Sandos Caracol, the first 3 days

*sigh* I really WANT to love this resort.  I mean, really.  It has a lot of awesome things going for it.  It's got some amazing Mayan ruins hidden in the jungle, it has some refreshing cenotes, and the food is fantastic.

I'm going to start by saying that I hate people who complain. I had to deal with it all of the time when I was concierge at a hotel.  It was irritating and pretty much constant.  That being said, there are a good number of things about this hotel that are "know before you go" sort of things.  You can take them as complaints, or just suggestions when choosing your hotel.

1) If you have a difficult time walking and you don't pay extra to have a room on the beach (at $89 per person/night on top of the regular rate), it's quite possible that you will be walking a LOT.  I don't mind walking at all, but my mother and in-laws have a difficult time getting around.  My in-laws have arthritis and my father-in-law has a bad knee.  We asked for a room closer to everything, because we were put on the very outer perimeter of the hotel.  We left our room at 10 AM and were without a room for 5 hours waiting for one closer (they told us that we would be significantly closer- and even gave us a room number- which someone told us was NOT guaranteed, to be fair), but we only got one very slightly closer.  That was kind of frustrating.

2) The Mayan celebrations have virtually no Mayans as part of their show.  All of the people involved in the ceremonies are from Mexico City or other parts of Mexico.  There are plenty of Maya-speaking, true Maya from Yucatan who need work and would be proud to be part of such a celebration, but they are not a part of it.

...to be continued

Going to Cancuuuuuun!

Heck yes!  I'm so happy, we're going to Cancun on May 22nd for a week.  Tentatively we're going to be staying at the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort (I know, technically it's not Cancun.  The hotel's about 15 minutes from Playa del Carmen), and we're inviting the suegros (in-laws) to join us.  I'm so looking forward to it, I can't even stand it! :-)

It's funny how things can seemingly change overnight.  Nearly 10 months of being in a horrendous funk, and now it's all over.  No more legal issues (KNOCK ON FREAKING WOOD!), the semester's over so I don't have to try to juggle drama, school and work.  It feels pretty awesome.  I'm glad I didn't give up hope, no matter how insane things got.

And now, we're heading back to Mexico!

To commemorate how awesome things are, here's a bear shooting laser beams out of its head:

100% awesome.

If you've got it, flaunt it. Or don't.

I have a beef with something, specifically, hoochie mamas.  I'm all about people flaunting what they've got, but I think you have to draw the line somewhere, specifically, posting nasty pictures on Facebook.

How about a little background:
There are men from my husband's town who now live and work in the U.S., but are friends with girls on Facebook who are still in Mexico.  Said girls are constantly flirting with said guys on Facebook, and I can see said flirting on my wall.  It's fine, I just ignore it. Untillll I see this:

Gross.

I don't want to see this shit on my wall.  It's gross.  I'm not friends with this girl, but by virtue of her tagging my friend, it showed up on my wall.  And it's probably also on a million other people's walls.

Cut to the comments section, where there's a rather graphic conversation going on about how he won't ever leave his house if he has that.  She and he go back and forth, getting more and more nasty until she finally says that it's all for him and she's going to send him more pictures to his phone.

Really.  Just...stop.

Apocalypto... and wannabe Maya

I wish I was Maya.  There, I admit it.

There is something so awesome about the Mayan people, and I've held a (not-so-secret) obsession with the movie Apocalypto since I saw it way back in 2007.  I've probably seen it 4,537 times.

It was a happy coincidence that my husband happens to be almost fluent in Maya.  I say "almost" because, unlike his parents, Maya is his second language and Spanish is his first.  On our first date, my husband told me that he spoke Maya, at which time I drilled him, asking him how to say "bus" and "computer".  When he said that there were no words for "bus" and "computer", I wasn't quite convinced that he could speak the language (HAHA!).  Since it's an ancient language, of course there are no words for modern inventions.  Sometimes there are adopted words or phrases:  for the word "train", the Maya say "fire that runs" (fuego que corre).

The hubs has adopted my obsession with Apocalypto, but the awesome thing is that he doesn't need the subtitles. :-)