Monday, February 14, 2005: Valentine's Day! This is the day that I have been waiting for as Geofford and I are leaving to go to the Mayan Riviera for Rachel and Clayton's wedding. I am very excited to go as I haven't seen Rachel since Shanna's wedding in October and there will also be some people that I haven't seen in a while there as well. After class on Monday morning (since our plane didn't leave until 16:50) I went to the airport to meet Geofford. Fortunately I had a book - The Dutch Wife (which I was able to finish) - because he was a little bit later than the time we were going to meet (which was a little expected). We were at the airport 3 hours before the flight was scheduled to depart, so we had a little time to kill. Since I was buying dinner (at the resort), Geoff bought Valentine's day lunch at the airport. We ended up having a very romantic Harvey's lunch. :) After lunch, we met up with Rachel's parents - Louise and Jean-Marc, and her sister Julie. Then more and more people joined our group: Melissa - Rachel's classmate from University, Ralph and Linda - Clayton's parents, and Sandy and Norma - Clayton's parent's neighbors. Since it was cold in Ottawa and there was the threat of freezing rain all day, so the plane had to be de-iced, which took a while. The rest of the flight was quite uneventful, the inflight movie was the Terminal with Tom Hanks. By the time we got to the airport, we were the last plane to arrive, so we didn't have a very long line up at customs at Cancun airport. It was fairly easy to find our shuttle, which was good because it was getting late at this point. There was a guide on our shuttle named Gorge who provided BEevERages for our enjoyment for a mere $3US (or two for $5US). He also did a good job with descriptions of different excursions that our tour company (Sunquest) offered. So far I have been very impressed with organization during the trip, everything has been quite clockwork. After dropping off people at various resorts, we finally arrived the Copacabana Maya! This is where everything changed, it turned out that they overbooked the resort, so Geoff and I weren't able to stay there that night. Along with two other couples, we travelled to another resort the Catalonia Riviera Maya which is where the Copacabana booked us for the night. Upon returning to the Copacabana, we were promised to be treated like VIPs (upgraded to a Jr Suite, champagne, fruit basket, beer in the minibar, free in room safe, bathrobes, slippers, and unlimited a la carte tickets), so Geoff and I decided to make the best of the situation, and enjoy the opportunity to see another resort. The resort wasn't bad, we really didn't get to see too much that night, but fortunately the snack bar was open so we were able to get some food and drink. We then took a quick walk on the boardwalk/beach before retiring for the night.
The Catalonia resort from the little penisula
Tuesday, February 15, 2005: We had arranged with the other couples that we would leave the Catalonia at noon to take a shuttle back to the Copacabana, so we had a little bit of time to explore during the daylight around the Catalonia. After a mediocre buffet breakfast, we headed to the water. It turned out that the boardwalk lead to a little peninsula that seperated the sea from a little lagoon. After exploring for a bit, we went for a little dip in the lagoon, and I found out that seawater is really salty. I was surprised at how salty the water really was and I made a mental note to try not to swallow too much water because I really didn't like the taste of it. After swimming for a bit, we realized that it was almost noon so we packed up and went to the lobby to wait for our shuttle. It was actually nice to be able to see the area surrounding our hotel in the daylight. Upon returning to the Copacabana, we found out that our room would be ready at 1:30 so we went down to the beach to meet up with everyone else. It was such a relief once we met up with the other Ottawa people and met up with the Toronto people - Tanya - another friend of Rachel's from University, Steve - a friend from her time in Guelph, and Allison - one of Julie's (not me) friends from high school at the resort. Geoff and I decided to have lunch first, then checked into our room (which was a really nice suite, and much nicer than our hotel room at the Catalonia) before heading back down to the beach. At this point, I finally felt as though the relaxing time had began. We relaxed on the beach until Rachel, Clayton and the crew from Thunder Bay arrived - Dan, Kristen, Kathleen, Vanda, Catharine, and Brian. We then decided to meet in the lobby before dinner which we were all having together at the buffet restaurant to celebrate Rachel's birthday. After dinner, we chilled in the lobby before watching the show that the entertainment show put on, that night it was a variety show.
I want to put these pictures side by side by I don't know...any ideas?
Wednesday, February 16: Another beach day, not very eventful, but we booked dinner at the Mexican a la carte restaurant on Thursday night.
Me running to the water to go snorkeling
Thursday, February 17: We went to the beach, after I studied for my marketing exam in the morning. After lunch, Julie D. and I got roped into dance lessons by the pool by Juanito. We had some fun learning the Merengue - it was interesting, when we did the partner bit, Julie made me be the boy, which was weird because you have to hold up a different arm, and Julie was much taller than me, so that was a little awkward. Other than that, it was tons of fun. That night, the group of us (27) went to the Paradise restaurant. It was very good. My stomach wasn't feeling the greatest (I'm thinking it could have been the combination of the sun, and the alcohol) so I played it safe with the fajitas. The service was amazing, and the food was also very good.
Geofford with the fajita cover on his head at the Mexican restaurant...silly boy
Friday, February 18: The Wedding day! Rachel was a little bit worried in the morning because there were clouds, but they eventually blew over. The only problem with the clouds was that everyone stayed out in the sun a little longer than normal because the sun wasn't beating on us, and some of us ended up getting sun burnt. Mine was quite funny because I was lying perpendicular to the sun, so only half of me got really burnt. Oh well. The wedding was very beautiful on the beach. It was an ideal setting, and Rachel looked beautiful.
The Bride - Rachel
Rachel, Shanna, and me
After the party, we went up to the disco to watch Rachel and Clayton have their first dance. They had the whole floor to themselves and had a great time. It was awesome to see the two of them so happy. After their dance, the entertainment staff got us to form a conga line and we were all given shots straight from the bottle. The rest of the night went downhill, there was much alcohol and lots of dancing. All in all a great night :)
At the disco: L - Rachel and Clayton dancing their first dance, R (top): Rachel getting a shot, (bottom): Clayton getting his shot
Saturday, February 19: After a night of partying, we decided to have breakfast (I think for the second time staying at the Copa) before meeting Shanna and Leigh. So I'm guessing that I forgot one part of the story. Shanna and her husband Leigh only visited the resort on Friday for the wedding and were not actually checking in until today (Saturday). Shanna was coming from California, so she didn't book a flight and resort package like the rest of us. She booked her flight and her resort online through two different travel companies. But what she failed to do was double check where she had booked her resort. Unfortunately, Shanna had booked at the Copacabana Acapulco which is on the Gulf of Mexico not on the Carribean Sea. Fortunately her flight and shuttle brought her to the Copacabana Maya so she was at least in the right place if her reservation was not. Fortunately the staff at the Copa were very helpful and were able to find her and Leigh a place to stay at another resort (but not the one that Geoff and I were booked at). So I believe that Shan and Leigh stayed at 3 different resorts (and visited a 4th) during their 6 night stay in Mexico. It was nice when they finally came to our resort. It was another gorgeous day, so we spent most of the day on the beach. We then had a late dinner at the Mexican restaurant and I spent time with both Shanna and Rachel, which I haven't been able to do in a while. It's sad that they are both so far away. But it makes the time that we do get to spend together much more special.
Rachel, Shan and I with our guys
Sunday, February 20: Today we had to get an early start as we were going as a big group (except Shanna and Leigh who were going back to California) to Tulum and Xel-ha. Fortunately we got to Tulum relatively early because it was quite hot to walk around the ruins. We had a guide - Jorge (a different one than the one on the bus) - who gave a great commentary of the ruins. He did a great job of giving us information about the Mayan ruins while keeping it interesting. After exploring Tulum for an hour we were off to Xel-ha, which was a lot of fun. After a fabulous lunch, we headed for the water to do some snorkeling. We saw tons of fish, little ones, and big ones that scared me because I wasn't expecting to see such big fish (I don't know why), and even sting rays. After being in the water for about an hour, I was starting to get sea sick from the waves (I was wearing a life jacket) so we headed for the underwater caves. It wasn't that big, but there was enough room for a photographer to take pictures of us tourists. The group of us got a cool picture from the cave.
Dan, Kristin, Melissa, Rachel, Clayton, Tanya, Steve, Geoff, and I in the cave at Xel-Ha
After the cave we decided to go see some other sites before going to the Cliff of Courage. Well the sites weren't all that exciting - that or we were more worried about our feet because we didn't have any shoes (except our flippers which was really hard to walk around in). Rachel, Clayton, Tanya, and Dan braved the Cliff and then we all floated/swam down the river back to return our gear. The whole excursion was worth the money (kinda) that we spent because it was a lot of fun, but I think that with our group we could have had fun anywhere. That night we had our official good-bye dinner since the Toronto people were leaving early the next morning, and us Ottawa people would be leaving in the afternoon.
Monday, February 21: Last day in Mexico :( It was a sad day because our fun group would be dispersing and we spent the morning saying good-bye to some early travellers, but we knew we had to enjoy it, so we headed to the beach :) There was a lot of wind which was a lot of fun because we were able to do some body surfing. We pretty much spent the whole morning body surfing, then having our last buffet lunch right next to the beach with a great view, and then continued to body surf before having to get showered to go. It was a really sad time saying good-bye to Rachel (and everyone else) because we had such an amazing time. We had talked about making an annual trek south for this group and I hope that we keep to our plans because this was an amazing trip.
After we left Copacabana, we were exhausted. The Ottawa crew pretty much slept most of the shuttle to the airport. Again, the guide on the bus was very helpful and informative to guide us through what we needed (in terms of paperwork) to leave Mexico. Unfortunately there was a dumping of snow in Ottawa so our flight was delayed about half an hour so we pretty much hung out in the airport, which was quite different than any other airport that I've been to. Because we were unsure of the food/drink situation we ended up feasting on Pringles and tolberone that we bought at the gift shops. We also bought some Tequila (and Geoff bought some cigars) at the duty free. I don't remember any of the flight because I was fast asleep, but I tried watching the movie the Machurian Candidate because I really wanted to see it, but I failed. The last funny bit about our trip is the fact that when we got back to Ottawa and through customs (with no problems), Tony's truck's battery died, so we had to wait a little while longer for his father to come give us a boost. All in all, we got back to Geoff's place at around 4...I was exhausted, but I didn't have to do anything but study, poor Geoff had to go to work....hee hee.
Anywho, I took tons of pictures, here are somemore from around the resort and of the wedding, and other pictures can be seen on Geofford's phΓΈtoblog.
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