Birdsong's Trip to Cancun, Mexico with Alec Woodruff

July 11, 2008 - Club Med, Cancun, Yucatan, Mexico

Arrived Cancun 11 AM from Austin. Larry and I noticed a remodeled airport vast and modern in comparison to our last visit four years ago when we took our nephew, Billy McWood. We got a random “green light” in immigration/customs. No luggage search! Arrived at Club Med at noon. Surprise: we had adjoining rooms—the best in the place! Identical, adjoining rooms on the top floor. Our front porches/entry overlooked the beach & the back porch overlooked the lagoon. They had upgraded us. When we made the reservations we requested adjoining rooms and were told they were reserved for families with small children. It appeared the resort was not full, so we got our wish. Ours was the first building next to the pool, which could be noisy announcing water aerobics, etc. But it was very convenient to the dining room, pool and beach.

Had lunch in La Hacienda, the main dining room. This was a huge dining room with food stations in the middle and dining areas all around the perimeter. Buffet style—you picked out what you wanted to eat. Choices included four kinds of grilled fish, chicken, beef, pork, cooked differently on different days, and many cooked veggies. Salad bars. Bread and cheese station. Fruits. Pasta/ pizza. Desserts. At your table, you ordered your beverage of choice, including free red or white wine.

At Club Med, everything is prepaid, so you never pay for any food or beverage or anything on site. We left our wallets in the safe in the room. No tips, no nada.

Date - Place

After lunch meant naps for Gran Gran and Paw Paw. We had been up since 3 AM. Alec swam and explored.

The front of the compound has a beautiful beach with white sands. Behind is a large shallow lagoon. On the right side of the facility is a rocky shoreline of solid coral that you step off to snorkel.

Afternoon: Alec and I went for our first snorkel right off the Club Med beach. It was windy and choppy—hard to see underwater due to the sand being churned up by the waves. The reef that begins just off the beach at Club Med Cancun runs all the way to Belize—the second longest reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

reserved for picture

Dinner: Larry and I had beef Wellington. Every night after dinner was a different show performed mostly by the staff. The show this night was little kids doing Peter Pan so we went to the patio. There was a jazz band of four. Larry & Glad to bed 11:30. Alec explored some more & got details on internet access. (Missing his girlfriend, Ali back home.)

July 12, Saturday - Club Med

Late breakfast at La Pergola, another, smaller restaurant, open air, right on the water. Glad & Alec went snorkeling. Better visibility, still murky (due to shallowness.) Good clear skies.

Made reservations for Tuesday catamaran to Isla Mujeres.

2 PM lunch at Las Casuelas, a huge Polynesian style building with 100 ft high ceilings. This was the third of the three restaurants on site. The Sailing Center was next door. Alec got a 3 PM wind surfing lesson. Old folks went to the room to await the hotel’s safe breaker (I goofed up our combo code. Safe cracker’s solution was to enter 88888. Now we could open every safe in the compound!).

Alec walked out on the rocky peninsula at one end in front of the compound. (Spit? Jetty?) There was a small blowhole in the rock and there were many pools with sea life.

The evening’s show was cabaret style. Very talented dancers. The GO’s (Club Med staff, Guest Organizers) performed the show to canned music. One act was the GO trapeze instructor handling a 12 year old girl guest. He was a short man, but SO strong! Amazing muscle strength.

July 13, Sunday - Club Med, Cancun

It rained quite hard for about 20 minutes at 5:30 AM, but it was clear all the rest of the day. Amazingly, we had NO other rain all week. After breakfast, Alec and I went snorkeling—the ONLY ones in the water at first. We saw more fish and more varieties than before. Alec wanted to water ski and wake board, so we picked up Larry on the way to the lagoon behind the hotel. He did the wake board first, and was dumped. Next on skis he stayed up the whole time! After lunch, Alec took our digital camera and took photos all over. Many of the photos are his.

reserved for picture

Tapas dinner at La Pergola. Tapas are a Spanish meal of many different small dishes. Larry and I first experienced them in Inverness! We had a great table outdoors at the edge of the patio overlooking the bay and setting sun. Had dolmades (Greek stuffed grape leaves) fried calamari, Alec also tried octopus, and a “specialty” of small pizzas. Alec also had a spicy fish soup, tomato with gnocchi. Larry ordered grilled chicken drumsticks in dipping sauce. We all shared.