Happily Everything...: Barcelo

Dustin has this habit of keeping things a surprise...and our honeymoon was no exception! I found out where we were going on our honeymoon at the airport. I did have some clues...I knew I needed my passport and to pack clothes for warm weather. With those two clues who could really be too worried about where they were going?! Our destination was Playa Del Carmen, Mexico! Dustin had booked an all inclusive at the Barcelo! Within the resort there are five different hotels which seemed to be ranked low, middle, and high class (I'm not kidding, even though the low class resort was AMAZING!) We had booked the "middle class" hotel. When we tried to check in they couldn't find our reservations. We thought this could have been the beginning of a huge fiasco honeymoon! When the bell hop returned from checking on our reservation he had a huge grin on his face and said that we were better than good we had been upgraded the PALACE! So off we went to the palace. When we pulled up to the entrance of the Palace Dustin and I were both in awe...it was gorgeous! They tried to bring us champagne as soon as we checked in! Dustin informed that quite frankly that we did not drink. After check-in we wandered off to check out our room....

They brought us fancy "welcome" treats!

Plush slippers & robes...

Our bathroom was huge!

Dustin loved the shower head...

and of course here was our gorgeous room! Our mini bar came complete with the best Mexican nuts (Dustin and I fell in love with them), apple juice, orange juice, and every kind of soda!

This was the view from our resort!

Our first day at the resort we decided to take things easy and hang out by the beach. We took out a canoe...

worked on our sun tans...

took pictures of paradise...

and took sailing lessons!

This is our resort! Isn't it gorgeous? It was paradise!

Isn't he a cute sailor?!

The sun sets every day in Playa Del Carmen around 5:30 every night! We always caught the most gorgeous sunsets!

Isn't he such a cute model?!

The Hotels had different shows every night. We went to one show called "Circus Circus". It was amazing!

Dustin & I felt spoiled every morning. We were able to eat seaside. We had a huge buffet of gourmet foods at our fingertips. Dustin's favorite breakfast foods: Nutella filled croissants, pastries, gourmet meats, and pina (pineapple juice). Sarai's favorite breakfast foods: freshly made omelets, fresh fruit, and chocolate milk.

Oh I miss this view!

Our second day was much more adventurous. We decided to visit the island of Cozumel. We took the local transportation to the docks to load up onto the ferry boat.

We rented a scooter and cruised around the island looking for a good spot to try some snorkeling. The island was gorgeous and the beaches were beautiful!

This was my first time snorkeling and I have to admit I was terrified. I grew up watching Jaws at my grandparents and then swimming in a darkened pool afterwards. It was terrifying! Then you throw in shark week and you never want to go in the water again. Our first time snorkeling didn't last very long. I thought I saw a shark within the first five minutes...Dustin thinks it was my imagination...he may or may not be right;) I was hyperventilating and sucking in sea water instead of air so much we ended up only staying out for a little bit. Dustin was very good at being patient with me:) Thanks honey buns!

How cute is this husband of mine? and how gorgeous is that view?

My turn to drive!!! I drove in Mexico!

I miss this place so much!

Dustin wanted to try so more snorkeling down on a better beach...he got down to the beach but decided against it. It was getting late and the sun was setting.

We stopped off at a local restaurant called "Coconuts" where we had a small snack of guacamole & chips, while sitting cliff side of course!

We made our way around the entire island, bought a Mexican blanket, returned out scooter, bought the best roadside churros, all within five minutes of catching the ferry!

At our hotel we had an option of dining every night at either the rodizio grill, Caribbean seafood, or french restaurant. I tried escargot(snails) and loved them! They were delicious!

Every night these little scavengers would wait to be fed outside the balconies of the restaurants. Our night at the french restaurant the racoons actually tried to climb up onto the balcony! The waiters came and threw them food so they would leave us alone! We loved all of our waiters and made friends with all of them!

Our third day we decided to be even more adventurous and decided to rent a car and travel through the jungles of Mexico to the Mayan ruins of Coba and Chichen Itza (the locals call it chicken pizza for us gringos!).

This was our view of the locals that lived in the heart of the jungle we traveled through...

So many homes were just made of a few sticks with a straw roof and they had their hammock hung up. It was very humbling seeing how they lived. It made me realize how much we take for granted.

Our first stop was the ruins of Coba! This was such an amazing day! Dustin and I were like little kids in a candy store. It's amazing thinking that these are also the ruins of the Lamanites. Behind me is the ball courts where they used to play...

On top of some of the ruins. Coba is the only place that you can climb on the ruins. Chichen Itza has banned all of that to try and preserve the ruins.

Every day with Dustin is a good day...you can't ever have a bad day with him!

There were tons of the tablets everywhere. They say there is a tablet with Lehi's dream on it. I think that is amazing.

I'm pointing at some left over "paint" (if you will) on the home walls of the Mayans.

One of the guides said this was a cleansing passage way.

This picture is for you Grandpa (Batman)!

Our climb to the top of the Coba ruins!

How awesome is that view?! It was breathtaking. This city must have been huge. We could see ruins all over from the top of this ruin...and only half of the ruins side was uncovered. It's amazing to think how many ruins are still covered and untouched!

Our walk the the jungles of Coba!

We saw this everywhere! The dad would drive the scooter, the mom would sit on the back, and the kids would be crammed in the middle! I was amazed by how many people they would cram onto one scooter!

Old Catholic Church!

My cute driver! We didn't get lost once! Dustin has a built in GPS that apparently works in Mexico too!

We drove past the prison...that was a little intimidating! There was a little stand next to the prison that sold hand crafts that the prisoners had made!

The ruins of Chichen Itza! This place was amazing & huge! I'm finding that I'm a history buff! I was in love with these old ruins.

The Jaguar hut! This is where they would play their "games"!

Behind us is the field that the Mayans would play on! Seriously is about the size of a football field.

Behind Dustin is where the announcer would sit! (or so they say)!

This building was a little creepy! This was the skull wall...they would be-head their enemies and throw their heads up on here. Pretty Intense!

Back side of the pyramid!

These little guys were everywhere!

This building was the warriors palace! We weren't able to go inside any of the buildings which was a huge bummer!

This was the nunnery! I am so interested in how they were able to find out that this was the nunnery?

On our way back from Chichen Itza we stopped at one of the very popular Cenote's "Ik Kil"! It was gorgeous! It's fresh water..so they said we could drink it...but I didn't really want to chance that! There were tons of black sucker fish swimming in this thing and it was pitch black water (because it was so deep) so that was a little creepy. But other than that it was pretty cool! They even had lifeguards on duty!

Doesn't this look "bachelorette" worthy for one of their one on one dates?! It was very romantic!

Mr. & Mrs. Hansen about to get our swim on! Dustin had to coax me into the water a bit;)

Dustin was daring and jumped right into the water from their cliff diving spots!

Our fourth day went to Tortuga Bay (Turtle Bay) and swam with huge sea turtles and mantis rays! It was amazing! It's a whole new world under their! Arial's song from the little mermaid has a whole new meaning for me now!

This beach was by far my favorite! The sand was amazing and the reef was spectacular!

After hours and hours of swimming with turtles we heading back to the resort to try out our lunch! We had

This was the courtyard of our hotel! We never saw a speck of dirt on the floor! The staff did an awesome job of keeping this place looking posh! We saw the gardeners cutting back weeks with machetes! Things get done a little bit differently in Mexico!

Our last day in paradise we decided to take things easy, lay beach side, and work on our tans!

This pretty much sums up our day! Lazy!

Warm sun and beach I miss you!

We had "all you can drink" pina colados, strawberry daiquiri's, and mojitos! Virgin of course!

We decided to take the sail boat out one more time! We have fallen in love with sailing and vow that one day we will own a sailboat!

A view of our resort from the ocean.

Our last sunset on the beach. There were two wedding that took place at the Barcelo that weekend, so we watched the sunset and a beach wedding:)

One last shot of our Racoon friends that dined with us each night!

Our last night at the resort we decided to go french! We went all out with as many drinks as we could manage to cram into our bellies!

Double fisting all the drinks I can muster!

Our last night of formal dining.

Every night the servers would make me a yummy cup of hot cocoa to go along with my desert. My favorite desert was a triple chocolate cake from the Caribbean seafood restaurant, but the Creme Brulee wasn't too bad either;) The pineapple ice cream was amazing and has become a favorite of mine!