lines than Billy Ray Cyrus.  Elise slept through the whole thing (but woke in time for ice cream).  The next day Ez exclaimed from bed that she thinks she is allergic to Tequila.  She was serious.
• Hired a car and drove down to Akumal to swim with the turtles. Piper and Zara snorkelled out and got to see some pretty cool (and big) turtles frolicking amongst the seagrass.  Piper named hers Rosie, Harry and Star. At long last I could say ‘it looks like a turtle poking its head out’ without referring to a bowel movement. Bosco (Andrew) couldn’t make the day trip. The Mexican medical system was seconds from taking out his appendix out before a late blood test determined he just had a nasty case of Playa belly.

• Ate tacos…like every day and plenty of other good food (thanks Biggles for the suggestions). We also became frequent creamers at various 5^th avenue ice cream shops.
• Watching the election results come in and deciding whether we should make a run for it or not before the wall gets built. It was actually a little sad as the Mexicans I spoke to just said ‘he doesn’t like us’. I don’t want to get all political but…..he’s a knob.

After a week in Playa it was time to bid farewell to our mates as they were heading back to Oz.  It’s been a great 2 ½ weeks. The girls were all a little saddened but excited when we told them it was only a month or so before we were back home. Even Evie and Elise had become mates and we hardly had to force them. For the first time this year Piper got a little sad and homesick and said she wants to go back to Australia as she was missing everyone so much.  It was quite hard.

However, an hour later we arrived at our beachfront cabana in Tulum, she sparked up immediately and was saying “what’s an Australia?”

We chilled in Tulum at an even more idyllic beach.  Spent our days swinging in hammocks, visiting a stunning Cenote (fresh water cave swimming) and eating some good food.

Tulum and Playa Del carmen both remind me a lot of Bali and I love Bali. Trade a Ketut for a Luis Enrique, a Bintang for a Sol, Nasi Goreng for a Taco and a bogan Aussie for an obnoxious American and you’re set.  In Tulum, our cabana restaurant was a no shoes affair (kind of like a western Sydney pub) but was set on the sand.

Evie has been in good form lately.  I may give her a hard time sometimes but she is a little trooper and as adaptable as anything.  She has now spent about 1/3 of her life travelling around the world.  At last count, I think she’s slept in about 70 beds this year. We were at dinner recently and someone said ‘what’s this? Ez dumbed it down for me and answered ‘fried banana’.  Evie countered ‘no it’s plantain’ (the Caribbean fruit) …pretty good for a two-year-old I say.

Our time in Tulum ended with us trying to secure somewhere to lay our head and me trying to scrounge up enough money for our next destination…. Cuba.  Where bank cards, internet and $USD are generally not the preferred methods of choice. More about that next time.

For more photos from Mexico, check out Erica’s gallery