Cancun, Mexico

It was May 2011 when we just returned from our Toronto trip and realized we have our 1st Wedding Anniversary next month. It was hard to believe that we completed one whole year. Really?? Time flies! 

Anniversaries are worth a celebration! So we started looking for vacation places and good deals. After much search and research, G came to the conclusion that there is no good deal or rather there is no deal at all and first time he wrote a post on JWG 'There is no discount'.  We had almost given up the idea of a vacation and I started noting down the plan for our Anniversary party. And just before a week G pinged me on gmail  (from office) 'booked for Cancun'. Now that was a great surprise for me. Finally going for a vacation. Good that Mexico doesn't need a visa if living in USA, as my other concern was about to come for a visa issue. Remember all those drama in visa for Canada?

Map of Mexico (notice Cancun on right most tip)

Most of the Mexico is not very safe for tourists, but Cancun is the beautiful party city of the country. Cancun is situated on the south-east coast of Mexico in the state of Quintana Roo with   warm white powdery sand beaches and turquoise crystal clear water!

it's Cancun!

We flew from San Francisco on 22nd June night, reached Mexico City 23rd morning and Cancun after few hours on our Anniversary 23rd June 2011. Our hotel was Bel Air situated on the hotel zone of Cancun. Bel Air was the most beautiful hotel I have been to till now.

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Huge pure white building

With beautiful front courtyard. They used to serve tea/coffee every morning here till 7.30am and just for that morning tea, we used to get up early and get ready by 7am (getting up early on a vacation is insane ;) ).

this beautiful courtyard was full of nice soothing sea breeze 24hrs...light white cotton curtains waving every second...reception being right there, this courtyard was the place to meet new people...this was my favorite morning place of the hotel which kept on reminding me the courtyard of my home where I used to play with all my sisters & brothers, where we enjoy one of our favorite festivals Holi.

...and towards the back, there is a huge-beautiful-infinite pool looking at beautiful turquoise water and white sand of the Caribbean. This was the most beautiful + calm & relaxing hotel till now. Although we had magnificent views from  Vista Palace Hotel Monaco, but Bel Air was just amazing!

We reached Cancun around 1pm. Although we were on check-in time but our room was not ready :( . So what?...we were given refreshments and we sat in the courtyard relaxing and replying back to all our wedding wishes from our friends and family via emails and Facebook. It's so good if you have an iPad or any small device to stay connected. That is why while searching for hotels our priority is free Wi-Fi ;).

After getting refreshed we decided not to go out anywhere that evening rather enjoy the beautiful  water and relaxing infinite pool of our hotel.

1st, 1st Anniversary click!

Gaurav was playing in water like a kid! 

He says, it was like he used to play at Puri Beach in childhood.

relaxing infinite pool and beautiful sunset

after enjoying water, we enjoyed our anniversary dinner date

Next morning (24th June '11) we got ready early as we had our Chichen Itza Day Trip. One of the seven wonders of the world, which holds history with mystery! This was our second wonder visit out of seven, first was the Eiffel Tower.   

@Chichen Itza!

The tour bus picked us from the hotel with two more couples. It was such a fun whole day trip. It takes a few hours to reach the site from main city. Our guide was so good and I think very patient as he was saying every lines in English and Spanish both while telling us about Mexican History and Mayan Culture. The took bus even to the old city, an amazing buffet for lunch before we reach Chichen Itza.

our tour guide Victor

city sight 1

city sight 2

city sight 3

old Mayan lady in traditional dress, 

plain white with colorful flowers embroidered/painted on borders and around neck line.

...and we also stopped to a market center for souvenirs. Loved the art of Mexico!

site map - Chichen Itza

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Ruins...everything with character!

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Pyramid

Kukuklan temple

Mayan Historic Ruins

uncountable people who are selling beautiful stuff here

Mayan Historic Ruins

Mayan Historic Ruins

And there starts the drama! as 'dramas' are the vital part of our trips! while walking and exploring the site, there was an area full of vendors selling beautiful handmade stuffs! and my eyes had to go there, and with the uneven muddy and stones filled path I suddenly fell down and hurt my left knee :( . Then G cleaned the dust from my hurt knee (it was itchy and painfull, I am afraid of wounds) dried with kleenex and thanks to habit of keeping the jhonson baby powder which I always keep in my handbag, that helped a lot in drying the wound. 

After this amazing but too hot site trip, our bus took us to another amazing place! They kept it as suspense until we reached there. Although being hurt and also since I don't know to swim, I couldn't enjoy the place but G had a lot of fun and I had tasty & cool ice-cream!

And that was a Natural Swimming Pool with fishes! 

Ik Kil, a well known cenote which is the part of the Ik Kil Archeological Park near Chichen Itza. It is open to the public for swimming and is often included in bus tours.

With this our tour ended, but not the day yet. We preferred getting down in the downtown Cancun rather at the hotel. After a little walk and search for a nice dinner place, we came across this crazy restaurant Carlos' n Charlie's. This was so fun! Finger licking food, very friendly people, amazing loud music and suddenly anytime they start to dance and make the guests dance as well, and dance like crazyyy! 

and they also forced us for a picture :)

Next morning was quite relaxing for us. After breakfast we spend some time on the beach and pool then got ready for the local bus ride. We took the local (non AC) bus ride to reach Mercado 23. in Cancun, you just cannot miss to shop and that too from the cheapest local Mercado.Two popular places to shop in Cancun are Mercado 28 and Mercado 23. We chose Mercado 23.. Mercado 23 is place to find local treasures and street food. And most important, in these mercados have the most loved 'bargain culture', I would say huge bargain. If they price something 400 pesos, you can bargain it to 40 pesos or even lesser! Believe me, we did it just like we do in Indian local street markets.

mercado scene

mercado scene

mercado scene

our goodies from Cancun to our home. 

There was a lot more to take home but we had all those weight limits in flights

mercado scene, food court

mercado scene, food court

And finally if noticed both G and I didn't have our hair cut since we did for our wedding. So both of us enjoyed nice hair cut in Mexicon Salon!

last pic in Cancun with new hair cuts :)

We would highly recommend Cancun!

Visit Cancun and share your trip with JWG!