The Honeymoon-"Tips not Included"

We went to Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon. It was a great time. While Ashley is a world traveler, this was my first time out of the United States (not counting Tijuana). We spent Saturday and Sunday night in hotels around Salt Lake. Then, on Monday, we flew out bright and early (at 6AM) to Denver. All of our flights were on United Airlines. The service was great, but the jet was tiny. This thing probably only carried 26 passengers. I swear if this thing were any smaller, it would have propellers instead of jets. In Denver, we didn't even go to a regular gate, we actually had to walk in from outside. Once there, we hopped on a much larger plane and headed to Cancun. We spent the next seven days and nights exploring all over the Cancun area and having the time of our lives. It was gorgeous down there. Here are some things that we saw and did:

In Mexico, they are apparently VERY proud of their tequila. It seemed funny to me, because while I have never drank, I have heard that tequila is like the worst drink ever. That suddenly made sense when they explained that it is made from cactus plants.
On Thursday, March 4th, we went on a day-long tour of the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. It got annoying to pronounce, so I just started referring to it as Itchy Chicken. It even made the pictures more entertaining when we told the kids about our honeymoon. Our tour guide cautioned us to make sure to get back on the right bus at the end of the evening. He explained that if we got on the wrong one, we could very literally end up in Guatemala or Belize. When I looked at our globe at home, I realized just how close we were to both of those countries. We both loved seeing the ruins and would definitely love to spend more time there. We were able to see only about 4 of the 17 miles that are encompassed in Chichen Itza. Sadly, we were only able to spend about 3 or 4 hours there. The rest of our time was spent traveling on the bus, going to a modern Mayan reservation for lunch and shopping, and swimming in a cave full of water that some claim is a fountain of youth. Don't worry, we made sure to swim in it. While we had a great time, we would have loved to spend more time exploring Chichen Itza. If we get the opportunity again, we will probably just rent a car with a GPS and drive ourselves there so that we could have the entire day.
On Friday the 5th, this sweet bus picked us up at our hotel and took us to a cool place called Xcaret (pronounced more like "es-car-et). It was a ton of fun and had a ton of things you could do. You could swim with dolphins or sharks, watch sea turtles (of literally every size) swim around, swim in an hour-long underground river, see wildlife, enjoy a great cultural show at the end of the evening, hang out on the beach or in hammocks, get massages, eat, shop, and much more. It was a lot of fun to spend the entire day there.

Down there, Iguanas seem to have the same population as squirrels do in the United States. They are EVERYWHERE and they are LOUD! The amount of noise they make as they go through forested areas would make you think an alligator was in the trees rather then an Iguana.

Hanging on (barely) to a giant hammock, while posing for a picture that another nice couple offered to take for us.

Just one of the many, many sea turtles swimming around down there.

Just a beautiful place to hang out. Even though it looks incredible, the picture just does not do it justice.

There are two things that I thought were very peculiar down in Cancun. The first one was that the speed limit meant NOTHING!! We would be on a city bus doing double the posted speed limit, pass a cop, and nothing would happen. That says nothing of how fast some of our cab drivers got going. Despite it all, it seems to work. We didn't see one accident while we were down there. It is like organized chaos. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The second thing, I found slightly more annoying as time went on. EVERYONE down there expects a tip! I have no problem tipping when it is customary to do so. In fact, I consider myself to give tips that are above average. The problem I had was that there were signs everywhere saying "tip not included." It was never, "we appreciate your tips," "tipping is appreciated," "thank you for your tips," or anything like it. It was as if it were written in red ink "TIP NOT INCLUDED!" As if that weren't bad enough, the people then all made a point of telling you that the tip was not included as well. Also, some of the things they expected a tip for were ridiculous. I have no problem tipping for good service and I usually give a decent tip for bad service as well, the part I didn't like was the demanding (and somewhat demeaning) nature of it all. I nearly had a nervous breakdown when the sign above was displayed just before exiting a STORE! Seriously, you expect people to tip you for browsing or purchasing something in your store?!! The only thing that kept me sane, and made me laugh and take a picture instead, was that it was the first sign that said "thanks" on it. Ashley and I still joke about "tips not included" a month later.

The rest of our days and time was spent out on the beach, body boarding, hanging out, sleeping in, shopping the malls and flea markets, and exploring around Cancun. On our way to the airport, I tried to strike up a conversation with our taxi driver. I asked her "habla ingles?" She responded "no, habla espanol?" I responded, "muy, muy poco." It was only after Ashley corrected me by saying "pocito" that I realized I had said "very, very slow" instead of "very very little." We all had a good laugh as I wondered if she thought I talked slow or if she just thought that I am slow. Our honeymoon was great, we loved just being able to be together and to relax. Life continually seems so busy, it was nice to have nine days together to just relax, have fun, and hang out. Did I mention that this was the first real vacation I have taken since before the kids were born? At the beginning of this year, they turned six. I loved hanging out with my best friend on our nine day vacation. We had a great time and hope to make it back there again one day. For now, we are happy to be together and see each other every day. We are slowly settling in and love being together as a family.