Hello everyone! After 8 days in paradise I’m back to the island I call home, NYC. I had a wonderful and relaxing time in Playa del Carmen. I knew the trip would be great when I had the smoothest takeoff and flight ever on the way to Mexico. The photo above is from the way back, when I flew on a sea of fluffy white clouds. Apologies to anyone on American Airlines flight 1674 who had to put up with my Dramamine-induced snoring. Heh. I didn’t really take any OOTD shots as it would have been this every day: bikini, cover up, sunglasses, layer upon layer of sunscreen.
The resort I stayed at. (The Gran Porto Real.)I’ll have more to share on my personal blog, Wreak Havok, next week for anyone interested. The highlights of the trip for me were how blue (and clear) the Caribbean Sea was, visiting Cozumel and walking around Tulum. Although Tulum was not quite as cool a I’d hoped because we weren’t allowed to go inside any of the buildings. I understand why…but we couldn’t even walk up the steps to main temple (they closed them 6 years ago) and this really weakened the experience for me. We decided against visiting another Mayan site after discovering this. It was cool but not as cool as it could have been.
Here’s a few other quick thoughts:
– I wore more wristbands and credentials than a stagehand at a rock concert
– Street vendors in Mexico are really aggressive!
– I saw more places starting with X than ever before. I really hope these count in Scrabble…
– When your resort has an all-you-can eat buffet you will test the limits of all-you-can eat. Repeatedly.
– Starbucks is everywhere. In Playa, at the Cancun airport, etc. Every. Where.
– Everyone loves Credence Clearwater Revival, even a local cover band on the ferry back from Cozumel. (They played Manu Chao too!)
– I cannot believe some asshole spammed over 50 comments to the blog the first day I was gone. Rot in hell, shoe place I couldn’t care less about. >:( And thanks to MacGruff for cleaning that up for me. Thanks to you as well for not feeding the trolls.
A beautiful church on 5th Ave in Playa del Carmen.I have a sea of emails to respond to and a few more guest posts to configure and run. I will say this again in another post but thank you a million times over to all of the contributors to community weeks! I’m stoked that the blog didn’t have to go dark while I was gone. Thanks to everyone for showing their support to all the guest authors. Please bear with me if you are waiting for an email response from me. It will take me the weekend to catch up with everything. Cheers.
Welcome back! I am glad you had a lovely trip. And I am glad for so many excellent community member posts while you were away to keep me entertained!
Welcome back! I'm super jealous but my Mexico vacation is in a few weeks! The guest posts were a great idea and lots of fun to read!
Welcome back! You were definitely missed but I must say I loved the great variety of guest posts we were treated to every day! Thanks for arranging and hosting them and thank you to this great community and the post contributors!
Roxy, I'm glad you had a great time! I loved doing a guest post for you. All of the guest posts were terrific but it's good to have you back.
I'm glad to hear that you had a lovely trip! I can't wait to see the photos on your other blog. It's too bad that tourists aren't allowed to climb the Mexican ruins anymore. When I visited Cancun, Tulum, Xcaret and Chichen Itza in 1999, I was able to climb all over the ruins (back then, they even allowed tourists to climb the "inner pyramid" at Chichen Itza). While I know that it's really disappointing (I'm kicking myself for not bringing a better camera and taking more pictures!), I'm glad that the Mexican government is doing something to try to preserve these important landmarks. The erosion caused by human contact was pretty visible 🙁
welcome back:) i loved playa del carmen's beaches, they are just so exquisite. i don't think we would have even able to climb anything in chichen itza anyway as we were so burned out from the blazing sun!
SO glad your back! I'm glad you had fun.
Welcome back, and yo community, Leifsdottir sale at Rue La La… a few items left, and many we've seen at anthro recently. http://www.ruelala.com/event/all/22486#
I'm so glad we didn't go to Tulum on our honeymoon. They act like you can climb the ruins. I would have been annoyed if I had wanted to do that and wasn't able. I love the way your resort looks. And isn't all- inclusive the best. Yum.
Aw! I love Playa- I went there last Oct. for my honeymoon. What a wonderful place. So glad you had a great trip.
Welcome back!!
Welcome home Roxie. Vacations are wonderful, but there is no place like home.
So glad you had a wonderful time! We missed you but thanks for organizing the guest posts for us.
Welcome back. The guest posts were great, but we missed you! Hope you had a great vacay!!!
I'm glad you had a good time Roxy! I hear Americans telling me so many wonderful things about Playa del Carmen that I recommended to a journalist friend of mine, who was in Mexico on a business trip. She almost killed me! She and I are from Rio and I used ben in a walking distance from Ipanema (my friend still does) so it makes no sense for us to spend dollars in a trip to see sandy beaches. BUT I heard that water is sooo clear, I'd love to dive in a place like that. Can't wait to see more pictures!!!
Glad you are back!!!! When Tuesday hit I was frantic worried that I might have to brave the sale alone with no direction! Then there was no sale and all was well!!! I totally HATE flying too!!! We are going to Maui in December and I am already dreading it (the flight part that is!)
Welcome back Roxy! I totally love your blog and feel like I know you just because I read it so religiously! Your dressing room reviews help me SO MUCH!!And okay, I know this is off subject BUT I just ran across this SO INCREDIBLY obvious knock off Anthro's Buds and Bunches- totally blew my mind and I had to share:http://www.shopruche.com/roseline-tuxedo-tank-p-2849.htmlFunny thing is, now of course with REAL top on sale- it's cheaper than the imposter!Looking on the site you can find even more Anthro-copies. Just think it's funny 🙂
Jesspgh – were they not all amazing posts? I was blown away by the topics covered, and the review sets were full of items I wanted to see. Great stuff all around.Kathleen – thank you! You will have an amazing time in Mexico. Can I tag along? :)Jen – glad you liked them. We have some very talented community members.Jessica – it is great to be back. I missed this place! Lola – that's no fun to hear either. Sigh. I guess I was just kind of hoping to trade my blogger cred for VIP access or something…(kidding).camera obscura – oh yeah the sun was intense. My poor friends all came from arid states and they were dying in the humidity. I was sweating the entire time but it didn't affect me nearly as much. You are so right about the beaches too; easily in my top 3 beaches ever.kara lynn – what a warm welcome! I was ready to come home, believe it or not. 🙂 Happy to be back.Kristina – le sigh, I did not partake in the sale sadly but I did peruse the goods. They had some nice stuff.gigiofca – I was so annoyed. I really thought I was going to at least be able to climb the steps. But no, everything was roped off. It was great having the guided tour (which was led by a very knowledgeable geologist) but it was like going to Paris only to find out the Eiffel Tower was closed. Not cool.atine – what a perfect honeymoon destination! Our resort seemed tailored to couples, which left my sister and I giggling to no end. We totally crashed a wedding. OK, not really. But we did get invited to pose in one of their pictures! Stephanie – thank you!!GeoInCalifornia – agreed. Especially when you live in a city like NYC. It's hard to stay away too long. Julie – of course! Good thing we have such a wonderful community willing to pitch in. :DVictoria – it was incredible. I feel so recharged! Marcela – LOL — oh no! The water was so clear. I was shocked. There is a very long shelf too where we were, we found amazing conch shells in a cay. Plus I am way more comfortable swimming in oceans where I can see the fish coming, you know? The Atlantic is not conducive to feeling safe up here.triciathomas – oh, Maui though. Totally worth the flight! I will be going to Oahu in 2012 it looks like and maybe Kawaii, though I'm also hoping to hit the Big Island again (I went in 2007). Hilary – hmm, curiously eyebrow raising. Did you guys see this post on J's blog while I was gone? Another dead knockoff (of the Climbing Cowlneck in this case). I do like Ruche quite a bit though, and since it's a small biz I'm more likely to give them a pass.
welcome back! your absence was keenly felt in blogland :). looking forward to your posts!
Yay, welcome back! And how did I miss that you had a personal blog? Sheesh. *runs to go read*
Welcome back, Roxy! Glad to hear you had a great time. I always have a hard time adjusting to normalcy when I come back from a vacation. Take it easy!
Welcome back Roxy! I'm glad to hear you had a wonderful time and look forward to reading more about it on your other blog. 🙂
Welcome back! The guest posts were wonderful but you were definitely missed 🙂
Welcome back! Glad you had a good time. The guest posts while you were out were very cute.
The Tulum ruins are cool because they are right on the water and have beautiful views. But I think you were a bit mislead about not climbing the steps at any ruin sites and choosing not to visit other ruins. At the Coba ruins (part way between Chichen Itza and Tulum/Playa) you are allowed to climb up one of the very very big temples! I was just there in Nov of 09 and there were no restrictions on climbing the Coba ruins. Just FYI for your next Mexico trip. I'd say the only reason for not going to other ruins is that the drive can be a bit long. We went from Tulum to Chichen Itza in our own rental car in ~2hrs.
Welcome back Roxy!