Well well well, if it isn’t Miss Surely it Won’t Rain all the Time reflecting on her holiday to Mexico…

The Flight

This was my first long haul flight and it’s safe to say it was an absolute shambles. Whilst it started off positive, with a couple of complimentary vodkas & snacks, followed by a lil’ bit of reading, it soon spiralled downwards when my brain didn’t want to concentrate on words anymore. I wanted to watch a film like the other 90% of the plane, but my screen had other ideas. Ideas like ringing for assistance every 5 minutes and playing ’17 Again’ in Dutch before crashing completely.

Luckily, Danny’s screen was working perfectly fine (promise I wasn’t insanely jealous and slightly infuriated), so I decided a stiff neck was better than no entertainment. A long, long 9 hours.

The Arrival

After reading horror stories online about how strict and chaotic Cancún airport was, I can confirm it really wasn’t that bad (aside from the leaky ceilings & lack of cool air). We waited for what felt like foreverrr to get through Border Control, with sweat dripping off our foreheads and tiredness setting in, and our suitcases must have been one of the last on the baggage carousel.

I must admit, it was an unusual feeling stepping out of the airport into torrential rain, but the excititment of the week ahead overpowered this. No time to be negative! The rain will pass! We will still have fun!

We were greeted at the hotel with a refreshing Margarita flavoured ice lolly, which melted instantly as I frantically tried to hand my passport over to reception without absoluetly destroying it with sticky fingerprints.

First impressions of the hotel room were 10/10. Nice and clean, bright colours & a really good hair dryer. Yes, I was impressed at the hair dryer of all things, it’s rare to have a good hair dryer in a hotel room!!!

We popped our obligatory Duty Free vodka in the fridge and wandered to the Italian restaurant for some dinner. An authentic, traditional delicasy, a Margarita Pizza.

Day 1 – Jet Lag Pool Day

We got up at around 5AM after being awoken numerous times during the night by the SCARIEST thunder I’ve ever heard! Tropical thunderstorms hit differently.

My body clock didn’t seem to adjust the whole time we were there, so 5AM was probably the latest we got up at. I wish this lasted for when we got home because I HATE getting up early usually. I will literally set alarms for an extra 2 minutes in bed on a morning.

The breakfast was amazing! I had pancakes smothered in Nutella, with a side of crossaints, waffles and anything else I could get my hands on. All inclusive is dangerous for over-eating… I also discovered a new found love for cinnamon french toast with peanut butter on top???

We made friends with a baby racoon, an iguana and a group of American girls who we spent most of the day with chilling around the pool. We found it baffling how different our lives were and I appreciated more than ever that guns aren’t legal in the UK.

I tried my first Margarita and hated it. My face couldn’t disguise the distaste either, if it wasn’t rude to spit it back into the glass, then I would have. ‘I’ll stick to the less tastebud burning cocktails’, I thought, as I ordered another piña colada.

Day 2 – Seababies, Crabs & Unpredictable Downpours!

7AM and the sun was slightlyy creeping through… We found that a little red crab nested outside our room, so it became a morning routine to pop over and say hello to him. We named him Crabby, which I know is a very unique, well thought out name.

We decided to meet up with my Aunty, Uncle & Cousins, who were also in Mexico at the same time as us. Almost a 10 hour plane journey away from home and they were just down the beach from us! We met at a Plaza about 45 minutes away from where we were staying, after having an amazinggg lunch at Fred’s Diner.

Unlike a lot of people, swimming with dolphins has never really been something I’ve been mega interested in doing, mostly because I’m terrified of things being near me in water. Howeverrrrr, I did it and it was so much fun!! Even though I though it was going to randomly attack me at times. Even though I looked naked in the life jacket. Even though I was overthinking that I was going to hurt it’s fin and felt sorry for it.

Danny went into a tank with sting rays and other fish instead of the dolphin swimming, and I genuinely thought he was going to love it because we enjoy going to SeaLife & the rays are always fun to watch. Turns out he hated it and came out feeling dizzy because of the helmet he had to wear. A misjudged situation at it’s finest. I felt ridiculous after telling everyone how much fun he’d be having. How dare he not thoroughly enjoy it like I thought he would!!

Before we left the Plaza, we stopped for ice cream and got caught in the HEAVIEST rain! One minute the sun was beaming and we were topping up our suncream, and the next, we were absolutely DRENCHED! The taxi driver kindly let us have the heating on… HEATING, on our SUMMER holiday, HEATING.

Day 3 – Waves of Emotion

Another early rise on day 3, which was the sunniest day yet (up until 2PM when it got reallyyyy windy and cloudy).

We had a gorgeous morning sunbathing on the beach, jumping off the pier into the sea, (THE FEAR WAS REAL) and soaking up every minute of not being at work. It really did feel like paradise.

By the afternoon, we were starting to feel a little disheartened. We were trying our best to make the most of the weather not being what we’d expected. Yes, I know, who expects to have sun during hurricane season in Mexico? There wasn’t a lot of entertainment in the resort and I spent a good chunk of the day wishing we had booked somewhere else. B a d V i b e s.

I didn’t want to waste a new holiday outfit, if u know u know, so we perked ourselves up enough to go for some dinner. The theme wasn’t great and everywhere was pretty much flooded, so we headed back to the room, ordered room service, put our dressing gowns on, played cards and watched White Chicks. A wild night indeed…

Day 4 – A (quick) dip in the pool, many (QUICK) zip lines through the jungle, and a slowwww quad bike ride

The pool was absolutely FREEZING but I wanted to try out the cool lil’ sun lounger to kick start what was a super fun day.

We unleashed our inner children and went on an adventure to the jungle!

This was definitely one of the best parts of the holiday. We weren’t allowed to take our phones with us, hence why the only photo I have is of a very enthusiastic Danny before we left.

Raise ur hands if ur excited !!

Danny later went on to become even more excited when he found out that two of the girls in the group were from Michigan, home of his not so secret love, Eminem.

The excursion began with a bunjee swing, to which they gave NO indication of when you would drop (I can’t lie, I thought I was going to simply die).

With our heart rates raised, we then went on a mixture of fast and slow, long and short zip lines, taking in the verdant views of the jungle beneath us. I managed to see approx. 60% of the views when my t-shirt wasn’t acting as a soggy parachute covering my face.

After the zip lines, we were supposed to be taking an ATV out for a spin but the guides had got mixed up and the only one they had left was falling to bits, so we ended up on the worlds loudest quad bike. Just our luck! Still eager to enjoy what the excursion had to offer, we hopped on and away through the muddy tracks we went (with no idea where the rest of the group had went).

We had signed a waiver before setting off that essentially said any damage would be down to us to pay, and it’s safe to say it was far from cheap. Now, I know quad bikes are loud in general and they can take a lot of revving, but this sounded like a death trap on wheels, so it was a very cautious ride to say the least. A very cautious ride which made getting out of ditches almost impossible.

When we finally returned the quad bike, we were then directed to an open cenoté (which, by the way, looked unbelievable), where we were we found the rest of the group waiting.

The water in the cenoté was a murky green colour, a boujee Shrek’s swamp some may say, which made jumping in a little scary as I thought there was going to be something hiding, waiting to attack me. However, after surviving the jump, we had a lovely time swimming around & relaxing before a wet and bumpy journey back to the hotel, listening to Lion King’s ‘In the Jungle’ on repeat. Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh…

I spent the rest of the night complaining about the millions of mosquito bites I had gained whilst in the jungle because clever cloggs decided to take her insect repellent band off before leaving the hotel.

Day 5 – Carbonara, Sea Scaries & Cute Pier Piccys

As the holiday was winding down to an end, we had a fun day out planned for our last day, so we decided to spend day 5 absorbing the views on the beach.

I would like to introduce you to, Crabette:

Sadly, Crabette was picked up and dropped by someone on the beach moments after this pic was taken, an undignified death for a cute lil’ baby.

I’m always a massive wimp when it comes to the sea; moments after jumping off the pier (which already took an internal pep talk), I heard an American couple talking about a sting ray they had just spotted in the water, WHILST I WAS STILL IN IT!!! I’ve never flapped so much in my life, doggy paddling my way back to the slippery wooden steps up the pier.

Due to constantly hiding away from the rain and rushing to the beach the second we had a glimmer of sun, it occurred to us after eating that we hadn’t properly explored the whole resort (which is unusual for me because I usually scope out the ENTIRE area on the first day).

We walked apprehensively up a flight of stairs and were instantly baffled, yet astounded at what was beneath. We had missed 3 pools, a fancier swim up bar accompanied with floating beds, a water polo area and a games area. When I tell you my jaw DROPPED.

When we eventually figured out how to get to this area, we had time for one drink in the pool bar, where I discovered a lovely fruity cocktail which I drank disheartendly as I knew we wouldn’t have much time to come back the following night. I felt robbed.

R o b b e d.

After wallowing in our unawareness, we spent some time watching the weird and wonderful night time antics of our fellow crabmates. Some of them could probably beat me in a fight.

Day 6 – Wet Toes in Tulum, Cenoté Fun & Snorkelling with Turtles

Our last full day couldn’t have gone any better. We had originally planned to do this excursion on the first day of the holiday but because of the hurricanes, it had been delayed twice (thank GOD it didn’t get cancelled again).

We started off the day by exploring Tulum; our tour guide was lovely and made our time here extra interesting by talking us through the history of the area, it gave me exciting school trip vibes. His voice also reminded me of Sid the Sloth which humoured me every time he spoke.

I had recently bought some water shoes , to which I wanted to cry at the price, HOWEVER, they turned out to be an absolute God send when walking through the street of overflowing swamp water.

We saw lots of iguanas, a stunning beach which was likely riddled with alligators and did a bit of gift shopping (combined with free tequila tasting, yes please!) before our next venture to Ruta Maya…

We had some free time to explore and swim, in between many staged photos, wearing humungous sombrero’s and awkwardly kissing, which Danny would kill me if I posted anywhere. I’ll save them for the Christmas cards.

Before we got here, I had googled images of these cenotés, but nothing prepared me for how surreal they actually were.

A lesson I learnt shortly after this is that I could never be a diver…

Please note that my earlier comment about how the day couldn’t have gone any better is about to be completely contradicted.

The second my head went underwater with goggles on and a snorkel in my mouth, I felt panic like never before. We had been told to stay in a “superman position” (laying flat on our stomach’s so we don’t kick the turtles), so with my head down and the fear of an untimely death from drowning, it wasn’t long before I was gasping for breath, flapping my arms in the air, quite literally like a fish out of water.

The tour guide thought I was drowning and threw me a rubber dingy.

Humiliating.

Despite my new found fear of snorkels, this was still an incredible experience I’ll never forget & the turtles were sososososo cute!

Our final night was spent playing Jenga and card games with a couple from Utah. Turns out I have the worlds worst poker face 🫣.

Sunny Skies, Final Goodbyes & a Whole Load of Nachos

It was typical that our last morning was absolutely glorious! We saw a baby alligator whilst sunbathing on the beach, which I was BUZZING at (I’d been saying the whole holiday how I wanted to see one) & stuffed our faces with nachos and tacos before a bittersweet travel home.

All in all, this was a holiday full of surprises, and while it wasn’t the relaxing sunny break we were initially hoping for, we managed to make the absolute most of it , with lots of new experiences to look back on.

Mexico,

I will see you again in sunny season next time.

Regards, a girl who wishes she’d packed waterproofs.