My wife and I are back from a week on Mexico’s Yucatan riviera. We did not want this vacation. My wife won’t swim and cannot abide the hot sun. While I swim for exercise, my vacation preference is winter in the mountains to ski. But our son arranged to take us with him and his family as a gift for my wife and me so we accepted the trip gracefully.
We were surprised when we arrived at the Iberostar resort in Playa del Carmen. It was as if they had built a hotel complex that had everything, right in the middle of a jungle, but without destroying the jungle. It’s an exaggeration but you get that feeling when, on the way to our room, we saw peacocks, ecouti, iguanas, flamingos and whatever else we didn’t see in the wild.
Many of the resort hotels in the Yucatan are the “all-inclusive” variety and this Iberostar resort was no different. In addition to an outrageous breakfast buffet that included almost everything edible, and for all I know some things that weren’t. There were snack places and other buffets, but there were also dinner choices including Mediterranean, Japanese, Italian and Mexican restaurants. Ironically, in our opinion, the Mexican restaurant was not in the class with the others.
One of the days, we went by van to swim with dolphins which was fun despite the negative allusion by Clemenza about swimming with fishes. The dolphins are well trained and incredibly smart. Mingling with them was a fascinating experience.
Availability of the beach and ocean as well as a variety of swimming pools served the common tropical desire for getting wet, despite my wife’s aversion. The only problem I had, which was new to me was a sunburned scalp and feet. Each day was capped off with a stop at an ‘in the water’ bar for a drink before dinner.
There was almost no activity that wasn’t available: a fitness room, yoga, ping-pong, billiards, a theater, live entertainment. But just walking back to our room after dinner in the dark, through the jungle each night was hard to give up.
We admitted to each other upon landing at JFK, thinking about when we might return.
