Stan and I are visiting Akumal Beach Resort in Mexico for the 4th time. It is our 39th anniversary and we wanted to make a relaxing interesting experience.
Akumal Beach Resort – March 27, 2012
The first lady we met started talking with us at lunch dining hall. We had just arrived, parked our luggage in the room and hurried out to enjoy the view. We still had on our jeans from the plan trip A teacher and husband from Wisconsin struck up a conversation. They had been at this same resort for 4 weeks and are staying another to make it 5 as their other child and family are coming to visit. You can learn a lot when people are eager to make conversation. They snorkel for 1 – 2 hours at a time. They know all about the statistics of the reef. The reef is the 2nd longest in the world next to the Great Barrier reef in Australia. It is amazing that once a teacher starts talking it is like she is back in the classroom. There is hardly a thing they don’t know the exact facts about. So don’t try to challenge them on the facts.
New things have happen on this our 4th visit to this beautiful casual resort. The first time we visited this resort due to a sale we found in the newspaper. We were so delighted to find a place that included plane fair, hotel and food. Next time time we went was in 2006 when I turned 60. We brought the whole family for a week of fun. We didn’t come for several years as there was a concern about drug cartels ruining the area with their violence and other dreadful acts that were so prevent at the borders. In 2011 Stan and Joyce came for their 38th wedding anniversary. This year in 2012 Stan and Joyce came 39th wedding anniversary.
Three leche cake is the most unusual, maybe not such an interesting texture that I have encounter. It inclines 3 different types of milk poured over a cake. According to the Teacher fro Wisconsin, this is quite a popular method to make a cake. Well, I have never had this type of cake except in Akumal Mexico at this resort, but then again, I have lived a sheltered life.
This resort was owned by an Italian who bought it from a Mexican (Ortez). Many Italian’s visited here for years. It became somewhat run down. The Mexican bought it back in 2009 and is spending consistent time fixing it up a little at a time. You can tell that something is different, but can’t really tell you what. This guy is not a young man, but is busy fixing the place up nevertheless.
It seems that new floor tiles were placed in the lobby, bar and dinning area. The railings seem freshly painted. The place is friendly, casual, clean and charming. The ocean is right out your door and the views are stunning. The pool looks inviting the same deep blue as the ocean.
The kids are treated well here. In the evening there are movies in the kids room, just off the large dining room. It keeps the kids busy and gives the parents a break. The food is kids friendly with a section devoted to pasta and pizza. One evening we were treated to kids dancing together on the stage. It was invigorating to see the kids perform so well from they have learned during the day. There is always some activities and staff to keep them busy and give the parents a well desired break.
The first evening I tried many new things for dinner. Cactus was a delight in the fresh tortillas that I added guacamole, rice and fresh salsa. Stan added a couple of hot peppers and mentioned the pulled pork was extra tender. The desserts are always interesting. A spoonful of rice pudding, sliver of 3 lecha cake, coconut flan and least favorite was bunuelos (hush-puppy type fried dough filled with whipped cream).
Our room is spacious. There is a large closet with doors made of small strips of bamboo. There are shelves separated by ropes inside the closet to add some interest. The room has a safe and the TV remote along with the safe and room key are handed to you in a big envelope during check in.
The bus trip from Cancun to Akumal takes about 1 ½ hours. Others on the bus are dropped off at near-by resorts. Some are quite snazzy and seemed far too upscale and stuffy for our taste. It is the same ocean and same warm weather.
Akumal Beach Resort 3-28-2012
The food is plentiful and tasty. We started the day off with breakfast. There is nothing in the room to make a cup of coffee or tea in the morning when you wake up. Breakfast is at 7 am. First thing to pick up is tea or coffee and a glass of juice. I like oatmeal and it was delicious with a spoonful of cinnamon sugar. A plate of fresh fruit hit the spot. Papayas have an interesting flavor and must be another of those acquired tastes. Cantaloupe and watermelon must be locally grown and in season. Stan had a freshly made omelet to his delight.
Lunch was from the snack bar by the pool. The guacamole and chips were great. Freshly made French fries hit the spot when dipped in ketchup. Pizza so – so. Ice cream in a small cup eaten with a wooden spoon on a warm day hit the spot.
Stan and the chef are becoming fast friends. She speaks impeccable English, has a smile of confidence that goes with the tasty food she prepares. On this Wednesday she was making chicken kabobs. Stan had a few tasty morsels of the chicken and found it compelling to have another chat with the chef. She divulged that the chicken was marinated to give it that extra tender texture.
I had the tomato soup with just a hint of extra spice to kick it up a notch. This was followed by a plate of vegetables, rice, a few potatoes and lentils. My favorite was the grilled pineapple slices. It had just the tang to perk up the meal. A plate of small portions of the desserts gave just a hint of favorites and not so favorites. The cheese cake looked great, but moved to last place as it had no flavor. Stan skipped on the coffee flan as he has little interest in flan of any kind. When I gave him forkful of mine he loved it. It was pretty strong coffee flavor and probably would keep one up all night with a caffeine high, so I gave him my whole piece. Another milk soaked chocolate cake rolled up to make a beautiful looking dessert. However, I’m still not much of a fan of soaked cakes. A pudding with layers of another milk soaked cake, whipped cream and peaches was yummy, if you eat around the cake. Apple strudel was OK, but not great. I took a taster bite and left that last few pieces on my plate.
I swam a few laps in the glorious pool. I was a little disoriented with the sun shining in my eyes and blue sky overhead as I’m used to swimming laps at the rec center where you can watch the ceiling or side lines to know when you come up to the end of the pool. Good thing the pool at that time of day was mostly empty.
We joined the exercise class later in the morning. Oscar was our instructor and most of the participants were women from Houston on a week-long outing. They had left their husbands at home. One younger women was from Austria. When we stretched our arm above our head I noticed a big crop of hair under her arm. Different cultures – different standards.
Brief nap in the lounge chair by the pool and it was time for salsa lessons. Thanks to Marta our water zumba teacher from the rec center, we could almost get the beat and follow the steps. There is still hope. Oscar was our teacher again. Stan thought it would be fun to learn to dance on the concrete barefooted. No blisters, but he did have to dip his feet in the pool to ease the pain from the warm concrete or was that the fast paced steps for dancing the salsa?
Another nap and a walk to the ocean but steps away. We strolled through waste high crystal clear quiet water to see white angel fish meander around us. We caught a glimpse of them as they had black accents on the tips of their fins. There were some other silvery and white fish swimming by. They didn’t linger as long as the angels did.
We were going to come back with our snorkeling gear but the relaxing day required another nap. By that time the surf had picked up as had the breeze. Afternoons we found are not the best for snorkeling. We will need to try again tomorrow early in the day.
Akumal Beach Resort 3-29-2012
The previous evening we were treated to a theater production of 70’s – 80’s songs that were danced to by the staff. This year had the best dancers that I have seen. The show was well choreographed full of energy. The group didn’t sing and used the real songs. Only concern was the volume of the music. It was so loud that the high pitch of the decimal could blow your eardrums. We mostly covered our ears to soften the pain. We complimented the team members be saw the next day. They were happy to hear we liked it. Alex was the best male dancer. We found he was from Venezuela and had been in a somewhat famous boy band called Boom. He was a handsome young man with blond hair from his half German background. He mentioned that the great choreography was due to the pretty brunette from Canada. It is nice to know that these resorts attach such a high level of talent to entertain the vacationers.
We got into a routine of swimming, eating and dancing by the pool. We started the day by snorkeling first so an not to miss that experience by too much relaxing on the pool.
To my surprise, I was finally catching on to this experience. No more panic. No more chocking on the inhaled salt water. I put on the flippers and walked backward into the warm ocean water. I fiddled with the mask a bit and figured out how to keep the water blown out of the tube. Off we went.
I mostly kick from me knees instead of my hip. I guess it is easier or maybe I just didn’t learn the other method. We swam out twenty or so strokes / kicks then took a rest. The water wasn’t really very deep and sometimes the end of my flippers could touch the grasses below. We didn’t see any turtles yet. We would need to swim farther out into the bay.
We joined the water exercise again to a very small class that included a lady from Quebec City and a mom and couple of kids from Italy. Language is a barrier for a free minutes and then the walls come down and all gel as we get into the program. Oscar and Alex teach together to add some more energy to the class. Both knew several languages to help with the directions.
Stan and the Austrian man struck up a conversation. They planned a play date for tomorrow at Yal Ku lagoon to snorkel together. The guy really just wanted some assistance to find the place we had told him about.
Akumal Beach Resort 3-30-2012
We ate breakfast and hurried to meet our new Austrian friends by the pool for our trip to Yal Ku.
Akumal Beach Resort 3-31-2012. As it turned our the man was not feeling well so Stan and I went alone. With a bit of a language barrier from their limited English and our non-existent Austria we could have totally misunderstood what exactly he wanted.
We walked down the beach past the turtle bay and a few blocks into the village of Akumal to the taxis. We asked a driver how much. 80 pesos. Well we only had dollars. With an exchange rate of 12.50 pesos to one dollar the ride should have cost us about $6.50. It cost $8 and we were happy to not have to walk the couple miles through dirt road on this hot day.
Yal Ku was inviting. The entrance fee was $9/per person plus $2 to rent a locker. I wanted to take some photos of the beautiful sculpture gardens and then store my camera in the locker while we were snorkeling. I enjoyed with snorkeling a lot more this year than before. We were early enough in the day the miss the hoards of classes that show up to stir up the water and scare the fish away. There are large boulders in depths of the water that fish swim around. I saw many gatherings of fish nibbling in groups around the rocks. Some of the rocks go down into crevasses 30 feet deep and some you can touch as you swim by them. We swam around the whole lagoon this morning. I have fond memories of the time we brought John and Rachel here. It is such a peaceful setting.
We walked back to the resort stopping in the village just long enough at my favorite shop. This shop has interesting metal sculptures and some jewelry and odd little unusual Mexican trinkets. I just couldn’t imagine how I would bring home a knee high metal chicken, but it was really cute and would have enjoyed walking around in my back yard. I bought a butterfly to hang on our outside shed instead.
We stopped at one of our favorite spots for a beer at the Moon Rise bar. You can watch the snorkelers bob in the ocean and see the gentle waves cure across the sands.
Akumal Beach Resort March 31, 2012
Today is our 39th Anniversary. The wedded bliss and ups and downs of life have brought us to this day. My birthday is on March 26th and wedding anniversary is March 31st. We have planned some type of vacation celebration every year after the first ten years or so.
When I turned 40 and celebrated our 13th anniversary in 1986 we took a trip with our kids to Aspen, except we really could afford Aspen so we stayed a few miles away in this seedy hotel in Basalt, Colorado. I was a disappointing experience as 4 of us cooped up in marginal accommodations with a teenage girl with raging hormones made for a chaotic time. I remember one of the restaurants was called the frying pan and food tasted like the grease in the frying pan. I didn’t remember the skiing in Aspen. Aspen was a glorious place to talk about, but skiing was too expensive along with eating lunch or enjoying anything else there are just out of reach for middle America.
We got better at planning birthday / anniversary vacations. Jamie gave up skiing saying she would rather have clothes instead of a ski ticket. John got really good at skiing and we went almost every Saturday to Winter Park, Copper Mountain or an occasional long weekend to Steamboat. We were more into the fun of the exercise in a beautiful setting than the over-the-top experience and costs of Vail or Aspen.
For my 50th birthday and 23nd anniversary we took one of the most interesting vacations with Friendship Force to Australia staying with Glenn and Glenda Schobridge from Murwilamba and also with Trish and John Daniele-Web in Gosford just outside of Sydney. Glenda took us across the meadow splashing through a flowing river at the edge of the rainforest to visit the oldies, her husband’s parents. She loving called them the oldies. They lived in a few room house that was aged old – a few rooms with open beamed rafters adding to the charm. We sat at their kitchen table chatting with the mom. She served us tea and pound cake. I’m sure that Glenda had made sure she would have cake available to give to us that day. The dad came in from the field with a bunch of bananas he had collected from the forest. Now we are oldies now ourselves and hope that we could keep up like that couple did.
By the time I turned 60 in 2004 we had found this charming resort of Akumal toward the southern part of the Riviera Maya in Mexico. It is easy to be here. They provide everything. Food, drinks and entertainment in a beautiful setting with ocean views and friendly, well-mannered vacationers. John brought his girl friend Rachel and Jamie was also came with us. It was a good experience. One of the most beautiful places was the cenote close to Chichen-Itza. The large fresh water spring in the cave still has the lingering of fond memories.
John married Rachel in 2006 and they had a sweet curly headed of girl in 2008. As she is only age 3 now she is a little young for a Mexico experience. Maybe they can join us when she is older.
We have been to Tulum, Mexico last year. It has some Mayan ruins and some good old dose of Mexican cultural. We will take a ride on the collective (mini-van bus) today for a few hours.
We walk out from the resort up the street to highway. Stan raises his hand as we clear the resort gate to point to the collective (local mini-van bus) passing by on the busy highway. To our surprise the van pulls over to pick us up. We cross two busy lanes of speeding traffic in record time. We are delighted to have a ride so quickly with no waiting in the hot sun. It cost $3/person to ride down to Tulum.
We notice we are riding with a pet in a crate tucked on the floor toward the front. The monkey peaks out of the crate to let us know his is unusual. His owned is getting out at Tulum also.
We see monkey man holding his pet monkey in the archway of the shop area. He was making some money for pictures with his friend. The biggest attraction was the guys dressed in native costumes. They were elaborate with body paint and high head dresses extending four or more feet in toward the sky of pheasant feathers. One guy had arms full of long feathers of a different type. He would open his arms and looked like an eagle. One guy had a cheetah head and skin on his body. Another had alligator skin draped down his back. I just couldn’t justify the $5 for a photo with this bunch of guys, but do respect their ingenuity.
I found my favorite jewelry vendor and Stan bought me a pretty necklace with silver curls and a nice turquoise stone. I didn’t really try to bargain. The vendor kept lowing the price. I ended up picking out two pieces. The other was a sunburst with corral colored stone. When I was counting out the money, the guy said, “won’t you give me a tip for giving you such a great price?” I said the tip was that we came all this way to buy from him as we remembered he had nice jewelry from our trip down to Mexico last year.
We watched busloads of tourist walking in through the square of shops to catch a tram for the ride to the Tulum ruins just a short distance up the street. The costumed guys did a tidy little business from the unsuspecting tourist.
We walked out to the highway and were lucky again as a collective just drove up. It seemed a short distance to travel the more we take these buses.
We went out in the ocean to snorkel. The wind was up as was the tide. The waves kicked up quite a bit of action to swim through. A lot different from the lagoon swimming the day before at Yal Ku. We saw a few fish, but no turtles yet. It was just too difficult to keep swimming against the current so we let the waves bring us back to shore. You just can’t get over confident in the ocean.
There is always something going on around the pool. Today was a water volleyball game. The kids and men had great fun and laughter playing together.
Akumal Beach Resort 4-1-2012
Happy April Fools Day. I don’t have any jokes of shenanigans planned for this day like is did with my girlfriend Lois in 5th grade. We went to Pleasant Valley which was a small country school with only a handful of kids in each grade. In fifth grade we were in the big classroom and had Mrs. Guthrie for our very stern teacher. In the afternoon another classmate, Marianna Libsack who was a grade or so a head of us cleaned the school with her mother Nora Libsack. Lois lived in the farm right adjacent to the school. I must have been visiting with Lois when we came up with this April fools idea to pull some pranks. Marianna let us meander through the classroom doing some little pranks that we thought were enormously funny, but in retrospect were mostly silly. We tapped some of the piano keys down so it looked like the piano was being played. We wrote some things on the chalk board and slicked the metal slide in the playground by sliding up and down on sheets of waxed paper. The first kids down on April Fools went sailing through the air by the time they shot out of the bottom of the slide.
It is windy this morning. This must be our April Fools prank. The wind will make snorkeling all the more challenging to see the turtles at the end of the bay.
This year we are staying in the building right in front of the big swimming pool. In other years we were in buildings on the other side of the main dining rooms. At first we thought we didn’t want to stay by the pool, but now that the week has progressed, we found it is a pretty handing place and requires less walking. All rooms have ocean views. The distance to the turtles and little village of Akumal seem less exhausting. Maybe I have more energy now that I’m retired from Qwest/CenturyLink as of January this year.
One drawback is the sound from the bar carries. There are a couple activities or bands that play until about 11 that can be heard as if you had front row seats. It is OK if the band has a good sound and is playing some interesting music like the one on Tuesday with the Caribbean beats and driving melodies but the one last night was more hard rock and sent us up to our room to hear the music bleed sound across the pool court yard to our balcony three stories up.
The maid leaves us little surprises every day. She wrapped the towels in interesting shapes like swirls with accordion folds like a spiky hair, then adds some little stickers to make a face. One time the towel was wrapped to look like it had on a hat and was sitting cross legged. This probably helps with the environmental friendly issue for guest to reuse the same towel and also set us up for a tip at the end of our stay.
There are subtle and not so subtle things that go on around the resort. Salsa dancing is taught at noon and five. A photographer has a little shop right off the bar. He puts on a yellow t-shirt with the tag photo on the back and quietly walks along the beach or by the pool area. People who want photos stop for a few minutes to have their picture taken. We see them at the end of the day at the window of his office picking up a copy of a CD with these photos for $12.50. He uses Apple computers and slips the disc into the stand along screen when making the copy.
Sometimes he has a local help him with some props. Yesterday were two beautiful parrots. The photographer has a person hold one in each hand or lie down on the beach with one parrot on their back. With knees bent the other was perched on their feet. A few days earlier he brought in a three foot iguana. That was a sight. One lady from Houston wanted to do it and reluctantly held the iguana close to her face for a side view. The face of the animal was as big as the ladies face. This animal was colorful with bright greens and subtle oranges. The face looked prehistoric. For another shot the animal was also placed on the back of some sunbathers for another interesting photo.
One interesting photo he had in his studio office was of a pretty girl with long hair at the ocean’s edge. She had just dipped her hair in the surface and was emerging from the water. The hair and trail of water made a big arch. It was an unusual photo.
Akumal Beach Resort 4-2-2012
Last day of vacation at Akumal. By now we know where the shade is and made sure we had sun beds by the pool under shady palm trees then went in for breakfast. Oatmeal is still my favorite along with orange juice and freshly made bread of rolls. Stan enjoys the omelet made by his friend Luz.
We bought a couple of scuba shirts at Costco before we came. They are great to keep off the sun as they protect you to 50 spf. This saves on the slimy feeling of applying sunscreen during the day.
We cozied up to the soft wicker sofa in the covered court yard to read our book. One of the guest dropped a book in my lap one day saying it was a good read for the beach. Name is “good in bed” by Jennifer Weiner. Well, it was easier to pick up then my Kindle which has over 600 books. I just wanted to keep it in the room. Outside the glare on the screen mostly reflects back my wrinkled face instead of the words of the story. In the Kindle am reading “Atlas Shrugged” by Ann Rand. It is pretty interesting and easy to follow if I read with mostly silence around me with no interruptions. I had this book in soft copy, but the over 2,000 pages are kind of hard to hold. The Kindle takes the problem away.
So time passes as I read about the whoas of this overweight writer. As it is Monday the routine of exercise sets back in. A few laps in the pool and I’m all set until the exercise class starts again. The enthusiasm of the entertainment staff encourage both Stan and I to jump back in and move around at their direction. It actually was fun as there Alex our instructor added some different activities.
The wind was blowing pretty hard today so we didn’t venture out to snorkel. Just didn’t have the energy to do that.
Lunch was a plate of French fries hot from the fryer along with a cup of strawberry ice cream. We walked down to Moon Rise bar to watch the snorkels. This location has many bus loads of snorkelers brought in from other resorts. Walking back to the pool we stopped at the snack bar for a plate of chips, guacamole and some cantaloupe. Who is going to make that for me tomorrow as an afternoon treat?
We’ll miss the beautiful setting with all our daily activities cared for. The dining room is buffet style, however the waiter brings you your first drink and picks up plates as you finish different parts of your meal. A crisply ironed white table cloth and nice silverware add the pleasure in this comfortable casual setting.
This resort works for all types from the heavy set man with knee high stretch socks who manages to walk up three flights of stairs to the stick thin blond teenager already with a big tramp stamp inked into the small of her back. She worn unusual black elbow covers that extended about 3 inches above here arm to 3 inches below. Naturally they were accented with rhinestones around each of the edges and a thick silver arm cuff at the top of the elbow covers. There was a young kid in a wheelchair with so many problems you could but enjoy the spark in his cadence as the chair sped around the pathways at the resort. All have smiles when you see them enjoying vacation.
We’ll be back. Next time I’m bringing a painted sign to post at the Moon Rise bar at the end of the resort. I liked our room location by the pool. It saved a lot of steps walking from the other building at the other end of the resort. Even though our room was on the 3rd floor and there are no elevators, I did find that steps were not an impossible task. The weather and scenery are just postcard breathtaking.
