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Cancún (24 - 30 June 2022)

Kristina and I spent a few nights in Cancún on Mexico's touristy Yucatán Peninsular back in 2014. Fast forward several years and two kiddos later, we decided to check out some more of it. My travel agent wife had accumulated so many free resort nights during COVID (that she had to use or lose) that she went ahead with the kids and left me at home. I joined them ten days later for a week. Compared to the Dominican Republic just a few weeks earlier which is a four-hour flight from Austin, Cancún is a comparatively short two-hour flight which is a bit nicer for the girls (their limit seems to be around the three-hour mark, after which Siena starts hollering "I want to get out of here!" haha!).

To keep such a long trip interesting, Kristina and the girls spent their first five nights at an initial resort before relocating down the road to a second. I joined them for their final night at this second resort, with a room overlooking the beach and its awesome turquoise water. Notice the seaweed however, which is a bummer.		The next day we relocated to the all-inclusive Dreams Playa Mujeres, 10 miles north of Cancún in its own tranquil gated community (fancy fancy!). Saving the best till last, this was definitely the pick of the bunch.

From kid-friendly water parks to a meandering lazy river, this is where we spent a lot of our time. Jade especially enjoyed the big water slides (which she was just tall enough to ride). My shoulder blades however weren't such a fan, and got beat up pretty good thanks to the joints connecting the individual sections of the slides hehe.

The resort has several other pools scattered around, including this infinity pool overlooking the beach. Nice! Add to that several on-site restaurants, bars, and an ice cream shop that we abused at least twice a day, and suffice it to say we all put on some excess weight.		These big fellas are all over the place, and squashed all over the road.
Just a 20-minute fast ferry across the water from the resort is the island of Isla Mujeres (Spanish for "Woman Island" hehe). This is a popular and easy day-trip from Cancún. The bustling island is just over four miles long and just under half a mile wide, and has a population of about 13,000. The easiest way to scoot around the island is by renting a golf cart, which hopefully works properly and doesn't leave you stranded (ours kept cutting out haha, but it lasted the day).
The island sits at the meeting point of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This is looking over the Gulf back towards Cancún. Look at that damn water!
There are various attractions on the island, including this Myan ruin on its southern tip (which certainly is ruined).		Many affluent homes and condos are popping up all over the island. Not a bad spot to retire, maybe, although this area has been pretty beat up by various hurricanes over the years, which will only get worse.
We grabbed lunch and chilled out on one of the many kick-ass beaches on the island. No seaweed over here!
The real gem of the island is Playa Norte (North Beach). Palm trees, white sand, overweight tourists, shallow turquoise water with fish swimming around - beautiful!
Next door to our resort is the adults-only Secrets Playa Mujeres. Both resorts are owned by the same brand and guests are free to go back and forth between the two. While the kiddos napped on our final day, Kristina and I grabbed lunch and chilled at Secrets for a couple hours. Also bloody nice. Isla Mujeres is in the background on the right.
The life of a travel agent.		The life of a travel agent's spouse ;)

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