Reminiscing about past travels: Cancun 2010

I have been to Cancun twice and have always really enjoyed my time there, it is a very upbeat and fun atmosphere but I have found it to be a bit more of a party getaway rather than a romantic getaway or a relaxing getaway. Basically what I am saying is, if you're going to Cancun to relax - Good luck.

The last time I went to Cancun was in February 2010; I went with my boyfriend and we had a great time together but we learnt a very important lesson that I feel I ought to share with you:

Do not drink or party hard the night before you're going to be on a flight, especially a long flight - with transfers. That was one of the more unpleasant experiences of my life. 

You do not want to learn this the hard way.

The night before we flew down to Cancun there was a contest going on downtown that Jeremy's name had been put into. He got a call earlier that afternoon telling him he was one of the 10 finalists and to come downtown to this bar and that the results would be shared before 10PM. The person who came in first would be receiving a "Olympic Hockey Dream Pass" which gave two sets of hockey tickets & the Canadian hockey jersey - signed by all the players. Obviously Jeremy was super excited and insisted that we go downtown even though we would be having to wake up at 4:00AM the next morning to catch our flight - and he still hadn't packed for our trip. 

So we went downtown and as we were greeted at the door we were informed that all the contestants & friends of the contestants would be receiving free beverages all night. We took full advantage of this and hurried up to the bar to collect our first round of drinks - we were on vacation weren't we? Anyways, the contest didn't even start until 10PM and by that point we were so giddy off our cheap beers & strongbows that we didn't even notice how time was getting away from us. The hours kept ticking by and we kept the drinks coming. Finally it was closing time & they quickly listed off the final names in the contest - Jeremy had won a team Canada hockey jersey (so awesome) ! 

When we finally got home Jeremy quickly got his things together - really, in record-breaking time - and we hopped in a cab to the airport.

We did make our flight.

We did have all the things we needed. 

We felt awful.

The whole plane ride down to Arizona (which is where we had to transfer flights) had terrible turbulence. The rattle of the plane mixed with the exhaustion & dehydration we were feeling left Jer & I very nauseous & slightly green.  Our gag reflexes were definitely having a workout.

The second flight was thankfully not as bad and I quickly passed out, though Jeremy wasn't as lucky and he just had to endure his suffering silently - as he lost his fellow comrade to complain to.

After spending the majority of our day in the air, we were so incredibly happy to get off the plane and be able to walk around & stretch our legs.  Walking out of the airport was overwhelming, the sun was so bright, the sky was so blue & the trees were so green - it was like staring at one of those incredibly beautiful but almost fake looking screen-savers.

We had finally arrived!

When we first arrived at our hotel we were really surprised by how beautiful it was. Considering we went to an all inclusive hotel and spent very little on our room we were expecting a really mediocre hotel but it actually was gorgeous! Not only was our view was amazing ( as seen above in the first photo), the rooms were immaculately clean, we had our own jacuzzi  and we had all-night free room service! It was pretty unreal!

 The beaches were unbelievable, fine grained bright white sand with water that is almost blindingly blue when you first see it, I barely could take it all in when I first arrived there and it definitely was a big adjustment coming from the cold and rainy winter in Vancouver. The adjustment to the sun was the biggest issue for me, I am very pale & freckly and my skin tends to rebel against any exposure to sunlight so of course (as usual) on our first day in Cancun I got a terrible burn that was very splotchy and incredibly painful. I learnt a serious lesson that day: Be kind to your skin & reapply your sunscreen.

From then on I was very careful about my sunscreen and reapplying it every hour, on the hour. I would recommend taking a really great sunscreen, one that is non-oily and maybe in a spray bottle as that is easy to apply without feeling sticky in the sun. My face is very sensitive to lotions and sunscreens so I like to pay a bit more for a sunscreen that I know will not make me break out in hives which is why I use Clinques SPF 40 facial sunscreen.  I also always wear a big floppy hat + sunglasses if I have been in the sun for a prolonged period of time to shield my face because I'd rather have no tan and forgo the burns & long-term sun damage.

My Beachwear 

I am kind of a minimalist when it comes to beachwear + what I am going to bring to the beach. 

I really only bring: my water, sunscreen,  SPF lip-blam

And, I really only wear:  My bathing suit, sunglasses, a big hat, flip-flops and a cover-up dress incase we decide to go out for lunch/ out to town. 

I do not wear wedges or heels to the beach, I think thats a bit crazy and I like being able to walk on the sand rather than stumble around. I do sometimes like to wear a little anklet, I think its a nice way to add a bit of a feminine detail to an otherwise very beach-bum look.

(I was insanely sun burnt here, my lips are basically the same colour as my skin. It was painful, believe me)

The night life in Cancun is very lively. There are lots of places to go dancing and lots of really inexpensive pub-crawls which are quite fun. One of our favourite bars we went to was Senor Frogs, it is more like a pub than a club which is much more our style, we were able to sit down and talk and there was a little dance floor. I really liked the off-beat decor, it was fun and wacky and I found that the people who work at Senor Frogs are also super upbeat and friendly which made it an extra enjoyable place to go!

My favourite part of this trip was our venture out to a Eco-archaeological park called "Xcaret" where we snorkeled in underground caves, saw neat exotic animals, and viewed some Mayan ruins. It was one of the cooler experiences in my life and I would definitely go there again just to snorkel in the caves one more time! Unfortunately we didn't realize just how neat this was going to be and decided the night before that we were going to do a pubcrawl - this was another huge mistake. We walked around Xcaret in a complete haze that morning and had to just wait out our hangovers. Do not do this if you ever go to Xcaret - it is a full day tour!!! You do not want to be suffering through 8-10 hours of hungover-ness and miss out on some of the really cool things they offer here!
If you'd like to check out more details on Xcaret then visit: Xcaret Eco-Archaeological Park

At the end of our eight days in the sun we had to pack-up and head home, it was a sad day and we both wished we could stay for longer. Obviously if you can, try and stay for a bit longer than a week because then you get to experience more than just the party side of Cancun - you'll have more time to relax and view the scenery and explore the area.

*These photos are owned by Bree. Do not copy*

The Urban Umbrella