Friday, July 10th through Sunday, July 12th, 2009

We got up from another sleepless night, had our breakfast at the hotel and said goodbye to Valladolid.  It is a safe bet that we will never be back. If I want to see Ek Balam in the future I will visit from some other place! We took the road into Tulum, stopping at the ceramic vendor where we got two platters, two pitchers, a chilaquiles server (which is one round platter like a shallow bowl and a bunch of little bowl things that fit into it that you use for the toppings) and two toucans for the kids, which cost us $140.00. We also went to the next town to a hammock vendor at Manuel Antonio Hay. We got two chair hammocks and two regular hammocks for 1000 pesos. The guy looked so happy to have made the sale, I think they’ve been very slow. Now we had all of the souvenirs we’d planned on buying so that was good. We arrived at Akumal Beach Resort before lunch and asked if we could check in again. We got an even better price for the four of us for three nights than we had gotten before, $810.00 (before through Expedia it had been $860.00). We went into lunch while we waited for our room to be ready, and when it was got our stuff out of the car and moved in. Second floor of building 500, right near the pool, so nice! The kids put on their swimsuits and played until it was time for kids club. Paola was very surprised to see them again! Genevieve was chosen for an award which she received after dinner, and after that Mark and Genevieve went to the show while I stayed back with Charlotte, who was too tired to stay up that late.

The Kids Club was closed the next day (Saturday) so we all went snorkeling. On our way out we saw a large barracuda under a boat. This time we piggybacked Charlotte part of the way out to where the turtle was so shefinally got to see it. She was so excited! She stayed out for a while but then she was tired so I took both her and Genevieve back to the beach. Mark stayed out for a while, and when he came in I went out, looking for the squid he had told me he saw. Just as I was going out I heard thunder, and way off in the distance I could see clouds. I snorkeled for a little while, and looked and the clouds were a lot closer. I saw the squid and then a stingray, but by now the waves were getting rougher and all of the fish were hiding under the coral, so I swam back in. Mark was ready to go and the kids were packed up, which is good because it started to rain. We got to where the showers were and I rinsed off and then it really started to rain and the wind picked up. We had snacks at the snack bar and waited for the storm to settle but it didn’t so we finally made a run for our room. Once there, the front desk called to tell us that we would have to switch rooms because the air conditioner at building 5 was broken. Great, and just when we’d gotten a room we really liked. We went into Akumal pueblo in search of a laundry, which we found and they said the clothes would be ready at 6:30. We then went back to the beach side of Akumal where Genevieve finally got her hair braided, and went to the Lol Hal Restaurant for lunch. When we returned to the resort, they were ready to move us, to the third floor of building seven, the farthest away from everything. Oh man. We were very not happy but there was not much they could do for us except move us at least to the first floor (further from the noisy air conditioner). We went to pick up our laundry but it wasn’t ready (grrr, don’t go to the Laundry/Internet in Akumal Pueblo, try the one one block up). At dinner we were eaten alive by mosquitoes, I guess they come out in force after a rain. We ran back to our room, and Mark went out to get the laundry. Charlotte got ready for bed and when Mark returned Genevieve and I slathered on the repellant and went to see Mr. Akumal, which was like a dating show with guests and pretty funny. They had to do a sexy dance which I again had to explain to the eight year old. Yep, lots of learning on this vacation!

The next day the kids went to Kids Club in the morning, so Mark and I went out snorkeling and then hung out on the beach until it was time to get them. Then I hung out at the pool with them while Mark stayed on the beach. Genevieve got her picture taken with these macaws, which was fun for her. We had lunch and continued to hang by the pool until it was time to get ready for dinner. After dinner Charlotte got an award and then Genevieve and I went to the Akumal show, in which various guests had practiced to be in the acts, so it was pretty funny. And off to bed.

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