Sun, Sand & Surf - Mexico!

In April I was off once again to a hot destination, this time to Mexico, with a group of friends to celebrate a birthday.

We stayed at the very grand Barcélo Maya Beach Resort, an all-inclusive, just an hour south of Cancun.

Our rooms were lovely, and the hotels (yes, hotels plural, there were 5 hotels on the resort property!) were huge! The grounds, numerous pools and white sandy beaches were well kept, clean, and superb!

We lounged in either the pools or ocean all day, slathering on sunscreen...no avail, since most of us get a little red or pink after a day or two.

We snorkeled with tropical fish and sea turtles, we drove ATVs on the beach and through some jungle trails, we swam in one small and dark and one big and lit up freshwater cenote caves.

We roamed the ruins of Tulum in stifling, almost-passing-out heat and tried to cool down with piña colodas under giant fans at the evening shows back at the resort.

From buffet meals to fancy restaurants to the pool-side grills, we always found some yummy food for every meal.

I loved our week on the beach but I'm not sure if I need to venture back to Mexico again. However, if I did, an all-inclusive sure is an amazing way to go! Everything you might need is taken care of and this resort in particular, had a lot to offer!

The front of one of the hotels, over looking the pools and ocean.

My lovely room. We even had a mini fridge stocked with cold drinks that would be replaced daily.

The resort had many wonderful and tranquil water features including a few of these sitting areas that feature furniture that lights up at night. We sat out in these mini seating islands a few different evenings.

Pools, shady palm trees or pergolas, hammocks, lounge chairs...sounds like a perfect day in Mexico to me!

Here are a few more snippets of my favourite parts of our days in Mexico:

• Standing in the clear and clean, chest-high, blue-tiles pools, with a cold drink in one hand, laughing and chatting with my friends.
• Sitting at the in-pool tiled bar seats to wait while our friendly resort bartender made up our cold slushy piña colodas. We met some interesting people in the pools, including some outspoken and funny Americans!

• Swinging in a hammock in the shade of the pergolas above, overlooking the white beach
• Exploring the buffets at breakfast or dinner and finding amazing displays of fresh fruits and veggies, some unrecognizable from the intricate carving into shapes or animals. Every meal had a different theme with a few different items, but we could always find some delicious to eat. The roasted chicken was always a favourite!

Biggest shrimp I've ever seen!

Yes, yes, that indeed IS a breakfast DONUT BUFFET!

• The bathwater-warm waves we enjoyed standing and jumping in! Our beach had a nice smooth sandy bottom with a few areas or rocks for good snorkeling.
• Snorkeling! I had never been snorkeling before and we spent hours in front of our resort getting up close and personal with the local tropical fish as well as going on a tour that included snorkeling with SEA TURTLES! I was super glad I'd brought my own mask and snorkel. It was used a lot!

My new friend, Hector the sea turtle. He and I spent a nice quiet half hour together at Akumel beach.

If you know me, you know I love fish! I've had numerous aquariums over the years.
Snorkeling with real tropical fish was amazing!  

Tulum ruins, excellent tour with our guide, but the HOTTEST day of our week!!
(Notice the iguana in the foreground soaking up the sun. They were everywhere!)

• I also took advantage of the dolphin exhibit inside our resort to spend an hour actually swimming with a couple DOLPHINS! Dream come true! (Even if I don't agree with how small of an enclosure these beautiful animals are being kept.)

I'm the one petting the dolphin as it swam by.

• Gecko spotting in the evenings—on walls, floors, ceilings, pathways
• Iguanas everywhere! Yes, there were resident iguanas living on the resort, both small and large. Some came close to our table at lunch one day so we offered them a few small treats of banana or bread. 

• At some point we wondered why we never saw any seagulls or sea birds on or near the beach. There wasn't any big bird mess on our lounge chairs or around the pool. Then one morning as we walked towards the beach we came across two bird handlers carrying two large trained hawks. We got a chance to pet them and ask some questions. They bring the hawks out to the beach a few times a day to fly over the resort and "claim" the airspace so no seagull or other messy birds make it their home.
• The Entertainment—we only caught a few of the evening shows, but the Michael Jackson tribute show was pretty good, with excellent dancers. The best show I enjoyed was the Fiesta Mexicana with live music, dancers and singers. We also noticed a lot of the show dancers would instruct Pool Zumba earlier in the day, which was also a riot!

• The exceptional homemade guacamole! We would wait for a fresh batch to be brought out and enjoy with some freshly made crispy tortilla chips. 
• My lovely air-conditioned room with cool tile floors!
• The market—our resort had it's own outdoor market and indoor mall, but we also had a chance to shop a bit on our tour day at some local touristy shops. We all found a few little souvenirs and mementos to take home.
• The Japanese restaurant for my friend's birthday.  Out of all the "fancy" dining bookings we went to the Japanese was our favourite. The chef entertained us, flipping bits of cooked broccoli into our mouths and bouncing a raw egg from spatula to spatula finally cracking it in one last swipe. The food was excellent (I had the red snapper) and was cooked on the grill right in front of us. 

Birthday surprise napkin bow!

(Notice a few sunburns?)

• Our waiters and guides. We had a few funny characters who served us over the week. Some of the waiters were quiet but our favourites were friendly and loud and kept us supplies with cool drinks. Our friendly guides on the short ATV & Cenote tour gave us a cool look inside the deep dark underwater cave by swimming down with a flashlight to shine around the dark corners. (He also saved one of our cameras by diving quickly to get it when it was dropped into the cenote!)

 

The small centoe - yes, that's a cave we climbed down into and swam through a tight crevasse into the dark pool beyond!

The larger cenote, very well-lit and HUGE! We wore flotation belts so we could just relax and snorkel around. On the way out our guide tossed fish food over us and hundreds of small black fish came up all around us to feed! Freaky but fun!

• The best thing about being in Mexico with friends was...being with friends! We had such a great time, relaxing, chatting and laughing together! I'd love to do another trip with friends again someday.  

Our amazing 4 km beach! We walked the entire length one morning and saw the resort workers up early to groom and clean the beach.

Just one of the many pools around our resort!

After our ATV ride and small cenote swim. Amazing afternoon!

We went to the resort club one evening for another birthday and had a blast dancing and learning some fun line dances from the resort dance instructors.

Mexico 2016! A week to remember!!

My Costa Rican Adventure

Making my very own "sand" castle on the beach.

If you asked me two years ago how many countries I had traveled to the answer would have been pretty short...Canada, the US... uh....that's it.

A year ago I was enjoying my much anticipated 3-week whirlwind trip around Ireland, Scotland and England (read about it here >>). I finally felt like I had some international travel under my belt!

Six months ago if you asked me where else I was planning on traveling to I would have said nowhere. I'm just happy thinking up future trips years down the road.

Then along came the LOAS (link).

What is LOAS, you ask? It's short for the "League of Adventurous Singles!"

I had found an awesome, no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-is singles podcast, "Seven Minutes in Heaven (link)" by Kira Sabin an awesome singles/life coach, sometime last year and quickly devoured all the episodes that applied to me. I explored further and found her website and something caught my eye...Kira organized and led amazing adventure travel for groups of single women!

Skip to 4 months later and I was prepping for my first tropical destination trip!

In January I packed my suitcase and headed off an a crazy adventure to Costa Rica with a bunch of single ladies that I'd never met in person! Yes, it does sound a little wild and dangerous, and I had jumped in as sort of a last-minute addition to the group after someone else had to cancel. 

I was one of three Canadian gals and the rest ranged from all over the US. It was amazing to get to know every single one of them!

Day 1 - Seeing our villa's pool in daylight, so refreshing in the heat!

We stayed in a rented villa (yes, a VILLA!) on the top of a jungle mountain range over looking the distant Pacific Ocean. We were treated with a mix of local catered meals and awesome restaurants where I learned to love new dishes like ceviche, plantains and black bean soup. I endured the hottest day of my life hiking through a jungle park but was rewarded with glimpses of beautiful wildlife like sloths, monkeys and huge hand-sized spiders (yuck)! We zip-lined, we swam in the ocean, we talked and laughed and I chased geckos, leaf & stick bugs all over our villa. Despite the heat and the humidity I wish we could have had a few more days on the gorgeous Costa Rica beaches. The people were so friendly and easy to talk to and I'm sure I will go back someday.

The retreat portion of our stay was also satisfying and rewarding. On day one, Kira met with each of us and asked us our goals and what we want to get out of the week. We also had plenty of group discussions covering topics from being single, dating, communication, setting goals, confrontation, to how to have those hard conversations.

Day 1 in CR - traveling from San Jose over the mountains to our villa. Truck full of melons on the side of the highway. Stops for lunch along the way. A glimpse of the Pacific over the mountains (the pink hazyglow reflecting the sunset), and finally, our fantastic villa!!

Since we were staying way up in the mountains we were met each day by our local driver, Eduardo,  and his sturdy van. We packed in and prayed the air conditioning would hold out as we ventured over the rough 2 kilometer rocky driveway and onward to whatever amazing destination Kira had planned for us that day. Eduardo tried to play the strong silent type, only to have us break him out of his shell with music or some good-natured teasing or bonding over photos of our dogs back home. He turned out to be a gem of a guy and we loved hear tidbits of his life's story.

A few afternoons were spent in the small town of Quepos and the larger bustling Manuel Antonio. We poked around the small shops and I found the people to be so very friendly and hospitable. I even had a jewelry maker whip me up a free gift of a wire flower while I paid for a cute sloth necklace I had found.

Day 3 - Zip line adventures at Midworld with Josue, walk to a local waterfall...or trickle,
and a frog hopped inside during a fabulous locally catered sunset dinner at the villa.

We were also blessed with wonderful guides on all of our adventures. We even had the same guide, Josue, twice during two different excursions by random coincidence! He was our first guide on our jungle hike through the Manuel Antonio park reserve and two days later we showed up for zip-lining at Midworld and who was our guide for the day, but Josue!

The entire trip, from the humid heat, spectacular scenery, and new friendships will be something I will never forget. That week among total strangers helped me catalyze some big changes in my life. Changes that maybe were a long time coming. I loved Costa Rica and someday I'd love to go back and explore more!


Some of my fondest moments from the week can be summed up in a few more snapshots.

PS - And hey, if this looks super amazing to you, Kira has a few more Costa Rica retreats or just singles travel weeks planned for 2017. Check out her website for details!! >> 

Day 1 - Leaf bug inside the villa. The villa's main floor was totally open!

Day 1 - Hottest Day of my LIFE! Hike through the Manuel Antonio jungle with Jose showing us wild animals.
Supper at a resort right on the beach!

So many interesting types of palm and palm-looking trees!

Day 3 - Zip lining ladies at Midworld. Some of us conquered our fears and some just had a blast whipping through the jungle canopy! Midworld was an excellent company and provided us with an awesome local lunch and great guides!

Day 4 - Amazing local food, boat trip to a secluded beach.

Day 5 - Meet Chewbacca - cutest baby sloth being hand fed at the Kids Saving the Rainforest animal sanctuary.

Day 5 - Morning at "Kids Saving the Rainforest" sanctuary, lunch and gelato at trendy eateries, then an afternoon at an amazing beach! Sunning scenery, warm waves that I could've stayed in for hours! And of course our trusty van rides home with good conversations and lots of laughter.

Day 5 - Amazing afternoon at a gorgeous beach! "Is this even real?!"

Day 5 - Beach for miles! Unreal! The postcards and screensavers are real!
Eduardo climbed a palm tree, cut open some coconuts with his under-the-front-seat machete and served us right there!
He also pointed out a sleeping sloth in a tree nearby!

Day 6 - Our villa from the top of the driveway, finally saw a toucan, fresh fruits, stick bug on our wall,
traveling back to San Jose with new friends and Eduardo!

The amazing and colourful flowers and plants of the tropics!

Travel day home - I touched down in FOUR countries!
(Costa Rica, Mazatlan, Mexico to refuel, Dallas TX US, Vancouver & Victoria BC Canada)

What travel plans do you have for the future? 
- I'd love to go back to Scotland & England, maybe Cornwall, Liverpool, Outer Hebrides and see more of Edinburgh.

Or where was your favourite destination so far?
- I also recently visited Mexico with some close friends and I'll have to write about that soon, too!


You can find more of my adventures on Intagram @keblackstock.

Scotland Adventures - Day 2 - Circling Skye (Kilt Rock, Portree & Fort Augustus)

Kilt Rock cliffs

Time for a whole day on the Isle of Skye, Scotland!

Agnes, my lovely B&B hostess made me an excellent full cooked breakfast: poached egg on toast, beans, two big pieces of juicy bacon, two yummy sausages, a little cooked tomato, orange juice and tea. I slept so well! My first real full nights sleep since arriving in the UK.