Our Honeymoon | Playa del Carmen
Gaaaah! I am finally finishing up our honeymoon blog posts! Today I'm sharing our last stop, on Maroma Beach just outside of Playa del Carmen.
Before I go off sounding ungrateful about having the opportunity to stay at such an incredibly nice resort, it took us about three days to adjust to being at this property. While we really enjoyed our time there, we definitely learned that we are not all-inclusive people. There's something incredibly wonderful about not having to worry about paying for each drink and each meal but there's a very specific atmosphere that comes with that luxury. We prefer to just... be... and not be bothered. The staff do absolutely everything they can to make sure that you are feeling completely taken care of - which resulted in us just leaving the "do not disturb" sign on the door for most of our stay because the interaction was overwhelming for us. There were a lot of amenities at El Dorado Maroma and if you love amenities, being pampered and feeling like there is someone at your beck and call 24/7, this property (and the entire El Dorado line of resorts) is the perfect place for you. There is even a pillow menu. Not kidding. They have anything you could possibly want.
It's hard for me to even type that paragraph because it sounds so bratty and ungrateful. Those feelings actually hung over me for quite a few days. A storm + construction next door caused the beach to be pretty much unusable. A resort is being built adjacent to the property and they have to completely clear out a mangrove to do that. Staff told us that they were draining the mangrove into the ocean causing smelly and dark water along the other close properties. That was a big bummer for me as Maroma Beach is continually rated one of the best in the world. A client shared a similar sentiment with me when I posted about this on Facebook and really the best thing I can say is that we learned so much about ourselves and how we want to travel in the future. We have always been trip-planners not vacationers. While we thought it would be amazing to just have a do-nothing vacation, it's not in our blood.
* Cue me planning more trips. *
With all of that said, we did come to love our time at El Dorado Maroma after a day or so of adjusting. The outdoor shower was so nice, the private infinity pool was amazing, the food was delicious and the "drink team" totally knew how to make us happy. Thank you, Diego and Rene!
We took a walk up the beach one day and stumbled across this massive concrete mansion that is unfinished. It was surrounded by a tall chainlink fence and there were some hammocks hanging in the doorways. I read a bunch of theories about the origin of the building online but nothing that truly explained exactly why it's unfinished/abandoned! It was so cool regardless.
We took a day trip to visit Chichen Itza which is farther west (inland) in the peninsula. This was a freakin' long day... but it was amazing! Our guide was really focused on getting us to understand that the Mayan people are not "extinct" which is a common misconception. Chichen Itza isn't like Pompeii - the people weren't completely wiped out. The geographic center of political power just shifted away from that area of the Yucatan and the city eventually was abandoned in favor of other more modern, usable locations. Throughout the day we interacted with plenty of Mayan people! We also swam in a very deep cenote (sink hole) resulting in sh*tty pictures that I'm not proud of but honestly it was one of the coolest things we did on our trip so... oh well!
Our last few days we basically reached peak honeymoon. We spent 60% of our days eating and drinking and the other 40% sleeping. Unlimited drinks result in an embarrassing amount of bad selfies.
I'll tell you, if you ever want to make it easier to come home, get a dog. We were so ready to come home and snuggle our Butters that it made it less sad to leave the warm temperatures and drinks we didn't have to make ourselves. She was happy to see us and we have to give a big shout out to our moms, my Nana and Pappaw and finally Ashley of Ashley's Adventures Pet-Sitting Service!
So, all in all... our trip was wonderful and Kyle is very happy and content but I've just had a fire lit under my butt and I'm ready to go somewhere else right away!
Best thing we learned in Mexico:
"Taco is the action of folding a tortilla. So, put anything on a tortilla, fold it and boom... taco."
Go forth, eat tacos, go to Mexico.