Paradisus La Perla–Day 6. Last day!

Our last day in paradise was bittersweet.  We had a flight at 4pm so all morning to continue to enjoy Mexico.  We were TOTALLY enjoying our time but REALLY missing our kids.  We even took a walk to the family side to see some kids because we missed ours so much!

But we did our usual…ate breakfast at the buffet then headed to the beach. Soaking in the beauty before we’d be leaving.

We were on the border of the public beach (which had a better water entry) but this was OUR private beach.

I was sad to leave this beautiful place BUT I will DEF be going back!! Totally fell in love with Playa Del Carmen!

And this was the public beach! I attempted to walk up to those beach huts to take a picture but the security guard (who stands on the beach ALL day!) blew his whistle and told me I wasn’t allowed up there because it was unsafe! What the heck. I don’t question that Mexican stuff. lol

Had to go back to the pool and enjoy ONE more Wango Tango before packing up and heading to the airport!

This trip it what we needed. It was good for us as individuals, as husband and wife AND as Mom and Dad! We were able to spend some uninterrupted quality time together…alone…which we haven’t done since our honeymoon 10 years prior. It was extremely nice!

But we loaded up and headed home.

Got this pic from Mom as we boarded the plane…

Kids Happy as can be…but poor Nana lookin’ a tad tired. She had to be wrecked after 7 days alone with those 3. God I’m blessed to have her there to help us get away like this!!!  We talked everyday…facetime wouldn’t work but that was ok. Yosh and I would peek in at the house from time to time using our home security app heehee.

Nothing better than being Home Sweet Home though!

Loved the sign Owen made to welcome us home! He missed us! Even though they LOVED being with Nana all week they missed Mama and Daddy!

He tried staying up late to welcome us home but my Mom texted me this pic as we landed into LAX.

He even sat himself up trying to keep those eyes open! Poor dude!

We smuggled some chocolate Kinder eggs back with us. They are the chocolate eggs with a toy inside. If you have a young child I’m sure you have seen them on KidsYoutube. Those annoy voiced ladies always do the show where they open them up and show the prize. 

Owen “the rule follower” was hesitant…he thought he’d go to jail for accepting them! (smart child!).  The Beast didn’t give a damn…she wanted them ASAP! lol

 

So overall our experience in Mexico was amazing! We were so scared to actually go there with all the drama you hear about BUt it was great. Our resort was amazing. Our Royal Service was amazing. Everything was great.

But here are some helpful tips:

1) Book your flight directly to Cancun.

2) If you fly Virgin America bring your own snacks…NOTHING is given and only a beverage is free on a 5 hour flight! Bullshit! Heck…don’t fly with VirginAmerica..the flight attendants werent nice either!

3) Bring something for the plane…satellite doesn’t work in Mexico so no free movies or shows for half the flight!

4) Keep the immigration ticket they give you on arrival. You need it to get back and they don’t tell you to keep it!

5) We brought $100 worth in $1s and $100 in $5s…tipping is greatly appreciated but not asked for and no where will have cash. 

6) You don’t need to change money to get pesos…they take the american dollar everywhere!

7) Bring all your own sunscreen and medicines.  We spent $30 for a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen and $30 for anti-diarrhea meds on the resort. Nuts!

8) Brush your teeth with bottled water!

9) Don’t eat TOO much Mexican fruit.

10) Have fun and don’t try and pet the iguanas

Paradisus La Perla–Day 5. Dolphins

Like many young girls I had a dream to become a dolphin trainer!! It was after our first family visit to Sea World San Diego in the early 90’s.  I left that place talking about my LOOOVVEEE for sea life for years! I remember whenever my dad was buying me something special…he’d bring home some dolphin!! It was cute.

So when we had the option to do an excursion that included swimming with the dolphins I about died! I was SO excited yet SO scared! haha Dolphins are HUGE, intelligent, WILD animals. I was a tad uneasy.

Yosh was all excited to strap his GoPro to his chest and get awesome video to show the kids of him riding the dolphin. Yeah…then they told us NO outside cameras allowed! How annoying.  So we totally had to pay the big bucks to buy the picture package!

We went to Dolphinaries. This facility directly works with University of Texas with their marine biology department. We got to do 3 different activities with 3 different dolphins. Each activity was a 30 minute session and between sessions we got a tour of the facility and to watch some fun educational videos. I LOVED it. 

Here are some of the pictures we got from the photo package.

It was a very controlled environment. The trainers would tell you specific instructions on how to touch and interact with the dolphins. Which made me a tad bit scared to do something wrong and get attacked by a dolphin! haha At one stage a dolphin came out nowhere and swam right passed me bumping my leg…it was the baby dolphin of the one working with us.  She then darted off to the other end of the tank to check on him before coming back to finish with us. It was remarkable to see the bond between the dolphins. The trainer told us that the Mommy Dolphin gets jealous of the “Nanny Dolphin” (the one that watches the babies while the mommies are working with people)…nuts.

I hated the lifejacket that we had to wear…it kept riding up and scratching my face! So other than that AND the fact that we couldn’t wear sunscreen (the chemicals it in would hurt the dolphins) so we got FRIED, everything was pretty amazing!

After getting acquainted with the first dolphin we did the foot push. We swam out to the middle of the tank, sculling water to stay on our bellies with our legs out, the dolphin would swim up behind you, choose a foot and push you!  It was so cool yet sooo freaky. Waiting like a sitting duck in the middle of the pool, having no clue when the dolphin would come up behind you.

Girls were told to hold on to their bottoms…didn’t want to give a show. Yes I screamed with pure fear!

And then there was the kissing the dolphin. You know the pose you see most people have. Well…I’m gonna tell you…that was SCARY!!! I was so nervous to kiss it…especially face on! OH dear. I had visions of seeing it “California girl bitten in the face by an angry Mexican dolphin!”  yikes.

Yosh was a lot more relaxed with the dolphins. I’m just a freaking wuss.

Our group consisted of 3 couples and 1 solo young lady.  The other 2 couples were pretty cool. Everyone is so friendly when on vacation in Mexico! heehee.  But the solo girl was nice too. Her family were watching her from the deck. She only spoke spanish, couldn’t swim and it was her 13th birthday!  It was cool the way the trainers still made it interactive for her too

We got to ride the “alpha male” dolphins as well. They were HUUUGGGEEEE!!! It was nuts. We also learned that they can’t praise one of them without acknowledging the other. If they do that they get mad at eachother and fight. It was nuts. They are always fighting for the alpha spot.

The sun was blinding and being without sunscreen AND sunglasses was ROUGH!

Yosh looks so handsome in all these pictures! He was in his element and truly content!

Then we rode the belly of the alpha dolphin. I have to mention the fact that the 2 boys were fighting (literally) for attention RIGHT before I was suppose to ride him. Yeah…make me MORE nervous than I already was.

Tensions were high. I was in the middle of the tank, told to get out of the water immediately by the trainer (WTF), waited 5 minutes and get back in!! Oh jesus. Riding a dolphin who just got in a fight. Fuuuuuuuuudge!

Not flattering pictures of me…I was sliding down the dolphins fins and he was going FAST.  Such an adrenaline rush though. I recommend it to ANYONE and everyone. Owen would love it…will get him doing it when hes old enough to appreciate it!

Our day with the dolphins was probably my favorite part of the trip to Mexico.  It was amazing! Learning so much. Experiencing so much! Ah..amazing!

Got back to resort after our day and of course enjoyed the pool and drinks for a bit before our dinner reservations.

And that night we enjoyed some sushi…kinda ironic that we spent the day handling dead fish for the dolphins and then fed ourselves some dead fish! lol

Another amazing feature at the resort…it was basically all you can eat sushi. Since its included in the all-inclusive we were able to enjoy everything we wanted!

We were tired and sunburned…but extremely happy!