Tres Rios – All Inclusive in Riviera Maya

We recently had our first experience with an all-inclusive resort. Not intentionally mind you. We had booked at Tres Rios during one of their ‘AI optional’ weeks, and we opted not to get the package. I suppose that unlike many others, when we go on vacation we actually don’t eat more than we do at home, and we certainly aren’t the type to start drinking in the morning, so we’ve always felt that an all-inclusive model is just a waste of money for us. 

As owners at the Whiteface Lodge we are members of the Registry Collection, and we booked our week at Tres Rios through RCI. Interestingly, we’ve found in our travels to Mexico that RCI is at the top of the heap, and we are always treated very well at other properties. This held true to form when we arrived at Tres Rios. As per usual the guard at the gate to the property took our name and wrote it down on his clipboard (which they do every time you enter, except once you have checked in they write down your room number).  All the properties on the Riviera Maya have this setup since the entrance is on the ‘highway’ that goes north-south, yet the resorts are on the beach, so there is a bit of drive between the gate and the main lobby. However, unlike other arrivals, once we pulled up at the lobby the valet opened the car door and greeted us by name. A nice touch. Entering the airy, spacious lobby a person carrying a tray with glasses and a pitcher appeared, and offered us freshly squeezed ‘green juice’. We were unfamiliar with this juice since it is not offered at the other resorts, but it is a lovely combination of fruit and some vegetable (not sure which, maybe cactus leaves?) that tastes clean and refreshing.  We were directed towards an area of the lobby dedicated solely to checking-in guests of the Registry Collection.  Rather than standing in front of a desk while they do paperwork, they have chairs for you, and there is an array of tasty looking treats on the counter for you to consume while the process unfolds. A waitress stops by offering us mimosas. All this seem like a bit much? We thought so. You could ask yourself how long a check-in could possibly take that it involves chairs, food and alcoholic drinks. 

I ask the nice lady helping us about the kitchen in the unit (we had booked a two-bedroom even though there was just the two of us on this trip) and she replies somewhat evasively that somebody else is going to talk to us about that. Our antennae go up … 

We’ve found that in these very nice resort settings, there is often a catch. The catch involves somebody trying to pitch you on time-shares. Having sat through a couple of them over the course of the past 10 years, we avoid them like the plague these days. So, we wait. Eventually, they guide us over to the ‘sports bar’ where we can have ‘snacks’ and drinks, because the person who needs to speak with us is tied up at the moment. When she finally shows up, she is cheery, but we are not overjoyed. She asks how we are doing and I reply politely that we are fine, but wonder why it is taking an hour to check-in. And so it unfolds (slowly) that the unit we had booked with a kitchen is not available. The resort is terribly sorry and they are prepared to give us two-days all-inclusive for free, and she is ‘authorized’ to approve an additional two days. We suspect we see the writing on the wall - that this is all leading to pitch of “and all you have to do it pay for 3 days of all-inclusive”, so we nip it in the bud, decline the resort’s kind offer and hold our ground that we have to have a unit with a kitchen. Ok, ok – stay in this other lovely unit tonight, have dinner on us, and tomorrow we will see if a unit in the ‘Herencia’ building has freed up.   

It turns out that the Herencia building is for RCI members as well as Tres Rios members who are at the top of the pecking order. It has private butlers and private rooftop hot tubs with a view of the coastline. The occupants wear black wrist bands (they have a pretty hilarious system of wrist bands with so many different colors that we wonder if even the staff can keep them all straight), which opens all doors and is their ‘highest’ level band. It is also the only building that has units with kitchenettes. 

Ready to be done with this long check-in process we accept, and are shown to a truly lovely unit. Marble floors, facing the ocean with a great view of Cozumel island on the horizon, two balconies, two bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a spiral staircase leading to a private sunning area with large lounge chairs and a slatted wood portico. 

Circular stairwell to private sun deck

To make a long story somewhat shorter, we never get the unit in La Herencia building, but we do accept the 4 days of complementary all-inclusive.  Given how long it took to finally come to this conclusion, the complementary AI was scheduled to run Monday through Thursday and we planned a day trip for Friday before our return to the airport on Saturday. Thus we greatly enjoyed our stay at Tres Rios, in spite of the confusion over the booking. While they lost much of their beachfront when hurricane Wilma came through, they have a pretty little inlet area where one of the ‘tres’ rivers comes out. 

View of inlet and beach beds

Sun tanning bed

The waters of the inlet are clear and warm, great for snorkeling and a quick dip. They of course have beach side service, with this area giving priority for the beds with canopy covers to the black-wrist-band-wearers. It is hard to resist whiling away a few hours here, with very attentive and kind servers bringing over icy drinks, or plates of food including an excellent ceviche. 

Tres Rios gets our highest recommendation, if you are looking for an all inclusive vacation. If not, it is probably not worth dealing with the hassle of the AI push on the weeks when AI is supposedly 'optional'.

Divers, pearls and untamed beaches – Acapulco

Divers on the cliff

 Having long discounted the idea of traveling to Acapulco because of its reputation as a place whose time had come and gone, we revisited that idea this summer as a result of a new property joining the collection of properties we have access to through our membership with Registry Collection. The Fairmont Heritage  with its 3,000 square foot villas was just too tempting to pass up. 

Acapulco has developed a new area for tourism, called the Zona Diamante. It is just north of the airport, which makes it very easy to get to, and south of the congestion of town. This presents some pluses and minuses…. For example, if you want to go out to dinner in town, it is a long drive (20 minutes or more depending on where in town and the amount of traffic). The coast is open to the Pacific, which makes for big crashing waves, but removes any concern about possible pollution if swimming in Acapulco Bay.

We liked the fact that the area was removed from town and very peaceful, but would have definitely spent more time in Acapulco Centro had it not been such a long drive with so much congestion. The main road which goes from Diamante, up and over the hill that creates the Las Brisas area (think high-priced restaurants with nice views of the sparkling lights of Acapulco bay) and then loops around the bay, has an incredible number of buses (noted as La Costera buses), which stop arbitrarily at any point in the road to discharge or accept passengers. There are also way too many cabs, 90% of them volkswagen bugs and most of them empty, which drive with the determination and ruthlessness of kamikaze aviators. Add to this, the Polizia Vial, whose main goal in life seems to be to collect money from foreign tourists for imagined infractions, and you get the picture of what a trip into town in like.

View from our balcony - Grand Mayan

The lobby - Grand Mayan

We spent the first week at the Grand Mayan, a property we are very familiar with having stayed at the one on the Riviera Maya on multiple occasions. The Acapulco property is older than the one on the other coast, and while still in pristine condition, we prefer the resort on the Riviera Maya because of the new pool sanctuary area they have built there. However, in Acapulco, the rooms face the Pacific, and because we are RCI members we are always treated well, and get one of the best units on the top floor. 

The first day at the Grand Mayan I woke early. It was still dark but the lights of the resort and a cruise ship on the distant horizon sparkled in the pre-dawn morning.  Massive dark clouds that made sky and sea blend together dimmed the first breaking of dawn. Large crashing waves, rolled endlessly towards the beach, a residue of some distant overnight storm. The sound of the waves carries through the glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows, their distant roar a soothing backdrop to all activities. 


This stretch of coast goes on for miles, and is conducive to long walks on the beach, which we did, swimming when we got too hot, but the ocean was churned up with monster waves, the water opaque with sand. Still the Pacific was warm and inviting, and we kept a sharp eye out for the small stingrays swimming in with the waves, following the schools of tiny fish.  I even had something fish-like and large crash into my leg as a wave tossed us about, but I was not stung, so I guess I was not determined to be a threat. We discovered that the beach is full of wedge shell clams. Dig a little with your toe and when the wave washes out, a long trail of tiny clams glitter on the sand. Not having seen such bounty since days on the Mediterranean when I was much younger we dug for clams and I made ‘spaghetti a le vongele’. 
 

Courtyard entryway

The second week we moved to the Fairmont Heritage and were blown away by how wonderful the villas are there.  The homes are palatial, with an incredible attention to detail; each room carefully decorated so as to be elegant and welcoming at the same time. There is a courtyard entryway, a private pool, a fountain off the living room, a media room, an outdoor shower … the list of amenities goes on and on. The walls of the powder room on the ground floor is inlaid with glass tiles, and the hallway off the main entry is inlaid with a stone mosaic.

And best of all, from our living room, and our bedroom on the floor above it,  which both have glass from floor to ceiling – we can see and hear the Pacific.

The resort is quiet, with a small number of villas, clustered around a gorgeous pool,  right on the beach. It seems to be populated exclusively with families, and we are the only Americans here. Since ownership is required in order to stay, people appear to be vested in the property with most families being Mexican and affluent. We find them welcoming yet distant. 

Hurricane Ernesto had made landfall on the Yucatan peninsula earlier in the week and slowly meandered its way across Mexico. While Guerrero was supposed to be exempt from its effects, we saw rain and clouds for several days. It made for a peaceful break from sun and surf, with the large villa to putter around in, and lots of time for reading, listening to music and watching movies. 

The heavy rain seems to come at night, drenching the land. In a place that boasts 360 days of sun a year, nothing seems quite built for this type of rain, and we laughed at the yellow rain slickers covering the ticket machines that control entry to the Walmart parking area.  

The beach in front of the resort is raked daily, yet it has a deserted and wild feel to it.  Walking on the beach while the boys were occupied with a game of Kadima I have the beach practically to myself. My few companions on the stretch of sand between our resort and the next one are locals who are casting a line into the surf and coming up with a fish that looks a lot like a catfish. Contemplating the coastline I am struck by how different it is from other areas we have been in Mexico. It has none of the jewel-like qualities of Cancun with its stunning white sands and bright blue waters. It is not the island heaven of Cozumel or Isla Mujeres, and has none of the gentleness or blue-green clarity of the Caribbean on the Riviera Maya. Nor is it the dazzling, highly oxygenated crashing blue and white of the Pacific in Cabo and Mazatlan. Here the sand is closer to brown, and the waves churn up the sand and take its color. The buildings on the coast are not particularly beautiful in any way.  The Fairmont Acapulco Princess, built 50 years ago, is one of the sister properties to the Heritage, and I can see it in the distance, the waters in front of it dotted with many swimmers braving the waves, but only in the shallows. Yet the sand here is incredibly velvety under my feet, and the water that rolls up around my ankles is warm and inviting. The vendors that walk the length of the beach tirelessly touting their wares, are friendly and chatty, happy to practice their English.

Speaking of the vendors, I was surprised by the beauty and price of the pearls that they sell. The pearls are fresh-water baroque, and I don't know their source, but they are incredibly inexpensive. Individually knotted, with a pretty silver (colored) clasp, a 19 inch necklace can be had for around $10 (with bargaining). Big egg-shaped baroque pearl earrings cost around $4. We have never seen pearls like this for sale in any of our travels in Mexico, so it seems to be something of an Acapulco phenomenon. 


Would I go as far as saying that Acapulco is the pearl of the Pacific coast? Probably not :-) 

 

Le Meridien, Cancun - Not my favorite

We spent one night in Cancun before heading down for a week in Cozumel. Having been happy with our stay at the Westin, at the start of the Zona Hotelera, we thought we would try the Meridien, which is supposed to be more upscale than the Westin. Not true! The hotel was a big disappointment in pretty much every dimension. The lobby was small and plain, the staff that did the check-in was, unfortunately, unbelievably inefficient. A check-in which should have taken no more than 5 minutes (we had prepaid the rooms with Starwood) somehow managed to take over 25 minutes. The front desk was full of unhappy people, one family next to us quite upset to find that their reservation had magically been canceled, the family to the other side of us, unhappy with the noise from the construction (which was not mentioned on their website) and wanting to get moved to a different room. While there were many staff people at the front desk, there was no manager in site, and several of the people must have been trainees or something since they only stood around and watched.

While it would be hard to complain about the beach at Cancun under any circumstances, I will say that the location of this hotel - about mid way along the zona hotelera - is not ideal. The waves were quite strong, and while this could be attributed partially to the strong wind that was blowing, I think the surf tends to be stronger here than at the start of the zona which has a bit of a cove effect. 


The biggest thing the beach/pool area has going against it is the shadow thrown by the massive building going up next to it. Even if one ignores the inconvenience of the noise from all the construction - since at some point in the future this will end - the sun disappears very early in the day. All the hotels here have the problem that the sun hits the beach in the morning, but in the afternoon lays in the shadow of either the hotel itself, or its neighbors. This is something we liked about the Westin, which has pools on both sides of the hotel, with one getting the sun in the morning and the other in the afternoon. 

In these photos you see the pool area shaded by a large concrete wall from the new construction, and in the background of the beach shot you see the huge building going up next to the Meridien. 



The new building is bigger than any of the other neighbors and our porter said that pay-offs exchanged hands in order to get the plans approved. I would say that this building is the kiss of death for the Meridien. Stay elsewhere!

Pueblo Bonito - Emerald Bay, Mazatlan, June 6 2011

There is a gentleness to the quality of the morning in the Riviera Maya that is lacking on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Here the light is brighter, harsher, more intense. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the differences in climate and vegetation. The air is arid by comparison to the east coast; the vegetation dry and stunted, with occasional large cacti interspersed along the brown hillsides. Even the resort struggles with the unforgiving nature of the surroundings; the crew of gardeners working endlessly to try to keep the manicured, lush look that the resort aspires to. 

Yet while the Caribbean is beautiful and inviting with its turquoise cast, the Pacific is stunning in the power of its waves and its range of colors – none of them gentle. Yesterday we watched a surfing competition. A first for all of us. Not exactly a world championship – the waves just aren’t big enough – but still intriguing.

There is a great diversity in the type of beaches available here. There are dark sand beaches, ones with pale coarse sand, and those with fine grains. There are beaches with big crashing waves, and ones with small ripples that run up onto long stretches of unoccupied beach. In most cases there are restaurants and bars along the beach so it is always easy to get a cold cerveza con limon.

View to Deer Island from local restaurant

The beach in front of the Pueblo Bonito resort has small to medium sized waves, and the sand tends towards the brown, but it is always suprisingly warm for the Pacific and the resort sets up beach canopies to provide shade and helpful staff that bring icy cold drinks. Because it is situated quite a bit north of town and the Zona Dorada, the beach is very private and uncrowded, even though by Federal law in Mexico all beaches are public.

The putting green and driving range of the golf course are just beyond our pool and patio. As an early riser, I am witness to the diligence of the crew and quantities of machinery that come into play to keep it green and inviting. By 7:00 a.m. they look as if they have already been at it for a while and I idly wonder what time they start. Our villa is nestled in what could only be described as the lap of luxury – with a dedicated gardener, who has even gone so far as to swap out a bed of plantings that weren’t thriving since we arrived. Like the Pueblo Bonito villa that we experienced a couple of years ago over in Cabo, one enters through a private courtyard with a bubbling fountain and a series of colorful bougainvillea.

Our three bedrooms are cared for daily by a maid who spends hours here each day, while it seems to us that it could not possibly have gotten very dirty since she cleaned it all top to bottom the day before. The towels are folded into intricate patterns of swans and shells, fresh flowers are placed decoratively on the beds, and all the linens are swapped out. When we first arrived we asked the maid not to change the towels daily as is customary here, especially the big pool towels which dry quickly in the sun. But we had a different person who arrived the next day and she had not gotten the message on our strange request not to change all the towels daily, so we decided to just go with it. I reconcile myself to the wastefulness of all that washing with the thought that ‘resort life’, with all of its excesses, employs lots and lots of people locally. 

Most mornings I start out down at the gym, which is right next to the spa. I’m always surprised by the amount of heat in the air as I take the short walk over, but I enjoy the flowers and love to see how many different types of hibiscus flower there are. Yesterday I saw one in pink and yellow – an incredible combination, as well as one that was white with a magenta and deep purple circle in the center.

I had thought that we would do breakfasts by the pool, but the sun is low enough to fill our extensive covered patio area in the morning, so it is too hot. But the afternoons bring shade to the same area, so it is a delightful place to sit for evening cocktails when the heat of the day is a memory, replaced by the song of the turtle doves and a light breeze. Since we face east, we don’t get dramatic sunsets while sitting poolside in the evenings, but I have strolled over to the beach to watch that huge orange ball sink slowly into the waves, while squadrons of pelicans fly low overhead – it's hard to tell where they are bound for, but they always have a determined look to them.



Of Pelicans and Palms - February 5, 2011

Life takes on different hue when the movement that catches your eye through the window of the health club is a low flying pelican. Startled out of my exercise reverie, I take stock of the turquoise blue of the Mexican Caribbean, and the fact that I need to peek at it around the cluster of palm tree tops outside this upstairs, beautifully air-conditioned tribute to modern machinery.  I think briefly of the snow clogged roads, scraping sounds of large plows, and frustratingly permanent icicles that hang from cars back home. We have returned to the Grand Mayan resort in the Riviera Maya after a year’s absence. My husband and I like to stroll the property when we first arrive and make note of the changes that have cropped up in our absence. We comment on a new sculpture in a fountain, changes to the layout of the gift store, and how the jungle has grown since we first starting coming here in 2006. One of the massive Grand Mayan structures is now virtually obscured by the tropical growth and we idly wonder what they will do when it disappears behind the large stately palms.

 Escaping the winter as we have on this trip, our priority is to rest and recuperate after a fairly grueling year in 2010. Thus we don't feel much of a pressing urge to travel to the ruins of Coba, Tulum and Chichen Itza since we have visited - in some cases on multiple occasions. We are disappointed to find that the Mayan Sanctuary (the pool and gardens for guests of the Grand Mayan - see my blog from December 2009 for images) has less of a sanctuary feel than before, since the resort has relaxed its stance with regard to allowing folks staying at the Mayan Palace (who would normally use those pools) to use the Sanctuary. The other piece of disappointing news this year is that they have changed the happy hour rules, and rather than a 2-for-1 drink, you get instead a 'supersized' drink (now, how american is that?) These two changes did indeed lessen theamount of time we spent poolside, and instead we ventured out to explore other blue horizons.

View from the UltraMar on the way to Isla Mujeres

We returned to Isla Mujeres on this trip since the last time we had gone it was July and incredibly hot. Strolling the short distance from the dock to the Playa Norte, we investigated the choices for lunch. We had promised ourselves ceviche and cold beer with our feet in the sand, and this was an easy need to accommodate, given the plethora of restaurants right on the beach. In the end we chose Sunset Grill (does that sound like a Mexican name to you?) not only because the sand is silky and use of the lounge chairs and umbrella is free if you eat lunch there, but possibly also because of a prominent sign that advertised a bucket of cerveza for 160 pesos J

As the lazy afternoon slipped by, punctuated with dips in the crystalline waters and the arrival of (fairly mediocre) ceviche and fish soft tacos, we observed the gathering of very large and very dark clouds on the horizon. It was a casual and fairly distant observation (more clinical than personal), as the waitress assured us that the storm would not come ‘ahorita’ but that it would undoubtedly rain … at some point in the future.

And thus one learns that people who live on an island, and scan the sky daily for the arrival of the rare rain event ... can be wrong. Starting with large wet drops that soon built to a tropical downpour, it rained and rained as we walked back to the ferry dock. Since we were salty from swimming, and still warm from having baked in the sun, the rain did not deter us, especially since we had bathing suits under our T-shirts and plastic flip-flops on our feet. Walking the now deserted pedestrian street, we stopped occasionally in the storefronts to look more closely at the vast array of  Tallavera plates, and inquire as to prices. Perhaps because of the diminished crowds, or the knowledge that continued rain would soon bringing an early closing of the store, we got a terrific bargain on a gorgeous plate which I happily tucked away in my backpack, and now graces our kitchen wall as part of our plate collection.

Beachfront for $69 - who knew?

My husband and I normally eschew Cancun and its touristy, overpriced haunts, which bear no more resemblance to the real Mexico than southern Florida. However, in this case we had an extra night to spend before our check-in on the Mayan Riviera, so we booked an inexpensive 4 star in Cancun through Priceline. How bad could it be for one night we thought? Arriving tired and burned out after a conference for work and a brutal January in NY, we picked up our rental car and drove the few short miles from the airport to the beginning of the Zona Hotelera. The Westin Regina at Km 20 on Blvd Kukulcan is one of the first hotels in the long line that crowd a particularly gorgeous stretch of beach. Because it is at the start of the Zone it benefits from a feeling of being slightly removed. We found it delightfully lacking in Americanos, of the type that leave the midwest in the winter to spend days getting fried in the sun and drinking loudly, populated instead by Europeans and Israelis.

The person at the front desk was as charming and friendly as we have come to expect in Mexico (how do they manage not to suffer from tourist overload in Cancun) and because we are both Starwood Gold they upgraded us to a beachfront room. The hotel was hit hard by Wilma, the hurricane that sat off the shore of Cancun in 2005 and just pounded everything for days, and got a substantial tune-up during the 9 months it was closed. The rooms have a Caribbean feel now, with sliding wooden shades and tile floors. The absolute best part of this room is the fact that the windows open, and at night one call fall asleep to the sound of the waves rushing up onto the shore. 

View from our window

There is a pool on both sides of the hotel since the oceanfront pool gets shaded by the building in the afternoon. The pool in the 'back' of the hotel fronts the lagoon, which is beautiful in its own right. Strolling down there in the late afternoon, checking the suitability of its lounge chairs for enjoying a margarita cocktail, I notice a sign warning people not to swim in the lagoon because of the danger of crocodiles. Hmmm, I wonder to myself, how likely might I be to see one. I scan the far side of the bank, overgrown with mangrove roots, in hopes of spotting a beast. No luck. Turning my attention to the sandy beach at my feet, I am shocked to see a croc sitting right there with his mouth wide open. Maybe he is stuffed - placed there to amuse the tourists. Why does he have his mouth open - could he really be real? I pick up a stone and throw it at him (ok, ok, don't turn me into the SPCA). Disgruntled, he turns and lumbers back off into the water.

Deciding that the lagoon beach is perhaps not the best place for our evening cocktail (and much-anticipated first margarita since placing our feet on mexican soil) we head off for the bar in the hotel which offers 2-for-1 drinks from 6 to 7 pm. No crocodiles here. Just big easy chairs on a terrace with an unlimited view of the horizon as the sun slowly makes it way down behind the edge of the world. Ahhh - heaven.

OK, now for a few practical points:

• we ate at the hotel for dinner and breakfast because we had no desire to venture out to the american chain restaurants that are to be found in Cancun. For dinner we ate at their high-end Mexican restaurant, right in the Westin and the food was good, but the selection of wine was - not surprisingly - extremely limited and overpriced. It is worth pointing out that the hotel advertises all types of intriguing offers in the elevator, for example - at the restaurant we selected, the offer was a free margarita and a trio sampler of ceviche with every dinner .... However, at the restaurant they had no idea what we were talking about, and given their limited english and our limited spanish we chose not to pursue the issue.
• The breakfast was delightful, served in full view of the ocean and pools - a splendid spread of everything one might wish for: fresh fruit and juices, yogurts, eggs made to order, mexican foods, cereals, etc... etc... A bit pricey for the buffet, but worth it, and you get 15% off the check on the first morning you eat there (which was our only morning).
• Believe it or not (we actually thought it was illegal in Mexico) they serve a TERRIBLE margarita at the Westin. The consistency of the ice is wrong, the amount of lime is wrong, the degree of sweetness is wrong. And it costs a lot more than we are used to paying for margaritas, but that may be true throughout Cancun. It may be best to stick with beer when there. However, given the view while drinking the margaritas, it makes the whole experience worthwhile.

Mayan Riviera, Mexico December 11 - 16, 2009

Grand Mayan Resort, Grupo Mayan, Quintana Roo

Early in December, we took advantage of the lull in the travel industry between Thanksgiving and Christmas to dash off to the Mayan Riviera for a few days of sorely needed sun and rest. We flew Jet Blue from NY to Cancun, and got a good deal on the price. We also paid the extra $30 to upgrade the seats to an exit row, which I highly recommend. Not only did we get a roomier exit row than I have experienced on larger carriers (e.g. Delta, United), but we also got to pre-board. Because my husband and I had booked a window and an aisle, we were also fortunate enough that nobody wanted to pay the extra $30 to sit in a middle seat between us, so we had one of the few empty seats on the plane between us for a little extra space.

Landing in Cancun, we picked up our rental car, and drove the easy 35 minutes down the main Carretera to the Grand Mayan - part of the Grupo Mayan consortium. The check-in area for the Grand Mayan was finally finished, after needing to build it a second time after it unfortunately burned to the ground after a year of construction. The new Mayan Sanctuary, is a great addition. The Grand Mayan now has its own swim-up bar (previously Grand Mayan guests shared the swim-up bars in the main pool area with the Mayan Palace guests), and there is a filtered sunlight pool with great plantings and bird song.

Checking in at the new Grand Mayan lobby (which we have witnessed under construction for the past two years since the first time it burned to the ground when it was almost completed) they give us a suite on the 3rd floor of Building 10. These are the newer buildings, with the golf course on one side and the jungle on the other. For the past three times we’ve been here, we have somehow always ended up on the 3rd floor of Building 1. The buildings are massive, with stark modern lines, and huge palapa roofs, which they light dramatically at night to chase away the darkness of the surrounding jungle. Building 10 we query? Surely there must be something closer. It’s a good 15 minute walk to just the main area of the pools and the beach is even further. Sorry, the sweet girl behind the computer tells us – we have no room in any of the closer buildings. We know this can’t be true, but we let it go for the moment since it is 4 pm and we are weary from travel and hungry, not having eaten since our 9 am breakfast snack at the Jet Blue terminal. There’s a peaceful quality to this building – far from the main hue and cry of the central area of the resort. The Mexican jungle, low scrappy trees that can handle the heat and the long dry spells, is just the other side of a chain link fence. It is an odd site – the manicured lawn, pathways and plantings on one side –the jungle pushing against the fence on the other. Dark birds of large wingspan float by occasionally, drifting across the top of the trees. From our 3rd floor balcony we look out across the jungle to the neighboring resort in the distance. We can only see the rooftops – oddly dramatic in contrast to their surroundings, some with spires and cupolas in imitation of the grand buildings of Europe.

The weather is as predictable as clockwork here. In the land of eternal summer, the only variation throughout the year seems to be how high into the eighties the daytime temperature reaches. It is hard to remember that it is December, with Christmas less than two weeks away. While far out to sea the winter storms rage, our only reminder of their existence is the strong wind blowing on the beach, and the morning clouds that make their way in from the sea, cross our path, and continue inland to the jungle. They laid these big buildings perpendicular to the sea, so their broad sturdy side would take the brunt of any hurricane or major storm. I can see the Caribbean and I can hear it - but all that reaches our patio is a gentle breeze that ripples the palm fronds and causes the tops of the trees in the jungle to dance occasionally. I contemplate a large grey heron standing sentinel at the top of a dead tree far out in the jungle. The tree is taller than the rest – easily twice as tall, and I wonder what type of tree it was, why it is so much taller than the others, and if this is what caused its demise in some way.


A call to the manager’s office had indeed produced a suite on the 3rd floor of building 1. However, in the end we decided to stay in our tranquil jungle facing unit, as the swap was complicated by the fact that there would be hours between moving out of this place and into the other, due to cleaning schedules and the need to turn over the rooms. Chalking up our refusal to move, on the heels of a request to do so, to crazy gringo-ness the manager good naturedly wishes us a pleasant stay at the Grupo Mayan. Our plans for our first full day in Mexico are simple, lunch and a swim up in Puerto Morelos and then a massage back at the resort. We are curious as to the effect of a recent NY Times article on Puerto Morelos, touting it as the last genuine fishing village on the Riviera Maya. (Do the reporters ever think about the outcomes of their articles?) Yet, not much has changed – we think we see more gringos than last time, but this could be coincidental, as could be the construction of a new restaurant on the plaza. Sitting outside at lunch with large margaritas in front us, facing the crystalline waters of the Caribbean and watching the fishing boats bob up and down as the gentle waves roll up onto shore, I ask Chun if he had to describe heaven, wouldn’t it sort of look just like this?