Vamos a la playa, a mi me gusta bailar!

Welp, I have officially woken up from my Spring Break dream and I am now back in good 'ole Raleigh. So now it's time to share all of my wonderful Mexican adventures with you wonderful bloggies! 

Before we begin, I need to warn you all. I took over 1,000 pictures while in Cozumel, Mexico for all of 4 nights, and although I will not put all of those pictures in this post, it will still be very picture heavy. Be prepared.

Sunday

The beginning! Hills and I woke up at 3:30 am to head off to the airport for our 6:30 flight. 3:30 is insanely early. It is NOT an ideal time to start your day. But we survived and after our long flights we finally arrived to Cozumel where it was a bit overcast, but so warm! As soon as we got to our GORGEOUS resort this is what we were greeted with: 

Um, YES we would like some "free" fruity drinks (yay all inclusive resort!)

Okay so let me just say that this hotel was downright amazing. It was all open and there was greenery and birds and water, I felt like I was in a rain forest! It was beautiful! I mean, just look at the lobby area...

This is the downstairs lobby area, once you go upstairs that's where the check in is and where the shuttles pull up. There's also comfy couches and a sports bar. 

After we explored around the hotel a bit (more pictures will come later!) we went in to see our buddy Juan who gave us some information and some sweet Mardi Gras beads, had some dinner, and then hit the hay! We were literally back at our hotel room watching Beauty and the Beast in spanish at like 7:30. Then passed out by 9. It was a long day.

Monday

First off...let me just start by saying that every morning the breakfast buffet was phenomenal. Seriously, I ate so much. And due to my fear of drinking the water (at first) I even had milk every morning to go with my breakfast. This is big for me. After breakfast it was off to la playa! Let me just show you where Hills and I parked it for the majority of the morning/day on Monday.

#1:

Our lovely tanning spot on the beach... 

With this as our view :)

#2

Hello infiniti pool #1 with a swim up bar, I love you.

After spending the majority of the day at the beach, we decided to walk in to downtown to check it out/maybe do a little shopping. That walk was long and super tiring in our flimsy little sandals. But, it was gorgeous and very worth it.

We even saw an Iguana sun bathing! Unfortunately I didn't have my telephoto lens with me, so enjoy my cropping skills:

We saw some dancers...

movies in spanish...

and, Senor Frog's, where we stopped in for a drink before heading back!

And our view on the way back...

Why did I ever leave this place?!

After dinner and lounging around by the pool for a while, we decided to go to the "Caribbean Show" that the hotel was performing. It included a bunch of dances from different countries in the caribbean and it was really neat to see. However, at the very end, they decided to pull some people up on stage as dance partners. Who was chosen? Me, of course. The one with no rhythm. 

But regardless it was still a lot of fun making a total fool of myself...

Tuesday

Probably one of the best days ever!

First of all, we came here...

Then, we played with Jack, the dolphin...

And Karla, the Sea Lion...

I'm so in love with these animals. It was one of the greatest experiences ever!

After our day in Chankanaab park, we headed back to the resort to get ready for the Fat Tuesday festivities!

Dinner at Margaritaville where we got free Margarita's thanks to our resort :)

Parade time! Yes, that is a monster truck in a parade and yes, that is a toy story float. They had a maaasssive parade for the end of Mardi Gras and it literally lasted over an hour. The 'strip' was packed with people and it was so exciting to see everyone out and dressed up! Cozumel certainly knows how to party.

Wednesday

Our last, full day! It was a super relaxing day. We woke up at 7am (yes, that early) in order to reserve a chair to lay out on the beach, got ready for the day, headed to breakfast, then went straight to the beach! It was such a perfect day. We relaxed in our chairs, had some Strawberry Daiquiris & Mint Mojitos, ate the best nachos ever, and cooled off in the ocean and pools.

We even decided to take on snorkeling (which I have now come to absolutely love!)

After our day in the sun, we went back to get ready for the night, and then headed back out to the beach to take some pictures at dusk...

We enjoyed the rest of our last night by relaxing by the pool, playing with my camera, drinking some beers, and listening to a very talented keyboardist. 

Thursday

Wah, the day we had to leave. Our flight was at 3:10 in the afternoon so we decided to make the best of what we had left by hanging out at the beach all morning! We may have even had one last Strawberry Daiquiri...

Before we left in the shuttle to head to the airport, we stopped in to the buffet to grab some lunch. While we were waiting for it to open we were sitting outside, just watching people in the pool area. And that's when we saw this guy, leading water aerobics...

He has on a chip n' dale bow tie, and a sombrero. Why can't people in the U.S. lead water aerobics dressed like this? And not only was this awesome, but one of the songs playing was "Vamos a la playa." We hadn't heard it until that moment, but we instantly fell in love with the song. And yes, that's where the title of this post comes from :)

It's quite a catchy song...

And that was my wonderful Spring Break in Cozumel! I'm sad that it's over, but I'm so glad that it turned out as wonderful as I thought it would! I hope you all had great Spring Break's as well. Now it's time to enjoy these last few days before school!

Adios, 

B.Hines