If you haven't been to the Xcaret Hotel in Mexico, now is the time to go. We went the first week of January and the weather was perfect and there wasn't very many crowds.
We got there Friday night unfortunately because Southwest is dumb. Julie, Adam, Kristy, Clay, Dave and Kathy were already there so they showed us around the hotel. My jaw was dropped the entire time. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Am I really here?! It was 3 kings day so they had some extra celebrations going and the chapel was lit up. It was so incredibly beautiful.
On Saturday we got up bright and early and went to see the Tulum ruins. Our tour guide did an excellent job. It was fascinating. After we went to the Xel-Ha park. We went snorkeling, zip-lining, cliff jumping, went down a huge slide, ate at a yummy buffet. When cliff jumping, I was being a wimp and had a hard time going. Dan got everyone below who was relaxing on tubes to start chanting my name. Haha. It did help and I finally went. I hate heights! That park was so fun. I loved being in the heat walking around with no care in the world. It was so nice to just be with Dan and have a good time. When we got back to the hotel, we packed our things up for the next hotel. But instead of going right away, me, Dan Kristy and Clay went to the Xcaret Mexico Park. We went to a horse show which was pretty boring but it was nice to sit down. Then we walked around and saw the jaguars and then went and ate. We heard a lot of good things about the night show so we went to that. It was a little disappointing and not very exciting. It talked about their history and we watched them play a game where they had to hit a ball into a ring with their hips. Very interesting. haha. After that, we got a taxi to another hotel where we'd be staying a couple of nights.
On Sunday, we stayed at the Royal Hideaway Hotel which was another all inclusive hotel but cheaper and smaller. But they did have a killer beach. We ate breakfast and then spent most of the day lying on the beach. We also ordered so many mocktails and food. It was nice to relax. Later on Dan and I did some shopping for souvenirs for the kids. We got the boys some tops, Amelia a stuffed dolphin and Lucy a pen. After we did some more relaxing, went to dinner at a really gross Carribbean Mexican places so we had a second dinner and got a steak. Then we went to the library and played a really fun dice game. On our back to our room it started raining like crazy again!
Monday, we checked back into the Xcaret. We couldn't get into our rooms until later, but they held our luggage and we went and played! We started the day off by going to the Xenses park. We first went to the Xanatorium where they had a pathway that focused on the senses. It was pitch black and you had to walk through water, sand and on rocks. You had to feel around to make sure you wouldn't run into anything. Then they had noises in the background. I hated it and felt so claustrophobic, but Kathy made it a little more entertaining for me. I started hearing monkey noises in the maze come to find out it was Kathy. Haha. I also kept hearing her say gross. It was pretty funny. After the Xanatorium we went and did a waterslide, zipline, and mud river. The zipline was so cool- you layed on your stomach and zoomed down through the jungle. It was rad. Another really cool experience was the relaxing river. You layed on your back and pulled your self through a glowing blue river through a cave. Then we did the mud river and did the same thing. You floated a lot better in the mud so it was way more relaxing. After we went through a rain shower tunnel that sprayed us off. Oh and another cool part about Xenses was the town that was built on an angle. It was trippy but so cool to experience.
After we checked into our rooms. Julie used her magic and got us all upgraded us for free to be in the adult section and stay at the Fuego. This building had a pool on the roof. It was rad. We also had 2 butlers that helped us out a lot. They were so nice. We felt like royalty staying there! We hung out in the pool for a bit, ordered a virgin daquiri and took it all in.
Later on we went to the Xplor park. This park was rad. One of my favorites. We started by going on the zipline tour. This was the only line we were in this whole trip. The zip tour was awesome! We went on like 8 different ziplines. We did it at night so we couldn't see much, but it was a rush! One of the ziplines, we went through a ring of fire. I was so impressed by Kathy and Dave who kept up and had the guts to do it!
After we walked through the caves to the next activity. We did the side by side ride. It was so awesome! We zoomed through the jungle, through a tunnel, through water and around corners. Dan was having such a blast and going so fast that we got stopped and warned that if we didn't slow down, we'd get kicked out of the park. hahahahah. Then we went and swam in a cenote- an underground river. It was so cool! It was a blast!
On Tuesday we got up early and took the bus out to the Xavage park. It was an hour away so it was an all day thing. This park was a very adventurous park. Dave and Kathy opted out to relax at the hotel. The bummer thing about this park was that it was all too adventurous that they didn't allow phones so we didn't get a lot of pictures of the activities. We did some of the bird flight ziplines again. It wasn't as cool as Xenses because it wasn't through the jungle nor was it as fast. We didn't do the ropes course- that looked awful. But we did the speedboats and that was SO MUCH FUN! Our driver was Alejandro and he was so good at his job. We did so many fun donuts. The line wasn't long so we did it again. It was a good time. Next we did the side by sides. These were huge and the obstacles were huge. Dan kept teasing the workers that he was going to go fast and he sped off so the workers made sure to keep an eye on us. This one wasn't as fun either, just a lot of bumping and jolting. I didn't love it. The last activity, the rafting was the BEST! Our guide, Octavio was a blast. He made it so much fun. We finished all the things we wanted to do early so we took a cab back to the hotel. That was probably the scariest part of the whole trip. The cab driver was nice but easily distracted. We made it back safely though. We made it back in time to go to the coolest restaurant in a cave. It was like Tucanos and the food was good but the ambiance was amazing. It was a cool experience.
Wednesday was our last day. We started it off by renting paddle boards from the hotel and riding them around the rivers there. That was a cool experience! After that, we explored the rivers around the hotels. We swam around, jumped in and out of them. It was a blast! Everyone had to leave to go on their flights so Dan and I explored the hotel more and went out to lunch. We stocked up on the free candy for the kids.
It was the best trip ever! So fun, so relaxing. It was so good to have a break from real life.
The way home put a little damper on things because Southwest delayed our flight so we missed our connecting flight in Denver. Southwest booked us on the next flight out of there but it wasn't until 6:30 am so we'd have to sleep in the airport. I did not want to do that, so when we got to the airport in Denver, we acted fast and bought 2 tickets on the next flight home on Frontier. It was only $200 until we found out after that we had to pay $200 more for our carry ons. Oh well. We made it home about 1:30 AM. It was good to be home.
