Christmas in Cancun

2012 was a big year for us Trimbles; I graduated from the Interpreter Training Program, we got pregnant and we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Ty and I had talked for a while about going on a trip together to celebrate all of the aforementioned events, and we finally got around to going on it over christmas with a trip to Cancun. Admittedly, it was a bit strange to spend christmas in 80 degree weather and playing in the ocean. But it was much more wonderful than it was strange. Our families were gracious enough to not throw a fit over us leaving for christmas either. My dad was actually really sweetly excited for us to get this time together before our addition in March. We were too. So, we left the Seattle snow (that’s right, it was actually snowing the day we left!) at 2 in the morning (thanks to our friend Brielle who drove us to the airport at that unholy hour of the day) and boarded our (first class!) flight to warm and sunny Cancun. As soon as we took our first steps out of the airport I could have cried; it was so warm and beautiful and there was the most perfect tropical breeze.

last look at snowy mountains for 8 days

We spent the next 8 days laying on the beach, soaking up some much needed vitamin D, overeating, snorkeling, sleeping in, reading, playing in the ocean and doing a bit more overeating. All-inclusive resorts will definitely do that to you! We even spent December 21 (the day the world was going to end) at the Mayan ruin Tulum. It was packed! We didn’t intentionally plan to visit on the last day of the Mayan calendar, but it was pretty cool to be touring the ancient city with hundreds of other people that day.

The King’s palace in Tulum

We also went to Xel-Ha that day, which is a like a natural water park, to inner tube, snorkel and do some more overeating (because the park is also all inclusive). In the evening they did some sort of reinactment of a Mayan ceremony for the beginning of a new era. We were both a little weirded out and opted out of participating.

idol worship?

We survived! And if you can read it, what the Mayans actually believed about December 21st

Man my belly looks huge in that picture! Funny thing about being pregnant and visiting Mexico: I wasn’t allowed to kayak or paddle board or go on a sailboat, but no bartender had any problem offering me alcohol. Don’t worry, I did not indulge. Not intentionally at least. Ty’s pretty sure the bartender forgot the non-alcoholic part of my drink one night. I didn’t notice. But it’s okay, the baby is fully formed now and it was probably watered down alcohol in a girly drink that was mostly ice and blended fruit juice anyway…

We also ventured out to Cozumel for a day because we’d heard the island is beautiful and that there was great snorkeling along the reef there. That day turned out to be our most…adventurous…of the trip. See, our plan was to get over there, rent a car, drive to the southern end of the island (because that’s where we’d heard the best beaches/snorkeling was), play in the water and tour around a bit and then head back to the ferry in the afternoon. However, once we got to Cozumel and tried paying for a rental car, we realized we forgot to let our bank know we would be out of the country because they had frozen our account. Before we finally figured that out though, Ty spent 45 minutes walking to four different ATMs and a bank trying to get money out while I sat at some seedy rental car garage downtown. I was pretty convinced my husband had either been kidnapped or beaten up by some mexican gang and had all our money stolen (which was only about $40 cash at that point). Luckily he returned to the seedy garage to pick me up unharmed, but still without money. It took what I am sure is a very expensive international call to our bank (we haven’t gotten our phone bill yet) explaining that we were vacationing in Mexico and needed our funds unfrozen to finally get the money out to rent a car for the day. At that point though we didn’t have enough time to drive to the south end for snorkeling and make it back in time for the ferry we needed to catch. So instead, we found a national park called Chankanaab and spent a few hours there. The beach in the park ended up having the best snorkeling of the trip. My favorite parts were seeing a sting ray and swimming over an entire school of fish!

the rental car we finally managed to pay for

The rest of our trip was pretty much spent either at the beach, in the ocean, or eating. No complaints there.

me, absolutely loving every moment of being in the sun!

that’s my man in the water being watched by the seagull

And on christmas, this is how we spent our day:

Merry Christmas! Love, the Trimbles 🙂

For our christmas dinner, we went to the fancy adults-only french restaurant on the hotel property. The dress code was noted as “resort elegant”, which we did not pack for. We tried our best to dress fancy, which for Ty meant wearing jeans and a button up and for me meant turning a sundress into a long skirt paired with a cotton tank-top and target sandals. We are nothing if not classy….Ty also had me laughing so hard at dinner I though I might go in to labor. We were given more than one dirty look. Again, nothing but classy here.

fancy christmas dinner

And to end the trip, we both got a taste of Montezuma’s revenge. It certainly made for an interesting flight home….But as a silver lining, I think it helped us both drop the few pounds I’m sure we gained over the course of the week from all the all-you-can-eat food. The glass is always half full.

We hope you enjoyed a very merry christmas and time with your loved ones as well. We sure did! Feliz Navidad!