I have to say, the rest of our trip to the Sandos Caracol was actually really excellent.
I filled out a little form talking about the different issues that I had with the hotel, and the General Manager wrote me a personal email. We got a fruit basket and a bottle of champagne sent to our rooms, and all of the issues were taken care of right away.
Many of the "issues" were really minor, like not having labels on the shampoo/body wash dispensers in the shower, or small housekeeping problems.
Here are some of the good points about Sandos Caracol:
1) It's an excellent family resort. The kids Aqua Park is large and not too deep for little ones. There's a bar there in the park if kids need some soda or water (or adults are inclined to have an adult beverage). There's snorkel equipment available at the cenote, and there are activities all day long. There's also a kids club if adults want to get a little alone time during the day. Be sure to bring socks for your kids, because they won't be allowed into the kids club without them. Socks at the gift shop are a whopping $7.50 per pair!
2) The food is really good. There are plenty of choices, but not so much if you're a vegan or you're trying to eat healthy, since a lot of the food is cooked in oil and/or butter. There is food and beverage available 24/7, so you'll never go hungry or thirsty.
3) You can do a lot of exploring at the hotel. There are Mayan ruins, lots of signage with eco-information. There are paths that run through the jungle and mangroves. I recommend getting up early and going exploring before everyone else wakes up!
4) This resort really goes out of their way to be truly eco-friendly. They have recycling and compost, and disposable plates/napkins/cups are kept to a minimum. I really liked that a lot. There are mosquitos here, but there are homeopathic repellant dispensers located everywhere.
More "Know before you go":
1) There is no courtesy shuttle from the hotel to nearby Playa del Carmen. You'll have to go in taxi, and that'll set you back $140 pesos. I understand that the exchange rate is pretty good right now, but taxi drivers STILL exchange at $10 pesos per dollar, so $140 is expensive for a 10 minute ride.
2) The resort is busy year-round. We were really surprised with how many people there were. The hotel was full, which made changing from our not-so-nice, far-away-from-everything room to a nicer, closer room very difficult. This also required us to check out of our old room at 10 AM (even though actual check-out isn't until noon), and wait for another room to become available at 3 PM. We were sans room and our luggage was sitting in the lobby for 5 hours, which is kind of tough when you have 2 little kids.
3) The hotel exchange rate is not good, at $12 pesos/dollar. Change your dollars before you arrive.
4) Staff English is pretty limited. It wasn't so much of an issue for me since I speak Spanish, but it could be a problem if you have an issue and need assistance. Speak slowly and avoid colloquialisms!
5) Get to the pool early to beat the crowds. I'm not kidding. The entire time we were there we could not find an open lounge chair next to the pool. I also do not honor the towel system. As in, if your towel is on the chair, your chair is saved. No, siree. If your towel is on the chair and I don't see anything else around (no bottles of lotion, cups, or anything else), your towel is on the ground and my butt is on the chair. I'll wait 10 minutes first, but that's it.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
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
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
Friday, May 4, 2012
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:
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. |
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
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:
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.
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. |
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.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
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. :-)
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. :-)
Monday, April 30, 2012
Finally
Good news! We had our court date today, and the hubs got his original charge dropped. They lowered the charge to summary harassment, which is awesome because it's the lowest offense you can have. We still have a pretty big fee to pay, but that's ok.
The judge asked the District Attorney if the change in the charges was approved by the "victim". The DA responded that their office tried multiple times to contact the "victim", and she neither answered her phone or returned their calls. The judge commented that he remembers seeing the "victim" on the other (defendant's) side of the bar on several occasions. So it's ALL OVER! *sigh*
That's the update.
In other news...
Just an observation that I made: it is IMPOSSIBLE to get my kids to clean up their room. They have a million toys but I can't say that they play with anything in particular. They just pull everything out onto the floor and make a mess. That's fine, they're kids.
It got me to thinking, I don't think my husband or his brother and sister had this problem when they were kids. They didn't have a ton of toys to play with. They made kites out of plastic bags and sticks. They were outside constantly, and they invented their own games. By those standards, my kids are spoiled.
I'm scared about the effect that this typical American lifestyle will have on them. They're so overstimulated by plastic contraptions that take a constant supply of batteries and make incessant noises, how can they focus on a single thing that will stimulate their creativity and imagination? My kids are smart, but am I maximizing their potential?
The judge asked the District Attorney if the change in the charges was approved by the "victim". The DA responded that their office tried multiple times to contact the "victim", and she neither answered her phone or returned their calls. The judge commented that he remembers seeing the "victim" on the other (defendant's) side of the bar on several occasions. So it's ALL OVER! *sigh*
That's the update.
In other news...
 |
| The disaster area. |
It got me to thinking, I don't think my husband or his brother and sister had this problem when they were kids. They didn't have a ton of toys to play with. They made kites out of plastic bags and sticks. They were outside constantly, and they invented their own games. By those standards, my kids are spoiled.
I'm scared about the effect that this typical American lifestyle will have on them. They're so overstimulated by plastic contraptions that take a constant supply of batteries and make incessant noises, how can they focus on a single thing that will stimulate their creativity and imagination? My kids are smart, but am I maximizing their potential?
Sunday, April 15, 2012
What the heck...
It's been forever since I posted! My apologies. Things have been really crazy here.
The hubs now has a date- April 23rd for the pre-trial conference, and April 30th to enter a plea and/or set a trial date. We have a great lawyer, so hopefully there won't have to be a trial date. I'll keep you all posted.
I'm still missing Mexico. I went onto Idealist and found a job that sounded super interesting to me, based in Chiapas. I spent a WHOLE DAY working on my resume and cover letter, perfecting it and making it completely awesome. I sent it in and waited 24 more hours to find out that the job position had already been filled. Yeah, I was kinda pissed off about it. I tried to give the job poster the benefit of the doubt that maybe the position had JUST been filled and maybe they hadn't had time to take it off of Idealist. Then I kept checking for new jobs every day since then and the job is still listed. For crying out loud IF YOU POST A JOB AND THE POSITION IS FILLED, TAKE THE DAMN POSTING DOWN! /rant.
In other news, I tried to talk to my mom about the possibility of us moving to Mexico. When I told her, she seemed fine, she remained calm. The next morning she brought it up, saying that she thinks it would be a bad idea because we would essentially be shortchanging the kids' opportunities and that if my husband misses his family he needs to "just get over it". I guess I just need to come to terms with the fact that she's not going to be supportive. I can't help wishing she would, though.
The hubs now has a date- April 23rd for the pre-trial conference, and April 30th to enter a plea and/or set a trial date. We have a great lawyer, so hopefully there won't have to be a trial date. I'll keep you all posted.
I'm still missing Mexico. I went onto Idealist and found a job that sounded super interesting to me, based in Chiapas. I spent a WHOLE DAY working on my resume and cover letter, perfecting it and making it completely awesome. I sent it in and waited 24 more hours to find out that the job position had already been filled. Yeah, I was kinda pissed off about it. I tried to give the job poster the benefit of the doubt that maybe the position had JUST been filled and maybe they hadn't had time to take it off of Idealist. Then I kept checking for new jobs every day since then and the job is still listed. For crying out loud IF YOU POST A JOB AND THE POSITION IS FILLED, TAKE THE DAMN POSTING DOWN! /rant.
In other news, I tried to talk to my mom about the possibility of us moving to Mexico. When I told her, she seemed fine, she remained calm. The next morning she brought it up, saying that she thinks it would be a bad idea because we would essentially be shortchanging the kids' opportunities and that if my husband misses his family he needs to "just get over it". I guess I just need to come to terms with the fact that she's not going to be supportive. I can't help wishing she would, though.
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